Good things come in Threes

Three Fold is the perfect name for the new restaurant in the Pyramid Place building at Second and Center streets downtown.

The menu offers just three items -- dumplings, noodles and steamed buns. With each of those items, you have three protein choices: pork, chicken or braised, seasoned tofu. And with each order you get another three-fold choice: mild, medium or spicy.

You'll find so-called noodle houses in most big cities with Chinese populations, but Three Fold is this area's first.

In American Chinese restaurants, diners almost inevitably get rice as a starch accompaniment to everything. In China, however, rice accompanies meals only in those warm, swampy southeastern areas where it grows. In cooler, drier northern and western China, where wheat is the primary crop, you get -- that's right, noodles, dumplings and/or buns.

Three Fold's food is good to excellent, and large portions are a defense against the charge that we've heard from some that it's a little pricey. And Rebecca Yan, whose official title is development director, and her family (members of whom are on the floor and in the kitchen) have gotten the quick-service, order-at-the-counter and assembly-line dish construction system practically down to a science.

Three Fold Noodles took over the fronting-on-Center Street space previously occupied by the second incarnation of Your Mama's Good Food, and the basic layout hasn't changed -- the counter and the kitchen occupy the same place, for example, and the tables, though different, are arranged in much the same pattern. Three Fold has even kept Your Mama's phone number.

The main change involves the starkness of the decor. The walls are white, the ceiling is white, the floor tiles are white. Relieving somewhat the sterile, hospital cafeteria whiteness: light-brown butcher-block tables (some atop antique pediments), a partial brick wall (left over from Your Mama's) and the enormous black safe door -- as in, the door to a safe -- set into one wall, left over from a long-past day when the space was occupied by some business that involved a vault.

The limited menu is painted upon the wall by the counter, where you express your three choices to one of the friendly folks behind it. And everything except the metal carrying tray is biodegradable or recyclable or both.

We'd have to recommend the bun (aka "Mo," $7.49), steamed and then lightly pan-browned, which bears some resemblance to a big, fluffy hamburger bun. On it get either the chopped pork or chopped chicken, marinated in the restaurant's "No. 1 sauce," a secret blend of mild peppers; the counter folk spread more No. 1 sauce on one side of the bun, apply a huge dollop of meat, then top it with cilantro, field greens and a chopped radish chutney.

Even leaving aside the side of slaw -- choice of sesame-garlicky carrot or tangy cucumber-based -- you'd better be hungry, because this Chinese equivalent of a barbecue sandwich will fill you up in a hurry. (We generally preferred the carrot slaw, but a little of it went a long way and we never quite got around to finishing all of any of the portions we got. The slaw is available as an a la carte side item for $1.49, two for $2.79).

For second place, we nominate the Noodle Bowl ($7.79), "Wuhan-style" wheat noodles, thinner and more pliable than the ropy, spaghetti-like lo mein noodles you'll usually see in Chinese restaurants. They come tossed in a mild sesame-based sauce and not-quite-topped with choice of protein (trial and error led us to prefer the braised tofu, also marinated in the No. 1 sauce, and fresh herbs, mostly cilantro).

And the nice folks at Three Fold, in their eagerness to please, let us indulge in a variation that came close, though didn't exactly match, Chinese sesame noodles, a favorite that we've had a hard time finding in this market. We're in their debt for that.

Three Fold's dumplings (aka "Jiaozi," $8.89 for nine) are tasty -- ground pork, chicken or vegetables combined with cabbage) are tasty and obviously kitchen-made, but not unique -- somewhere between Chinese potstickers and Japanese gyoza in terms of the thickness of the "pasta" shell. They come with a side of soy-based sauce with a red-pepper mixture added to your specified taste (a little if you want it mild, a lot if you want it spicy).

Fried dumplings are also an option, but you'll have to go to the three-item children's menu to find 'em (five for $5.49). We liked them, but for some reason our to-go order lacked any side sauce and the kid's portion of taro chips that were supposed to come with it. (The taro chips, crisp, tasty and presumably "healthy," are $2.19 for the large bag-ful if you're ordering them as a side item.)

And we were pleased by the off-menu special noodle soup ($7.79) that they'll be serving while the weather is cold -- a pho-like concoction with a large portion of tangy broth into which you load, to taste, noodles, marinated protein (chicken noodle soup, sure enough), portions of carrot and cucumber slaw and herbs. It was filling, satisfying and, like any chicken noodle soup, good for whatever ailed us.

Weekend on 01/15/2015