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Needless to say, when Ding Hao Noodle House opened in the Tri-Cities three months ago, it was great news to local noodle lovers.

Neighbourhood Asian restaurants are not usually known for their sleek design and groomed servers. However, Ding Hao has a contemporary decor with a zen-style panel painting of lotus flowers along with tentative and pleasant floor service.

Owner/chef Alan Chen had a desire to open a high-quality restaurant with a professionally designed dining room, comfy and stylish tables and chairs, clean washrooms, organized stations and well-trained staff. Most of all, the menu contains authentic and appealing Taiwanese cuisine.

Cindy Wang, the restaurant manager, stated: "Ding Hao means awesome! Here we serve supreme Taiwanese food using natural ingredients and we do not use any MSG."

We started with a cold dish of marinated beef shank and bone-side tendon ($3.95), two hot dishes including a very tasty Taiwanese crispy chicken nugget ($4.95) and deep fried tofu.

The shank and tendon were a bit on the dry side. The nuggets, seasoned with pepper, garlic and five spices, lightly breaded and fried, were sublime. The crispy outside, soft inside tofu cubes came with two sauces for dipping.

Ding Hao offers noodles in soup and also dry noodles with choices of toppings. The popular half & half (beef and tendon) hot noodle soup we shared was, indeed, authentic ($7.50/$8.50).

The soup stock, being the essence of taste in any Taiwanese beef noodle house, must be done right in order to bring out the flavours of all the other noodles. This soup broth was delicious -- a sign it was made with lots of beef bones, meat, herbs and then braised for 48 hours.

From the dry noodle category, we chose the noodle topped with sesame sauce ($5.95/$6.95).

This is a must-have for Tan Tan noodle fans. Enjoy it while it's hot or the sauce will thicken up, and add in garlic chili sauce for that extra kick.

Rice topped with signature meat sauce ($3.95) is now my favourite Taiwanese rice plate. Ground pork marinated in Taiwanese sauce of wine, soybean, sugar, ginger, garlic, salt and spices is pan-fried and poured on top of a mount of steamed rice. Other Taiwanese restaurant serve this in bowls, but Ding Hao offers a westernized version by garnishing it with chopped pickled mustard green and serving it on a plate, thus turning this signature rice dish into a temptation.

Handmade beef or pork dumplings are one of the main attractions here. At $4.95 for 10 pieces and $6.95 for 15 pieces, these poached dumplings are non-greasy, delicious and great for sharing.

Like many Taiwanese restaurants, Ding Hao has an extensive beverage menu. Besides flavoured green and black tea ($3.50), there are fruit teas, slush and milk teas.

For 50 cents, they will add pearls, coconut jelly or pudding into the drink. I quite enjoyed my refreshing and aromatic Japanese green tea & red bean slush in a tall cocktail glass.