There’s a newly opened up restaurant in Lomita, California with a very interesting  and intriguing name, Nouilles of 3rds. Nouilles means noodles in French and 3rds is a reference to the rules of thirds or rule of thumb for composition in photography.

Upon entering the restaurant and seeing their offerings, once can understand a little bit more of the name of the restaurant. The menu consists of various pho or Vietnamese noodle soup dishes and hence the “Nouilles” in the name.

For the reasoning behind the “rules of thirds”,  one will fully appreciate the meaning until one sees this restaurants offerings. The “rules of thirds”for photography aims to bring photos that are better balanced and more pleasing. Similarly Nouilles of 3rds noodle dish are well balanced and very pleasing to any foodie.

The first pho dish to be presented to our table was the Homestyle Free-range chicken noodles.

It was a nice balanced pho dish that consisted of free-range shredded chicken, shrimp, rice noodle, Asian herbs all in warm chicken broth with crispy roasted garlic oil. The long, silky rice noodles balanced well with the tender chicken and Asian herbs and the all flavors came together for a perfect composition. Perfect composition like a perfect photo.

The second noodle dish that came to our table was the Prime Beef Noodles.

This dish had aged prime beef, egg noodles, Asian herbs in beef stock with crispy roasted garlic oil. Similar to the chicken noodle dish, this was very pleasing to the palate. The savory thin layers of beef in the richly seasoned beef broth was not only delicious be comforting as well for the chilly day.

At first the name of the restaurant Nouilles of 3rds may throw a restaurant customer in for a loop. However upon entering and trying their entrees, one can find full appreciation for the name. Similar to the “rules of thirds” in photography, this place aims to please with their “Nouilles” dishes. In photography one aims for perfect composition via these rules and here the restaurant aims to perfect the modern pho dish.  A combination of technical skill and artistic creativity is an important part of the “rules of thirds” and this is also seen on the pho dishes here. The noodle dishes I got to try were culinary art work that was not only pleasing to the eye but to the palate as well.