Xi'an Noodles — Restaurant in Seattle

Unbelievable. About a week ago we tried this place as we were around the U District and in the mood for noodles. This place had 4.2 stars out of more than 1000 reviews, so it HAD to good, right? WRONG.

I have literally never in my life told a waiter I did not like my dish and that I'd like to order something else. You always read or hear about someone doing that, but would never do that yourself. Well, there's a first time for everything, I suppose.

First off, ordering in this place is like McDonalds. Big impersonal touchscreen device with minimal explanation. Normally, if I want to have some more info on a menu item, I'd ask the waiter. Not possible here. The machine did not allow for questions, and the staff did not speak English. On top of that, you're expected to leave a tip with the robot before you've even sampled the restaurant's food and service. Which is what a tip is for, no?

We ordered a beef and a chicken noodle dish. It was not busy and the order was brought to our table by a friendly waiter (he smiled) As soon as we started eating we discovered that what we thought would be chicken breast or thigh was actually some undeterminable part of the chicken WITH BONES! The last thing you'd expect. The flavor was, I guess, their signature flavor but we did not care for it. Same with the beef... bone-in. I mean... for the money they're having their robot charge you, I'd expect boneless meat. Maybe we were expecting too much? Their fabled homemade noodles were clumped together at the bottom of the dish, and quite chewy. If not to say undercooked.

We debated and decided to raise the issue with a waiter. After much back and forth and getting another waiter involved we managed to convey our displeasure. Imagine our surprise when their only reaction was "that's how we always make it". No apology, no offer to exchange for something else. We ended up taking both meals home to try and salvage. We removed the meat but even then there were still bits and pieces of the (chicken) bones. We ended up throwing it out.

We eat out a lot. And never ever have I had a dish that I paid for turn out this bad. I don't mind dealing with non-English speaking waiters... As a matter of fact, we enjoy going to hole-in-the-wall off the beaten path eateries. The English ability of the staff is always better than our Chinese, Russian, Portuguese, Mongolian or whatever language they happen to speak. But there's never an excuse for telling a customer simply "that's how we always make it", not offering apologies and not offering a replacement.

Needless to say, we won't be back. And we will...

This is my first time to come to your restaurant, but this meal experience made me very uncomfortable and affected my afternoon life. I ordered a takeaway, 2 stewed pork burger and 1 Small cold noodles. There is very little meat in the burger. One of the burger clips has only one piece of meat inside. The size of the meat is the same as the size of the fingernails, and then some soup is applied. I don't know why your employees gave me so little food, or your weight is small, or because your employees don't like his work, or your food always likes this, I am very angry, I am angry while eating. And I started diarrhea after 2 hours and went to the bathroom 3 times in 1 hour. I am not sure if my diarrhea is related to your food. I have some biscuit bread and milk for breakfast, lunch is your food, except water. Nothing else to eat outside.

I have been to one other Xi'an noodle restaurant four times before, just near the University of Washington. It feels very good and tastes great. Today I drove past the University of Washington and thought about this restaurant. I searched for "Xi'an" on Google Maps. The first option that appeared was your restaurant. I immediately called your phone to order a meal. When I followed GPS to your restaurant, I found it wrong. It didn't matter at the time, after all, your rating is still very high. But your food is very small, very bad, let me have diarrhea. My appetite is not big, but I am still hungry after eating your food. I saw your reviews are still very good, Are you only dealing with me alone?? Maybe I am unlucky!

I am not an unreasonable person, this is my first time to give others a bad review.

It took me more than half an hour to finish this review. Because there is no plan to give you a bad review before eating your food, I have not taken pictures of the food I bought, Just receipt.

这是我第一次来你们的餐厅，但这次就餐经历让我很不舒服，影响了我一个下午的生活 我点了一份外卖，2 个肉夹馍 和 1 个小份的凉皮。你们给我的肉夹馍里面非常少的肉，少的可怜，你们故意的是吗？其中一个馍里面就夹了一块肉，跟手指甲大小一样，然后抹了一些汤汁。我不知道你们的员工为什么给我这么少的食物，还是你们的分量本来就很小，还是因为你们的员工不喜欢他的工作，或者你们不喜欢我去你们餐厅吃饭，我很气愤，我一边吃一边生气。 2小时后，我开始腹泻，1小时内去了3次卫生间，我不确定，我的腹泻跟你们的食物有没有关系，我早餐吃了些饼干 面包片 牛奶，午餐就是你们的食物，除了水以外 在没有吃其他东西。 我不是一个无理取闹的人，这是我第一次给别人差评。 我之前去过4次一家西安面食餐馆，就在华盛顿大学附近，感觉非常好，味道也非常棒，今天我开车路过华盛顿大学附近，想到了这家餐馆，就在谷歌地图上搜索了“西安”，出现了第一个选项就是你们餐厅，我立即拨打你们的电话订了餐，当我按照GPS到你们那里的时候发现走错了，不是我要找的那家，不过好像也没有太大关系，你们的评分还挺高的，我真后悔在你们店买餐。 你们的食物很少，很糟糕，还让我腹泻。 我的胃口不大，但是我吃完你们的食物依然很饿。 我看到你们的点评还是很不错的，难道你的食物是针对我的吗？...

Saw an ad for this place in the 100 best restraunts in Seattle Magazine. The picture was beautiful showing a glowing plate of noodles on a high end looking butcher block table. We decided to drive from Bothell to try it.

When we got there the place didn't look at all like anything we imagined. The place was packed and looked like a dirty hole in the wall with questionable food storage practices and cheap food. If I had seen a live chicken walk across the floor I wouldnt have been suprised. We had to triple check to make sure we were in the right place. Normally I would have never stopped in here driving by, but we decided to try it anyway, since we had driven so far already.

Oh man, were we wrong. This food... this food is amazing. This little 10 bucks a plate restraunt DESERVES to be in that list of 100 best restraunts right next to Canlis. Seriously, my boyfriend ate here before and after travelling to Shanghai, China for work. While there he had a lot of noodles. He says that even in Shanghai, nothing compared.

Try the egg hand torn noodle dish and the spicy beef hand torn noodle dish for a food experience you will find yourself thinking of over and over again. Then, try them mixed together to have your mind blown and develop an unhealthy obsession with a noodle place. Eat them fresh there, while still good, the noodle dishes are a shadow of their glory when reheated.

As for the condition of the restraunt itself, once the crowd started to thin out after the dinner rush, we found that underneath the messy crowd the restraunt was just fine. It was clean and well managed. The raw ingredients that appeared to be just sitting on some shelves were actually ingredients for people to choose from if they wanted a custom noodle dish, much like at a Mongolian grill, and they were all in a clean, well regulated, open refrigerator case.

All the people there are very nice and even those that don't speak English are able to make you feel very comfortable. The service is fast and out of the many times we've braved rush hour traffic to get from Bothell to the university district for dinner we've never had anything but the delicious, mind blowing noodle experience we remember.

Best time to go there to avoid the crowd is early dinner around 4 and 5 on a weekday.

Enjoy this...