Lanzhou beef noodlesToronto
Mo Gou Yan: From the window
to the table.
00The project
- Client
- 磨沟沿 Mo Gou Yan
- City
- Toronto
- Kitchen
- Lanzhou beef noodles & skewers
- Years
- 2020–2022
Mo Gou Yan is a place in the heart of Lanzhou and the name of a hand-pulled beef noodle house with more than forty years behind it. In June 2019 it opened in Toronto, grilling skewers alongside the noodles. From the shop window to the menu on the table, we gave it one look: charcoal ground, a gold wave pattern, and a circle for every dish.
- Skewers & drinks menu (2020)
- Storefront window poster
- Three-panel window menu
- Double-sided table cards
- Dine-in menu, 2022 edition (print & digital)
01The window
Noodles and skewers,
said at the door.
The shop glass carries one large poster — a bowl of lifted noodles, a table of skewers, and a single vertical line of gold: 磨沟沿 | 烧烤, Grilled Skewers. Beside it, a window menu in three panels — appetizers, noodles, skewers and drinks — gives every dish a round photograph, so people can choose before they reach the door.
02The menu
Charcoal and gold,
and a circle for every dish.
On the 2022 dine-in menu a gold wave pattern lies over charcoal, with the name set vertically down the spine. Every dish is cut out into a gold ring, and a gold rule leads to its number, its name in Chinese and English, its spice level and price. The noodle page lets you choose from five shapes, angel hair to flat. The first page tells the story; the back is left to a single photograph. A digital edition followed.
“One bowl, five colours.” The best line on the story page sits halfway down. We have lifted it out below.
一清
Clear — the broth, with nothing added
二白
White — the sliced radish
三红
Red — the chilli oil
四绿
Green — coriander and green onion
五黄
Yellow — the hand-pulled noodles
03Table cards
One card on the table,
two sides to order from.
A card stands on every table, printed both sides. One side is skewers — ten of them in two columns beside a bowl of noodles. The other is drinks: beer and Chinese spirits, divided by the same gold bars as the menu.
04From the shoot to the page
Photographed first,
then set in gold.
Each dish was shot on its own against a pale backdrop, on the restaurant’s own printed plates. For the menu the backdrop comes away and the plate goes onto the wave pattern at the same angle, so the whole book reads as one table.
日出念真经，
暮落白塔空。
焚香自叹息，
只盼牛肉面。
Sutras at sunrise; at dusk the White Pagoda stands empty. Incense, a sigh — and all one wants is a bowl of beef noodles.
From the back page of the menu
