Xi’an Famous Foods Opens Its First DC-Area Storefront in Arlington

For a year, Xi’an Famous Foods reached Washington-area diners mostly through ghost kitchens. On Friday, August 7, the New York noodle chain opens a real room in Clarendon, its first DC-area storefront and one of the family’s largest locations yet.

The address is 2800 Clarendon Boulevard in Arlington, in the Crossing Clarendon complex. Expect about sixty-six seats, quick service, benches, and street-food-style stools. CEO Jason Wang has described the space as simple and bright, built for solo bowls as much as a fast dinner with friends. Opening prices are discounted, with many dishes around $10. The restaurant runs a no-tipping policy, and delivery is exclusive to DoorDash.

Xi’an Famous Foods cooks family versions of dishes from Xi’an, the capital of Shaanxi province in northwestern China. The house signature is spicy cumin lamb hand-ripped noodles: wide, chewy ribbons pulled to order, then dressed with cumin-spiced lamb, chile, and a soy-vinegar noodle sauce. The same lamb can land in soup. Other regulars include spicy and sour lamb dumplings, a spinach-dough dumpling with wood ear and vegetables, stewed pork or cumin lamb “burgers” on crisped flatbread, chilled liang pi cold-skin noodles, and a cucumber salad in garlicky soy and black vinegar.

That is northern Chinese street and home cooking in fast-casual form, not a tasting menu. The point of Clarendon is being able to sit with the bowl instead of meeting it only at a delivery bag.

David Shi, Wang’s father, started small in Flushing: bubble tea, then a street nook, then a late-2005 stall in the basement food court at Golden Shopping Mall. Wang joined the business after college around 2009. Anthony Bourdain’s *No Reservations* visit helped push the cumin lamb noodles beyond Queens. The company remains family-owned, with more than twenty locations across New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and the greater DC area, and no franchisees.

In the DMV, an Alexandria ghost kitchen at Four Mile Food Co. on West Glebe Road is closing at the end of July as that facility term ends. Staff and equipment are shifting to Arlington. A Takoma kitchen stays open for now, and a Rockville storefront at 12031 Rockville Pike is planned for October. Wang has said he wants to keep investing in the region after strong local demand.

Ghost kitchens proved the appetite. A Clarendon dining room proves the format. Hand-ripped noodles are better when you can smell the cumin and chili oil before the first bite, and when the ribbons are still hot enough to cling to the sauce.

If you already chase Xi’an Famous Foods in New York, August 7 is a familiar menu in a new zip code. If you have only known the brand from a takeout carton, this is the cleaner first visit: sit down, order the cumin lamb noodles, and decide from there whether dumplings or liang pi come next.