Xiang Ba La

This place is great. Cheap & good food. Really authentic is the key here. The girlfriend loves this place. She likes it that means I like it.

Every time I go to the food court, I eat here. Favorites are spicy bamboo, cold skin noodles, wood ear, and mung bean jelly. The double cooked pork is also something to savor.

We came here a few nights ago to get some food for home and since this place has many cold dishes (which are usually veggie friendly) on display in their glass case, I gave it a shot.
Nothing here was exceptional. The cold noodles were vegetarian, but oh so bland. I mean seriously you can’t mess up cold noodles with peanut sauce, but I guess it wasn’t made with love.
What I want to complain about is the cold dishes. We bought the seaweed salad and also marinated hot and spicy bamboo shoots. Nothing special but what was really awful was the next day, both dishes had already gone bad! So what that says to me is that these dishes weren’t selling well, and I ended up with not so fresh options.
Oh well, I guess you live and learn. So next time, going to skip this place for the cold dishes and everything else.

Small menu offering Northwestern Chinese cuisine. I had the chicken ba la. The dish was a little flimsy on the meat. It was mostly vegetables — green and red peppers, potatoes, and onions. It tasted average, but that is based more on my personal tastes. It had a good spiciness to it, but I didn’t like the strong, peppercorn taste that much.
I also tried one of their rou jia mo. This is a popular sandwich that is like the Chinese version of the hamburger. The meat within it was very good — soft, shredded, and fatty! However, the bread was old and dry.

For some one who hates spicy foods so much, this is the highest rating I can give for hot foods.
And although the food makes me stomached, its taste makes me never regret to eat. I would love to find my way there again, if I shop at the New World Mall again.
I would strongly recommend this place to any hot foods lover.
FYI. the lotus root is my favorite!

Xiang Ba La’s menu is literally taped all over their walls, and none of it has an English translation! But they’re one of the original stalls in the New World Mall food court. Considering how fast other stalls have disappeared due to poor business, I’d say they’re probably doing pretty well!
I LOVE their liang pi — way better than Xi’an Famous Foods. The noodles aren’t too rubbery, the sauce isn’t too oily, and it coats the noodle perfectly. It’s served just slightly warmed here. Watch that you’re not eating it near beloved articles of clothing because it gets… splashy.
Their fu qi fei pian is very good — but nearly double the price of other Flushing vendors selling the same thing. And the last time we bought some, there were only one or two slices of beef in the whole container. Way to annoy your customers!
I can never help thinking that their name means «fragrant guava» (because that’s what it means in my native language), but it’s actually a transliteration of Shambala, the Buddhist holy land (ie. Shangri-​La).