Let me start by saying that Xi'an Famous Foods Spicy Tingly Beef made Spicy is the hottest dish I've earn in a while. How hot you ask? The beer I was drinking wasn't cooling down the heat so I grabbed a glass of milk to finish it! This is not your typical Chinese food by any stretch of your noodle's imagination. This cuisine is Western Chinese and here's a bit of history to put things in perspective. Xi'an is the first capital of China and it is the beginning of the famous trade route the Silk Road...which explains why you taste cumin among other not your usual suspects in your food.
Xi'an Famous Foods is known primarily for two things, their hand pulled and ripped noodle dishes and their lamb burgers($3.00). No rice dishes here, but they do have a number of soups($4.50) and even one "spicy" Tiger greens dish. Remember spicy here means...Oh...it's ...hot in here!!!
As stated the Spicy Tingly Beef made up of primarily noodles, some small chunks of beef , scallions and cabbage was spicy ...very! At $6 don't expect a lot of meat in the dishes but at thus price and taste...more then well worth it. If you don't have a high tolerance for heat go mild or mild spicy here. The spicy was towards the top of my tolerance where it still tastes good. While tempted to try very...if I do I will have ice cream and milk on standby on the table.
I also tried the Chicken Concubine...ripped noodles chicken on the bone, cabbage ,celery, and scallions. It was tasty, though nowhere near as hot as the Tingly Beef dish...but, big butt...watch out for bones! The small chicken pieces were on the bone which I was fine with, but the bones had also broken down and were mixed in throughout the dish. You have to tread a bit carefully here...more then I care to.
I think I'm going to skip the Chicken dishes, but I do plan on trying the lamb burger, some soups and more of the spicy noodle dishes with their beef, pork, and lamb. This location has a few places to sit, but it is primarily for take-out.
Xi'an Famous Foods is located at 81 St. Marks (there are 2 locations in Chinatown and one in Flushing, Queens)
