Noodle Soups @ Com Tam Kieu (San Gabriel, $$), Taipei OG (West Covina, $$), and Noodle St. (Pasadena, $$)

A trio of recent noodle soup experiences to share:

Com Tam Kieu is a very popular Vietnamese spot off San Gabriel Blvd. by E. El Monte. I hadn't been there before but my parents wanted to try it and on a weekend morning, at 11am, this place was slammed. Like "Golden Deli on a busy night" slammed. Guess I've been sleeping.

Despite their name (com tam = broken rice), I noticed that most of the tables seemed to have noodle soups so I ordered the house special seafood noodle soup, the hu tieu nam vang which comes with shrimp, sliced pork, and a quail egg**.** I got mine dry (meaning you get the broth on the side) with egg noodles though I feel like I should have gotten the clear noodles instead. Anyways, this was the first time I've ever received a shrimp chip with a literal shrimp on it...so that was new. Overall, I thought the dish was fine but even if the dry ingredients are good — and they're good here — the broth has to be on point. Alas, I found the broth average at best, lacking any depth of flavor. Rather than complement the ingredients, it was just...there. I'm curious to try more stuff here so maybe next time, I actually get a com tam plate. 6.5/10

Taipei OG is inside the large (like, it's impressively big) Haven City Market food hall in West Covina, off of S. Glendora, north of Merced. I was on my way to Cal Poly Pomona and decided to try this spot because I'm a big fan of Taipei-style nou rou mien so I'm always down to try a new version. Alas, this was a miss. It's not that anything was done "wrong" in terms of the ingredients or what not but to me, a good NRM has great depth of flavor and, at times, an aggressively sour/spicy profile (depending on the style) and this had none of that. It was like a pale copy of its full potential. I did like the noodles though. 5/10

Noodle St. As Noodle St. is a popular, albeit small, chain of noodle shops, I presume many here have heard about/been to already. I'll say this much: I appreciate the sheer consistency of Noodle St. I go to their location in Old Town Pasadena with some frequency and while it'll never be the best bowl you've ever had you can always count on it to be good at least, and their NRM here is dependably solid. I usually switch between either this or their signature beef noodle soup which is Lanzhou-style version: a savory consomme with sliced beef and turnips. Also very good here. 7.5/10