The hand-pulled noodles and historical sandwiches of Shaanxi cuisine are having a moment in NoVA. Any minute, Fairfax’s 99 Ranch Market will welcome Chin Xi’an Style Restaurant. It will join the freshly opened Xi’an Famous Foods, which has been attracting queues of diners at The Crossing Clarendon, the young-professional haven packed with everything from SoulCycle to Van Leeuwen Ice Cream.
I first became familiar with Xi’an Famous Foods in my many visits to Flushing, Queens, where the 20-year-old chain — which now has more than 20 locations, mostly in New York City — got its start. I’ve been a devotee of Shaanxi cuisine for even longer. As much as I appreciate the chewy snap of a biang-biang noodle (named for the sound the dough makes as it smacks the table), it’s the millenia of history of the rou jia mo (known as a “burger” at Xi’an Famous Foods), that has always especially captured my fancy.
In other words, when I learned that the brand would be moving from its ghost kitchen location in Alexandria to a spot of its very own in Arlington, I got more than a little excited. I wasn’t alone. Though I was one of just a few customers when I arrived at 5 p.m. on a recent Tuesday, the restaurant quickly filled up, perhaps meriting the sign of apology for longer wait times that’s posted on the front and side doors.
The early bird gets the noodle and my food came out less than 10 minutes after I ordered it via tablet. Over the years, I’ve come to slightly prefer the “spicy & tingly beef muscle hand-ripped noodles” to the cumin lamb version that was my original favorite. Though I expect the hand-crafted bites to be irregular in size and thickness, they were a bit more so than usual at this visit, meaning that thinner portions of noodle were overcooked. I found myself eating the oily beef, celery, and cabbage stew on top without the noodles.
The meal’s greatest success was a bowl of “spicy & sour pork dumplings,” juicy ravioli in a tangy but not very spicy sauce. I ended up soaking my lovably greasy pork burger in the same flavorful nectar for something my dining companion dubbed a “Xi’an Dip.” Spicy Asian cucumber salad was the only dish I hadn’t had at Xi’an Famous Foods before and I was glad to add some crunch to the mostly soft foods, though the dish lacked the punch of garlic I usually associate with it.
I’ll allow a few more weeks of growing pains before I return to the bright, convenient location, but I stand by my original excitement. More bold-flavored Shaanxi-style cuisine is a good thing for a region where our variety and quality of Chinese food still doesn’t match some of our stronger points, such as Korean and Indian fare. I’m hoping for an NYC-style Xi’an Famous Foods takeover for NoVA, with stores spreading approachable Northern Chinese delicacies across our region.
2800 Clarendon Blvd., Ste. 1500, Arlington
Feature image by Alice Levitt
