Riccarton Noodle House

Second last dinner in Christchurch. We were debating between a few spots in Riccarton but ended up choosing Riccarton Noodle House, a Cambodian spot. It's more like a mix of Vietnamese, Cambodian and Malaysian.

We dropped in on a Tuesday evening (around 7:00pm) and it was empty. The inside has a bit of Cambodia decoration (Angkor Wat painting on the wall) but other than that, it's bare. Service is non-existent. You go to the counter to order where you also can grab water and utensils (self serve).

The menu is up above the open style kitchen; special spicy, noodle soup, satay, stir fry noodles, specials, side dishes and sweets.

- Curry laksa with chicken (#31) ($13.00 NZD) - I can never say no to laksa but in hindsight, this was a poor choice. Laksa isn't a Cambodian speciality; should have got one of their noodle soups instead. The laksa was half decent but nowhere close to being authentic. Barely any ingredients inside and they used udon noodles...
- Black pepper udon with seafood (#30) ($15.00 NZD) - we asked for claypot yee-mee and got this. No idea how the chef messed up our order. We decided to eat it but should have complained instead. Super stingy on the seafood (only a couple small pieces of squid and three prawns). The pepper was overpowering and vegetables consisted of the cheap, bland variety. Bad, just bad.

One of the most disappointing meals of our trip. I was still hungry afterwards. 2.5 stars.