After living in China for 6 years and eating at hundreds of different street foods stalls throughout Xian, I'm listing my favourite 21 Xian famous foods to try below.
I'm including complete addresses and detailed ordering instructions for you as well! You can choose your favourite spots and take yourself on a Xi'an food walk! By the time you finish all of them, you'll have a great understanding of Xian food, and you will have tasted some insanely delicious flavours!
Note: Exploring for these Xi'an foods on your own will take a LOT of exploration and time. I recommend installing a VPN before arriving to China so that you can use Google Maps to find the pins on the Google map below. I recommend ExpressVPN (49% off with this link). I've also listed a few different VPN options on my best vpn for china guide. you This is especially useful if you're using my other Chinese food guides, like my Chengdu Food Guide, my Guangzhou Food Guide.
Thanks for this post. Just had the biang biang mian and they are fantastic!
Hi Trevor,
Thank you so much for all your useful food guides. We will definitely be using them. We’re travelling to Chengdu soon and making a day trip to the Terracotta Soldiers. I was wondering if there is any food worth checking out near the Xi’an North Train station. We will be taking the bullet train in and out on the same day and might not have time to make it down into Xi’an proper.
I really thank you for helping Xi’an publicity. We also welcome foreign friends. China is really not as bad as the Western media. We are fortunate to live in a peaceful country, not a peaceful era. In short, thank you very much . Friend from Xi’an
Hey Trevor, I’m coming to Chengdu for the next 2 weeks. Of course I will try some of the food stalls you listed! I’m really excited! Is there any chance to meet you as well during that time?
Rigards,
Nic
We tried 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 14 and you made our trip! Xi’an street food is really amazing. Thanks for the blog, great explanations.
Note: On the map on the top where you mark restaurant 14 is actually restaurant 13.
Regards,
Kilian
Awesome!! I’m so happy you enjoyed them Kilian!! Thanks for using this as your guide for your trip to Xi’an!
Thanks, Trevor! I’ll definitely buy them in that case 🙂
By the way, where would you recommend us finding a truly authentic gong bao chicken dish in Chengdu? Fly restaurant? CHENSHI LIANGFEN?
No chance you’re in Chengdu between 3-7 May?
Safe travels and keep up the good work! Been watching your content for over 3 years.
Cheers,
Oscar
Hey Oscar!! For Gongbao Chicken, yes, you can go to the MingTing or almost any restaurant. It’s very very common and most places in Chengdu do it very well! I don’t think we will be in Chengdu during those dates, I hope you have an amazing time in Chengdu Oscar, thanks so much for watching our vids and I hope the posts are useful for you!
Hey Trevor!
London buddies and I heading to Chengdu, Chongqing, Xi’an & Beijing for an epic 3 weeks.
We love all of your content! What is the value added by buying your guises? Same info as above?
Many thanks – can’t wait to food range! 4 night in Chengdu & 5 nights in Xi’an – gotta catch em all!
Warmest good wishes from the UK!
Best,
Oscar
Guides* lol
Hi Oscar!! Yes, same info as above, with clickable Google maps and dianping links. It’s helpful to have and is a nice way to help support my site, but the info is all the same. I hope you enjoy your awesome trip!!
Lived in China for 4 years (near Hong Kong). Visited Xian once, loved it! Have seen a lot of Chinese food sites, but none are done as well as this one. Nice job! Looks great, has an awesome layout, with great info, maps, and pics. Congrats.
Hi Trevor
You are very welcome to France and Tunisia for great food experience 🙂
Hi Trevor, I enjoy watching Food ranger video in youtube. This article and your video will be best guide reference for me since I have plan to visit Xi’an in March. But, Is the entire places you recommended in your list in this article is Halal? Coz I really want to follow your maps
Trevor you’ve opened up a different world for all of us and as a Malaysian I’ve eaten Chinese in only around peripheral countries. Thank you so much for your effort! Wish I had a job like yours!
Thank you so much for your excellent guide. We ventured out and managed to try out 8 of you awesome recommendations. Well let me you they were amazing. The people were so friendly and helpful to us. Right now we’re on our way to checkout Chengdu. Which of course we’ll yet again take use of your Chengdu too.
Uzbekistan… 🙂
We gotta come!
Omg they look amazing! Thanks for sharing this! I will definitely bring this guide with me when I go to Xi’An. My mouth is watering from just reading this list.
Awesome to hear that Lucy! I hope you have a great trip to Xi’an!
Hey James I really enjoy your videos I watch your videos learn a lot and explore different places.I will invite The Food Ranger team to Lahore.
Thanks a lot Hamza!! We would love to visit Lahore!
Thanks Food Ranger Trevor ??? What an incredibly detailed write up on the food in Xi’An in China. Wow it sounds so good. This certainly gives so many options. Breakfast, lunch and dinner would be a challenge to decide. Pork buns, noodles and the dumplings just sound really good. I would have to try them all. Take care and thanks for sharing your insights into this amazing culinary destination. ???
Hi Jeremy!! Thanks so much!! I hope you can try them all man!!!
Thank you ..Trevor..u made my job easier to visit places in China and enjoy its rich food ..the maps u provided and the hotels are extremely useful …since majority of people don’t speak English we cannot go around and keep on asking people ..you always do excellent things and this certainly is one of them for sure !?
HI Abishek! Thanks so much! I’m really happy you like the post! I hope you find it useful buddy!!
I really like the maps and all the useful information! I can screenshot places I want to visit.
I leave for China Tuesday and have been binge watching your YouTube Channel! My husband is super jealous of your language skills. Another guy who does a city on $20 a day started playing and my husband started yelling, “is this guy everywhere!”, when you appeared on his videos! Lol!!! We are enjoying watching you eating around the world.
I really appreciate this format. So that I can actually find the food I want to try. The videos often move to fast to jot things down.
Hi Stacey! Thank you very much for the nice comment! I really hope that this proves useful for you!!