Dao Dao Noodles: Everything But the Kitchen Sink in a Single Bowl of Noodles

Big Body has been a bit of a sad boy lately. Caught somewhere in the dreg of the in-your-face requited love bug that appears to have bitten everyone and their cousin and the depravity of Joe Bananas and late-night McDoubles. It has led to a lot of time spent by myself. For better, or worse, I’m unsure.

However, in the pits of dejected Charlie Brown walks and exasperated sighs while brushing my teeth in front of the mirror, there was a shining light. I took a solo trip out to Hong Kong’s eighth-largest outlying island by size, Cheung Chau, to slow my roll, explore a Chinese pirate’s cave, and eat some mothaflippin’ delicious cart noodles. 

Here’s a little bit about Dao Dao Noodles and why I would argue it’s worth making the trip to Cheung Chau for on its own. 

Dao Dao Noodles (多多麵): an Island Noodle Refuge in a Cold, Cruel City

Address & Details

• Location: Cheung Chau, 大新後街186號地下
• Price: $

Located less than a 5-minute walk inland from the Cheung Chau Market and ferry terminal, Dao Dao Noodles is a quiet reprieve and unassuming refuge from what first feels like an overwhelming, in-your-face hotspot for mass tourism after first stepping off the boat. 

Having been to Cheung Chau more than a handful of times, the suffocating crowds even had me questioning if I made the right decision to explore Hong Kong’s eighth-largest outlying island for the day or if I should have played it safe and gone to the ninth largest (the mostly uninhabited ‘Tung Lung Chau’ off of Sai Kung).

However, unlike Central, where attempting to escape the crowds is futile, it’s possible on Cheung Chau. Foot traffic drops off exponentially and you’ll typically only find those who are (a) riding their bicycles to get around the island (primarily locals), or (b) tourists with a little extra adventure in them who were unsatisfied stepping off the ferry to be greeted by a McDonald’s.  

And, your chances of squaring off in an awkward shuffle to deke one of Credit Agricole’s finest middle office muppets just to cross the street are near zero. That’s a breath of fresh air right there.

Getting to Dao Dao Noodles is a tad tricky as it will require you to bob and weave through several of the back streets. My best piece of advice is to follow Tai San Praya Road south from where you get off the ferry, look for the Cheung Chau Post Office on your right, take a left before Gogi Ice House (a dumpling restaurant), and follow the alleys. Or, you can peel off before the Post Office by taking the left alley across from the Cheung Chau Library (and next to Cheung Chau Bookstore) and making your way east down the alleys.

And, if you get lost, just enjoy – Cheung Chau really isn’t that big and all roads lead to somewhere.

You’ll know you’ve arrived when you see a small shop with outdoor seating that looks like this:

And this:

The gold lettering of the shop’s name (多多麵) with a black background will reassure you far more than this messily written article, so keep a vigilant eye. 

Pale Ale Travel Tip: A lot of people don’t know that ‘ramen’ (which we of course typically associate with Japan) is actually a Chinese-style noodle. Make sure to read my post breaking down several of my favorite ramen restaurants in Central. 

A Cheung Chau Festivus For the Rest of Us

I’m not entirely sure what the special occasion and/or festival was that was in full swing as soon as I stepped off the ferry but there was a small parade of men in white shorts and blue Aladdin-esque pants hoisting red flags, trumpeting, and following an energetic, zig-zagging dragon head that looked as if two children in a trench coat could have been propelling it. 

Pictured: sacrificial lettuce before an auspicious dragon.

I know for the Lunar New Year, this is a popular tradition to bring food fortune to homes, shops, and restaurants – whereby the owner will come out with a head of lettuce and the dragon head will pretend to chew it up. However, it was April.

Maybe it takes a little longer for the fantastical creatures of Lunar New Year to get an Octopus card and make their way out to Hong Kong’s outlying islands. 

With scattered lettuce scraps across the ground and my ankles, I knew my luck was set to turn around. 

Don’t Put the Horse Before the Cart [Noodles]

Dao Dao Noodles serves up a beloved noodle staple referred to as ‘che zai mian’ (車仔麵, cart noodles – a Hong Kong and Macanese creation – which as their name implies, were typically sold by street vendors from a cart. Cart noodles gained popularity in public housing estates and other low-income areas across the Canton region due to being a way to feed large groups of people for an affordable price. 

However, because of the general lack of hygiene standards and regulations, and lower-quality ingredients used, cart noodles were sometimes referred to as ‘filthy noodles’. They ultimately have faded away over the years as health and licensing requirements rolled out across the city. However, there are still several left standing, having migrated to a more ‘traditional restaurant’ form, with Dao Dao Noodles being one of them.

An Infinite Number of Noodle Customization Options

Now, my Cantonese is extremely subpar. Picture a baby that just was spoon-fed an airplane loop of applesauce, burped, and is about to be put down for a nap. That’s basically me speaking Cantonese. Pure babble and gibberish, also with chances of throwing up on myself. Fortunately, I took several summers of intensive Chinese classes in my late teens while living in Beijing and Shanghai, so I can at least read my way around a menu (even though it’s all traditional characters in Hong Kong). 

The owners, especially Jovi (English name – and am not 100% sure of the spelling), are legends. This noodle shop has been in existence even before I first moved to Hong Kong in 2012. It’s a venerated establishment that has seen Hong Kong in all types of light and carved out a dedicated following of local Cheung Chau’ers, tourists, and everyone in between (like me: the Islander who makes the occasional pilgrimage). 

