XI' AN OXFORD

You head up Banbury Road towards Summertown and slip into XI' AN, where the kitchen actually knows what it's doing with cumin and Sichuan peppercorns. The space is straightforward—no faffing about with mood lighting or Instagram props—but that's rather the point. You're here for the biangbiang noodles (those gloriously rough, hand-slapped things), the lamb dishes that hit properly spicy, and cold sesame noodles that make sense of why people queue up. It's the kind of place where locals keep coming back because the food is honest and the prices won't make you wince.