It's 12:58pm and I'm starting to get hungry so I decided to order take out. I phoned in to place my order and repeated myself twice. I ordered the Ma Po Tofu, rice and wonton soup. I went to pick up my food and the total came to $17 something. I paid $20 and told them to keep the change. When I went back to the office I opened up the bag and saw there was NO rice. I was kind of disappointed and called them to let them know they had forgotten to put it in the bag. A man had answered the phone first and when I told him about it he passed to phone to the original taker. The lady gets on the phone and I repeated the story to her. She denied the fact that I ordered the rice and just said if you want rice you can buy it and pick it up. There was no appologies, NOTHING! I simply said forget it. Just thought I would speak my mind. Now I'm going to call and ask to speak to a manager!

So I went for lunch with a group of friends. The restaurant was busy, which was a good sign. The five of us decided to share several dishes so that everyone can try out different things.

Spicy stir-fried bean: the flavour was good, just too salty though

Spicy Malaysian fried rice: tasted like regular Chinese fried rice and it is NOT spicy at all. It might as well called Asian fried rice (neither spicy or Malayisan)

Sticky rice: the flavour was average good. The rice seems to be a bit mushy and not sticky enough (comparing with the sticky rice that I had in Asia)

House stir-fried noodles with veggies, chicken and shrimp: it is a good one, though ordinary. You can get the same in any other Chinese joints

Service? The waiter put our first dish on the table. On the table, there was this lonely dish, nothing else. No plate, no cutlery, no napkins, nothing. Yes, they were busy, but setting up the table should be the first thing to do before taking order.

Though the place offers decent food and I'm satisfied with what I had, the place has no personality. The menu is huge, with dishes representing every part of Asia (ok, not every part). As a result, the food has no identity. It is neither Chinese or South East Asia. This is NOT fusion. This is confusion.

However, the restaurant located in a area where this kind of we-have-it-all-Asia approach will work. It definitely attracts the office lunch crowd who want varieties to spice up their office work, and ESL students who need food that is familiar to them.

I am amazed with the food,size portions, extreme friendly services and esp the varities of food choices and is able to mix and match with certains items in the food to replace with something else. There are people have allergeries etc.. also vegetarians or vegan.. How many restaurants do you know that will do that for you and the prices doesnt change. For the prices for the menu its awesome affordable for the seafood over 15 choices(take out menu) for only $12.00+ tx but is suitable for dine in menu too. No Worries!! The atmosphere is clean and calm and comfortable.. Great bosses Mr. Mrs. Lai,great staff.
Plus its also gay friendly dining out place esp along Robson St..and Seymour. Not many restaurant area is gay friendly along Robson. Dont have to walk along for dinner or lunch along Davie Village if done so over the years.. Check it out!! you will be please.. Plus they do deliver free deliver at downtown core after 5pm daily except Sunday (closed) but will be opening soon on Sundays. Pick up will get 10% min. $20.00 awesome!! that is a deal meal!!
Enjoy the dinner!!

Though not truly re-inventing Asian food, the food always seems to taste fresh. I particularly like the Dai Pai Dong Noodles. Portions are decent sized and prices are very reasonable. Hon's may be cheaper and portions larger, but the food here just tastes less greasy/less MSG enhanced. Service is attentive though sometimes the servers may be inexperienced. They do delivery in the downtown core.

I enjoyed dinner here. After being disappointed in the service provided by so many places lately, it was refreshing to find a place that had pleasant and good service. As the title says, our server was enthusiastic, and friendly, and checked up on us very often. For a change, I never once had to flag anyone down as someone was always there asking if we needed anything.

Food quality and presentation was well done for what it is. Seating was comfortable. For an informal restaurant, it was a good dining experience.

As a pan-asian cafes go, Next Noodle bar is pretty good.

Everything is made fairly well, and made to order. Prices are quite reasonable.

The server was attentive, and place is fairly clean and presentable (I admit that I judge the service and ambiance at chinese restaurants by a slightly lower standard).

I walked by during lunch and was surprised to see a queue. I thought to myself perhaps I was there on an off day and decided to give it another try.

This time round, we ordered the spring rolls platter, lollipop chicken and chow mein.

The spring roll platter comprises 4 types of spring rolls - vietnamese with chicken and shrimp, shrimp with mashed taro in wonton skin, duck and assorted vegetables in rolled in roti, and one other. That "other" was not up to par. The other three were very good though. It comes with a trio of dips too. One complain was that the roti on the duck roll was just luke warm and thus, a tad tough. Perhaps it was the first of the 4 to be cooked.

The lollipop chicken was fun. Mashed chicken with dunno what wrapped around a stick of sugar cane (???). A good little snack.

The chow mein was tasty, but portion a little on the small side. Perhaps the plate it was on was too big? I am used to portions like those found at No. 9.

Service was ok, considering they were full. Perhaps another service staff would have helped.

Overall, a better dining experience than the first time. Return? Likely. There are a few tapas that sounded interesting that I will likely want to try.