Xi’an Famous Foods

One of my favorites of NY!!!
Great prices and amazing dishes! I come here every time in order to try something new, and I never leave disappointed! Simply can’t get enough!
Where do I start? Oh… the LAMB. These guys can seriously cook with lamb. I’ve tried the lamb noodles, lamb noodle soup, and lamb burger… And every single thing is AMAZING. The lamb is perfectly marinated with a great amount of spicy, but you can definitely make it spicier if you want (I always get mild)! The noodles here are phenomenal! Fresh and great texture-​hand pull noodles can’t get any better. And that lamb burger… It’s an amazing snack that is super filling! A must!
Other dishes are great as well! I’ve tried the cucumber salad, and it’s so refreshing! It has a great spice, and a great side of veggies with your noodles and meat. I’m not a very big fan of the spicy and sour dumplings… it’s a little too vinagery for me-​so avoid that!
The drinks are great too! I love the berry one-​very light and not too sweet!
Seats are a little hard to get here, as it’s always so crowded. And, since it’s a buy and then sit place… you might end up waiting a while. I would recommend just grabbing your food and enjoying it at Washington Square, since it’s so close! This place is so convenient since it’s so close to NYU campus-​a popular spot for students!
They need to make more locations! I’m super excited that they have one near Times Square, but definitely more would be lovely! This place is an absolute must!

What does it mean when you eat twice at the same place during your 5 days stay in New York? It means its F-​ing AMAZING!
Don’t let the look of the place fool ya, the food will blow your mind! The dumplings are absolutely amazing, the best you’ll ever have. As for the noodles… you ‘ll want to slurp these babies all day and all night long!
Xian’s Famous Foods is the bomb!
Can you please please come to San Francisco? WE NEED YOU!
PS: the food was so good, that both times I was so busy eating I didn’t take a single pic!

The restaurant is not very spacious BUT the food was good. When you first walk in the menu is on the wall to your left. It has the name, number, price and a picture. The drinks are near the counter. If lucky, you’ll find an open seat. To me this was comfort food. The beef hand-​pulled noodles were a little too oily for my liking but the food was original and fresh.
I highly recommend their spicy & sour spinach dumplings. It’s literally all green from the dumpling’s skin to all of the fillings on the inside of the dumplings. The spiciness and sourness of the dumpling made it enjoyable. The sauce really complimented the dumplings.

I’ll tell you what… I would put my hard earned green as grass twenty dollar bill behind a bet that if the Hongwu Emperor himself were alive today, he would frequent this little hotspot in the East Village, often. I’ve been going here for years (eat –in only) and everything is consistently delish. I plan on making it a bi-​weekly event now that they have expanded their menu! Can’t wait to try the new offerings.
It’s small so get there on off hours if possible. Also, ALWAYS eat there… even if you have to stand.

Absolutely love this place, I have been going to Xi’ans in Manhattan for a few years now and this is my favorite location. It is a unique type of Chinese food you won’t find anywhere else, mostly consisting of in store hand pulled noodles, various greens, and chili oil. Very inexpensive, extremely flavorful, absolutely delicious.
If it is your first time, I recommend either the N1 (Spicy Cumin Lamb Noodles) or the N2 (Spicy & Tingly Beef Noodles). My favorite dish as of recently is the N3, the Mount Qi Pork Hand Ripped Noodles. Their burgers are pretty good too!
All of the dishes pack intense flavor, you can tell there are a massive amounts of ingredients that go into the recipe. Leaves you completely full and satisfied! There are also soup versions of most of their dishes if you are looking for more broth than noodles.
Last piece of advise: heed the warnings on eating within 20 minutes, take out and bring home seriously do not work. The freshness disappears almost immediately of both the broth and the noodles, leaving you with an oily unpleasant mess.
Definitely on the top of best food value for the $ list, amazing cuisine at this price is hard to come by these days — especially in New York City.

A no-​nonsense, no-​frills restaurant that provides extremely tasty and authentic Chinese food — what’s not to love? There’s a reason the Xi’an restaurant locations are all extremely popular in NYC. This restaurant is pretty small, with counter seating along each wall. One wall has large photos showing the menu offerings. You order and pay at the counter, and they call your order number when your food is ready. Simple enough! Also if there is no further seating in the restaurant, all orders are converted to takeout (although there are signs everywhere in the restaurant saying that eating the food fresh is optimal, obviously).
Believe all the other reviews: the spicy cumin lamb noodles are amazing. The noodles are really thick, but I found that this complemented the sauce and flavoring well (more surface area = more sauce absorption = more flavor!). I actually preferred the lamb noodles to the beef noodle soup, although both are great. I feel like it’s easier to find good beef noodle soup in other locations, whereas I have never had any dish that was similar to the lamb noodles.
I’ll be back for sure!

As a native to this special cuisine I immediately fell in love with its authenticity… But it’s beyond that! They make the food with effort, precision and very good quality. It’s honestly better than a lotta Xi’an food places in China.
Good job!

