This is a multi-location, longstanding Vancouver restaurant serving Xian region noodles, meat dishes and burgers.
(1) Food - everything ran on the salty side. While flavourful, I find myself very thirst when I got home. I was excited to order the hot and sour pork noodle soup, only to find it is not really sour or spicy, but very salty. The pork in different morsel sizes also appear cheap looking since it seems like they were scraps. But for $14.99 and a big bowl, you're not coming in for refined, fancy dishes. Despite what others review, I won't be ordering this particular noodle soup dish again - pork was coarse, soup way too salty and not enough cabbage (I counted a total of 5-6 thin strands).
What was QUITE good was the thick noodle in tossed chicken. The dish is authentic, and the hand pulled noodle was done well. Again, improving quality of the dish would be to include chicken pieces that do not have bone; instead it appears a chicken was marinated and just chopped as it, so you have to work through the meat.
We also ordered the hot and sour meat dumplings. Soup was quite oily; you can see a FILM of oil at the top. The soup was ok; not anywhere like the Szechuan style hot and sour noodle soup flavours. But the dumplings were evidently handmade, with very generous fillings inside; the dish can be shared or a meal in itself.
(2) Service - attentive enough once we got seated. We actually started ordering on on the menu board at the door and almost paid, when a server approached us and asked if we want to dine in (we did). The server came to refill water twice and also asked how we thought of the food.
(3) Ambiance - do not expect fancy dining. This is comfort food, in almost a cafeteria style seating (with decor colours matched).
Overall, there are still some items I would return to try. But the pork soup noodle was a disappointment, and it made me cough a lot after for the rest of the night (not sure why...it wasn't the degree of spiciness).
But definitely good quantity for its value, serving comfort, though...
Read more敬请店主考虑两𩠌饭*热*外卖模式。 经济不景,街坊也要寻找划算饮食选择维持生计。 感谢店主的留意。
Simple, non-fussy quick meal eatery. Ordered R2 Braised Pork Rice that comes with a can of pop for $13. After tax+tips it's around $16. The exact same rice box in the take out side of the store when I left was $11.
I agree to a slight surcharge for the service and dine in, but as a neighborhood patron, and observing minimal dine in patrons during lunch and after work hours everyday, really hope Old Xian will consider to implement hot meal take out like food court/kiosk style "2 dish rice."
Most of the patrons are neighbors, or people commuting through King Edward station transit area. It would be great to have somewhere to pick up HOT cooked food on the way home.
The takeout side of the store is a decent concept, but most items are frozen, mostly rice/noodle, or snacks that are slightly more expensive than the supermarket for the neighborhood convenience.
Busy professional/working parents just want to take home hot meat and vegetables then make the rice/noodles at home on their instant pot/rice cooker.
Times are uncertain. Inflation is high. There are trade tariff threats everyday. The "2 dish rice" model can help respond to demands of the current economic landscape.
Everyone is price sensitive and watching their wallet when eating now especially public commuters that make up most of the restaurant's foot traffic.
Ton Ton Sushi is for the special occasion splurges, Tim Hortons is for breakfast, and Fresh Slice is for young people/construction crew who can sustain on $3.25 pizza a few times a week. Old Xian can fill the gap offering balanced, nutritious, economical, comfort meals for all in the neighborhood of Little Mountain and Cambie/King Edward corridor.
Thank you for considering...
Read morethe food was spectacular and the service was so friendly and attentive. prices are also really good for the large portion, especially the noodles.
i got the handpulled noodles in hot chili oil with braised beef on top, and it was so good. the noodles were so bouncy, qq, thick, and slurpable, and it was just coated with the aromatic chili oil. the beef had good parts of fattiness to it and there were quite a lot of medium sized chunks — it was classic beef noodle brisket.
the crispy thousand layer burger was indeed INCREDIBLY CRISPY — the moment i bit down on it, its flaky exterior crackled while the meat in the middle cushioned my teeth. my favourite was the cumin lamb — it was the perfect amount of flavourfulness and the meat was fatty and kind of melted in your mouth. the stewed pork was also good (it kinda tasted of clear beef noodle broth), but i think it was bordering just between a tad dry and not really. still really yummy though!
the rice cakes were huge and there were so many. they were thick and glutinous and REALLY HOT, and the kinako powder tasted a lot like the authentic kind that you’ll find with...
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