Ten Seconds Yunnan Rice Noodle
In Irvine, an impressive rice noodle hotpot restaurant from a loosely organized Chinese franchising chain
Known in China as Yuan Shi Miao Dao – branding found on its plates – the Irvine restaurant Ten Seconds Yunnan Rice Noodle is part of a loosely organized franchising chain that doesn’t appear to have a centralized website or social media presence in the United States. We were immediately intrigued when Ten Seconds signage went up in early 2025 at the same UCI-adjacent plaza as Botan Sushi, I Heart Pancakes, and Saffron & Rose, and though there’s still too little information about the sole Orange County location today, it’s clear that while some franchisees have modified the original menu to suit local needs, others are offering more pure distillations of the concept. In Irvine, the menu is essentially the same as in China, with some added appetizers, desserts, and bottled rather than freshly made drinks.
Just like Xishang Roodle, which opened in Santa Ana early in 2024, the core of Ten Seconds’ menu is a collection of Yunnan-style “crossing-the-bridge” noodle soups, where rice noodles and other ingredients are presented in individual dishes before you add them to scalding hot broth; as this restaurant’s name suggests, the noodles are to be cooked for ten seconds, then eaten. Here, you can choose from pork bone, tomato, hot and sour, Sichuan hot and spicy, chicken, or green pepper broths – typically $17 to $19 – including either sliced beef and chicken wings, sliced beef alone, chunks of beef brisket, or chicken. Additional add-ons range from $2 to $6, including meats, vegetables, noodles, and eggs. Six “cold dishes” ($6 to $11) and seven fried “snacks” ($3 to $8) canvas Chinese appetizers and desserts ranging from boneless chicken feet and green papaya shreds to mantou dumplings, fried sausages, durian lava balls, and brown sugar-sauced fried rice cakes. Drinks ($2 to $4) are served in bottles or cans.
Before getting into the food quality, it’s worth mentioning that our overall dining experience at Ten Seconds differed substantially from Xishang Roodle’s: There were no hiccups here, and we appreciated everything from the bright, nicely decorated, and open dining room (with perhaps 50 seats) to Ten Seconds’ friendly servers and prompt service.
“Pure love” are the first words that we’d use to describe the items we tried at Ten Seconds. We opted for the hot and sour soup with chunked beef brisket ($19), which arrived in two stages: First, as a set of 13 dishes ranging from a quail egg to various greens, meat paste, sliced ham, fish cakes and tofu, plus larger bowls of medium-thickness tubular rice noodles and soy-marinated beef brisket; then second, a cauldron of still-bubbling golden broth with more than enough room for all the ingredients.
Both the menu and our server offered guidance on assembling the soup, suggesting that the egg, meat paste, and veggies get stirred in first, followed by the sliced meats, then the larger bowls of noodles and brisket – 10 seconds of cooking time or otherwise to your preference. Collectively, every ingredient we added to the soup added a new layer or nuance to the flavor, and though it was really good even before adding the saucy brisket, it reached peak spicy, sour, salty, and umami balance at the end. Literally the only thing our mouths didn’t appreciate was the crazy hot broth temperature, which led to some post-meal heat blistering; we’ll be more careful in the future.
Additional items we sampled, including mint spare ribs ($10) and fried baby squid ($8), were not exactly as expected, but still delicious. The ribs were described as “cold” but arrived as hot, deep-fried, and bite-sized pork ribs with a clear but not overpowering minty flavor that was only recessed given the heat and strength of the soup entree. Similarly, the nice plate of “baby” squid seemed like sliced body strips – no tentacles – of full-sized squids, though tender, nicely battered, and lightly sprinkled with red chili powder and salt. We could have finished the plate without any additional sauce, but wound up dipping some of them in the soup base and enjoying them even more. A nice bottle of honey jasmine tea ($3) and an included pitcher of lemony water helped us cool down from the soup’s high temperatures.
While Ten Seconds and Xishang Roodle don’t offer identical experiences, they’re both focused on delivering an authentic Yunnan-style rice noodle experience, and there’s a lot of overlap between their menus. We consider them both to be worthy of visiting at least once, but if given the choice to revisit either of them, would pick Ten Seconds first – our hope is to revisit again in the near future and try different soup bases and appetizers.
Stats
Price: $$
Service: Smartphone/Table
Open Since: October 2025
Address
4535 Campus Dr.
Irvine, CA 92612
949.527.1009
Instagram: @shimiaodaoyunnanguoqiaomixian