Taste of Changan — Restaurant in Lower Merion Township

This is the best new Chinese restaurant in the main line in ten years. The food at this restaurant is of the style from Shaanxi province, in near north western China. This regional food is all about noodles, dumplings and breads, and this restaurant's example is epic. You're not going to see any rice bowls here.

The star of the show is the noodles. The chef is employing the Chinese tradition of hand pulling noodles, and you will not find noodles in Philadelphia that are this good. They are pulling the noodles for each order. You will find noodles in your bowl - I kid you not - that are three feet long and two inches wide, made with only bare hands and technique. The sauces for these noodles have a superb, umami-laden, spicy complexity, without tremendous heat. I think the restaurant has toned down the heat for a western audience, so you could ask for more spice if you're into it. In terms of spice level, food from this region is not afraid of bringing the heat, but also has never been about extreme heat either - so don't assume that you're missing out if you can still taste the food.

Do not pass over the restaurant's dumpling dishes. Unlike almost every Chinese restaurant, these dumplings are not produced and then frozen by contractors working at sweatshop wages. They were made by the same team in the restaurant. It shows - the dumpling skins are three dimensional and taut, and clearly extremely fresh. The skin has been hand rolled; not purchased in bulk from a grocery store. The "one-squeeze" folding technique is on point. The large buns are also excellent, and they have a spicy pork filling that will not be like any of the standard steamed buns that you've had in Chinatown.

Finally, if you have kids (if the kids arent gobbling all the dumplings and pork buns already) you'll want to try the deep fried dough sticks. Unlike the ones you'll see in Chinatown that come from H-mart, these are being fried on location. They have a density and chewiness that speaks to their authenticity in ways that I have not experienced in years. From an American perspective, it's easy to dismiss this dish as something simplistic - like a funnel cake or a fried dough, but the proofing technique involved in getting this texture is very precise and often secret. These are on point.

This restaurant is running a very food focused operation; it is self serve. The team doesn't speak a lot of English. That is just how authentic it is. They’re not going to run around to get you a fork. Order and pay at the counter, and wait for your food to come out to your table. Bring the empty dishes back to the counter. The place is bright and clean, and the bathrooms are spotless. It's everything you need and nothing you don't.

I'm glad to see that the main line is finally getting some of the real diversity of food in China. You can see the local competition jumping in with the negative reviews already. The red and green menus and the msg aren’t going to cut it...

It’s not often you find a restaurant serving food from this region of China in the US, so I was excited to try Taste of Chang’an. The place is beyond minimalist, no staff visible when you walk in, and ordering is done through a tablet. Utensils, water and condiments are all self serve. And there are only a handful of things on the menu, which apparently rotates and changes frequently.

All of this suits me just fine! All I want is quality food, and that’s what emerged from the kitchen after just a few minutes. I got a delicious bowl of thick, chewy handmade noodles topped with tasty pork and vegetables. We also had a crisp scallion pancake, and a glass of cold homemade soy milk. It’s the kitchen that counts, and I felt like what we were served had been made with care.

It’s a departure from every other Chinese restaurant I’ve been to, and I’ve been to quite a few. I’ve never been to Xi’an, but I suspect this place has a feel of a good local eatery there- no frills and focus on a few specialties is an approach more common in other countries. It’s certainly not the standard model here, but today I had the freshest, tastiest and most affordable bowl of noodles I’ve had in ages. I...

Beef noodle was meh; noodle itself was good, beef was like rubber with no taste, small portion. Chive dumplings were good. The cold veggie dish was forgettable.

The utensils and sauces were all set up on a small cart like self-serve. At the self ordering kiosk (1 machine only) it had tip selection when we were first ordering, so I chose to tip given that it’s a new establishment and I’m just being nice. The “server” was chatting the whole time with one table of customers; other than bringing the food trays to our table, she did nothing else. At the end as we were leaving, the owner lady (or whoever, since she freely roams into and out of the kitchen) who was dining there herself with her children, proceeded to order us to clean up after ourselves (there were no signage of mentioning to self clean up afterwards). So I asked “then who was I tipping for at the beginning, if we were to do all the clean up?” She had no words, then I left.

I would have no problem with the establishment requiring customers to self clean up, if they had simply display such rules and not electronically...