New restaurants on Rt. 1 offer vegetarian, noodle options

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College Park is swarmed with various kinds of food establishments for students to enjoy, but some of the most unique cuisine comes from two adjacent restaurants that recently opened.

Ivy Noodles and Ovo Simply Veggie, across from CVS on Baltimore Avenue, offer unique dishes that serve as a change of pace from run-of-the-mill fast food joints.

Ovo serves vegan food, which means they do not use ingredients with any animal products.

The dine-in restaurant, which opened in January, is the only vegan restaurant in College Park, according to owner Derrick Chang. That restriction draws in a specific crowd, but it’s a crowd nonetheless.

“The ingredients I use … you can see it in some vegetarian or vegan restaurants, but not so extensively as what I use,” Chang said.

The soda, tea and Aloe vera bottled beverages are organic as well, which is uncommon even for a vegan restaurant.

“It’s not something you usually find on the market, so, with these unique attributes, that will help it stand out a little bit more,” he said.

Business was slow the first week, Chang said, but sales boomed in mid-February, and have stabilized recently.

The Asian-inspired restaurant is open seven days a week and serves a variety of options including salad, tofu, seaweed, mushroom protein and noodles.

“I think it has a better selection than a lot of the other Asian places [in College Park] which are just all rice sushi,” said Anuraag Sharma, a junior Italian language and literature major.

Having gone there a few times since its opening a couple of months ago, he recommended the Tofu Basil Eggplant, Enoki Fries and the Hot and Sour soup.

Neighboring the vegan restaurant is another new restaurant, Ivy Noodles, which specializes in making seven kinds of noodles.

Whether ordering for dine-in, take-out or delivery, diners can choose from a variety of noodle options, including lo mein, chow fun, rice noodle, vermicelli, udon, wide Egg and Cantonese noodles.

“Others have a lot of different noodles, but they have a different style here,” said John Dong, an Ivy Noodles employee. “Every other [place] doesn’t have a style.”

In addition to the many noodle choices, the menu is balanced with more traditional Chinese food like the fried and steamed dumplings, Dong said. He has found the most popular dishes include Chow Fun, General Tso’s Chicken and Orange Chicken.

Dong said he feels the restaurant is popular with students especially because they have a delivery option, which gives them a slight advantage over those that provide only dine-in and takeout.

With the two new restaurants on the same strip of Rt. 1, they may be competing for the same customers in the coming months.

However, with each specializing in bringing different cuisines to the college town, perhaps they can coexist and cater to hungry students.