There is something magical about good food. The kind of food where just the smell alone fills you with a sense of warmth, where every bite is somehow better than the last, and where you leave heartily full — emotionally and physically. In my experience, restaurants are harder to come by than a sparkly, pink unicorn in downtown Manhattan. How lucky for us, then, that we have just such a restaurant in our backyard. Just over the border in Stamford sits our unicorn, ripe for the tasting. Mecha Noodle Bar (slurping encouraged) is just such a restaurant.
I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve gone to Mecha, at this point walking in the doors feels like coming home. I’m friends with some of the bartenders and servers, and I think they’re starting to question whether or not I know how to cook my own food. Before the lock down happened, I went to Mecha probably two or three times a week from September to February. I’m not going to do that math, both because I’m terrible at math and because I don’t want to know…
The point being that I have been to Mecha a lot – enough so that any reasonable person would be sick of the food already, right? Wrong. So completely wrong. Every time I go, the food is somehow still as good if not better than the last time I went. This isn’t even an uncommon occurrence.
One of the bartenders I speak with has said that Mecha has a “cult following” and that people here are a particularly intense version of regular customers, often coming even more than I did. Another bartender has said that “once you eat here, you’re a customer for life.” That is how good the food is. I’ve been frequenting Mecha since a dreary, snowy day in December of 2018 and the food has only gotten better since then.
Mecha has an interesting mix of southeastern Asian food that makes their menu completely unique. I’ve never seen another restaurant with a selection quite like Mecha’s.
Mecha means mom and pop in Vietnamese – an homage to the heritage of the company. While Mecha may incorporate many different Asian flavors, don’t call them fusion! Mecha, in their own words, is an “American-Vietnamese-Japanese-Thai-Chinese-Korean-New England-Momofuku-Totto-and-Ippudo-inspired” restaurant. Their menu is both perfectly balanced and eclectic. The main focus of their menu is broth dishes like Vietnamese pho and Japanese ramen balanced by smaller dishes like steamed buns, dumplings, and other “snacks” as well as seasonal specialties. Part of what makes it so easy to eat there time after time is the sheer number of food combinations you can make to create a different dining experience every time you go there.
I heavily encourage you to try everything on the menu. I’ve had the whole menu, and while I prefer some dishes over others, I’ve never had a bad dish. Seriously, not one dish has been bad. There are, however, a couple of dishes to die for. The first thing you must try on the menu is actually a snack. It’s their “KFC” – Korean fried chicken. In my humble opinion it is the single best thing on their menu. This snack is perfectly balanced in both flavor and texture. It’s never too rich or too light and it’s always delicious. The dish combines gochujang (red chili paste), pickled daikon-carrots, kewpie (Japanese mayo), and of course Korean fried chicken in one delicious, soft, and bouncy steamed bun.
The other snack I always order is the roasted mushroom dumplings. It’s a perfect dish for a cold winter day. Crispy dumplings come stuffed with mushrooms on a rich and decadent bed of brown butter miso sauce, surrounded by arugula. It fills you with warmth, and while it is on the more rich side you can balance it out with the other dishes you choose. As for main dishes you can’t go wrong with any of their phos or ramens. My particular favorite (and their flagship dish) is the tonkotsu ramen. The tonkotsu ramen takes traditional pork broth, chashu (braised pork belly), corn, butter, scallions, and soft-boiled eggs and combines everything into a symphony for your tastebuds.
Mecha also has an amazing selection of vegetarian options with dishes like shiitake mushroom steamed buns, a miso kale salad (which my mother requests three of for takeaway every time I go to Mecha), and vegetable noodle options. If you have other dietary restrictions or preferences just be sure to tell your server – they’re able to accommodate just about anything you need.
While they don’t have a dessert menu (unless you know who to ask), they do have a well-rounded drink menu to finish off your night. Their drinks are interesting and unique. My particular favorite drink is the “grow a pear” which is bourbon, spiced pear, nonino amaro, honey, ginger, and lemon. It’s an intense flavor combination that never comes off too heavy. Their cocktails are always something new and different, but they do also have more traditional drinks like beer or wine, as well as Sake.
After experiencing the flavor explosion that is Mecha, you’ll never be the same again. It’s the kind of restaurant that people either love or hate, and if you love it you’ll never stop going back. Mecha is the perfect restaurant – warm, inviting, delicious. And it never takes itself too seriously. But do you want to know what the best part is? The food, obviously! But also, the people. The people who work there and frequent Mecha are some of the funniest, most interesting people I know, and they elevate your dinner from just a fantastic meal to a fantastic experience where you want to keep coming back again and again. I drag everyone I possibly can to Mecha. New friends, old friends, business partners, my boyfriend, and even my parents. I hope that after reading this, I have now emotionally dragged you to Mecha as well. When you go (and go again and again), remember… slurping is encouraged!
