World Food Life

A lAsting impression

Located directly opposite Arsenal football club’s stadium in North London, tucked behind the far busier Holloway Road, you’ll find the modest-looking Xi’an Impression. Specialising in north-western Chinese food from Xi’an in Shaanxi province, home of the celebrated army of terracotta warrior sculptures, the restaurant opened just over five years ago. Founder Zhang Chao is,

unsurprisingly, a diehard Arsenal fan (although he lives in West London) and while the Gunners’ performance in the Premier League has wavered in recent years, it’s a different story for Xi’an Impression.

Chao was already a seasoned restaurateur in London when Xi’an Impression opened its doors, having previously been involved with Sichuan Folk which opened in 2009 in Hanbury Street, close to Brick Lane and then Sichuan Chef, just off the Earl’s Court Road. Born and brought up in China, Chao came to the UK in 2002 - mainly to learn English, and to complete a master’s degree at Lancaster University,

following his studies in Chengdu in Sichuan province. His girlfriend at the time was also based in the UK, and Chao recalls how maintaining a long-distance relationship back then resulted in a very expensive phone bill. It was his love of food though - eating rather than creating it, and a desire to meet fellow Chinese students, that moved him away from international business studies towards a career in cuisine. “I was craving Sichuan food - at that time most of the Chinese restaurants were in London’s Chinatown, and heavily influenced by Cantonese cuisine with its sweet and sour flavours. Sichuan food is all about the taste, in particular careful spicing, with not much emphasis on presentation,” says Chao. It wasn’t until 2009 that he had enough funds to realise his dream, with the opening of Sichuan Folk with additional finance from

business partners. It’s a model he repeated for Xi’an Impression, opening the restaurant with chef Wei Guirong, who had previously worked with him at Sichuan Folk (Guirong has since left the business and set up her own Xi’an-style eatery, Master Wei, in Holborn). In July 2018, Chao also opened Xi’an Biang Biang Noodles in Spitalfields, which he dubs ‘a larger, more flash’ version of Xi’an Impression. “It was near my first business in Brick Lane and there is a fairly large, diverse student population so the location worked well - near to Hackney and not far from Islington,” he says.

A winning formula

In the last couple of years, Xi’an Impression’s reputation has soared, which Chao puts down to fulfilling Londoners’ fix for Xi’an-style street

food (spicy and with more emphasis on colours and taste than presentation) and a loyal customer base, with the odd celebrity popping in too. Chao also believes in employing staff for the long term, incentivizing them to stick with the business by offering shares. His other mantra is to stick with what you know and what you do best - the menu at Xi’an Impression has stayed pretty much the same since its inception, and it’s similar to the fare at Xi’an Biang Biang Noodles. Inevitably, like any other business in the hospitality sector, the Covid-19 pandemic has had a sizeable impact, perhaps more so, acknowledges Chao, because of the Chinese association. Xi'an Impression reopened for in-house dining from 1 September, with Chao deliberately choosing this date so he could opt out of the Government-backed Eat out to Help Out scheme, whereby diners could get a 50% discount

when they ate in at restaurants from Monday to Wednesday throughout August. “If too many people had come together at the same time, this would have compromised the quality of the food, “ says Chao. “As a small restaurant, I did not want long queues building up.” The restaurant benefited however from a 30% rise in takeaways during the March lockdown, and as it was already operating a delivery service, Chao says it was a case of adapting to a rise in orders rather than starting from scratch. “The government helped us with business rates and I also had a personal loan from the bank,” he explains. “I was thinking that by June or July, we would be back to normal, but now I believe it will take a year or two. I have a loyal group of

customers, so once we re-opened, they just came back. Preserving this group of customers is my biggest

Spice of life

Xian Impression may be tiny - seating around 17 inside with a couple of outdoor spots, but the dishes certainly pack a punch. The spicing in its signature Biang Biang noodles - created fresh on site twice a day, is delicate but lingers nicely on the back of the throat, while ‘smacked cucumber’, cooked in a garlic sauce, adds another refreshing tingle. Other popular dishes include cold noodles, potsticker dumplings and pork burgers. Despite the Covid pandemic still casting a long shadow over the hospitality sector, Chao is looking to the future, and is busy planning not

one, but two new ventures. The opening of a second Xi’an Biang Biang Noodles (delayed by the pandemic but slated for early next year, possibly in West London) and a new concept - a Chinese vegetarian eatery. Details for this are still under wraps but Chao hopes to bring the same regional touch to this venture as he has achieved with Xi’an Impression. “Even in these difficult times, there is one constant - people have to eat,” acknowledges Chao. “And If they love your food, they will come back for more and if they don’t go out, they will eat at home. Keep positive, we are all having to adapt to the current situation.”

Xi’an Impression

117 Benwell Road London N7 020 3441 0191