Biang!

Young-gun restaurateur Jason Wang has just about cornered the market for the spice-heavy fare of the ancient, central-Chinese city Xi’an, with his mini empire of Xi’an Famous Foods takeout counters and the original Flushing, Queens, location of this popular sit-down shop named after the sound noodles make as they hit the work surface. Wang relocates that noodle-house operation to this 60-seat East Village dining room formerly home to Wylie Dufresne’s Alder, adorning it with his personal collection of Chinese pottery and panda Pop Art by Singaporean artist William Chua, all brought over from the original location (that space has been retooled as another outpost of Xi’an). The menu likewise carries over, preserving crowd favorites like boiled skewers (tofu skin, beef stomach), small plates (fiddlehead-fern salad, mi pi cold rice noodles) and those signature hand-pulled strands, in varieties ranging from spicy cumin lamb to stewed pork. Taming the heat are traditional desserts, including honey-slathered rice cakes and a sweet fermented-rice egg drop soup.