Commuting there from Queens was long.
The line to order is ridiculously long.
The wait for the two bowls is long.
But the noodles are even longer.
NS2 Spicy, lorddd have mercy.

Yessss I have dying to try this place!!!
I was so excited I finally got to try it. This place has been bookmarked by me for the last few years.
Of course I got the famous order N1, The Spicy Lamb Cumin Hand pulled noodles. So good. Good amount of heat and flavor; and of course the noodles are amazing. Portions are pretty generous and way too much for me.
This place is awesome! one of my favorite NYC eats. Must go to place in NYC!

Weekly, my job tasks me with feeding 13 people in the East Village for $ 100 or less. Not an easy task. I’ve heard of Xi’an and tried it once. I just love hand-​ripped noodles. I don’t remember much from that long ago meal– too much alcohol– but this place has remained on my mind like a bur.
I tried to call to check if they take credit cards– they do, Mastercard or Visa with a $ 5 minimum– but the number doesn’t connect you to a person. You CAN’T place an order via phone or ask questions. They also couldn’t accommodate tax exempt, but I’d come this far I wasn’t going to let that stop me. I gave myself time in case they couldn’t accommodate my order of 11 noodle dishes. Luckily they could. At slightly more than a minute a dish they had my order ready in 12 minutes– albeit this was on a Wednesday around 4:30pm. At this odd in-​between meals hour, the meager number of customers might scare you away. Luckily, this also worked out for me.
They asked me what spice level I wanted everything. I hadn’t read any reviews mentioning spice levels. Apparently you can order your dishes ranging from No Spice to Extra Spicy. Also, their Ns’s are basically the same as their N’s with soup. Their pictures look different on the website, but the salesperson assured me they were the same. Also, check out my pics for this place. Their online menu display a price range for their dishes, my pictures display the menu and prices off this location’s wall (11.18.15).

I came here in a rush before leaving NYC. Well, it’s probably the best noodles soup I’ve ever eaten! I took a curry lamb noodles soup while Fabio chose the pork. The 13a and 13c I guess.
The prices is reasonable for NYC, also because this place is working the east village and for us was difficult to spend less than ¹⁵⁄₂₀ $ each for a meal. Anyways, here we get a filling soup for 10 $ and I regret I didn’t tried the ravioli which sounded pretty good.
Both the soups were really hot but they were also tasteful and great! I loved this places
When you came here consider that the place is pretty small and a lot of people opt for the take away that’s definitely faster.
Best call, as always Thanks Unilocal and thanks NYC Unilocalers!

First time coming here. Was highly recommended to me by a friend.
Being from Xian myself, and having not been there for many years, the prospect of authentic food from my hometown was incredibly appealing.
Clean and tidy restaurant. Very fast service and friendly staff. Ordered 2 cold noodle dishes (A1 and A4), which were both incredibly authentic and delicious.
Will definitely be returning again and again for more and to try all the other things on the menu that I have, until now, never been able to find at any Chinese restaurant.

If I was on death row, Liang Pi «cold skin noodles» might be my last meal. Liang Pi at Xi’an Famous Foods is a slippery noodle dish tossed with bean sprouts, cucumbers, cilantro, and cubes of spongy gluten. The dish is wrapped in a blanket of spicy and tangy sauce that is made out of soy sauce, black vinegar, garlic, and chili oil. This dish exemplifies yin and yang. The spiciness of the sauce makes you warm but the coldness of the noodles keeps you cool. It has such an amazing and diverse flavor profile that keeps you going back for more.
I also tried the lamb cumin noodles and they are perfect for a cold day. The spices in the sauce packs a punch and the thick, chewy, and gelatinous noodles are the perfect vehicles to carry the sauce and succulent lamb bits into your mouth.
Xi’an needs to open a location in San Francisco. Period. I would come here every single day. For the price, quality, and taste, Xi’an Famous Foods can’t be beat. It has easily become one of my favorite places to eat. Literally counting down the days till I can visit New York and eat at Xi’an’s again.

