The food is utterly delicious, but this viral sensation is run like a military operation to deal with the daily stampede

Should you ever wait in line for a restaurant? That’s a question many were pondering outside Noodle Inn on Old Compton Street in Soho. Hand-pulled, oil- and chilli-drenched Xi’an biang biang noodles are the draw at this viral internet sensation, invariably involving a lengthy wait near the corner of Charing Cross Road. The place opens at midday on the dot, but the queue starts forming at about 11.25am – yes, even on a drab, cold Monday. By 11.40am, it stretches as far as Disney’s Aladdin at the Prince Edward theatre 100 yards up the road, and is divided in two, one half of which curls around the window displays of the Harmony sex shop.

“Are we really going to queue for this long?” I overheard several people say as their companion stared glassy-eyed at this no-frills, 80-seater canteen. It doesn’t matter that Noodle Inn’s mothership, Kung Fu Noodle, which specialises in the cooking of Gansu Province, is but a short hop away on the edge of Chinatown or, for that matter, that there are wonderful biang biang noodles to be had at Master Wei Xi’an in Fitzrovia and a dozen or so other places in town. That’s not the point: queueing begets queueing, and it’s a pastime that food fans now share at an international level.