Lev Lazinskiy

Xi'an Famous Foods

Xi’an Famous Foods 西安名吃 is quickly becoming one of my favorite places in the world. We stumbled upon in last year when we stayed in Brooklyn for the first time and now I have dreams about it.

Aosheng and I went to Xi’An earlier this year on a trip to China. It’s a truly wonderful city and the cuisine is unbelievable. I would not commit blasphemy and go so far as to say that XFF is better than the “real thing”, but it comes pretty damn close in my humble opinion.

Proximity to XFF has become one of my key criteria when choosing a hotel in New York City.

Last night we took an Uber from JFK to Aloft in Brooklyn, quickly dropped off our bags in the room, and then walked two blocks to Xi’an Famous Foods. Within minutes we both entered into a spicy, aromatic, comforting food coma.

If you’re ever in NYC, you owe it to yourself to check this place out. You can also try to make it yourself with the owner’s recently published cookbook or order one of their meal kits to anywhere in the US. I have not had the meal kit yet, but I look forward to giving it a shot in 2024.