Filtering by Tag: Noodles,Chocolate

Ji Be Chuan Brings Popular Chinese Rice Noodle Franchise to CT

Restaurant Chinese Noodle Soup Noodles Asian Food

Jessica Ryan

At one end of a non-descript strip mall in Orange is a new restaurant called Ji Be Chuan — You could call it a noodle joint or a soup joint, but that’s not an altogether accurate description. Although its roots stem from China, Ji Be Chuan isn’t exactly a Chinese restaurant either. A Chinese franchise which was founded in Shuzhou, China has over 400 locations in China with a growing international presence. There are 50 restaurants in the US including one in New York City, and one here in Orange, Connecticut. 

This franchise is unique in that about 50% of the menu features original Ji Be Chuan recipes, but franchisees are allowed to supplement with their own recipes and dishes. For this reason, the Orange location features a unique blend of Asian influences and  flavors from Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, and, of course, China. This “flexible franchise,” as owner Jin Lin refers to it, allowed him to incorporate pho and ramen with the traditional Chinese dishes. There is something for everyone, and something familiar to everyone. 


25+ Spots for Great Ramen in Connecticut

Restaurant Features Asian Noodle Soup Ramen Japanese Noodles Best of CT Homepage Highlight

April Guilbault

Sluuuuuurp. Siiiip! Sip! Just a few of the sounds you might hear when consuming a steaming hot bathtub-sized bowl of delicious, noodlicious ramen. Whether you’ve got a simpler bowl of noodles and broth on the brain or one brimming with a myriad of toppers, not much is more satisfying than slurping to your heart’s content. To take the chill off these end-of-winter days, we’ve got the consummate listing for your next craving. Dive on in, the slurping is good!

Here are 25 Spots for great ramen in Connecticut.

If we missed a Ramen spot you love, please contact us.


Divine Treasures: Vegan & Gluten-Free European-Style Chocolates in Manchester CT

Restaurant Features Dessert Chocolate Valentine's Day Ice Cream Vegan Gluten-Free Special Dietary Needs

April Guilbault

Happily, eating plant-based is becoming easier and more accessible by the day. However, finding decadent desserts and sweets that fit this category have historically been a bit more of a challenge, given that milk, butter, and gelatin is usually involved when making things of the sweeter persuasion. Another challenge: finding gift-worthy artisan treats that are visual treats to the palate as well the eyes. You know, the type of special giant heart box of chocolates that Linus toted around waiting to give to Miss Othmar. At the end of the day, no one wants to be left out, including sweet and chocolate-indulging plant-eaters.

Well, these sweets do exist, Virginia, and they are located in Manchester so your plant-loving special someones can partake in all the sweet flavors and beautiful treats as the omnivores. Every sweet produced at Divine Treasures chocolate shop, which has been going strong since 2007, is vegan and gluten-free. In addition, Divine Treasures confections are made with health and enjoyment in mind. These European-style chocolates are crafted with high-quality ingredients but also, and here’s the amazing part, without refined sugar and corn syrup. Diane Wagemann, owner and chocolatier, studied the art of chocolate making in Belgium and Switzerland and then decided to adapt her grandmother’s family recipes to suit the goal of healthier eating. Instead of adding an abundance of sugars, Wagemann wants the inherent taste of the cacao to be the shining star. She sources the chocolate from small family-owned Fair-Trade certified businesses, so you can be sure that no fillers have been added to the chocolate, which sometimes can compromise the vegan integrity. 


Bridgewater Chocolates Opens in Downtown Westport September 15th

Features Restaurant Westport Openings Chocolate Dessert Gift

Stephanie Webster

To truly depict the joy I feel around Bridgewater Chocolate finally opening a storefront in Southern Fairfield County, after over 25 years in business up North, I may need to quote myself from a previous 2021 CTbites article. I feel the same way, biting into one of their outstanding toffees or coconut igloos today, as I did a year ago, but now, I can hop in my car and grab a box, because their confections are available at their new Westport location, opening September 15th.

