I’m trying to find Biang Biang Noodles in LA (similar to what is served by Xi’an Famous Foods in NYC) but I live pretty far away from SGV. Is there anywhere closer to Westside or Koreatown that serve anything similar to Biang Biang noodles?
Bang Bang Noodles might be your best bet.
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qin west in chinatown is closer to ktown though bang bang might have better noodles. but there’s also a qin west on the west side. they’re shaanxi, so i assume they’d serve biang biang noodles.
Qin West was my first thought too, but I notice they don’t have biang biang noodles on their menu.
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The character is hard to print. Some places have similar Shaanxi noodles (the late Shaanxi Gourmet did). Qishan tiaozi are actually as famous in Xi’an. And I think tastier. But ymmv
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‘Biang’ is one of the single longest Chinese character to write, clocking in at a whopping 62 strokes. But it may be a modern creation, used to garner business via noodle shop signage.
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Though it’s getting away from the “outside of SGV”, the best biang biang mian I’ve had was at the since closed Xi’An Tasty in Monterey Park and the still open Xi’An Kitchen in City of Industry. Both gave a generous swirling of pepper and chili oil, which was great. IMO, much better than the Shaanxi Gourmet version.
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I don’t remember shaanxi gourmet offering biang biang main, although they had a calligraphy plaque with
The shtick signage in action… It’s like the whirly red white & blue spinny thing to indicate a barber shop.
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Re qin west
Looked at the plan you because I was unfamiliar with it. It might be great… But…
The name in Chinese means Guilin (guangxi) and Shaanxi food in one home/family. So there are z Guilin specialties, Shaanxi specialties, Sichuan food, done oan-Chinese dishes, even Hubei Wuhan hot dry noodles (reganmian).
I haven’t eaten there. I can vouch for it. But they seem to be popular with five locations. So you takes your chances
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The simplified is writing it in Latin letters. It’s not a canonical character
And technically this is simplified as the portion on the left and under has only one dot as opposed to two .
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Oh, Shaanxi Gourmet had biang biang mian. First place that I had it in the SGV. I can’t find the old LA Weekly article that was specifically on the biang biang mian there, but there are other references to it in other articles on Shaanxi Gourmet.
EDIT: Ah, here it is Biáng Biáng Noodles + Where to Find Them - LA Weekly
Unfortunately, the photos no longer appear.
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OK. So I read the article. I never ordered them there because they weren’t on the menu. If someone knew to ask, great. I was excited to get rou jiamo and the paomo unleavened bread for the soup. Some local friends made it once for a party and we all were breaking of the bread for our own balls. So when I went to the restaurant I asked if we could do it ourselves and they were very amenable.
And I saw some things at the restaurant I hadn’t seen before like something boiled in a small covered dish the method/dish was 汆. Looking it up now, something whether a meatball or vegetable is placed in boiling broth or water, cook quickly and then put into a container with some of the boiling liquid and serve. So this is called quick boiling in English I guess
So it is completely possible that the restaurant provided biang biang noodles. I just don’t ever remember seeing it written out anywhere either in Pinyin or in the menu
And the article is from a long time ago. I think I remember once going there and pointing to the character and asking if they had the noodles and been told that they didn’t. But hey. Other places seem to have it.
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It’s quite possible they didn’t have them when you asked, as that really seemed a problem at times with Shaanxi Gourmet. And their menu was always an adventure. It wasn’t translated for a bit. I recall a wave of discussion on CH about how they were no longer serving the lamb version (yang rou jiamo). The lamb version wasn’t on the menu, but I found out it was still available and ordered one. The server told me to just point to the rou jiamo and say “lamb” 
. Shaanxi Gourmet could be a puzzle at times, and there was quite a drop off in quality later on, but I completely concur with you how many items were things I hadn’t seen before in the SGV. That was an exciting opening.
Fortunately for us Chinese noodle fiends, biang biang mian has proliferated in the SGV since those haughty days of yore!
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Amen to that! And usually the less bland version with the chili oil and pepper. Bringing it back to the “outside of SGV”, not many options, sadly.
Qin west was a huge disappointment. The closest offering was “liang pi” and it was not at all similar to biang biang unfortunately
Technically, the radical showing on your post is in simplified Chinese, not traditional Chinese.
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