Located in East Victoria Park’s industrial area, Mei’s Noodles serves the food of Yunnan, a region in China’s southwest that borders Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar. It’s also where Mei Shi, the restaurant’s owner, lived before moving to Perth with her husband and restaurant co-owner, Michael Foster. Like many ex-pats, she missed the tastes of home and quickly set about replicating familiar flavours.

Though Yunnan is ethnically diverse, one common thread throughout the region is an appreciation of rice noodles. Mei’s serves two styles: “little pot rice noodles” and Yunnan’s signature, Crossing the Bridge noodles. The former is served during the week and features rice noodles in a pork and chicken broth topped with vegetables, pork, beef and chicken giblets. The Saturday-only Crossing the Bridge noodles require a little more work from diners as the dish’s components (roiling broth, meat slices, vegetables, noodles) are served separately and assembled tableside.

Beyond noodles, you might find various tripes bathed in chilli oil, house-made wontons and a dish of shredded chicken meat mixed with lemon juice and fiery bird’s eye chilli. This is also one of the few places around serving Yunnanese lentil jelly: savoury, noodle-like strips of jelly made from lentil starch and served with chilli, garlic and sesame.

Mei’s Noodles is a low-key space, just like the Chinese xiaochidian (snack bars) it’s modelled after. Guests help themselves to their own chopsticks, soup ladles and plastic water glasses. Tables are set with chilli oil and napkins. Decorations are sparse, save for images of Lijiang – Shi’s photogenic hometown – that her husband thoughtfully printed and hung around the restaurant.

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