With locations in Brookfield and West Hartford, Brand Director, Marlene Steiner says, “Westport’s retail experience will be the blueprint for their flagship stores moving forward.” The customer will be introduced to product in new ways, with clean modern lines, an expansive “build your own box” display, and for the first time ever, a dedicated tasting area at the front of the store. Steiner states, “so much of what we do is about tasting the product, and we love to tech people more about what makes Bridgewater so unique.” In fact, Bridgewater Chocolates, if you’re not familiar, is a sought after luxury chocolate brand shipped around the world. “ Westport watch out….this is dangerous.


The Chocolatieree Opens in Westport with Hand Crafted Chocolates (via Westport Journal)

Features Openings Westport Chocolate Dessert

CTbites Team

At a small shop on Church Lane where chocolates are both made and sold, a Westporter who worked in the health industry during the chaos of the pandemic is finally realizing her sweet dream.

“We just need a little bite of happiness,” chocolatier Laureen Haynes said of the deluxe chocolates she makes herself. “That’s what I’m bringing to the community.”

The Chocolatieree — the shop’s name is a combination of chocolatier, or someone who makes chocolate, and “Ree,” the owner’s nickname — is located in a small building at 66 Church Lane, which previously housed a dog groomer, then a jewelry store.

The front room on a recent weekday featured a display case of hand-crafted chocolate treats: coffee caramel, sunflower seed butter cup, coconut ganache, sea salt caramel and blueberry lavender ganache.

Standing in front of the Chocolatieree kitchen’s tempering machine, owner Laureen Haynes explains the process of making chocolate. / Photo by Gretchen Webster

In the back of the shop is a kitchen, where chocolate was swirling around in a tempering machine, to give the candies the smooth luster that makes them gleam.

Read the full article on The Westport Journal.


Menya Gumi: Ramen, Donburi, and Epic Sandos in New Haven

Restaurant Openings New Haven Japanese Ramen Noodles Sandwich Lunch Comfort Food Homepage

Brian Lance

I lived in Japan for four years in the early 2000s. I spent much time eating my way around Tokyo and the Kanto sprawl. Surely much has changed in those 20 years since I left. Still, I long for the food I left behind. Not the flashy foods of trendy restaurants I visited (and loved). I miss the fried chicken skewers from 7-11, Circle K egg salad sandos, and the noodles of all the quick-bite ramen shops without chairs, for none of which I remember names. Yoshinoya, Pot & Pot, and sushi go-rounds that didn’t serve elaborate rolls. I miss all the places in the cavernous Shinjuku Station underground with their window displays of plastic katsu curry and oyaku-don.

Yeah. It’s the love the Japanese food culture places into even it’s fast(ish) food that I’ve sought since coming back to the states. Occasionally, some of my old friends who were there with me will send pics of some gem they found in a strip mall. I do the same. But of the handful of places that I found, none takes me back there like Menya Gumi.

Angel Cheng opened Menya Gumi in March 2020, right as the pandemic hit the U.S. Menya survived to deliver an upgraded touch to the food of my past. Cheng works somewhere between Japanese tradition and American food crazes.


Iconic CT Chocolatier, Bridgewater Chocolate, Looks To Expand

Restaurant Features Chocolate Specialty Market Dessert Sweets Confections Brookfield West Hartford

Stephanie Webster

As I bite into my first milk chocolate dipped crunchy peanut butter patty, I’m overwhelmed by the feeling that I’ve waited far too long to discover the edible joy that comes from the confections found at Bridgewater Chocolate. A trip to any of their stores, located in Brookfield and West Hartford (as well as a Westport weekend pop-up through December), will elicit a type of longing that will have you dreaming of chocolate at night, and as Michael Stern once stated so perfectly…

