John Mekpongsatorn, the Noodle World founder who opened his first Pan-Asian restaurant in 1993, expands to Sherman Oaks with Noodle World, Jr. The indoor-outdoor restaurant replaces The Habit in La Reina plaza. A yellow-and-red color scheme with stone accents features the “Slurpin’ good” logo of a spiky-haired boy devouring a bowl of noodles, and plenty of customers who could easily be his stand-in.

Noodle World is known to have a sprawling menu with more than 100 items, but Noodle World, Jr. touts a tight menu with only 33 dishes in total. Many customers prefer wok-fried noodles. Garlic noodles are their most popular dry noodle dish; it combines egg noodles, white and shiitake mushrooms, corn, peas, butter, garlic, chicken and a shower of Parmesan cheese. Pad See You, spelled phonetically, combines rice noodles, egg, Chinese broccoli, chicken and soy sauce.

They also sell noodle soups like BBQ wonton noodles, chicken or beef pho, and chicken tom kah. Ramen bowls star broths like tonkotsu, spicy beef, veggie miso and a Thai mash-up: spicy tom yum.

14622 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks, 818-600-4998