Old Xi’an — Restaurant in New York

2 1/2 stars

This just wasn't my cup of tea. After enduring yet another dreary Friday morning with no sunlight (almost every Friday has been like that for the past month or two), I decided the appropriate lunch to have was dumplings. After pondering and seeing a few nearby options, my Skipper and I decided this was the best of the bunch. She was already a fan from prior experience, and I had a vague memory of stopping here for a to-go order months ago. As soon as I saw the Irish bar outdoor seating next door (it involves a refitted dark green bus I think), I remembered that I wasn't crazy about the dumplings here because they had something crunchy in them - possibly chives - so I reversed course at the 11th hour and got something else. These days/lunches happen. They can't all be gems, even when you do the prep work.

It's a cute interior with exposed, dark brick and a lot of big screens separating the tables. Definitely feels like some leftover COVID infrastructure in here (though it doesn't affect the experience). The dining situation here is pretty interesting. It's a hybrid of a takeout establishment and a sit-down restaurant; regardless of whether you intend to stay or not, you order on a giant iPadish device and don't really have any interaction with the staff beyond receiving the food from someone. When we were done, we just got up to leave since we'd already paid at the kiosk.

I decided to get one of the more popular dishes here, the spicy cumin lamb entree with hand-ripped noodles (about $15). It arrived insanely quickly - within probably a minute or so. Huge points for that, and it made the lunch hour much more manageable. Aside from a Thai dish or two, this was one of my first times dealing with these types of noodles, and I'm just not a fan - they're heavy, cumbersome and for me impossible to eat with the provided chopsticks. They did have some plastic forks available for poor souls like me though. Also as a palate preference, there were chunks of peppers, etc. that I just wasn't into - I focused exclusively on the lamb meat and the noodles (which probably tells you I'm not the target demo for this type of food). It may be unfair to compare it to the aforementioned Thai food, but I just didn't think it tasted as zesty as that - it was more soy sauce-ish, which I don't find as flavorful (it comes with pretty much every sushi roll I've ever gotten and I ignore it).

I'm certainly not going to claim this is a bad restaurant; I could easily envision someone who likes this type of food more than me having a solid meal here. And the price point/service (intangibles for sure) were very good. But I'm more likely to wander into the neighboring Irish bar than coming back here to battle the...

Came here for lunch on a Sunday. The place is self order (ordering done at one of two kiosk screens) and self seating as far as we could tell.

Items we ordered as of 7/2022:

Beef burger - $6.95 - Very tender beef and the buns itself was also nice and fluffy. Definitely wouldn't call this a "burger" though.

Chicken Hand-Ripped Noodle in Soup - $13.95 - Missus loved this one. She chose the "Spicy" level and says it was just perfect. Noodles are tender BUT there is a lot of it and due to the thickness it can be quite heavy carb wise. Loved the soup however!

Steam mini pork buns - $7.95 - Not bad but nothing mind blowing. Buns itself had a slight sweetness to it which paired well with the soy dipping sauce it came with. Probably wouldn't get this again.

Beef Hand-Ripped Noodle - $13.95 - Same beef as the beef burger above and same hand pulled noodles. The beef again has great flavor and tenderness. Noodles are good but will get quite filling quite fast due to the thickness to them.

Can't compare this to the Xi'an Famous Foods locations since they were closed but overall we were satisfied with...

Old Xi'an is a great spot for a quick lunch. It has a nice atmosphere, the food is awesome, and you can get in and out very quickly.

The food features a variety of meat or veggie choices. You can get your meat/veggies with cold, hand pulled noodles, noodles and soup, or over rice. You can choose from four spice levels, too. Overall a nice variety, but a simple menu.

I had the spicy lamb over cold noodles. The noodles were tossed in a light pepper oil and vinegar sauce. The lamb had cucumber, cilantro, bean sprouts, tofu, and scallions. It was very tasty. Savory, hot, with fresh cool vegetables and a tangy spiciness to the noodles.

The atmosphere was nice. Clean, minimal, very open in the center of the room. It was very busy, but not overly crowded. Open seating, so you could stop in and decide to sit or take your food to go once you arrive.

If I'm in the area again, I'll...