DunHuang Lanzhou Beef Noodle — Restaurant in Edison

Racist toward White people! And probably any other race/ethnicity other than Chinese!

Came here from a recommendation from.... you guessed it; a Chinese friend. Before I even get to the food, here's what really got on my nerves:

You ever walk into a place and have the overall feeling that nobody wants you there? Well, that's how I felt here. First off, nobody spoke English. I asked the waitress simple questions like "is the tea free or extra?" She responded, "you want coke?", probably because most whites people don't get tea, from her view. Further, I asked how a dish was seasoned and what was in it. She responded "it's pulled noodle". At this point, I said ok can you get me someone who speaks English please? She got someone and that person spoke barely better than her. Whatever, I ordered the pan fried noodle anyway.

So, during my whole experience, before the food even came out, the entire staff gave the overall impression of "why is this white guy here". Mind you, everyone dining was chinese. Nobody had a smile on their face when taking to me. They responded pathetically to my questions; and they did understand somewhat but they just didn't care. I just felt like they really wanted me out of their restaurant. Something like "order, eat , and get out".

Further, I also noticed they were very polite and smiling to the Chinese patrons; supporting my racist point more so.

On to the food, perhaps the worst part of my experience of all, and I am even talking about the food, itself. This is the number one thing that really topped the bad experience for me and poised me to write such a nasty review on this place. The waitress placed my food on the table, and immediately tried to walk away. Well, there was a plastic fork stuck in the food! Already fed up, I hastily picked up the fork, hailed her back over, and told her I don't need it. Nevertheless, she walked away, surprised. The reason this small thing got on my nerves is because none of the staff bothered to ask if I would like a fork, which I even sometimes find offensive as well! They simply gave me one, assuming, "no white person knows how to use chopsticks". Well, I happen to know how to use them very well, given I spend a lot of time with chinese people and the culture in my personal life.

So simply, forget about the food. Whether it's good or drop-dead amazing, I will never return to this place because of how racist these people are to my kind. Perhaps, if you're chinese, you may fancy this place. But, be warned; you better speak mandarin! It's also a shame the media, in our time, never covers instances like this; chinese being racist to white people. Who knows what they were saying behind my back as well. Racism is an issue no matter what race you are. While I can admit, whites certainly don't deal with it as much, I certainly felt unwelcome today.

On a side note: the pan fried noodles were mediocre, at best; maybe 2 steps above American Chinese food. I suggest going to spice 24 a couple stores down. Their staff is very polite, speaks English, and the food is...

I came in on a Monday at around 1 pm with my parents and the place was pretty busy for a weekday. They have both indoor and a lot of outdoor seating, so I imagine that this place gets pretty packed.

To start, we ordered the lamb skewers, which was all loved. The meat was tender, and not gamey at all. We ordered it non spicy but used the table chili oil and the vinegar, and it was a great combination. If you don't like cumin, you should skip this.

For mains, I was going to get the Signature Beef Noodles but made a last minute game day decision and had the Tomato Egg Noodles (egg and tomato with cilantro in savory and sour house special broth). You can pick your noodle size so I did extra wide. I'm a meat eater so I did regret my choice for a minute when I realized that my dish wouldn't have any meat. Not a huge deal though because I still enjoyed it overall. The flavor of the broth is reminiscent of a stir-fried tomato egg dish but slightly less thick. I say slightly because it was more like a thinned out sauce than it was a broth. I could have also used a bit more or perhaps have it watered down by some regular broth because the wide noodles soaked everything up. Plus after a while, it gets a little too rich. My parents got the signature so I did still get to try it. Our waitress saw my mom struggling to give me some of her noodles and she promptly brought us over a scissor, without even asking. Talk about good service! They got the regular noodles which I actually preferred over the wide ones, which I usually do not. The broth was really good too but I can definitely see it getting salty the more you drink it. Beef was only okay - kind of dry.

I had no idea they had so many locations in NYC until I saw it on the menu, which is great because now I have options as to where I want to try some of their other dishes. Next on the list will for sure be the Zha Jiang Noodles, the curly fries and some more lamb skewers!

Tip - they don't accept Amex so make sure you bring your Visa...

Honestly, I found their non-noodle items to be better and have more variety. Even on the menu, the boodle section is kind of limited to what I’ve seen at other Lanzhou Noodle style shops.

I wanted a dry pot, extra wide and chewy noodle dish, but didn’t see an option to immediately resemble that. It’s also not clear which noodle dishes accept noodle choices or not.

However, the Chinese Hamburger (肉加馍）was pretty delicious, even though it may not resemble the street food/food court ones you get in Chinatown or in China (from my limited experience). This shops’s Chinese Hamburger is pretty bold and in your face with the spices, and it was even a bright orange color (we got the lamb, so not sure if it is different for other meat options). But it was good, just not what I expected from my previous experiences.

The lamb boiled dumplings were also pretty good, carrots and lamb meat for dumplings are underrated.

The lamb pilaf was ok, if you are expecting a more closer to Middle-Eastern style pilaf, I feel like this is different. The rice is more glutinous and carries more of its original flavor, and I felt like there wasn’t as many spices, so the flavor is more concentrated on a few notes.

We also got the Pan Fried Vegetarian noodles, but I feel like it was overly saucy and drenched. The noodles also didn’t have the chew to them I was expecting, but they still had that stir-fry smoky flavor. The fried egg with runny egg yolk on top of it was a nice touch.

But perhaps one of my most favorite things about this restaurant — is that the tea that they serve is Barley tea. Very refreshing for a spice-heavy meal.

All in all, I don’t know how traditional the dishes are, but I enjoyed the variety. I was a bit let down on the noodle dish options and the noodle dish that we got, but I would be willing to come back try other noodle and non-noodle menu items. Friendly staff...