(Image: Qin Xi’an Noodles)

By Jadenne Radoc Cabahug, CHS reporting intern

The arrival of Qin Xi’an Noodles at the base of Capitol Hill was supposed to be an expansion of the family restaurant serving the warm, spicy dishes of Northwestern China.

Five years later, the tiny Pine Street noodle joint is the only Qin around.

These chilly days are a good time to visit as the shop celebrates five years on Capitol Hill. Customers can enter the cozy and warm, mom and pop restaurant to escape cold Seattle days and see smiling owner Hongxin Li pulling noodles and his wife Bufeng Gao serving signature dishes like Lanzhou and Shao Zi sauce Biang Biang noodles. Their son Yanli Li was there when CHS called to talk with the family about their business and their noodles.

The Shao Zi sauce Biang Biang noodles are delightfully hot and chewy and drenched in chili oil sauce, making it a perfect dish to get warm fast. 

Owners Li and Gao immigrated from China and opened their first location in Edmonds before going on to open a second branch in Capitol Hill in 2017 to serve folks in the city.

CHS reported here as the noodle shop moved in and hit the ground running, barely bothering to scrub the old Baguette Box menu from the chalkboard.

But the expansion didn’t go as planned.

In 2021, the Edmonds original burned along with 13 other businesses in a devastating fire. Yanli Li says no one was hurt in the fire but that his family restaurant’s insurance only covered a third of the property damage.

Li said his parents tried for months to look for other locations after the fire, but ultimately decided to focus their attention on Capitol Hill.

Li, said they chose Capitol Hill due to its proximity to downtown Seattle and because it has a lot more residents to serve. Li shared that while he was studying abroad in Bellevue Community college, his parents came to visit him from China and his mother liked the freedom and business environment in Washington.

Even though Li’s parents can speak minimal English, he says that this has not impacted their ability to do business or their ability to be part of the food and drink community here at the base of Capitol Hill along Melrose and Pine along with longtimers Ristorante Machiavelli, the now 11-year-old Li’l Woody’s burger joint, and the newest addition to the block, the Pho 4 U soup joint.

Over the pandemic, Qin Xi’an Noodles’ sales dropped around 60 to 70%, but Li says that they’ve been recovering since pandemic restrictions were lifted and more customers are coming in.

Qin Xi’an Noodles has also regained its footing enough to begin supporting Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission and its new Bring a Meal program.

“They want to help people, they know there’s a lot of homeless people in Seattle, [so] they try their best to help them,” Li said. “We have to help them and they have this need, we can help them in our way.”

Qin Xi’an Noodles is located at 1203 Pine. Learn more at qinxiannoodleswa.com.

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