Walk into Bridgewater Chocolate, and the air inside is chocoholic heaven, with an aroma that is intense but not cloying, like vaporous cocoa laced with the sweetness of fruit. The store area is fairly small, decorated with the beautiful hinged boxes in which Bridgewater packs its goodies. — Jane & Michel Stern, Roadfood.com


45+ Spots for Easter Treats in CT: Cookies, Chocolates, Cakes, Bunnies & More

Restaurant Features Easter Holiday Dessert Cookies Chocolate

April Guilbault

Bunnies and chicks and eggs, oh my. So much chocolate, so many jelly beans. Our baskets will runneth over. We’ve got the classics and have also found some new and unusual Easter treats for you to enjoy. If anyone you love is not on this list, feel free to add them in the comments. We all need to know great places to go for holiday treats-I think we can all agree on that. Happy Easter, everyone!

(In case you need dinner recommendations too…head to our CTbites Easter Dining Guide!)


House Of Pho in Stratford Serves Up Much More Than Delicious Pho

Restaurant Asian Vietnamese Pho Soups Noodles Noodle Soup Stratford Openings Lunch Comfort Food

James Gribbon

At a hillside shopping center overlooking nothing more fashionable than the far ridge line of the Housatonic River and Sikorsky’s helicopter factory steams a great bowl of pho. It’s a standard bo vien with beef meatballs, ordered lightly rich with small convex globules of transparent oil magnifying both light and flavor in the broth. I’ve recently dosed a bite with a slice of positively infernal green pepper. A less varied quarantine diet has apparently softened my usually spice-calloused tongue. My eyes are watering, and my nose is running. I’m in heaven.


2021 Valentine's Day Guide to Restaurants, Caterers, Gifts, Sweets & Events in CT

Features Valentine's Day Holiday Dessert Chocolate Homepage

April Guilbault

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone! In a time when giving a hug has become an event, any reason to celebrate love has to be embraced! Whether you are planning a cozy-delish dinner at home, venturing out (safely) to a restaurant, wanting to give a sweet gift or even try a new class with your sweetie, we’ve got you covered.

Take a lookie! We’ve arranged this listing in a different way this year, with the hopes that you can find exactly what you are looking for easily. About Valentine’s Day, ya got nice dinners, ya got chocolate and ya got time with your honey. So, those are our categories: Restaurants/Caterers, Sweets/Gifts, and Events/Classes. Scroll the list to find what you want and need and enjoy the holiday. There are some great ideas here, proving that nothing stands in the way of love. Pssst: This is also quite possibly the first time the word “thong” has appeared in CTbites copy. Find it.


Mexican Hot Chocolate Bomb Recipe via Connecticut Food & Farm Magazine

Features Recipe Recipe Dessert Hot Cocoa Chocolate Kid Friendly

CTbites Team

This recipe for Mexican Hot Cocoa Bombs is from the winter issue of Connecticut Food and Farm Magazine, written by Juli Mancini, Recipe Developer and Food Stylist, who is obsessed with the visual organizational of all things edible, botanical, and chocolate.

Hand made with solid chocolate, these decadent Mexican hot chocolate bombs produce an unrivaled cup of rich cocoa. Hot chocolate bombs are hollow hand crafted chocolate spheres, placed in a mug with a pour-over of hot milk or coffee. Bombs are packed with surprise confections, slowly exposed as the chocolate melts from the heat of the liquid. Mexican hot chocolate bombs are a fine place to start, especially if you love a spicy twist, but personalize your own creations to taste. It’s simple to marble the chocolate for a really beautiful look. Simply package in cello-bags or stack in Mason jars and you have the perfect Valentine gift - unexpected, entertaining, and delectable.


BE Chocolat Shop Opens in Fairfield from Belgian Master Chocolatier Benoit Racquet

Features Restaurant Chocolate Openings Fairfield Dessert Confections Homepage

Stephanie Webster

Allow me to preface this article with a warning. Once you’ve experienced master chocolatier Benoit Racquet’s Belgian chocolates, there really is no turning back. These confections, made with Callebaut Fairtrade’s finest chocolate and a whole lot of food-science based love, are highly craveworthy and bordering on sensual. Benoit and his wife Sylvie, have been in the business of chocolate for over five years, but last week marked a special milestone for this team…the grand opening of their first retail shop, BE Chocolat, located at 75 Hillside Rd in Fairfield CT.


