Xi'an Eatery 西安诱惑 — Restaurant in Sydney

i've been to xi an quite a few times now and had no issue with the food or service UP TIL NOW. genuinely wish i can give 0 stars. i went recently and had my worst dining experience yet. i was not greeted by someone nor ushered to a table like they usually treat their customers, which was a bit disappointing but it was whatever as the manager seemed to have an issue with an uber eats delivery on the food so they all seemed busy. i went to my seat and raised my hand for a menu, which they usually come over to give. the servers ignored me and went to wipe the tables behind me (?????) i had my arm raised for a bit before i decided to walk up to the counter and get the menu myself. i chose the dishes i wanted and walked back to the counter to order. by the time i had done so, another group of customers had walked in and they were greeted, escorted to their table which was then wiped down by one of the servers who ignored me, while my table had visible stains on it. i waited for around 10 minutes at the counter as the manager was just on the phone. she definitely saw me waiting but did not acknowledge my existence ( yay! o(^▽^)o ) / ask me to wait a bit longer / ask one of the servers to take my order. i asked a server walking past me if i could order and she said yeah sure, and walked away (??). i waited another 5 min before the manager got off the phone and said a quick sorry before taking my order. when she was midway taking my order i forgot my partner's order so i excused myself to ask him and she went back on her phone. i had to wait another 5min to be served. i made my order, paid in CASH (this is important later) and sat back down. my food arrived after a while, and i realized it had a piece of sharp plastic in it which i initially thought was a rock when i bit into it. i notified the manager, to which she replied o yea it was the lid from one of the containers we have, i'm really sorry. she came over to our table again to apologize but told me that since i paid with card she couldn't do anything. i decided not to ask for a refund on the meal as i did finish the dish that had plastic in it and thought it would be unfair to them if i did. however, i asked for a takeaway container and she asked me to pay for them. i usually would do so without hesitation, but having experienced such horrid treatment and service so far i told her that i already had a huge chunk of plastic in my meal, was ignored by servers and had to wait extended periods of time whilst other customers were being served and therefore felt as though i shouldn't have to pay for the single container. the manager was extremely annoyed by my request and lowkey threw the container at me, saying (in chinese) 'fine fine, it's a gift' in an irritated tone of voice, a complete 180 from the sweet tone she used before to apologize to me LOL. my partner and i left shortly.

having worked in hospitality, i understand what it's like to have a busy day at the restaurant. however, it is completely unacceptable that they are ignoring customers blatantly, not ensuring that the food is safe and edible without any contaminants, not doing the BARE MINIMUM restaurants are expected to do - making customers feel welcome. i have enjoyed eating here for a while now and have been shocked by the unprofessional, disgusting, and subpar level of customer service i experienced that day. i have experienced bad service before but never to this extent, which prompted me to write this review. i was especially disappointed that other customers were treated better and with more respect that we were.

to sum it up, the food is usually decent when there aren't any random bits of plastic in it but the service is appalling - go here if you enjoy the feeling of being ignored for extended periods of time. do yourself a favour and go next door to dumpling king instead, their food in general (esp scallion pancakes and their biang biang noodles) is so much more delicious and more prices are also better. thank u for reading to the end, and have a...

I had biang biang noodles with pork. Pork was small pieces. But the dish overall was good.

Lamb skewers was ridiculously small. Other places serve much larger quantity. This one isn't worth the price. Skinny as a stick.

Atmosphere doesn't really have this "welcoming feeling" and the tables are small and the seating and table set up makes the dining room look cramped and "over-crowded". I can understand that it's a small restaurant, but it should allow space for people to move.

Unlike other restaurants where waitstaffs takes your order, you have to order at counter and pay first. Very inconvenient.

Waitstaffs there don't really show a good greeting towards customers. Very poor customer service.

XI BAY restaurant is alot better.

Vine pepper chicken with noodle soup is ok, loved the spice but flavour wise very average. The pork ribs with noodle soup is good, especially the soup. The soup was tasty But again, just like the lamb, and my biang biang noodles with pork..... Pieces were too small. Not even a bite size. Much smaller!!!

Even though I'm happy with my biang biang noodles, I'm not going back there again. Poor customer service

Small quantity only relying on noodles to fill you up. Go to a Vietnamese restaurant and have beef, pork or chicken noodle soup they tend to fill up the bowls more and for lesser and cheaper price. More flavour too!!!

ridiculous atmosphere, doesn't provide any comfort to dine in.

Dish here is slightly over-priced. For what they give the quantity amount is too little to charge at that price range.

Watermon juice didn't have much watermelon flavour

Poor customer service and not professional, I wouldn't recommend ANYONE to dine here. Go to Xi Bay restaurant instead or the La Plaka across the road.

Or go to the Rickshaw at Emerald Square. Singaporean/Malaysian cuisine. Very good laksa for those who haven't tried. (Try something else if you like there but their laksa is quite tasty). The La Plaka across the road is quite good too. Brilliant and...

Just get the signature dish. Dissatisfied and never going back. I made the mistake of ordering the noodles with dough and the potsticker dumplings which weren't great.

Firstly, the noodles. What I received was extremely disproportionate with a ratio of like 10% noodles 10% meat and 80% soup. It's quite different from how it is on the menu and not at all what I was after when I ordered this. The severe lack of noodles is so pathetic I was so disappointed especially when this dish is pricier than other things on the menu. I think I had three mouthfuls of noodles and there was just soup left. They don't go that well with the soup, and the soup is pretty bland as well. Adding to that, the menu has two breads (or dough) pictured and I only received one. So you can imagine my confusion ordering this and getting a lack of anything. Then the bread is actually just dough - there's no filling or anything and nothing at all exceptional about it. The only plus is that the dough is warm? And I guess it's there to make you feel fuller because of the poor attempt at the main noodle dish. Completely dissatisfied with this one sadly.

Next, the potsticker dumplings. They go cold pretty quick and are quite dry so they aren't that great. This isn't a dumpling place, so I wouldn't recommend this either. It's nice they have a unique vinegar-chilli mix that's different from other places, but the main part which is the dumplings is below average. There are so many great dumpling places around the area so don't come here for that.

All in all, this was incredibly disappointing and I left completely unsatisfied and $30 poorer. They definitely need to improve the quality of their other dishes since their signature dish...