Edmonds’ Wonton Noodle House serves authentic Chinese fare

Wonton Noodle House is one of those restaurants tucked away in a strip mall off Highway 99 in Edmonds.

The strip mall is called Plumtree Plaza, but if you, like me, find landmarks useful when trying to find a restaurant, here are a couple of tips to help you locate Wonton — even at night.

If you’re northbound on Highway 99, which provides the easiest access to the restaurant, look for Collision Clinic on the right. The entrance to the plaza is just ahead. The brightly lit Doug’s Lynnwood Mazda is directly across the road.

If you’re new to Wonton Noodle House, you should know that this is not a place for American-style Chinese food. Instead, it serves up classic Chinese cooking, with an extensive menu and generous portions.

The menu offers a nearly overwhelming number of choices — 29 kinds of noodle soup, more than two dozen appetizers and 23 house specials.

So two friends and I pondered the menu for a while before settling on our choices.

Barbara Purrington picked pumpkin and rock cod congee ($9), a rice-based soup.

Barbara said she had heard about congee from a friend, and wanted to try it.

We were there on a chilly, rainy evening, and she compared the congee to a friendly, soul-warming bowl of chicken noodle soup.

“Very tasty,” she said between bites.

A former Daily Herald editor who is a devotee of Chinese cooking recommended we try the Chinese doughnuts ($3), long strips of deep fried dough, to add some crunch as we ate the soup.

Barbara said the rock cod in her congee was excellent, and was pleasantly surprised by a note of ginger in the soup.

Mike Forrester chose shrimp fried rice ($13). He was happy that the rice was fluffy — not the globby mess that he’s sometimes been served.

He said the dish was good, although he would have welcomed a few more ingredients in it, such as peas.

I ordered lo mein, noodles with rock cod and bok choy ($10). It was a generous serving of rock cod, and well prepared — cooked through, but with texture.

True to the restaurant’s name, it has 29 types of noodle soup, some with dumplings, and with combinations of beef, fish and pork, and even kidney and liver.

Congee variations include pork, an assortment of pork stomach, liver and kidney, chicken, beef , or just plain congee.

Diners can add preserved egg, shredded lettuce, pumpkin and pork blood curd to their congee order.

Like I said, this is not Americanized Chinese food.

If you regularly enjoy traditional Chinese cooking, you’ll appreciate Wonton’s many menu choices and moderate prices, which draw a mix of diners both young and old.

If classic Chinese cooking is unfamiliar to you, be adventurous and give the place a try.

Just remember to keep an eye out for the Collision Clinic sign.

Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com.

If you go

Wonton Noodle House, 22315 Highway 99, Edmonds, is open from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. daily. Call 425-775-8628 or go to www.wontonoodle.com for more information.