North West Chinese Food, 7313-E Baltimore Ave., College Park, MD, 240-714-4473, very close to University of Maryland. (Metro Trip Planner – opens in new window) [Ylp]
I really enjoyed my meal here, because I love this cuisine and it is hard to find around these parts. This is a fully authentic mom and pop where you can get spicy cumin lamb burger, Shaanxi and Yunnan style noodles, and meat on skewers. That said, this place still has a few kinks to iron out. The waitress doesn’t speak English, many on Yelp complain about the service (I had no problems), and not all of the flavors fully come together. I found it delightful, I expect it to improve, and I will definitely go back. Recommended, but with some variance around the edges.
I must have walked or driven by here several times since it opened, but somehow I still found out about this restaurant through your blog.
The food was very good, especially the spicy noodles with tomato and egg. The service was not. We didn’t have any language problem, but the food was slow and my girlfriend’s food came out with the appetizer about 30 minutes after mine.
Next time you are in NYC go to Spicy Village in Manhattan or Uncle Zhou in Elmhurst Queens and Xian Famous as well.. they make variations on this kind of food and blow this out of the water.. that being said this is good too, as you said, for DMV. Uncle Zhou and Spicy V are Henan but have some similarities to this.. Xian is this kind of food straight up
Matt the slowness sounds amazing, that being said trying to understand the order of food coming out of a real Chinese kitchen in the traditional sense will always upset a westerner. Even though they may separate the menu into courses, most “real” Chinese places send out the food whenever it is done, and the order is not ever considered that way.