Old Xi'an

Fantastic food! We were starving and walking around for good eats so we ordered the spicy cumin noodles. They were the right amount of spicy and flavorful and service was really quick

I thoroughly enjoyed this place. The spicy noodles were delicious and the chinese hamburger was good too. I wouldn't say it was particularly life changing as I've had really good Chinese food in the past. What I would give this place is that I think the menu is unique in that they don't do the usual dishes that you'd expect from a Chinese restaurant. The service was friendly and the place was clean.

It could be a little hard to find as it's not on a busy street and there is currently (June 2024) scaffolding covering most of the signage. Still I'd recommend this place. Especially, on a cold day.

Everything was fresh and delicious! I placed a pickup order and it was ready precisely on time. We enjoyed the spicy curry lamb noodles, steamed pork dumplings, fungus salad, and cucumbers. We will definitely order again.

***2 1/2 stars***

This just wasn't my cup of tea. After enduring yet another dreary Friday morning with no sunlight (almost every Friday has been like that for the past month or two), I decided the appropriate lunch to have was dumplings. After pondering and seeing a few nearby options, my Skipper and I decided this was the best of the bunch. She was already a fan from prior experience, and I had a vague memory of stopping here for a to-go order months ago. As soon as I saw the Irish bar outdoor seating next door (it involves a refitted dark green bus I think), I remembered that I wasn't crazy about the dumplings here because they had something crunchy in them - possibly chives - so I reversed course at the 11th hour and got something else. These days/lunches happen. They can't all be gems, even when you do the prep work.

It's a cute interior with exposed, dark brick and a lot of big screens separating the tables. Definitely feels like some leftover COVID infrastructure in here (though it doesn't affect the experience). The dining situation here is pretty interesting. It's a hybrid of a takeout establishment and a sit-down restaurant; regardless of whether you intend to stay or not, you order on a giant iPadish device and don't really have any interaction with the staff beyond receiving the food from someone. When we were done, we just got up to leave since we'd already paid at the kiosk.

I decided to get one of the more popular dishes here, the spicy cumin lamb entree with hand-ripped noodles (about $15). It arrived insanely quickly - within probably a minute or so. Huge points for that, and it made the lunch hour much more manageable. Aside from a Thai dish or two, this was one of my first times dealing with these types of noodles, and I'm just not a fan - they're heavy, cumbersome and for me impossible to eat with the provided chopsticks. They did have some plastic forks available for poor souls like me though. Also as a palate preference, there were chunks of peppers, etc. that I just wasn't into - I focused exclusively on the lamb meat and the noodles (which probably tells you I'm not the target demo for this type of food). It may be unfair to compare it to the aforementioned Thai food, but I just didn't think it tasted as zesty as that - it was more soy sauce-ish, which I don't find as flavorful (it comes with pretty much every sushi roll I've ever gotten and I ignore it).

I'm certainly not going to claim this is a bad restaurant; I could easily envision someone who likes this type of food more than me having a solid meal here. And the price point/service (intangibles for sure) were very good. But I'm more likely to wander into the neighboring Irish bar than coming back here to battle the hand-ripped noodles.

Food was so delicious! I had the beef noodle with rice noodles. I ordered it spicy and it was perfect. The noodles were chewy, the beef was so tender, and the sauce was so tangy and delicious.

They were so sweet too -- I got too excited while I was eating and breathed in some sauce and started coughing uncontrollably and they gave me a free bottle of water!

The flavor of the foods is good. The portion isn't too large and they serve super fast. I think everything is premade there. The thing is really the service. They still expect you to tip them, but you order foods yourself and you clean and put away dirty dishes yourself. The only service they offered was bring you the food. That just shows the tipping culture in the US is crazy. Oh, did I mention two of the three dishes we ordered they brought the wrong food?

- overall rating: 3.5
- recommend: hand pulled lamb cumin noodles
- I've only ever ordered take out for lunch (it's by my client office) so I can't speak on the restaurant itself
- food is usually ready in 5-10 min
- personally prefer xi'ans famous foods but in a fix, this place works
- decent portion sizes
- "extra spicy" is moderately spicy at best
- less oily than xi'ans famous foods and the sauce is slightly sweet

Really great cumin lamb burgers and noodles!! Tastes just like home cooking (my family is from Xi'an). Very fast and friendly service. The indoor seating has comfortable and spaced-out tables with nice artwork.

Solid fast casual place if you want a fix! I enjoyed the spicy beef hand pulled noodles although I'm not sure how hand pulled they are. Not all the noodles were coated with the sauce but they did hit the spot. I enjoyed the beef as it had some chew to it and was perfectly tender. Good solid gem. Nothing too fancy but it satisfies the craving for something spicy and warm.

A good alternative spot for handmade spicy cumin noodles if xi'an famous foods is not near you. Portions here were generous and delicious! If you're looking for spicy noodles, I recommend going for their spiciest option. Their spicy is not very spicy for me personally. While the food was yummy, a star was docked as i unfortunately found a hair in the food. Otherwise, a solid, affordable place for noodles.