Xi'an Famous Foods Opening Soon In East Village

[Chandavkl]

The new store (location not yet disclosed) will be opening "shortly" in East Village. I'm not quite sure how to react to this. Xi'an style is one of the rarest Chinese regional cuisines to find in the new world. There's none in Los Angeles or San Francisco, and I think there's one someplace in Canada. And now East Village?

[Simon]

i went there twice this week...it's really a fantastic addition to Chinese food in Manhattan.

Quality and spice levels seem the same as i remember from the Flushing branch. I had the cumin lamb plate on my first visit (which is basically a big plate of the filling that's in the lambburger). And the second time got lamb leg salad, and the soft tofu soup/custard w/ chili oil. Seems to already be a hit for takeout in the neighborhood. Hope it succeeds fabulously well.

[Pan]

I've been twice; the latest was for lunch yesterday. Of all the dishes I've tried, everything has been delicious except for the non-spicy lamb soup, which was merely lamb broth soup with noodles and a few things floating in it - essentially, as advertised, but nothing special. I'm very glad to have this place in my neighborhood, and I love the prices, too!

[Simon]

Cool...glad you like it too...

[Chuck Lawrence]

One of the best noodle dishes in NYC. The lamb and sauce is great,, but man those noodles. A great combo.

[hungrycomposer]

The sign is up! There's also a "help wanted" notice, and newspaper in the window. It's in the old Seoul Station location, as others have mentioned.

[hungrycomposer]

Where did you hear this? That's great, but so funny, with the Chinatown branch less than a mile away.

[kathryn]

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Xian-Fa...

[tpigeon]

I just at at the one in chinatown and it was great. Thanks for the rec Lau.

[NYJewboy]

I love the lamb burger. It is incredibly tasty. But has anyone else noticed that they get a stomach ache an hour after eating one every single time???

[tazerowe]

I often get a stomach ache after a visit there as well, but it is all my fault after a couple of lamb burgers plus lamb noodles and maybe liang pi....

[Lau]

never had a problem with stomach aches, but my stomach is pretty iron clad even in 3rd world countries i almost never get sick

haha it is a good point how rare this food is and how its becoming fairly readily available in NY that doesn't even have some big xi'an population, all from one guy who has done a good job marketing himself outside of the chinese community (and also happens to make great food). I don't even remember seeing this food in HK, taiwan etc. The only time i've ever seen food like this was in chengdu (sichuan), which isn't that far from xi'an...man making myself hungry thinking about it

[ChooseYrPoison]

Thats great news...hopefully it will similar to their Queen's place and have a place to sit...it would be nice to not have to lug a lamb burger or some Zha Jiang Noodles somehwere else and be able to dive in immediately...

[MahatmaKanejeeves]

No stomach ache from Golden Mall. The Chinatown shop is too small. This E.Village location may replace E. B'way eventually. The customers seem to be mostly young LES people anyway.

[scoopG]

Owner M.O. seems to be to open small snack shops with a limited menu, based on the three that are already open. I agree that the Chinatown store is downright tiny. I've found long waits at times cause they can get behind doing take-out orders.

[JMF]

I wouldn't call 32 items a limited menu.
http://www.xianfoods.com/menu.php

[uwsister]

No stomach ache but the one time I got the lamb burger, it was so incredibly dry! I thought the flavor was good but the meat was so dry that I couldn't enjoy it. Haven't been since -- should I give it another chance?

[ChiefHDB]

Probably. The lamb burger is not as great as some claim, but still very good. I like the noodle dishes (not the soups) and the lamb face salad (if you're into that).

[scoopG]

I agree and prefer the pork one.

[Silverjay]

You took the words right out of my pork-loving mouth.

[uwsister]

Ah ha! Will try the pork one next time.

[bigjeff]

lamb face salad is gangster! it's quite rich and a good pairing with the somewhat lighter liang-pi to split between 2 people.

[uwsister]

The name kind of scares me, but since it costs all of $8 and change, I'm willing to try it one of those days.

[Lau]

its really good, in my mind its actually more the salad than the lamb face, really light and tasty, u should definitely try

[JMF]

The lamb face salad is fabulous.

[Lau]

that is odd, the meat isn't like melt in your mouth tender or anything, but its certainly not dry...mustve been an off day