Disclaimer – This review and banner was stolen from Zero31, ’cause they stole our photo’s!
It. Was. Hectic.
…the day Mooki Noodle Bar opened in Glenwood.
When I arrived for my regular early morning coffee at 6am at The Corner Cafe, I saw Judd Campbell was running across the street with Molotov cocktail he made from drenching his hand-picked coriander from the back, in eco-friendly jars of highly flammable vinegar. Look, I can’t endorse what he did, but you have to give it to the guy, even his war-tactics are carbon neutral.
“There’s only room for one of us on this corner!” I heard Judd screaming.
Despite all his fitness gains, uh, gained, from cycling, Judd still took longer than the average human being to run across the street; giving Mooki Noodle Bar owners, Paul and Charisse Boshoff, time to line their staff up into an aggressive defense across the rooftops of 198 Brand Road. Chop-sticks for arrows, and bows improvised out of some eels that were grabbed out of bucket of water labelled “To Be Used For Sushi”, Judd was eventually brought down just by the call-boxes on the sidewalk. As he used his last few ounces of energy, before slipping away and dying from, what doctors call Excessive Asian-Utensil Head Trauma, Judd raised one hand to the call-box and made his last phone call. All I heard was: “Jeannie??… Dammit, I meant to phone Kyle and ask for one last coffee“.
And so Mooki Noodle Bar lived to be open for business.
The irony is those chop-sticks that killed Judd were probably ec0-friendly. You know what they say, “live by the sword, die by the sword”. Judd and 2Pac: so similar, so BFF$4EVA.
The Real Deal
None of that is true; the obvious give away I was talking kak was right from the moment I implied being more than two meters away from my bed at 6am in the morning.
The truth is 197 and 198 Brand Road get on just fine, in fact I always used to see Juddy running over to help (stand around and talk) while Mooki Noodle Bar was being built, and in all honesty the only thing the two places share in common is that they have both had a variation of gourmet fish cakes on their menus.
Mooki is another life-giving, breath of fresh air to the suburb. It’s the only classy asian cuisine vibe place I can think of in Glenwood. Here’s the kicker: open until 9pm biatches! And you can also get dop there (let’s be honest, drunk Asians probably make the best YouTube videos).
While remaining classy, Mooki is also unassuming. The furniture is of the clean-cut, minimalistic variety and the focus of the space is an epic chandelier made out of stylish popcorn boxes. It’s a brilliant place to grab an awesome and different bite to eat with a mate and then just stay and chat over a beer or two. I’m not sure why actually, but the space just seems to lend itself to a no-stress vibe.
I’d love to tell you what I had but my second language culinary vocab is limited to boerewors, koeksistersand “jussie, maar hierdie tannie se vetkoek is kak, hoor!“. What I do know is it was amazing and I can’t wait to go back. If memory serves as it should, I think a mains dish is going to cost you in the region of R45-R50, which is to be expected.
They have a pretty cool blog too.. check it out at mookinoodles.wordpress.com
Late night noodle-drive-bys, here I come.
Yours in cool places,
TwoSlice
Arigatō Zero31!
MOOKI NOODLES 