Fun Station – cute name and I assume a play on the word fun. As in a type of noodle in Chinese. When they first opened, they were featured all over because of their “flying noodles.” Yes, we did order one and I will show you pictures! I’m going to be honest, I did not come into this restaurant with high hopes because I thought maybe the noodles were a bit of a kitschy thing and I didn’t think the food would live up to the hype. I am glad I came when the hype died down, so did it live up to the hype? Was it in fact…fun? Sorry, I had to sneak in the pun.

Fun Station is located in the Market City Shopping Center, sandwiched between Donut King and Gina’s Korean BBQ. Hard to miss!

Spicy Beef Look Fun in Soup | $14.85

I don’t know if you can tell from this photo because it looks like just a big giant red glob of stuff but it’s a huge bowl of noodles! It also comes with a look of good stuff in the soup! Tripe, beef, peanuts, etc. Just a lot of the good stuff you would find in I would call Szechuan cooking. The diner quite enjoyed this dish!!!

Crispy Spareribs Bucket Rice | $15.95

This is my dish, I didn’t feel noodle’y so I went for a rice dish. A true behemoth coming out of the kitchen to your table! Crispy spareribs, yes indeed. They bread it and deep fry it before drenching it in a nice savory sauce. There is a veggie medley (corn, peas and carrots) along with broccoli. Not a fan of the medley. And it comes with a LOT of rice. I mean it’s like almost the length of the bucket! One complaint about the rice? I don’t know how to say it but there was like a sweetness running through the rice. It wasn’t the sauce of the dish, it was almost like a sugar water? Pineapple water? I don’t know but I didn’t like it and I don’t know how to explain it if I had to order it again. Well I guess I don’t have to because they serve the spareribs as an appetizer too lol.

Beef Scallion Flying Noodles | $15.75

What a sight to be seen! Hard to explain it. There is a silver rod that comes out of the bowl that has two holes that the chopsticks go into. They then drape the noodles around the chopsticks so it looks like the noodles are flying. It’s pretty neat! You pull out the chopsticks and the noodles fall to the bowl. The waitress then came to remove the rod from the bowl so you can mix and enjoy! This dish was also enjoyed!

There are two different flying noodle dishes, one is signature flying noodles and one is beef scallion flying noodles. I was told the signature flying noodles contained like ground pork and is a bit spicy while the one we ordered has slices of beef and was not spicy. Just an FYI.

Spiced Fried Intestine | $16.25

Another dish people may be turned off by, intestines. But boy oh boy do I love intestines. I love getting a version of this dish from Chengdu but dare I say, I enjoyed it much more here! And I think it might be a bit cheaper too? (Yes, it is. I just checked – about $4 cheaper!). This was delicious, I would absolutely get this again!

This post is almost worthless, as I write this post, they have permanently closed their doors. I actually came on Friday night for a family dinner not knowing they were closing this weekend, boy was that a wrong decision. My posts always include my truthful rambling, oh boy, get ready for this one.

I arrived at Chinese Cultural Plaza parking lot and was about to pull a ticket but was told by the attendant, “$3.” A bit flustered, I pull out my wallet and pay and she gives me a ticket. She tells me to keep it on the dash and that it is good until 11 pm. I learned later that this is what they do after 5pm. I was meeting my family at the Spicy Pavilion so I head in first and ask for a table. There are a few empty tables but I am informed by the waitress that they are very busy that night because they are closing that weekend so their reservations are full. I am upset but I don’t make a fuss and leave the restaurant. I call my family and ask what they want to do, they finally decide on Hunan Cuisine across the street. My Chinese heart is relieved, I can walk there and take advantage of the parking fee I paid.

So I walk to Hunan, very slow and I get seated right away. Very nice gentleman, he brings out the plates/silverware and a pot of hot tea. I then get a phone call from my family and GUESS WHAT. They said they got to Spicy Pavilion and GOT A TABLE. WHAT THE WHAT. I was very upset at this point because they just turned me away and I am already seated at a new restaurant. They tell me to come over so I have to eat crow and tell the nice man (who is now in the kitchen cooking – very small crew) that I will be leaving and apologize. He is very nice and tells me it’s okay. Oh man, that alone deserves a future visit. I felt awful.

Anyway, I get back to Spicy Pavilion and maybe swung open their door a bit hard (I was mad okay?). I sat down and behaved myself, don’t worry. It looks like our family (six people) got seated at a table for 4, does it take a Chinese to Chinese interaction to score this? Whatever, I got to try them before they closed so I was glad for that at least. Was it worth all the hassle? Let’s take a look…

A great starter! Perfectly fried and light crunch – loved the spices and the fresh cilantro tossed in! So good.

Another great dish, I loved the shrimp. This was cute…this little wok was being warmed with a tea light…great dish! Spicy.

Great plate of beans. The beans were nice and fresh, not at all old (I’ve had too many of that), perfectly seasoned and cooked.

Okay, it says spicy and sour soup but this was probably the mildest dish we had. How was it? Eh…sour soups aren’t my jam. It was edible but probably my least favorite dish of the night.

Meh. This dish was just okay. Nothing special about it, I wouldn’t order it again.

Okay, we ordered too much food. And why did we get basically the same dish but with beef this time? We were kind of full by now so I didn’t eat this one too much. I have the leftovers so let’s see how I feel about it this week, haha.

I am a carb queen and was excited to try this noodle. It was delicious! I loved the seasoning (probably MSG, no judgements). I wish it wasn’t brought out so late in the meal, I would have eaten more of it.

Such a simple dish, yet such a good dish. This was brought out last (why???) and I knew it would be good. Yes, it was the end of the meal but we devoured it. I would have ordered a take out of it if I wasn’t so mad and also dying of spice. Haha, well we found out they were closing because the father is the cook and his hands/arms hurt from all the cooking. Totally understandable. It was a good restaurant so I do hope they find a new cook one day and reopen. I will be sure to make a reservation next time or not go during their closing weekend.