Xi’an Famous Foods
If I were paid to do reviews, I would charge the most to review XI’an Famous Foods. Why? Because their food is a painfully delicious grease bomb. To clarfiy, the noodles I ate were bathed in a half-inch pool of oil. There was enough oil to form a slick coating on each individual linguine-style noodle or to butter up a whole loaf of bread. But hey, I can bike or run off all those calories off, right? Despite the oil, Xi’an Famous Foods’ savory cumin hand-pulled noodles are heavenly delicious—alongside the much-publicized cumin lamb burger.
In terms of flavor and amount, Xi’an Famous Foods offers the most bang for the buck. My hand-pulled noodles plate was huge. The picture does not do the dish justice, but there is enough food on one plate to sustain a growing man for two meals. However, the oil might attribute to the feeling of being full. The noodle dish cost $5.Xi’an Famous Foods uses hand-pulled noodles that are freshly made right in front of you in their noodle dishes. Thus, they were incredibly chewy and doughy. In terms of comfort food, these noodles are the most comforting noodles ever. Each strand varied in size and thickness; the edges were sometimes as thin as a piece of paper or as thick as a two DVDs stacked on top of each other. The noodles were so stretchy that they were fun to eat. Along with the bean sprout, onions, and cumin lamb, the hand-pulled noodles proved to be a shockingly delicious dish. If Xi’an could reduce the oil content in this dish by four-fifths and use whole wheat noodles instead of plain flour, while maintaining the texture, I would not mind shelling out twice the current price for the dish.
Despite glowing reviews, the cumin lamb burger did not live up fully to my expectations. However, costing $2.50, the lamb burger was quite the catch. The burger is a simple English-muffin style bun filled with satisfying amounts of the same cumin lamb used in the aforementioned noodle dish. It comes wrapped in a plastic bag so that hungry passerby can eat the burger on-the-go. As for me, I took out the buns and added the cumin lamb to my noodle dish—because who needs plain white bread when there are hand-pulled noodles waiting to be eaten.
Service was pretty fast, but depending on the time you visit, there may not be any places to sit down and eat at.
Note: Xi’an Famous Foods has three locations.
Xi’an Famous Foods
Flushing, NY – Flushing Mall
133-31 39th Avenue #FC10
Flushing, NY 11354