I’ve been putting off this review because I knew as soon as I wrote it, I’d have to rush back to Xi’an. Super-​hyped? Yes. Worth it? Yes, yes, and yes.
I went with the popular options since it was my first time, but I’m excited to go back and try the rest of their extensive menu, nicely displayed in pictures on the wall. Good hand-​pulled noodles are hard to find, especially at prices like these (most items are between $ 5 – 10). Get ready for a treat if you’ve never had Xi’an style food. It’s very unlike the Chinese food sold in most restaurants here, with lots of lamb dishes and sour, tingling, spicy (ma-​la) flavors.
If you’re planning to sit here, you’re gonna need some swift seat-​claiming skills. There’s a total of maybe 10 – 12 seats lined up bar-​style. The dilemma is that these type of noodles taste best when they’re fresh. I appreciate that they care so much about their product quality, they warn you against taking items to-​go and waiting too long, as this changes the texture and resulting quality of the noodles.
You can choose your level of spiciness for most (all?) dishes, which is another plus. If you’re a weenie like me, it’s best to stick with mild spiciness or even ask for the sauce on the side (which they will happily accommodate). Asking for it on the side is also a good way to maintain the noodle texture if you’re taking it to-​go.
LIANG PI ($ 5.25):
Simple and delicious. Great for a hot day. Just light cold-​skin noodles made of wheat starch (no actual skin, don’t worry), cucumbers, bean sprouts, wheat gluten (kind of like a spongy tofu), and a vinegar-​based sauce. All the ingredients for a refreshing, springy noodle dish. It’s amazing what they can do with so few ingredients.
SPICY CUMIN LAMB NOODLES ($ 8.25):
Substantially heavier, thicker, and spicier than the liang pi. The lamb comes in small pieces and the hand-​torn noodles are just the right amount of «q,» or chewiness. Definitely filling on its own and one of those «just one more bite» types of dishes even once you’re full.
Both were delicious and under $ 10, which tells me I’ll definitely be a repeat customer.
Overall: WORTH THE HYPE. So very worth it.

My company has been ordering lunch from Xian Famous Foods since it opened. It’s really an authentic slice of Chinese food that originated from the city of Xi’An. The food is messy, the smell is pungent, but the taste is authentic.
A word of advice: if you are going to dine here, make sure you don’t have an important meeting afterwards or wear the color white. The chance of you spilling some juice on your shirt or dress is very high! Depending on what dish you order, but sometimes the stank of lamb can get on your clothes, making it very unpleasant for other people around you.
Here’s the rundown of dishes to order /​must-​try (esp if you are new at this):
A1. Liang Pi Cold-​skin Noodle — this is a must-​have on a hot summer day. The spice level is not too bad; in fact, the cold cucumbers will cool you down.
B1 or B2: Pork or Lamb Burger. This is a MUST-​TRY. The buns are toasted and crunchy. The meat is delicious and fresh. Personally, I like the pork better. It tends to taste better with the dry and toasty buns.
C4: Lamb Pao-​Mo Soup. As I mentioned, I’m not a fan of lamb, but this is a hearty soup to get. the bread broiled in soup tastes like gnocchi (though without filling). It’s very delicious.
N10: My favorite hand-​pulled noodle dish is stewed ox-​tali. The sweatness from marinated beef will counteract the spiciness from the sauce, though I would put the spice level as medium. Of course, this is also available in soup format — Ns10.
L2: If you are going to pay a little extra for a cold dish, then the spicy cucumber salad is a must-​have. You will never look at cucumber the same again.
This is not much of a date spot — too crowded with very little seating and of course, no reservation. Seats however are available — about 10 or so spots in the back. I would recommend going by yourself or bring a friend. Anything more than that risks you not finding a seat and that could be problematic. As the restaurant warns, the trick with Xi’An food is that it needs to be eaten immediately after it’s served. Otherwise, the tastes leaves and everything is different.

Encontramos sitio pues un poco de milagro, estábamos en la cola decidiendo si comprábamos cena para llevar porque parecía imposible sentarse y … ocurrió el milagro, de repente se fueron tres parejas y literalmente nos tiramos a los taburetes! Yo ya me había mentalizado que iba a cenar al lado del container de los desperdicios (era el único sitio libre).
Tomamos la superhamburguesa de cerdo (que estaba superbuena casi que era lo mejor). Todo el mundo tomaba como bebida un té y yo como no sabi de que iba el rollo pues me tomé un ginger ale. Sobre la comida, a precios superpolulares, sopas enormes. La mía era de noodles y llevaba ternera.
Tiene una aceptación brutal y entiendo porque! Para repetir si estas por la zona o para ir a propósito (yo me alojaba a dos calles).

Petite échoppe dans EV
Pas cher
Les lamb cumin noodles sont top
J’y suis déjà retourné et je le ferai à nouveau

Los fideos de borrego son excelente! La «hamburguesa» de cerdo también es muy bueno. De hecho todo de Xi’an Famous Foods es muy recomendable. Los tés son una alternativa más saludable a los refrescos disponibles. Sobretodo un lugar sencillo y excelente muy muy recomendable para los que disfrutan comida chino autentico y condimentado. Todos los platillos son menos de $ 10.
Cuando estoy en el vecindario siempre paso.
900+ reseñas positivas! Ojalá se van a exportar este comida sabrosa muy pronto por todo los EUA!
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The lamb noodles are excellent. The pork «burger» also above average. Teas also refreshing alternative to soda. All in all a nondescript gem of a spot I highly recommend to anybody who truly likes spicy spicy food. All dishes under $ 10.
I am definitely going back anytime I am in the area.
900+ positive reviews (as of 2014) can’t be wrong! I hope they expand nationwide soon!