A tasteful synopsis of Convoy Street’s Asian eateries has canoodled into Hillcrest with the recent opening of CHOW Noodle House. The sleek, modest-size restaurant employs four chefs whose heritages collectively represent a backbone of Vietnamese, Thai, Chinese and Japanese cuisine. CHOW’s audacious menu allows you to eat inexpensively, and happily waddle out stuffed to the uvula.

Owner Alex Thao introduces CHOW in place of Celedon, his popular Thai restaurant that he moved a few blocks yonder to Fifth Avenue. He also owns Rama in the Gaslamp Quarter, another destination for Thai food, sporting a more opulent, palace-like atmosphere.

CHOW, however, captures Thao’s favorite childhood meals that he consumed often with his grandmother – a compendium of Asian recipes that she created involving lots of rice and oodles of noodles. “This restaurant is a tribute to her,” he noted. Mirrored walls and a front counter illuminated in white light give the intimate space a stylish, large feel.

The menu choices are dizzying, although largely familiar to aficionados of Asian cuisine, with the rare exception that high-quality proteins are used in many of the meat dishes.

My dining companion, a nuts-for-noodles kind of guy, immediately sang praise for the Spicy Beef Noodle Soup. “It brings me to life,” he exclaimed, taking the first plunge before I dipped my spoon into the huge bowl and fished out a slice of beautifully tender top sirloin. The soup ranked among our most cherished dishes – a Thai-style version of Vietnamese pho containing classic white rice noodles, but with broth the color of beef jus offering a spicy snap from chili peppers and tamarind. A rich flavor of marrow was also pervasive, thanks to an oxtail bone used in the soup’s base.

Another “wow” item is the Vietnamese Crepe from the appetizer list, which looks like an omelet – until you break through its curry-infused, rice-flour casing filled with ground chicken, shrimp, mushrooms and bean sprouts. Sweet vinaigrette served alongside brightens up the savory crepe, which maintained its crispy essence after cooling as we cruised through several other gems on our table.

Big disks of pork tenderloin with just the right amount of fat clinging on the sides make CHOW’s version of Japanese Chasyu a winner. The meat imparts an uncured, bacony flavor to the light-colored broth, in which mustard greens, halved, hard-boiled eggs and udon noodles bob about. Like the beef noodle soup, it’s easy to imagine slurping this a few nights a week during the winter months.

Predictable, yet satisfying, were the Thai-style spring rolls stuffed with mint leaves, greens, chicken and whole shrimp in translucent rice wrappers. The accompanying peanut sauce was thinner than most, especially if you’re accustomed to the marvelously pasty peanut sauce at Saffron on India Street – but it was full-flavored nonetheless.

Crab Rangoons were filled with more oozy cream cheese than crab, which I find is so often the case. But we succumbed because of the zesty scallion flavor in the cheese and the fragile wonton wrappers that had a sweet, pastry-like quality about them.

Less to our liking was a dish unique to CHOW’s repertoire – Vietnamese 360 Degrees Beef. Unable to compare it to any Vietnamese food we’ve eaten elsewhere, the plate was piled with romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, a mound of steamed rice and tender beef tips that tasted as though they were flavored with a mix of Worcestershire Sauce and kitchen-cabinet curry powder. Perhaps we fell overly in love with our preceding noodle dishes, which were far less salty and the preeminent reason why we visited CHOW in the first place. On the plus side, the dish reigns as the most expensive on the menu – at only $11 for a generously portioned meal that easily results in leftovers.

From the Chinese front, you’ll find Kung Pao Chicken, fried rice with various meat and fish options, barbecued pork, chow mein and lo mein. The latter is constructed with a bird’s nest of thin crispy noodles, rather than the soft wheat noodles you might expect. We ordered it with chicken and enjoyed the subtle garlic-soy “gravy” that brought harmony to the other ingredients as well – cabbage, carrots, mushrooms and snap peas.

Curry selections are extensive, along with other Thai options that include Tom Yum Noodle Soup and the ubiquitous Pad Thai – all rubbing elbows with such Japanese favorites as Miso Ramen, Shrimp Tempura, Yakisoba Flour Noodles with meat or seafood and Satay Skewers with chicken or beef or half-and-half.

The staff is friendly and informed, which becomes a lifesaver when pairing these many Asian delights to the appealing variety wines by the glass or sake martinis.

“I love noodles, and there’s nothing like this in Hillcrest,” said Thao, who revealed to us that he plans on opening more noodle houses in San Diego once CHOW gains a well-deserved foothold with consumers.