Laosunjia Restaurant (Beiyuanmen Branch)

Laosunjia traces its lineage to 1898, when a Hui Muslim vendor began selling lamb soup near Xi'an's Drum Tower; the Beiyuanmen branch, set on Dongdajie Street in the Beilin District, remains one of the most trusted addresses in the city for yangrou paomo, the Shaanxi dish of hand-torn flatbread soaked in a long-simmered lamb broth. The house style favors a clean, slow-cooked lamb stock over heavy spicing, letting the broth's depth carry the dish once diners tear their own bread into bite-sized pieces for the kitchen to cook to order. Beyond the signature soup, the braised beef platter and steamed lamb dumplings round out a menu built around halal Hui Muslim cooking rather than the Han Chinese cuisine found elsewhere in the city. The dining room is a busy, no-frills hall with shared tables, tiled floors, and a steady churn of local families and out-of-town visitors; there is no dress code and noise levels rise sharply at peak lunch and dinner hours. No wine or alcohol is served, in keeping with the restaurant's Muslim ownership, though tea and soft drinks are available. Reservations are advised for dinner, when queues can stretch past the entrance, while lunchtime walk-ins are usually seated within a few minutes once tables turn over.