Chef Mogan Anthony + Seleste Tan Open Barnoodle in Greenwich: Handrolls, Noodles +

At the beginning of 2025, Greenwich locals and the husband-and-wife team of Mogan Anthony and Seleste Tan opened the doors to La Bistro in Cos Cob.

Just over a year later, a mile-and-a-half north on the same street, across the Cos Cob line into Riverside, they’re at it again. And this time around, they’re leaning on their Southeast Asian culture for inspiration at Barnoodle.

“I designed La Bistro myself with Mogan,” Tan says about the interior. “I didn’t know how to change a pizzeria into a noodle bar! I sent our designer a mood board and it was coming out totally different. It was 80 percent done, then I picked it up myself from Pinterest inspiration.”

“It’s bright in here during the day,” Anthony says. “We put the blinds down at night to keep headlights and streetlights out, so it’s darker and sets a mood.”

Anthony, who’s already busy enough as a partner and culinary guru for The Village Social Restaurant Group whose umbrella includes Village Social in Mount Kisco and Rye, Locali Pizza Bar in New Canaan and Mount Kisco, Pubstreet in Pleasantville, and Lulu’s Kitchenette and Fatt Root (which plays a part in what Barnoodle does), both also in Pleasantville.

As for Tan, she’s equally as busy. Like we mentioned last year, she’s the brains behind the nationally recognized Lady Wong Patisserie in the East Village, at Urban Hawker, and in Connecticut inside of her and Anthony’s La Bistro.

DIY char siu pork lettuce wraps w/Cholula mustard, pickled shallots, daikon, and sesame seeds

There are three types of dumplings on Barnoodle’s menu; pork & bacon, chili oil chicken, or Kobe beef (pictured) with balsamic, chives, and truffle mustard.

How and why the duo ended up opening another concept, sometimes just kinda happens.

It was Tan, though, who had eyes on the Riverside Shopping Center and any potential vacancies it might have since, ideally, with their children’s school nearby, and already operating a restaurant on E Putnam Avenue, it would make sense for Tan, who currently bakes Lady Wong’s confections in North Salem, to find a space to do that that’s closer to home base.

There’s a heavy presence of small plates here so you can try a little bit of everything like this kani crab with roe, jicama, cucumber, scallions, creamy chili oil vinaigrette, daikon pickles, and sesame seeds.

And there’s lots of veggie options, and some pack a pleasantly spicy punch.

Pictured is the smacked cucumber w/warm peanut chili crunch, rice vinegar, scallions, mala spice, radish, and sesame seeds.

Grilled wild mushrooms, black truffle mustard, chive, pickled shallots

“My baby is Lady Wong, so my first mentality is it’s a great place for people to pick up their cakes, and…the basement has a commercial kitchen,” she says. “I originally wanted (where) Mr. Falafel is. But this place came about, it was Italian Village Pizzeria, and I’m always thinking about opening something small for Lady Wong, but this place is bigger. The original plan was to take this space to partner with a friend—she would do something upstairs and I would use the basement.”

Anthony picks up, “The deals fell apart, but we were too deep and we met with the landlord,” he says. “So, we suggested a noodle bar concept. He was skeptical at first because there’s mostly franchises in that shopping center, but he went to La Bistro, saw it was busy, and gave us a shot. We’re grateful for the chance.”

Any bowl of noodles come “loaded,” according to Anthony, which means it comes with everything. Omissions are permitted, but they’re not trying to upcharge you with a bunch of add ons.

There’s a lot going on at Barnoodle’s bar from mocktails, to iced teas, some wine, lots of sake (some on tap), Asian spirits, and beer.

And they’ve spent a lot of time on their cocktail program.

Pictured are the Pisco Sour (top left) w/Suyo Pisco, jasmine, lime, yuzu, egg white; La Passion (bottom left) w/tequila, prosecco, passionfruit, lime, ginger; and Violette Milk Punch (right) w/Planteray white and dark rums, yuzu, China China, and purple sweet potato, all clarified with coconut milk.

They got to work immediately, turning the former pizzeria around relatively quickly into a New York City-ish noodle bar vibe with a straightforward name, so, as they both say, “you know exactly what it is,” and Barnoodle went live to the public in April.

And what it is, aside from the obvious NOODLES, is a vast representation of Asian flavors.

If you’ve eaten at Anthony’s Fatt Root or if you’ve been following him back to his Mura Ramen pop up days in Westchester and Fairfield counties, you might have a loose idea of some of what you’ll see at Barnoodle; 24-hour chicken and pork broth ramen, Thai khao soi, beef pho, spicy and super aromatic chili oil dumplings, crispy chicken bao buns, and rice bowls.

Anthony says that the research and recipe development is his favorite part of the restaurant business, seeing what works, who he and the team can work with, and traveling around to see what other places are doing.

Close up of the Spicy Dynamite crunchy roll w/kani, cucumber, and tobiko.

But an exact copy, it’s not.

I called it, “Fatt Root Plus,” to which Anthony agreed.

“We’ve lived in Greenwich for the past 13 years and we created La Bistro because it’s the kind of place we like to eat; it’s affordable, elevated, and you can stop in regularly for a simple rice bowl, and on weekends, steak frites and mille crêpe cake,” he says. “Malaysia and Singapore are known for noodles. We love noodles and we’ve always wanted to do something like that here; we just didn’t know where. Seleste wanted to set a different tone here with good noodles, lots of small plates, good drinks, a little bit of entrées, but with the noodles, there’s also a focus on handrolls.”

And Barnoodle’s handroll section isn’t just fish-focused. Five are all about veggies, another (that comes in a pair) is a punch of truffle and beef with wasabi, scallions, and truffle soy sauce glaze, and three others are crunchy rolls, one of those being fashioned after deviled egg avocado toast with pickled shallots and chives between crispy nori and rice cracker pearls.

“People are already coming back for a few things especially; handrolls, which is a busy part of our menu, so they do that, then go straight to the noodles,” Anthony says. “It’s a big menu, but we already took some off from soft opening weekend, like the burger and others. It’s meant to be that you can come in, have a few small plates or handrolls and noodles, and it’ll be like $45 or $50.”

Saigon charred hanger steak with scallion sauce, nuoc cham, rice, pineapple herb salad, and lime. Why so tender? A few proteins, like the ribs, and this steak are first sous vide before getting grilled to order.

Royal Thai branzino is one of this noodle bar’s non-noodle early stars. Light, but an explosion of fragrant herbs and sauces.

But, Barnoodle is what you make of it. You’re more than welcome to crash the bar for noodle slurps and craft cocktails—or sake, since they have a sizeable list—or you can grab a table, and try everything from fall-off-the-bone sweet, spicy, and sour ribs to Sapporo battered fried fish and furikake fries, or you can keep it healthy with veggie appetizers and finish with pan roasted branzino with garlic-lime sauce, cilantro, and rice.

If there is anything coming regarding Lady Wong’s baking operation moving to Barnoodle’s basement, currently being used as the restaurant’s storage space, that’s still to be determined.

Tan, however, did hint that Barnoodle’s menu will grow and showcase more “not so safe dishes that are from our culture.”

1247 E Putnam Avenue, Greenwich
203.990.0072, barnoodle.com