Haruki Ramen & Izakaya Brings Authentic Japanese Pub Fare to Norwalk

Restaurant Ramen Noodles Asian Japanese Izakaya Norwalk SONO Openings Lunch Homepage Waypointe

Tiffany Tu

Amongst the bright and airy courtyard of the Waypointe Apartments resides Haruki Ramen & Izakaya.

Owners, Lily Nimonjiya and Ben Chan, first opened Haruki’s doors in February 2020. They wanted to bring a new side of the Japanese culture to Fairfield. Most importantly, they wanted to showcase what you’d normally find in an izakaya in Japan. “I want to highlight that there is more to the Japanese cuisine than sushi and ramen,” says Nimonjiya.

So, what is an izakaya? In Japanese, it directly translates to, “stay sake shop.” It is a casual drinking establishment with small bites. A more colloquial comparison for an izakaya would be a pub or a tapas bar. Alongside their izakaya offerings, there are also options for ramen and rice dishes. And of course, craft cocktails and an extensive list of sake—47 kinds to be exact.


Fritz Knipschildt Launches Fritzzz Artisan CBD Chocolate

Features Ingredients Chocolate Dessert CBD CBD Chocolate Confections Special Dietary Needs

Stephanie Webster

For over 13 years, Danish born Fritz Knipschildt, and the House of Knipschildt, have been renowned for creating exquisite quality artisan chocolate. CT residents will recall his South Norwalk eatery, Chocopologie, where Knipschildt explored ways to creatively infuse elements from the savory kitchen into the world of chocolate and confection. Years later, Knipschildt is using his expertise in European chocolate, and has recently launched a new line of chocolate truffles and chocolate bars that are infused with premium, full spectrum CBD. Introducing…Fritzzz.


Local Spotlight: Vita Cacciari of Vita Pasta Lab + Virtual Italian Cooking Classes

Features Interview Cooking Classes Pasta Italian Noodles

Andrew Dominick

If not for my friend Micaela, I might have never met Vita Cacciari. Micaela sent me a text one night after she attended a pasta making class at Wakeman Town Farm. She asked if I knew of any commercial kitchen spaces so the woman who teaches these classes could have more options in the area. Micaela’s text, in regard to “the woman,” were of high praise; amazing, hard worker, and nice person were all phrases she used to describe Vita. “She’s Italian” was another.

A slew of photos, video, and a website link followed. I browsed Vita’s site for her cooking class business, Vita Pasta Lab, and was instantly curious. I like to cook. I like to learn. I LOVE pasta. And Vita’s pasta looked stunningly beautiful.


Tiger Belly Noodle Bar in Granby: Slow-Cooked Ramen Perfection (via CT Magazine)

Restaurant Granby Ramen Asian Japanese Noodles Comfort Food

Connecticut Magazine

The first sip of steaming broth at Tiger Belly Noodle Bar in Granby tells me all I need to know.

The tonkotsu (pork bone) broth is so dense and savory that it seems like it could cure a cold. Although my ramen bowl arrives a few minutes after I order it, the process of its creation clearly began much earlier. It’s easy to tell this soup was slow-cooked. The broth cooks for 20 to 25 hours, I’ll later learn.

“We slow-stew it overnight and then we blast it with high heat the next day when we come into work,” chef and owner Ki’yen Yeung says. “We get it down to the point where the bones melt into the broth.


Yom Kippur Savory Mushroom Cheese Kugel Recipe

Features Recipe Holiday Recipe Noodles

Liz Rueven

Yom Kippur*, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, is a day of fasting and praying. When the longest day of the year ends (at least for those who haven’t eaten for 25 hours) family and friends gather around a casual buffet that often includes a sweet noodle kugel. Sure, there are bagels and cheeses, cucumber salads and fresh fruit. But it’s the kugel everyone goes for first.


