Xi’an Famous Foods
“We tried the N1-Spicy Cumin Lamb Hand-Ripped Noodles and the N2- Spicy & Tingly Beef Hand-Ripped Noodles.”
“We ordered:
-[A1] Liang Pi Cold Skin Noodles (Spicy) $5.50: VERY REFRESHING on hot days.”
“I also ordered the spicy and sour spinach dumplings which can be ordered in a sauce like I did it in soup.”
Xi’an Famous Foods
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
PokéStop Nearby: Yes
Price range.
$ Price range Under $10
8 reviews
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At $4, the Lamb Burger is good, not great. It's probably about the size of a McDonald's hamburger. Be warned that one will probably not fill you up. The burger is very heavily spiced with cumin. The cumin and cayenne pepper almost completely dominate the flavor profile of the dish. This saddened me a bit because of my love of lamb's iconic funkiness.
The bun is somewhere between bao and pita. Nothing special.
Overall this is a good deal if you're in need of a cheap Manhattan lunch.
It's pretty wonderful that hand-pulled noodles exist in this world. It's even more amazing that XAFF opened a location in this tourist laden location. Trying to find a good lunch option in midtown is tricky with all the places catering to the tourist crowd. You're likely going to end up getting dried out chicken or cardboard pizza. With XAFF, you're pretty much guaranteed a tasty, cheap meal.
This location always looks super busy between 12:30 and 2:00 but the line moves quickly and I've never had difficulty finding a place to sit. During the busy hours, they have an upstairs seating area that's nicer than the one downstairs.
I always end up ordering one of the handpulled noodle dishes – either a pork or beef one with regular spiciness. They warn you about extra spicy but it's not that bad, really. Sometimes I'll go nuts and also get a lamb or pork burger or a side of the cucumbers. You basically can't go wrong with anything on the very short menu.
Here's a trick for the noodles. It's a loop. If you have OCD like me and have to eat food from the end, you'll have to cut the noodles yourself. I once spent 10 minutes following a noodle around and around on my plate.
Now all your problems are solved. At least for lunch.
Finally got to try Xi'an Famous Foods after hearing so much about it, and I am absolutely in love with this place! If I can make one suggestion, it is just to come hungry. This is the location that is closest to the Empire State Building, so this is what I'm basing my review on.
I have to admit that most of the options on the menu have been things that I've never tried. I love spicy dishes, and based on the suggestions that we were given, we decided to order quite a few things. We tried the N1-Spicy Cumin Lamb Hand-Ripped Noodles and the N2- Spicy & Tingly Beef Hand-Ripped Noodles. We also ordered a Stewed Pork Burger to try. Everything we ordered was prepared to perfection. The spicy cumin lamb was definitely flavorful and the cumin was noticeable primarily to mask the gaminess of the lamb taste. The best part about the dishes are the hand ripped noodles. The texture of the noodles mixed in their sauces was so amazing. We also ordered the chrysanthemum and jasmine teas, which complemented our meal perfectly.
Please take my advice and come here with an appetite because the portions are extremely generous! Will definitely come back again every time I'm in town!
The largest Xian I have been to yet. Located right before the hectic westside of 34th Street, this place definitely has the room to seat the potential crowd of tourists wanting to try this place.
My sister and I came here early around 6 for dinner on a Tuesday so fortunately there was no dinner rush. The food is consistent with the other locations, just as delicious and belly fulfilling as the other locations. No real complaints here except that the service seemed just a tad slower in preparation of the food compared to other places.
I went there for a late work lunch close to 3pm. The store was quite empty when I walked in, nothing like the lunch craziness I had experienced during prime hours at other locations. There was no one waiting to order and when I got to the food pick up station, I learned there are two other people waiting ahead of me. Since I ordered the simplest dish on the menu, cold skin noodle, I expected it to be fairly quick. However, the guy at the packaging station looked super cofused and was very slow. The woman ahead of me ordered multiple things and he couldn't count or figuring out what was still missing. I waited 10 minutes before receiving my cold noodle (which was pretty long considering there were 3 people preping food and my dish only required a simple sauce mixing), and when I was half done with my food, the woman was still waiting for hers. Food was good like their other stores, but I know for sure I would never return here for lunch because I would be in line waiting forever.
My friends and I came in right before closing on a cold week night in April.
I got the Liang Pi for myself while my friends and I shared an order of the Cucumber Salad.
There wasn't too much seating room but we were able to squeeze in at the counters. The food came out fast and the noodles had just the right amount of spice. The food was also more filling than it looked and we all left happy and stuffed full of good asian food.
Definitely stopping by again on my next trip to NYC!
Xi'an Famous Foods is a quick and cheap Chinese restaurant on 34th street. There are multiple locations in Manhattan. This location is much bigger than the one in Chinatown.
Like the other locations, there's a huge menu that covers the left side wall. You order first and then sit down in the back or second floor. There are labels for Vegetarian on the bottom of each picture. The food is different than your typical Chinese American fast food joint. They specialize in western Chinese dishes. I ordered the spicy sour spinach dumplings ($9).
It's a great spot to take friends unfamiliar with Chinatown to get some authentic Chinese food. I recommend bringing a group and picking a few dishes to share.
Xi'an is always a good choice. Everything is super tasty but my favorite so far has to be the Cumin Lamb Hand-pulled Noodles.
I'm not sure if it's just me but this 34th location seemed to give a smaller portion than other spots. Although delicious, I felt like I didn't get the usual $8-10 worth of food on the dine-in plastic plate as opposed to the usual full take-out container or dine-in plates at other locations. I usually have some leftovers where here I was still kind of hungry after. It's always a good idea to eat these right away while fresh but maybe ordering "to-go" is a trick to get more food? Maybe because it's in midtown they ration the serving sizes? Maybe a new employee used the wrong serving utensil to measure mine? Who knows. Life goes on.
Either way, the Xi'an food domain is awesome and I fully approve of their success. Try everything!