Where once there were Thickburgers and sliders will soon be Sichuan noodles and Boba. Typhoon Noodle opens its South Asheville doors in mid-August, serving pan-Asian food with a focus on noodles and a wealth of vegetarian dishes.

Owner Kanas Lam has fully transformed the former fast-food interior, preserving some of the more pleasant retro details. "We have done so much," she said. "We don't want this building to look like an old Hardee's."

That's reasonable enough, and the space is now clearly more welcoming. Custom pendant lighting softens the glare of fluorescent lighting and wooden tables have replaced formica. Quirky hand-drawn chalk murals show renderings of Chinese takeout boxes, bowls of noodles, vegetables and scenes from both the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Biltmore Estate.

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Noodles are clearly the focus here, and chef Lisa Zhong is well suited to their execution: She used to have a noodle shop in China, and has studied the art of Japanese ramen. Ramen is a trend of late, and here the noodles are scratch-made and served bobbing in a long-simmered bone broth.

But both Lam and Zhong, who hail from China, also have something in store many locals have clamored for: flavors from the Sichuan province of their home country.

'The real Sichuan'

"We know what is good, the real authentic Sichuan," said Lam, who was born on the Chinese mainland but grew up in Hong Kong. "We are both foodies, and we know what's good and not good."

In accordance with American tastes, however, not everything will be served spicy, with the menu allowing for heat level customization.

The duo, in fact, needed to be assured there's a taste locally for the lip-tingling, numbing heat of Sichuan peppercorns. Take note: You may ask to have the restaurant punch up your food with extra helpings of the spice, a pungent seed culled from prickly ash. But rejoice, Asheville: You now have more Chinese options in a town where there are few.

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Plus, Thai curry

But the restaurant, which will be open daily for dine-in or take-out, has much more than Chinese food on the menu. There will be Thai curry noodles made with what Lam described as a deeply spiced and tried-and-true recipe from her Spartanburg Thai restaurant, Lime Leaf. There will also be Vietnamese pho and a signature Taiwanese beef noodle soup.

A special vegetarian section of the menu will offer tofu dishes, vegetarian noodle soup, stir-fried or steamed vegetable dishes and vegetarian curry.

And for those of you not here for any of that: lo mein, fried rice and teriyaki dishes.

Typhoon Noodle will serve beer, wine and sake but no liquor. The restaurant will seat 80 people inside, with more space on a patio.

The restaurant will be open daily at 1834 Hendersonville Road, 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday-Saturday.