Thanan, Mr. FoodandPants and I converged on Flushing some time ago to check out Xian Famous Foods' newest venture, Biang!, their first formal full-service restaurant. The restaurant takes reservations for parties 3+, and was in full buzz during our visit.
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| The restaurant is pretty plain, with clean beige walls, dark wood tables, and simple hanging light bulbs. |
The menu bears strong resemblance to Xian Famous Foods, with the exception of the appetizers, so we ordered a bunch of those. All the skewers come three to an order except the chicken wing.
Presenting the tofu skin!
These had the texture of Bandaids, and I couldn't get over the thought of that. Pretty tasteless with a touch of chew.
The cumin lamb skewers are the same price point as the ones you can get from the food carts on the street corners of Flushing, however these are meatier. I still prefer Xinjiang's, because they offer a higher fat to meat ratio (swooon), and the spice mix used by them is just unrivaled.
The chicken wing here, though, is absolutely delicious. Hot, crispy, and succulent !
I can't even imagine how fat the chickens must've been to yield wings the size of these. Complete slam dunk on these, Scottie Pippen style.
The quail egg / lamb sausage sliders were cute in presentation, Jimmy Dean sausage sandwich style in execution.
The lamb dumplings in chili oil were merely okay. I had hoped they'd be like the dreamy ones from Cafe China, but these were not as successful, with the lamb filling more gamey than I would've liked.
We ordered one noodle dish that featured pieces of pork belly. The noodles were quintessential Xian, chewy and ragged, and the spices were lighter, slightly tart, and satisfying. The little tidbits of pork belly were on point.
After that quick menu tasting, we moved our half-full bellies to my favorite $1.50 duck bun stall for a quick pitstop.
As luck would have it, the boys left me with the fattiest duck skin-filled bun, and it was delicious. Hoisin sauce is so tasty!
Then we introduced Mr. FaP to the Xinjiang cart, a.k.a. the best cumin lamb skewer cart. The flash on his camera had the cart owner worried that there was a storm a'brewin' with lightning, but we cleared that mishap up with a few laughs.
The laughs were short-lived as Mr. FaP quickly reverted back to business, dissecting the simple $1 skewer.
After, we went our separate ways at the New World Food Court, the food court that was created in replacement of the one that was originally in the Flushing Mall (now a parking garage). I'm sure there's some good eats to be found here, specifically one that involves a giant wooden bowl and seafood that nearly every table was devouring, but our dumb butts ate other things.
I tried the roast duck bowl at the Sliced Noodle Stall.
The pieces of duck were juicy and good, but the soup was so-so, most likely laced with MSG, but fairly flavorable. The noodles were springy and solid.
Thanan went to some Taiwanese stall, ordered some subpar pork belly baos, and Mr. FaP ate some inferior mapo tofu that I didn't even feel like photographing, but he managed to mop up all the same.
Then we all went to Ponji Snow Ice and each ordered some crazy shaved iced bowls that none of us could finish, and we all still enjoyed.
I ordered the mango bowl which had mango flavored snow ice, a scoop of mango ice cream, lots of mango flavored popping boba and a beautiful drizzle of my life favorite, condensed milk. This thing was a fun mess to eat, creamy, smooth and refreshing - best shared with another hearty eater.
Then it was all over. The day, and maybe our friendships. Just kidding. 'Till next time !
Han's Nonsensical Rating: Biang! is just Xian Famous Foods incarnate with sweet chicken wings! Flushing is still my favorite eating neighborhood in the New York area (always fun!)! Must get back and eat that wooden bowl full of seafood!
Biang!
41-10 Main Street
Queens, NY
New World Food Court
4021 Main St
Queens, NY
ugh, i need more flushing in my life!!
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