Montana-based restaurant chain Noodle Express has announced it plans to open a new restaurant in Airway Heights by the first week of June.

Noodle Express’s Spokane-based vice president Chris Siemens says the new Airway Heights restaurant will be located in 2,300 square feet of space formerly occupied by AAG Insurance, in the Crosspointe Plaza shopping development at 10408 U.S. 2.

He says Russell Page Architects designed the new space, and Yost Gallagher Construction LLC has been working to remodel it. Plans for the restaurant include a dine-in area, a pick-up window for call-in orders, and outdoor patio seating.

“We’re really excited about joining the Airway Heights market,” says Siemens. “It’s a thriving area with lots of growth and development happening, and we hope the community will enjoy what we have to offer.”

He says the new Noodle Express location is expected to employ between 20 and 25 full time employees. 

Noodle Express is owned by the Mustard Seed Management Co., a Missoula, Mont.-based restaurant started in 1978 by friends, Betty and Nancy Tokumoto, along with Betty’s husband, David Hall.

Siemens says Noodle Express’s menu offers the same “Pan-Asian” dishes Mustard Seed restaurants are known for, paired with noodles, rice, or vegetables, and topped with several different sauces including the company’s signature Osaka sauce.

“Everything we create is made fresh daily, including our sauces,” he says. “They’re just served in a faster, more casual environment.”

The first Noodle Express opened in Missoula, Mont., in 1992, and the chain now includes restaurants at 7514 N. Division, in Spokane; 707 N. Sullivan, in Spokane Valley; 305 W. Prairie, in Hayden; and additional restaurants in Missoula and Great Falls, Mont.