Soups & broths · Shaanxi
Yangrou Paomo
羊肉泡馍 — Xi’an’s signature bowl: lamb soup with hand-torn unleavened bread, bean-thread noodles, pickled garlic — a meal you assemble yourself over fifteen minutes of…
The ritual is the dish: you receive hard round bread (kui) and tear it into chickpea-sized pieces — the smaller and more uniform, the better the soup clings. The kitchen then boils the pieces with lamb slices, vermicelli and a broth with cumin and chili, and the bowl arrives steaming with pickled garlic and chili paste on the side.
Tong Sheng Xiang (since 1920) and Lao Sun Jia (since 1898) are the two heritage houses facing the Bell Tower, and locals argue them the way Beijingers argue duck houses. It is cold-weather fuel, Xi’an’s original workingman’s banquet.
Where to eat it
- Tong Sheng Xiang (Bell Tower, since 1920)
- Lao Sun Jia (since 1898)
Named tables that do it well
- Tong Sheng Xiang — Local Institution
- De Fa Chang — Local Institution
- Fan Ji Roujiamo — Local Institution
- Lao Sun Jia — Local Institution
Routes that eat their way here
More dishes to know
- Lanzhou Hand-Pulled Beef Noodles (兰州牛肉面)
- Dumplings (饺子)
- Cong You Bing (Scallion Pancake) (葱油饼)
- Cantonese Congee (艇仔粥/生滚粥)
- Buddha Jumps Over the Wall (佛跳墙)
- Guizhou Sour Soup Fish (酸汤鱼)