Xi'an Dynasty Cuisine 西安食代 (Lincoln Park)

Checked out this place last night with friends. We ordered beef noodles, dumplings in hot and sour soup, pancake with green onions, and traditional rice and glutinous noodles. They are all very delicious! We will definitely be going back!

Takeaway: Great dumplings - decent everything else. Definitely some authentic flavors and would for sure come back again! Context: Had lunch here with some family. Although I haven't actually been to Xi'an, I've had plenty of Xi'an restaurants over the course of my life and absolutely love the food. What I Got: Xi'an Style Pulled Pork Sandwich (6/10) Typically one of my favorite Xi'an foods - a bun with Chinese-style pulled pork in it. However, this fell a bit short of the mark. The pork wasn't quite tender enough - it wasn't exactly tough, but did feel a bit lacking in terms of texture. Furthermore, the meat itself was underseasoned, you didn't have too much come through other than the meat itself (which again, was a bit meh). Wasn't bad - just boring Cold Rice Noodle (7.5/10) This is typically my favorite dish and these specific ones are good, but not great. It's a simple dish - cold noodles with wheat dough in a spicy, chili oil. The texture of the noodles wasn't quite there for me and also the chili oil just simply didn't pack enough punch. It wasn't that spicy and didn't really have a ton going on outside of that. Overall, still what it was trying to be, but nothing exceptional. Wonton Soup (9/10) Surprisingly - this was my favorite thing here and some of the best wontons I've had in Chicago. Pork wontons in a meaty broth with seaweed and green onions. Really nothing fancy, but they just execute it amazingly. The wontons are great if a bit standard - a bit smaller and thinner skinned than what you would typically expect, but the real star is the broth. The umami was perfect and a great complement to the wontons themselves. You can bet I drank all the soup. Hot & Sour Dumpling Soup (8/10) Honestly - I didn't get to eat a ton of this because my cousin just crushed it before I could really get my hands on it. Probably a testament to how great it was. I did had a beast and is mostly what you would expect - great dumplings in a tangy, spicy broth. Xi'an Style Crisps with Beef Brisket (6.5/10) This one was pretty disappointing for me. One of the most common Chinese breakfast street food items - a Chinese-style egg pancake wrapped around a variety of fillings, typically a crisp, green onions / cilantro, and sometimes a protein. All the right ingredients were there, but it really wasn't that crispy. It kind of felt like the food must have just been sitting there for awhile, and the crisp got soggy. This basically threw off the texture completely, which is a huge part of what is a pretty simple dish otherwise. The flavor was good and the beef was solid, but the miss with the texture really takes it down for me. Spicy & Numbing Wonton (8.5/10) Another great dumpling dish. Typically more of a Szechuan-dish (unsure if there is a Xi'an variation or if this is just riffing on that), it's basically wontons (the awesome ones I described earlier) in numbing spice. I could eat these all day - they don't do anything too special here, but again, they don't really need to. Excellent execution of a delicious dish results in a thumbs up in my book.

I recently found out this place opened and it wasn't too far from my apartment so I decided to check it out with a friend on a cold night. First, service was fast and friendly. Second the menu was fairly small but that's okay because they can focus on the quality. Xi'an cuisine comes from Northern China where they use more lamb, mutton, beef and pork. This region of China has a heavy emphasis more bread and noodles instead of rice. We got the pork burger, hot and spicy wonton soup, and combination noodles with pulled pork. Everything was really good, I definitely recommend coming with friends and sharing.

My spouse is from Xi’an, and since we don’t get to eat food from his hometown very often we knew we had to try it when we were in Chicago (we’re from the Minneapolis area). This restaurant is the real deal! 🔥 👍🏻 Must haves include Xi'an Style Pulled Pork Burger (肉夹馍), Zhong's Dumplings, Cold Rice Noodle (comes with delicious vinegar, chili oil based sauce), Xian Style Crepes (Pulled Pork), Noodle With Pork Saozi (recombining the pulled pork with hand-pulled noodles and their vinegar/oil sauces). Everything was absolutely delicious! 🤤 I really envy you Chicago people who have this in your backyard. I hope they open a shop in Minneapolis. I’d be their regular customer if they moved here. 😌

Very authentic Xi’an cuisine. Highly recommend and I will definitely bring my friends back.

This was a very tasty meal! I had the pulled pork noodles, and the beef pancake! I like my noodles spicy so I asked them for hotter than regular, and boy was it a good call! The noodles came out steaming and were covered in a light, but very rich broth. The heat crept up on me during the bowl, but it was perfect for me. The beef pancake was flaky and filled with a tasty meat and onion mixture which went amazingly well with the noodles. I don't know if it was poor etiquette to scoop up the last of the broth in the bottom of the bowl, but it was better than licking it clean! I'll definitely be back to this friendly and delicious spot.

Amazing noodles and dumplings. Their Jian Bing is completely different from Jian Bing in Shanghai so I was a bit disappointed but it wasn't bad - the wonton crisp is kind of soggy inside though and not very crispy.

The food there is authentic and inexpensive; and as you can see from the picture, the portion size is fairly large. The food is delicious, and served within 5 minutes from ordering. There's plenty of street parking at nearby streets, even on a holiday weekend. Overall, it was a pleasant experience and we'll definitely visit again!