Eating Oxford: Noodle Lovers Gather at CaNoodle

Pork Ramen. Photo Courtesy Canoodle.

Brisket Grilled Cheese has been replaced by Pork Banh Mi at CaNoodle by Oxford Canteen. After more than two years on The Square, chef/owner Corbin Evans took note of successful noodle nights and made the decision to transform his walk-up restaurant Oxford Canteen into CaNoodle by Oxford Canteen in August.

Diners who are adventurous enough to enter the alley between The Lyric and South Depot Taco Shop can now experience noodles ranging from Pho to Soba combined with pork, chicken or vegetables. Another favorite, according to Evans, is the Ginger Chicken Jook, which features dirty rice grits with chili oil, peanuts, soy sauce and scallions.

“I don’t pretend to be serving authentic Vietnamese food, but when I was growing up in New Orleans and Philadelphia, I always had places where I could eat this kind of food,” Evans said.

For those who fell in love with Canteen’s breakfast tacos and brisket grilled cheese, fear not. The breakfast tacos are still available on Saturday mornings, and Evans said that a pop-up is in the works that will feature some of Canteen’s favorite menu items, including the brisket grilled cheese (check the CaNoodle Facebook page for daily specials and events).

Bahn Mi. Photo courtesy Canoodle.

Meanwhile, Evans has been searching for a viable space around Oxford to open another location that he can use for Canteen.

“We thought we found a place for over the summer, but it fell through,” Evans said. “I decided to go ahead with changing this location to CaNoodle since I don’t think this is an option that Oxford is fulfilling very well at the moment.”

“I like using local and sustainable pork, chicken and eggs,” Evans said. “This new menu allows me do that even more than the previous menu did.”

“We see more students with the new menu,” Evans said. “I see less of the manly-man meat eater, but if they come over, I can usually convince them to try something new and they usually like it and order another one. For the meat lovers we have pork belly, soy chicken, chicken jook and sometimes lamb.”

A few more things to note about the new menu: Nothing is really spicy, but everything is really flavorful, according to Evans. They offer a refreshing Vietnamese iced coffee, rice noodles for those trying to stay away from gluten, and several vegetarian options.

CaNoodle by Canteen is located at 1006 Van Buren Avenue, in the alley between The Lyric and South Depot Taco Shop. Hours have been extended to Tuesday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. (also open for breakfast on Sundays during home football games). For more information, including menus, specials, online ordering and pop-up information, visit eatcanoodle.com or find them on Facebook.

Liz Barrett Foster is the EatingOxford editor for HottyToddy.com, an award-winning business journalist and author of the recently published Pizza: A Slice of American History. Liz ran the popular restaurant information site EatingOxford.com from 2009 to 2015. Liz can be reached at liz.foster@hottytoddy.com.

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