Basin Noodle House is a Chinese restaurant on Adelaide Road in Mount Cook, Wellington, holding a 4.6 rating on Google and a website at basinnoodle.co.nz.
Noodle houses stand or fall on freshness, so it pays to favour places that pull their noodles or cook each bowl to order rather than reheating. Menus often roam across China's regions — wheat noodles, wontons, congee, dumplings — and regulars tend to judge a kitchen by the two or three dishes it does brilliantly rather than the length of the list. A modest dining room and a brisk lunchtime queue are usually good signs, and asking the staff what they cook best rarely goes amiss, since the answer is often not the first thing on the menu.
On Adelaide Road among Mount Cook's flats and students, Basin Noodle House puts a proper bowl of noodles within easy reach of anyone heading between the city and Newtown.