My heart breaks to write this as so many reviews lead me to believe this was another Booming Hot-Pot discovery of Chinese bliss - a unique Chinese cuisine experience waiting for me to dive in head first. Sadly, not so much.
After fighting a cold for the last couple of weeks, seeing check-in's for Shaanxi Gourmet coupled with mentions of an epic "lamb with noodle" soup as well as appetizing photos drew me to arrive at said restaurant for dinner on a Saturday night around six. Shaanxi specializes in the titular region of Chinese known for pork and lamb meat. That's fantastic - I'm a big fan of both, particularly lamb.
I read up on the reviews and understood that this was hole-in-the-wall drab decor with friendly service and great food that had rather blah decor and sometimes required paging the staff for refills. Okay, that's manageable.
However. The server couldn't understand ANY English. I had to point at what I wanted. I had to point at a pot of tea to show I wanted hot tea. I asked for another serving of soup, he brought a bowl. Beyond the language barrier, our server forgot half of our order! I had to remind him after chasing him down for another menu to point at this. I eat at a lot of foreign restaurants that I can get past the language barrier but it was poor, overwhelmed service coupled with a lack of comprehension.
The epic soup? Completely devoid of any and all flavor. Even ramen and pho that has strong condiments at the table to flavor the soup to your liking has a strong flavor to begin with that is only complimented by the table fixings. This was just... beyond me. Super thick noodles and giant chunks of lamb, awesome. Flavorless soup? Bland?! I was so just disappointed with all of this. The lamb skewers were tiny for what I expected and slightly over-seasoned.
So frustrating. And 25 dollar credit card minimum? Forget this place.