Chef Ryan at Xi'an Food Bar Dominion Rd. Photo / Brett Phibbs
Chef Ryan at Xi'an Food Bar Dominion Rd. Photo / Brett Phibbs
Unprepossessing Xi'an Food Bar has bold ambitions. "We want it to go for 100 years!" says its co-owner, Ryan Tian.
"We want one day to have a branch as far south as Queenstown."
The aspiring empire is 19 years into this mission. One of its eight branches is as farsouth as Hamilton, with others sprinkled between Auckland's Rosedale and Howick.
My regular is downtown, on Anzac Ave. Each has a menu identical to its siblings', and most food prepping is done at the Xi'an Food Bar "central kitchen" in Mt Roskill.
That's where the hand-pulled noodles — a signature dish of the restaurant's namesake city, in China's central northwest — are hand-pulled. Oh how I love these noodles. Silken, chewy, incredibly un-uniform.
Their chunky, broad beginnings taper into narrow, twisted tails of varying lengths. Hand-pulled noodles in Xi'an are known locally as biangbiang, because that's the noise they make when slapped against a kitchen bench. At Xi'an Food bar, you can choose from a dozen different accoutrements and eat them in soup or "dry".
Thirty-seven-year-old Tian recommends the noodles with fried egg and pork mince. I like them best in a cloudy broth of lamb and coriander ($13.50), with the slight kick-tingle of Xi'an Food Bar's own chilli oil. It's Tian's pride and joy and after years of experimentation, he's confident he's perfected the recipe.
Tian says the hand-pulled noodles, like all his dishes, are "very traditional". Xi'an is his ancestral homeland, the easternmost origin of the Silk Road, and one of China's Four Great Ancient Capitals.
Xi'an Food Bar Dominion Road - Lamb hand pulled noodles an Xi'an style bread with a 'dark plum soup' can of fizzy drink. Photo / Brett Phibbs
Another very traditional dish is "Xi'an-style pita bread soaked in lamb soup" ($16.50), otherwise known as paomo. This beautiful broth is spiced with star-anise, fennel, and cinnamon; its accompanying leavened flatbread is torn into tiny bits before immersion.
The "Chinese burger braised pork" ($7.50) — roujiamo — is another Xi'an specialty. It's the same bread, stuffed with sweet, tender pork that's been slow-cooked with myriad spices.
Xi'an Food Bars' food is indisputably delicious. And fantastic value. And definitely pretty. Some may claim the eateries lack ambience, however. It's true in a way: they are unprepossessing.
At the Anzac branch, you are greeted by an A4 sheet of paper taped to the door, with opening hours scrawled in green felt tip. Inside, an A-Grade food safety certificate is the only adornment on walls the colour of an anaemic dolphin.
Chef Ryan at Xi'an Food Bar Dominion Rd. Photo / Brett Phibbs
Lightbulbs that dangle from the high ceiling issue a strange combo of warm and cool light (as though, when a bulb blows, a coin is tossed over the hue of its replacement). The half dozen tables and their chairs are utilitarian.
But it's clean and efficient and feels authentically "Chinese stop-eat-go", which Tian points out is exactly what it is. Staff can seem surly, probably due to language barriers and New Zealand's severe staff shortage.
Pre-pandemic, with migrant workers aplenty, Tian employed 40 people across eight eateries. He's now running on three-quarters of that workforce.
"Whenever we'd advertise a job previously, we'd get so many calls," he says. "Now, not a single call."
Xi'an Food Bar was founded by Tian's uncle, Philip Tian. Tian the younger started working there in 2008, when he migrated to New Zealand, and took over the business with family friend Nicole Jhang a decade later.
Philip still works in the central kitchen, focusing on food quality and consistency across branches. Tian describes Jhang as "the brain" of the business; she's also the CFO of a large construction company.
Officially the food bars' manager, Tian is now the business muscle: he rushes between restaurants to cook, wash dishes, and/or serve customers wherever an extra body is most needed. When photographed for this column, he was in the Dominion Rd branch.
Plans for the Xi'an Food Bar empire are still in place, but the lack of workers has Tian more focused on maintaining a holding pattern.
"We are just finally starting to breathe again," he says.
"It's been tough but we are determined — and when we see our customers happy I know it is worthwhile."
*bull; Find this restaurant at 11 Anzac Ave, CBD (also in Rosedale, Panmure, Northcote, Balmoral, Mt Albert, Howick, and Hamilton).