I first ventured out to Dao Dao Noodles many moons ago but that was during the pandemic when everyone was antisocial and turning in their neighbors to the local Gestapo over improper mask usage, so it was a relatively hasty noodle affair and I didn’t get to sit and chat with the man himself. 

Dao Dao Noodles is a restaurant that epitomizes community, which can sometimes feel lacking in the cold concrete streets of SoHo, with Jovi and Co. remembering the countless eclectic and personalized orders of long-time regulars with ease, welcoming newcomers with a warm and patient demeanor (a stark contrast to the impatient and terse service often found on the Island), and nimbly serving up comforting, filling bowls of nostalgic noodles.

Pale Ale Travel Tip: While we’re on the topic of noodles, I do have to showcase someone who knows Hong Kong’s noodle game far better than I, one of my best friends who keeps the blog ‘Rather Curious Adventures’. Make sure to check out her article breaking down eight of her favorite noodle spots in the city. 

When stumbling over my nonsensical Cantonese pronunciations and regurgitated quips, Jovi would humor me and repeat it back to me in the correct tone and form. He’d also mix in Mandarin and English to ensure that I understood exactly what I was ordering, all while crushing Blue Girl beer cans – for hydration and because he earned them rather than to numb the pain like myself and countless other Chewbacca lookalikes in suits on the Peel Street steps. Like I said, absolute legend.

Now, when I say that there are an infinite number of noodle and ingredient customization options, I’m not lying. You’ll find five-plus noodle types to select from, including instant noodles (similar to the ramen packets you’d fire up in your college dorm room), udon, rice noodles (aka Chinese vermicelli), thin Chinese noodles (youmian), Guilin rice noodles (mifen), and several others I’m forgetting. 

You can toss in vegetables like radish, choy sum, and mushrooms, along with proteins like tofu skins, squid rolls, char siu (BBQ pork), pork chops, cow’s stomach, fish balls, and more (that’s not even close to the number of proteins they offer), and then customize the broth’s base and spiciness on a scale that would make Wilbur Scoville blush. 

For some reason the squid rolls came on the side.

I opted for a Frankenstein’s monster of sorts, selecting instant noodles (gong zai mian), and tossing in an order of squid rolls, a rotund pork chop, a healthy order of char siu, and delicate puffs of tofu skins – with a “medium spice” broth concoction. The broth can really be whatever you want it to be – like a liquid Rorschach test – and takes on different flavor profiles as you work your way through the bowl. 

In my case, it began as a slightly numbing, somewhat coarse liquid that rendered a few Derek Zoolander coughs while I got a feel for things. Just as I had mentally settled into what I thought was a spicy bowl of instant noodles, it underwent some sort of noodle metamorphosis (not the Kafka-esque one) as the sweetness of the char siu and pork chop, and saltiness of the squid rolls began to work their magic. This is also when what I suspect were generous tablespoons of distilled white vinegar came through to provide a satisfying sour contrast. 

The spongy tofu skins suggested by Jovi were well-advised, not so subtly plumping up like this Big Body his freshman year of university after being unleashed into the all-you-can-eat dining halls of Miami University of Ohio. The result, an explosion of multitudinous broth flavors that had me walking a fluid line between both sweet and sour and spicy and mild.

Don’t worry. I finished every last bit.

The total damage for this noodle behemoth? HK$55 (USD 7). 

You know the build. You know my steez. You know the name. Big Body. This humble, bountiful bowl of noodles had me wishing I was actually a “bigger body,” just so that I could add more toppings – it was that damn good (and filling).  

Pale Ale Travel Tip: While I’m a rice fiend at heart, I have made a concerted effort to develop my noodle palate over the years. On that journey with me, my father, a certified noodle wizard who knows his way around a bowl of noodles or two. Make sure to check out my post ‘Noodles With My Fahza: YKY Home Noodles’ for a breakdown of a quality Chinese noodle shop out in Sai Kung.

A Granite & Noodle State of Mind at Dao Dao Noodles

You have to sit outside at The Pink Pig to feel the energy of the island. And the view of the water isn’t too shabby either.

Maybe it’s the fact that I’m a good ole boy from New Hampshire (and New England), aka the Granite State, and Cheung Chau was primarily formed by two granite concretions, but there was something comforting about being out on this ‘dumbbell-shaped island’. Or, maybe it was just nice to step out of the social cesspool that is often Mid-Levels and Central and be reminded of the social, gastronomic, and lifestyle multitudes that Hong Kong contains.

Either way, my day wouldn’t have been complete without a pitstop at Dao Dao Noodles, and is the reason why even though Cheung Chau is the eighth-largest outlying island (I’m not sure why I have such a fascination with this ranking), it is number one in my heart. 

An online review of Dao Dao Noodles said it was a noodle shop with a “very human touch” which I think sums it up perfectly. I’m not sure why I wrote 2,000 words on this when that encapsulates everything you need to know about this noodle institution but here we are. 

I finished up the day posting up at The Pink Pig, a bustling music bar and restaurant along the pier, serving up classic pub fare (and Asian dishes) and ice-cold Suntory Premium draft beers. While those crisp nama beerus hit a little too hard, leading to a much larger night out than I originally anticipated, I’m thankful for the much-needed tranquility and retreat Cheung Chau allowed this Big Body to experience. 

If you’ve been to Dao Dao Noodles out on Cheung Chau, I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments. Let me know what you added to this bodacious bowl of noodles along with any other noodle spots on the island you love! Or, let me know if you’ve ever been to Cheung Chau and what you loved (or didn’t love) about it. 

Eat well everyone,

Big Body