Xi’an Kitchen

Food is ok…
but really bad for their service !

The food is great but I have a huge problem with paying with a credit card. They really want you to pay by cash and will harass you if you don’t pay with cash.
Credit card is accepted, you just have to be firm about it. Don’t give in to their tax evasion practices.
Big-​ass plate of chicken is greatly recommended for parties of 3 or more!

1. Very salty… I’m used to salty food in general, but still feel every dish was too salty here.
2. We were trying to pay the bill ($ 40) by credit card, but were asked to pay cash. I was confused and thus asked :“is it because our bill didn’t reach the minimum amount to use credit card? «And the answer was: «no, it’s just because a lot of our customers today paid by credit card, and we prefer not to take too many cards.» …Cannot believe that could be a reason!

The food was delicious (noodles=amazing). Don’t expect attentive service, but you can expect a great meal.

I ordered Big Plate Chicken and it’s really big! The server is weird however. They don’t accept credit card if you are charged under 40 bucks.

The only place I had hand pulled noodles was in NYC. Thought I would never see them again
since SD does not have large community of Authentic Chinese restaurants. But I found this place. Glad this place is here because they make some pretty good Biang Biang noodles in chili oil.
Even there is a low amount of reviews the place was packed when I went on my lunch break on a Friday afternoon.
The noodles were pretty wide which was hard to handle with a chopsticks. Next time I will ask for thinner noodles but overall the noodles were tasty and not too oily. Thought it could use a little more kick but ordered it to go.
Also tried the cumin beef hamburger. The hamburger was pleasantly tasty with a nice hint of cumin. Looking forward to trying the other items on the menu.
Word of advise. Eat the noodles there instead of to go as they will get soggy on you.

Love this place, Big Plate Chicken is super tasty and addictive, you can’t stop eating even when you’ve long since «hit the wall», (and its BIG). Don’t order this with less that 4 people unless you are planning on buying tomorrows dinner while you are there (BIG is the key word on this one.
The cumin lamb bun is good, as well as any of the other array of lamb dishes (they do lamb really really well here).
Thanks for raising the bar in this little strip mall (China Max tries hard to make me hate this block, but these guys balance it out with their awesome dishes).

I hate cash only restaurant. Food is just so so, well this is San Diego, not LA

Not sure why this place has been getting bad ratings but the food is authentic. Don’t come here looking for kung pao chicken or even rice. Come here with an open mind (and appetite) for authentic Xian cuisine.
The noodles are handmade and portions are generous for the price. When I was there the service was really good too, even though there were quite a bit of people at the restaurant.

The food at Xi’an Kitchen is great! They offer delicious, authentic Xi’an style cuisine. Handmade noodles are the specialty of the house and you can get them served hot, cold, stir-​fried, stewed, in broth, with sauce and the list goes on.
I’m a little surprised to see all the negative comments/​reviews regarding service. I’ve dined at Xi’an Kitchen a few times and each time I received good service. The staff was welcoming, friendly, attentive, and my food was served quickly from the time of ordering.
For those who haven’t been, I would definitely recommend checking this place out.

4.5 stars! Their noodles are so fresh. What I like about XK is that they make their own noodles from scratch, yes, from scratch!!! It was my first time there yesterday and I must say that I was impressed with the food. I’ll have to try different type of noodle dish next time. Highly recommended if you are a noodle lover and craving for authentic Chinese style noodle dish. Gotta try their Chinese Hamburger too! They prefer cash only, but if you have to use your credit card, they’ll take it.

Bye bye Jin’s Pot, hello Xi’an Kitchen! I hope Xi’an sticks around so I can try some of their other dishes.
After an intense game of miniature golf, it was a welcome relief to walk into the restaurant with the AC on full blast. Even though it was over 80 degrees outside, I still got the hand cut noodle soup with beef brisket. I LOVED the chewiness of the noodles and the beef brisket wasn’t bad at all. (I could have used a little less fat on the brisket, but that’s just me.)
Based on the food, I would give Xi’an four stars, but as others have mentioned the service was pretty poor. At one point, my date and I were the only ones in the restaurant and I still had a hard time flagging down the waiter to bring the check.

Apparently when this place opened in the spring, no one involved had any restaurant experience and things were a little rough. But now they have a much better idea of what they’re doing and the service is just great.
Most of the dishes here are around $ 8 and all of their noodles are homemade. Yes, HOMEMADE. You can get a big, lovely bowl of homemade noodles for just $ 8. I feel a bit like an infomercial here, but I love fresh noodles and this just blew me away. The biang biang noodles are fabulous, piled on top of sprouts and sauce with piles of chili flakes, ginger, and green onions on top. It doesn’t taste very spicy at first, but the heat builds. The noodle soups will splatter all over the the place, so don’t order those if you’re trying to impress a date. But who cares about that? Noodles!
They do have options besides noodles. The green bean and eggplant dish was great. Those are always two of my favorite vegetables, but eggplant fried in lots of oils, tender and falling apart in your mouth is just amazing. I would never have ordered sauteed cabbage myself because that sounds like the epitome of boring food, but it was surprisingly tasty, lightly smoky with an unexpected sour edge.
Everything was good. But seriously… NOODLES.

