Jim ThurmanShaanxi Gourmet opened a second location in the San Gabriel Valley last week — which means that folks in Arcadia and those closer to the 210 (we’re looking at you, Pasadenans) will be able to get dishes like “Chinese Hamburgers,” cold skin noodles and yáng ròu pào mó without having to drive all the way down to Valley Boulevard in Rosemead.
When it opened in Rosemead in the fall of 2011, Shaanxi Gourmet quickly established itself as one of the most interesting and popular restaurants in the SGV. Within months, the restaurant doubled its seating capacity as crowds kept the tricky parking lot chaotic. They were there for food from the north-central province of Shaanxi and, more specifically, the capital city of Xi’an.
You can expect a menu identical to the Rosemead restaurant. This means rou jia mo, also known as a “Chinese Hamburger,” a sliced flatbread filled either with pork or cumin lamb; cold skin noodles (liang pi), made from wheat starch and served with sesame paste, chile oil and vinegar, which are perfect for summer heat; and, of course, the Shaanxi and Xi’an specialty, yáng ròu pào mó, lamb soup with tiny cubes of flatbread — sort of a Chinese gnocchi.
Shaanxi Gourmet, really; Credit: Jim Thurman
If you drive up and down Baldwin Avenue looking for Shaanxi Gourmet, you won’t find it. Instead, look for a yellow banner that reads “Noodles King.” It’s on the northeast corner of the intersection with Fairview, in the spot that was most recently home to Sichuan restaurant OG Chong King.
As soon as you walk in the door, you’re greeted with a wall mounting that explains biang biang noodles, the thick Shaanxi noodles that are the width of a belt and known for their ridiculously complex Chinese character consisting of 58 strokes. The mounting is the same as the one in the expanded seating area in Rosemead, and pretty much everything else is the same, too. That’s a good thing for those looking for the cuisine of Shaanxi Province. To top it off, you can get 30 percent off your bill for the next couple of weeks as part of the opening celebration.
Shaanxi Gourmet, 921 S. Baldwin Ave., Arcadia; (626)445-7662.
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