Xi'An Biang Biang Noodle is inside a mini-mall in San Gabriel, off Valley, not far from the Rosemead border. Even though I live in South Pas, I'm not in this part of time very often at all but my wife and I had an errand to run in Temple City so I figured, "why not?" on our way home.
This is the second Xi'an noodle spot I've been to in the last month (last time, it was Wen Hui Noodles Hours) and while I was tempted to get the biang biang noodles but as with Wen Hui, the cumin lamb always calls to me.
The version here uses thick, round, hand-pulled noodles rather than the wider (knife-cut?) noodles I'm used to. Those were fine: good chew and all but I do think I missed the wider style. Whereas I felt like Wen Hui's style was a touch too dry, this was very wet, as you can see. They serve it on a plate but I feel like it would have been better in a bowl. The lamb pieces were well-seasoned and the cumin flavor was definitely there but overall, this was just ok. 7/10
My wife, who can't do gluten, got the stir fried rice noodles and these were surprisingly good. I thought it'd be more like a pad see ew but the bite was lighter and more importantly, they used a similar set of Xi'an-style spices. While there's no protein in here (and was priced accordingly), I thought this done very nicely. Combine this with the cumin lamb and you'd have a very solid dish. 7.5/10
I always like getting the smashed cucumber at restaurants like this and the dish came with a generous serving and it tasted good even if it wasn't mind-blowing or anything. I prefer this dish a little less wet (yes, I know cucumbers have a lot of water), similar to how Noodle St. does it but no real complaints here. 7.5/10
All in all, glad we tried it but given the number of Xi'an options in the SGV, this didn't stand out enough for me to think "gotta go back."
by soulsides