“We’re gonna need a bigger bowl.” That’s what I thought when I first sampled the hand-pulled noodles at Film Row’s Big Biang Noodle, the brick-and-mortar location of a fan-favorite food truck that debuted — with a bang — in 2019. From ramen and pho to chow mein and vermicelli, noodles are not in short supply around the Oklahoma City metro, but unless you’ve stalked the food truck over the past few years, you likely haven’t slurped a noodle like this.
A Northwest Chinese style, the noodles are distinguished by their broad width and seemingly infinite length, here enrobed in chili-kissed sauce and tangled around chicken curry or meltingly tender cumin-braised beef. Noodles are hand-pulled after a lengthy preparation process that involves refrigeration, rolling the dough into balls, stretching it by hand and cooking it in hot water — all while combating humidity and finagling a product that’s infamously finicky.
“It’s perfectly imperfect,” summarized owner Davy Sangouanesy, who conceptualized the truck and drew inspiration from the likes of Xi’an Famous Foods in New York City. “We’re the only people doing hand-pulled noodles in the OKC metro.” That might be because of the extra effort that goes into each noodle. “The texture has bite to it, it has chew. The big pieces, the skinny pieces. You’re not getting fettuccine or udon. With this, every bite is different.”
After ramping up food truck events in 2022, routinely drawing lines down the block, Big Biang went bigger in late 2023 — with a storefront on Film Row. But just because the space is larger doesn’t mean the menu is; Sangouanesy deliberately keeps the menu concise, spotlighting a curated selection of those hand-pulled noodles, each one chewy and textured, a hearty canvas for bold flavors like chili crisp, sweet black vinegar and spicy coconut curry. Each noodle dish is the result of a multi-day process that involves shipping in flour several times per week, rolling it into a glutinous dough, resting it in the refrigerator, cutting it in a dough sheeter, resting again and finally kneading it out and pulling the noodles by hand. It’s a labor of love, and a major effort that yields some of the best and burliest noodles in the city. And, mercifully, the bowls are just as big.
The hard work has paid off, too. Opening day at the restaurant saw lines down the block — a familiar sight for a brand that routinely commands crowds at events like the Festival of the Arts. This year, after auditioning to be one of the food vendors at the annual spring event, it was welcomed back sight unseen. “The top three vendors of the previous year don’t have to audition if they don’t change their food,” said Sangouanesy. And when the noodles are this big, this bold, this beloved, you needn’t change a thing.
