Beijing Noodle's from-scratch cooking earns spot on the best restaurants list. What to try

Fort Collins' Beijing Noodle nabbed a national honor this week when it was selected for the 2024 USA Today Restaurants of the Year list, alongside 46 other restaurants.

National recognition was never the goal for the cozy eatery, and Beijing Noodle's placement on the list came as a complete surprise to Tianxi "Dennis" Zhang, who opened the restaurant with his wife, Yirong Sun, back in 2018. All the couple ever wanted to do was bring traditional Chinese dishes to their adopted Colorado hometown, realizing Sun's longtime dream of having her own restaurant in the process, Zhang said.

"We feel very proud," Zhang added, sitting at a small bistro table overlooking Beijing Noodle's smattering of lunchtime diners on a mid-December afternoon. "We never thought that we (would get recognized) like this."

Read the big list:Check out USA TODAY's 2024 Restaurants of the Year.

What makes Beijing Noodle stand out?

In a land of sesame chicken and crab rangoons, Beijing Noodle bucks Americanized Chinese dishes in favor of the traditional fare Zhang and Sun both grew up eating in China.

Its menu boasts everything from hard-boiled tea eggs and spicy fried peanuts to scratch-made noodle dishes and rou jia mo — or Chinese hamburgers — stuffed into pillowy yeast buns.

When Zhang and Sun came to the United States from China in 2002, Zhang said the couple struggled to find these traditional dishes in American Chinese restaurants. Instead, Sun whipped them up in their kitchen at home, where she honed her skills and dreamed of opening her own restaurant.

In the fall of 2018 — after living in Fort Collins for roughly seven years — Zhang and Sun did just that, debuting Beijing Noodle in a strip mall southwest of the Colorado State University campus.

See our critera forUSA TODAY's Restaurants of the Year for 2024: How the list of best restaurants was decided

While Sun spent her days behind the scenes in the kitchen, Zhang stationed himself at Beijing Noodle's front counter, where he took orders and chatted with diners.

Using customer feedback, Sun and Zhang ultimately pared down their menu and turned their main focus to noodle dishes. Today, they go through about 200 pounds of flour a week to make their noodles from scratch daily. The restaurant also boasts a range of savory soups and starters and chef's specials, like its rou jia mo, pan-fried or steamed dumplings, spiced beef and five spice pig ears.

What to order at Beijing Noodle

Oil spill noodles. This fan-favorite dry noodle dish consists of wide wheat noodles made with fresh garlic, Sichuan peppercorns and chilis. Hot oil is poured over the noodles, creating a spicy garlic sauce that's then topped with Beijing Noodle's house-made Sichuan sauce.

Henan gravy noodles. A favorite of Zhang's, this noodle dish comes from Sun's home province of Henan. In it, fresh noodles are steamed with a soy sweet bean sauce and stir fried with pork, celery and carrots.

Chinese hamburgers. Known in China as rou jia mo, these handheld "burgers" are a common, daily meal in northwest China. At Beijing Noodle, they consist of soy-sauce-braised pork belly and diced green peppers stuffed into a homemade yeast bun. Rou jia mo had its day in the sun earlier this year when the National Restaurant Association placed it on its list of emerging food trends to watch in 2023.

See the full menu.

Details: Beijing Noodle, 1005 W. Stuart St., Fort Collins, Colo.; 970-999-5757, beijingnoodlecolorado.com