Braised Fish
Xi'an Sizzling Woks

Xi'an Sizzling Woks

4000 Chestnut St, 19104, Philadelphia, US, United States

Soup • Asian • Dining • Chinese


"I feel like many of the negative reviews for this place are from folks who might've ordered the wrong things (which, fair, if a restaurant has food on their menu, they should do it well! . But then, here's what you should do. 1 Order the Xi'an specialties, not the Americanized stuff. And 2 Get the pita bread soaked with beef or lamb soup. My husband is originally from Xi'an and he says this is the most legit version of it he's tasted, and it's so good. Comes with cilantro, red chili paste, and pickled garlic on the side, and when you dump all those flavor bombs in, the tranquil broth becomes addictive. Those pickled garlic bits--ugh, so good! The only thing that's not so great about it is that the pita is pre-chopped and thrown in already, and a bit chewy. My husband says you're supposed to just get a thing of bread to rip up and toss in yourself. Still, so glad we've got a place like this nearby! Will definitely be back, and will go to the Chinatown location, too!The biang biang noodles with ginger and scallion were pretty good, but it got boring kinda fast. Wish there was a bit more going on in there. The Xi'an pancake was like a crepe filled with sour julienned potato and jalapeno. I really enjoyed it! The cumin burger was very cuminy, and the bbq lamb with cumin flavor skewers were pretty good to me, but my husband LOVED THEM. Will have to come back to try more stuff!Service was a tiny bit slow. There's one waiter and she was on her phone a lot. And the interior is not the nicest--yellow walls and old-ish furniture. But do I care about any of that? Not really. The food is where it's at."