Xi'an Impression London — Restaurant in London

Xi’an Impression serves Xian local street food from Xian City, Shan Xi Province, where it is well-known for Terracotta Warriors of Qin Dynasty.

This is literally adjacent to my beloved ‘The Arsenal’ stadium.

Parking will be very limited and difficult to find during match days. Off-Season, parking will be easier to find.

Nearest underground stations, Holloway Road. Come out of station, cross the road and go straight down Benwell Road.

Food Ordered Today:

Chicken & Mushroom Pot-Sticker - 鸡肉香菇锅贴 - (Think Gyoza)

Xinjiang Stir Fried Chicken With Bones Serve For 1 (Hand-Pulled Noodles) - 新疆 大盘鸡/一人份 (带面) 🌶️🌶️ (I didn’t find it spicy enough, had to put chilli oil)

Extra Noodles - 加面 - (Extra portion for gravy of Xinjiang Stir Fried Chicken With Bones)

Plum Juice

This is best describe as a Chinese speciality café, the same that you’ll find in London’s China Town.

Service was very friendly and food was delivered very quickly.

The stand out dish for me was the Chicken & Mushroom Pot-Sticker. Drizzled some chilli oil and good to go with the chop sticks

The Xinjiang Stir Fried Chicken With Bones, is best describe as homely comfort food. It’s gravy is a watery one not thick. I’d ordered an extra portion of noodles to soak up the left over gravy for this dish. Had to add extra chilli oil to make it more spicier to my liking. As I didn’t find it spicy at all. However, others may find it to their pallet.

The plum juice is one of the nicest drinks you can find here. I’ve had it often. A little hint, further along Holloway Road, there are some Asian supermarkets that sell it there and a little cheaper to what this place is charging.

A nice little bite to eat and opposite the greatest football club in London. North London is Red...

After living in Xi'an for a while, I now miss the combination of flavours that differs from many other Chinese cuisines.

Middle eastern scents of herbs and spices with the use of lamb likely an influence from the western/northern ethnic minorities of China who have ancestors spanning Mongolia and the Middle East. The Altaic fusion with more traditional Chinese hand pulled/cut noodles in clear(ish) broth, xi'an sandwich etc bring me back to my home away from home. Although in Xi'an you can expect the sandwich to be a lot more oily from the street vendors as well as more generously packed with fillings.

Even the smell of the place when you walk in reminds me of xi'an, it's only missing the smell of exhaust fumes and rampart use of car horns to make it 100% authentic.

It is the closest I've come to the food of xi'an since leaving, and it's a relief to see someone specialise in one area of cuisine rather than trying to do everything.

The staff are great and when not busy juggling customers and plates, are warm and enjoy conversing if that's what you want.

You should book if you plan to eat from 6pm onwards as it gets very busy. They do takeaway too.

Don't expect your English 'Chinese' food here, but if you've been to northern China and miss it, you can come here to...

As a Chinese person I know not to expect any service in Chinese restaurants, but even for me the service was too rude. Summary:

Was asked to order just a few minutes after arriving, after requesting a few more minutes, the lady returned in one minute. Not exaggerating.

Lady took the order wrong even after re-confirming, she also gave bad attitude because I re-confirmed (I had a feeling she was not listening)

When almost finishing the food, another lady came twice to ask if we were done. This was a week night and it wasn’t that busy.

When my friends and I were calculating the bill, there was some confusion amongst ourselves only but the lady was paranoid and defensive.

She thought we were accusing her of giving us the wrong bill just because we were discussing (even though we were given a wrong item but whatever) she proposed to us in a terrible tone of voice that we can use a calculator.. yes thanks for the advice I didn’t realise calculators can calculate.

I heard the ladies quite loudly gossiping about us and other customers.

Food was ok, not bad, not amazing. But with service like that I will tell everybody to not visit. If those two women hate their jobs that much they should not be there. There are plenty of other nice restaurants...