Xi'an Food Bar 西安饭庄 — Restaurant in Hamilton

Had a stretched noodles, it was good but the service was bad.

Walked in alone and told the boy behind the counter that one person for dining in,he just looked at me dead in the eyes 👀 I asked him if I should order first and then take a seat? He just looked at me for seconds,then kinda said yes? The lady behind the boy didn’t even bother saying anything. I was so confused. A young guy came and I told him again,he said nothing either. After ordering and paying,they didn’t say anything,so I just got a seat. I thought it was okay if they didn’t have service,until other people came in after me.

Other people got menus and sit down,the young guy told them where the water/utensils was when he served the meal. And the boy led customers to seat and even served a tea.

Well, there might be service if you aren’t...

I first discovered Xi'an Food Bar on Uber Eats while briefly in Auckland (after following @EatLitFood on Instagram). Later I was in Hamilton visiting my family so brought them all to the one here, and it for sure hit the spot too! Very authentic Xi'an food, according to my Xi'an-born-and-raised mum. First sign was that all the patrons were Chinese ;) Big fan of the cumin lamb hand-pulled noodles, my dad got the spicy beef noodle soup which was stunning too. The portion sizes are huge and the prices the lowest I've seen anywhere in a long while. Only thing to note is you shouldn't expect service to be very attentive or anything because it's clearly run by a small family, which I understand and respect (like I said - authentic!). Will be coming...

Ordered takeaway here for a vegetarian (myself) and a meat eater (my partner). First of all, my partner's meat dish gave him food poisoning, he was throwing up for 48 hours. Avoid! The vegetarian noodle dish had no vegetables aside from chives and some pitiful chopped lettuce, so we phoned and complained, they said come back and get a new dish, we drove back into town and picked up a new serving... with more chives??? Just call the dish 'noodles' if you can't bear to put any vegetables in it. For the content it was extremely over priced too. The staff are completely miserable. Overall a highly unpleasant...