Mecha Noodle Bar Opens In Stamford!

Restaurant Noodles Asian Vietnamese Japanese Ramen Pho Stamford Openings Lunch Homepage

Andrew Dominick

Stamford, you’re about to be on the receiving end of a whole lot of noods. Get your mind out of the gutter, we’re talking about the piping hot, comforting bowls of ramen and pho by Mecha Noodle Bar, opening at the start of September on Bedford Street.

There’s no exact date as of yet, according to the team at Mecha, but they’re advising eager broth sippers to stay tuned to Facebook and Instagram for soft opening and grand opening announcements. 

Much like their other locations in Fairfield, South Norwalk, and New Haven, Stamford’s version of Tony Pham’s popular noodle shop will feature all the Mecha staples; KFC bao, a half dozen pho options, red oil dumplings, kim chi fried rice, and all the porky tonkatsu and spicy miso ramen you can handle. 

But wait! There’s more! Mecha Stamford will have a few differences from its other locations, starting with the bar. The massive U-shaped bar was made to be a focal point of the dining room because of Stamford’s bar culture, so you can pull up, have a drink (or three) from beverage director Jonathan Rodriguez’s craft cocktail program, a few bites, and call it a night if that’s what you desire. Additionally, there’s some outdoor street level seating for when the weather obeys. 

Aside from all that, there’s a little something “EXTRA” at this Mecha…

“There’s a section on the menu we’re referring to as the ‘Baller Menu,’” says Kaylyn Crawford, Mecha’s COO. “We’ll have stuff like a large pho for two with a steak, and large format cocktails like a punch bowl. We want to take it over the top for the demographic in Stamford.”


Chocoylatte Gourmet Opens in Downtown Cos Cob, Greenwich

Restaurant Openings Bakery Chocolate Coffee Greenwich Cos Cob Dessert

CTbites Team

Downtown Cos Cob will be a lot sweeter with the much-anticipated grand opening of Chocoylatte Gourmet on Monday, July 8. The desserts & coffee shoppe, located at 121 E. Putnam Avenue will open its doors to the public with a ribbon-cutting ceremony beginning at 11am.

Chocoylatte Gourmet will offer an array of handmade freshly baked desserts, cookies, pastries and assorted fine chocolates made with the finest ingredients available in the market. Every treat will be prepared from scratch, every day and handcrafted on-site. For those with dietary sensitivities, the desserts & coffee shoppe will also offer gluten-free and lactose-free goodies, and promises to maintain the same high-quality ingredients baked with thoughtfulness and care. Guests will also enjoy recipes containing less sugar, no trans fats, non-GMO ingredients, no preservatives, no chemicals, no artificial preservatives, no artificial sweeteners, and no artificial flavors. 


MECHA Noodle Bar Opening in Stamford via Hey Stamford!

Restaurant Openings Stamford Japanese Vietnamese Noodles

Hey Stamford!

Driving down Bedford Street recently, you may have noticed some activity taking place in a storefront along the east side of the street. It’s good news for all, because a popular local restaurant is getting ready to open their doors!  

With locations in South Norwalk, Fairfield, and New Haven, Mecha Noodle Bar has dropped a flag in Stamford Downtown!

Known as a noodle lover’s paradise, Mecha serves up Asian comfort dishes, and is widely known for their Vietnamese Pho & Japanese Ramen.  Among other things, they also do riffs on Southeast Asia street foods. The menu is replete with steamed baos, egg rolls, dumplings, spare ribs, and wings.  But do not call them a “fusion” or a sushi restaurant, as they state on their website, they are: American-Vietnamese-Japanese-Thai-Chinese-Korean-New England-Momofuku-Totto-and-Ippudo-inspired.

Read more on Hey Stamford!