Tongshengxiang Restaurant

Tongshengxiang has served yangrou paomo from its Zhubashi Street address in Xi'an's Beilin District for over a century, and along with Laosunjia is considered one of the two defining names in the city's lamb-and-flatbread soup tradition. The restaurant follows the classic ritual of the dish: diners receive a plain, dense flatbread and tear it into small pieces by hand before the kitchen simmers it in a rich mutton broth ladled tableside. Cold-mixed tripe and a lighter mutton-and-vermicelli soup fill out a short, focused menu built entirely around Hui Muslim halal cooking rather than a broad multi-cuisine offering. The dining room is unpretentious, with plain wooden tables and stools, open sightlines to the soup station, and a working-class canteen energy that draws as many local regulars as tourists; there is no dress code and conversation volume rises quickly once the lunch crowd arrives. As a halal establishment, no alcohol is served, though the restaurant does not require reservations and instead relies on quick table turnover to manage its short midday queue.