This is Xi’an cuisine. Whereas Sichuan cuisine is spicy and numbing, Xi’an cuisine could be described as a more fragrant spicy, relying on Chinese black vinegar and sesame oil to complement the spice peppers. The noodles are handmade by stretching them and then banging them on the counter almost in a jump rope fashion which gives them a unique chewy texture while maintaining a flat broad shape. There are also Muslim influences abound, most notably with the lamb with cumin dishes. My personal favorite are the biang biang noodles. Long thick flat noodles roasted in hot chili oil.
Pretty much everything is good here. The broths are all well stewed with plenty of flavor without being too salty. If you order the spicy broths, prepare to sweat a lot. The noodles blow away any other kind of noodles. Ramen doesn’t stand a chance against these noodles. The meats are tender and slow cooked to perfection.
If you have never had Xi’an cuisine, I would much recommend this place. Rice lovers, beware though. This is definitely a noodle heavy place.
Tip: do not order any soup noodles to-​go as they will lose their texture and turn into a soggy mess.

I came back hesitantly since my friends really wanted to try it out.
大盤雞 or the famous Big Chicken Plate is what we got, which is worth it for 20 dollars! Feeds 3 – 5 depending on who you’re with.
Service and all other menu items were still the same so the 2 extra stars are for the 大盤雞，the only reason I would come here!

Was browsing through my favorite section in the CityBeat and came across a review of this restaurant.
Pegged «a different kind of Chinese» place because there is no rice in the menu. Interesting…
Not only that, they have homemade noodles. I think that’s what piqued our curiosity more than anything. That and the cumin lamb.
Back in the day, I was introduced to cumin lamb at DeeDee’s. Things have changed over there so I’ve been trying it when I can find out. It’s different here but still good. The flavor is nice and they don’t skimp on the onions and bell peppers. I would prefer leaner cuts but it is still yummy.
The spicy noodles with brisket sounded delightful and it was. We jokes that there was a handmade noodle, instead of noodles since we had to cut them with a spoon. Small price to pay though. The broth had a tasty spice of Sichuan peppercorns, you know the ones that numb your mouth? Not too strong so we wondered if they toned it down for us. (definitely not needed though!) We felt that the broth was very oily and the soup could have used more brisket and veggies though. That being said, it was good.
We also tried the green bean and eggplant dish. This was a hit. Served piping hot, like the rest of the meal, it was good, good stuff.
Unsure of if the spicy noodles was a soup or stir-​fried, we ordered the hot and sour soup. Yum! It was a great balance and after I added the white pepper, delicious. It was a pretty big bowl and is a perfect thing to share with a huge group.
The last dish that we over stuffed ourselves with was the shredded pork with szechuan sauce. All the items in this dish were cut very uniformly and well seasoned. The meat and the veggies were well cooked.
After spying on other tables, we realized we were missing out on the most famous dish. We think it’s the only chicken dish on the menu. It’s humongous and can easily feed 3 to 4 people.
Next time Xi’an, next time…

I don’t understand all the bad reviews. We received great service the moment we walked in and our waiter had quite a sense of humor as well. One of the waitresses even offered me her iPhone charger as my phone was at 3% (otherwise these pics wouldn’t be uploaded onto here, haha).
Anyhow, if a Chinese restaurant has anything higher than a 4 star rating, I am somewhat skeptical of its authenticity («great service» isn’t typically expected at an Asian food joint, hence the lower ratings most of the time).
I’ve had a fair amount of Northern Chinese food and sure there are much better spots up in SGV but this is one of the first ones to open up in SD. I found the dishes to be quite tasty.
We went with the waiter’s recommendation of the big plate chicken (大盤雞). He said it was enough for a few people so we went ahead and ordered it between the 3 of us. Everything was damn fresh and on point. The chicken was freshly cooked and juicy and the seasonings weren’t overwhelming. It came with a good amount of handmade noodles underneath but when you have 3 hungry dudes (we had just finished a 7 mile hike), it’s not difficult to demolish an entire dish super quick (note, order extra noodles on the side if you’re hungry)!
I’ll have to come back and try their mutton dishes (mouth is watering just thinking about the tastiness).
Until next time!

The ratings are really low because Unilocalers are complaining about poor service. I went in with my mom and we were greeted quickly. As soon as we sat down, we were handed menus and our drink orders were taken. My mom ordered and our food came out in less than ten minutes. The service and the food was good to me. Y’all are acting like royalty. Y’all need to calm down and give it a second chance.

This xi’an restaurant is brand new, and I looked at the Unilocal review and service was the main issue that led to the lower star ratings. I guess when I went there with my fiancé, our service was impeccable and fast, the food was brought out in a timely manner and our waiter was courteous to explain some of the items on the menu, as xi’an food is foreign to me.
We ordered based on our waiter’s recommendation, which were the «Qi Shan Minced Meat Noodle» and «Stewed Hand Made Noodle with Mutton.» The «Stewed Hand Made Noodle with Mutton» was definitely different than the regular noodles served at regular Chinese restaurants here in San Diego.
We liked the handmade noodles, which has a rich, silky texture and taste compared to the dehydrated noodles that some other places uses. The mutton was very well cooked, the meat was tender and melted in our mouth upon the first bite. Xi’An Kitchen was able to get rid of the gamey taste of mutton with the use of spices, which was delightful since I am not big on gamey meat. As for the «Qi Shan Minced Meat Noodle», according to our waiter Qi Shan is a mountain name in China and it is one of the most popular dishes at Xi’An Kitchen. For good reasons, I do love the vinegar taste. The pork was well-​braised and minced, as well as the vegetables.
Portions size is definitely on the larger end. We love the soup base so much that we did not leave a single drop. On a very important note, the restaurant accepts cash only, and there are no major ATMs in the area, except Cathay Bank in the same plaza, but they may charge you a withdrawal fee. I will definitely be returning to try some of the other dishes. It is a good addition to the Asian cuisine in the plaza and has a very different taste than Schezuan Spicy City. Give it a chance and we shall see.

Extremely slow service for mediocre food. I will try again after the staff gets more experience, but for now it’s not worth the wait.
3 stars for food but 1 for service.