Xibei Eatery

In December 2024 and August 2025, Xibei – a growing northwestern Chinese-style restaurant chain from Inner Mongolia – opened its first U.S. locations in Los Angeles and Arcadia, respectively, offering no clues that an Orange County location would be next on the list. So we were thrilled when a smaller version called Xibei Eatery unexpectedly soft-opened in March 2026, replacing the questionably named “Bite Mi Asian Kitchen” in a mixed-use residential, shopping, and dining plaza immediately across from Santa Ana’s Mainplace Mall.

On our first visit, Bite Mi’s signage remained above the entrance, but Xibei’s tasteful wood, rope, straw, and tile decor significantly spruced up the previously minimalist interior; by our second visit in early April, Xibei’s permanent sign was up, and the menu had modestly expanded with a page of “new dishes.” Long communal tables and benches provide much of Xibei Eatery’s roughly 50-person seating capacity, notably minus any of the chain’s signature red checkered tablecloths, not that they’re missed.

If you’re expecting the Americanized version of Mongolian food – DIY noodle and protein plates theatrically stir-fried on a huge metal cooking surface – you won’t find it at Xibei, which instead offers an menu that isn’t wholly different from northwestern Chinese restaurants such as Noodle Nest and Six Alley. Just as in Arcadia, however, Xibei Eatery prominently advertises Mongolian-style oat noodles at its entrance, hinting that this locally rare item will become available in Orange County. On our first visit, the Santa Ana menu’s only oat option – cold “veggie oat noodles” ($12.75) – was out of stock when we tried to order them. As of April, the cold oat noodles were gone, replaced by a “tangy tomato oat yuyu soup” ($11.75) featuring “hand-rolled, fish-shaped oat noodles.” We ordered and generally enjoyed this soup, but the strong, hot tomato broth drowned out any distinctively oat flavor the pin-shaped noodles might have had.

Our advice would be to stick with Xibei Eatery’s hot oil-splashed, ultra-wide, and decidedly non-oat-based noodles ($11.75 to $18.75), which are dusted with chili powder and oil, then paired with beef, pork, or chicken. There are also three types of “XL” dumplings sold in six- or nine-piece bundles ($12.75 to $22.75), four rice bowls ($14.75 to $18.75), two types of cold noodles ($11.75 to $12.75), roughly a dozen small plates ($3.50 to $9.75), and two desserts ($4 to $12). Six teas ($5 to $5.50) and a mango coconut milk smoothie ($6.50) are the only drinks besides free ice water.

In a welcome change from the norm, most of Xibei’s small plates are actually priced to encourage sampling, including $3.50 hot and sour soup, $5.75 cucumber salad, and $7.50 crispy pork. Due to inflation, it’s hard to find comparable value at most new Chinese restaurants these days.

On our first visit, we went with the hot oil-splashed beef short rib noodles ($18.75), which were being offered as a soft opening special including a house salad and iced tea. This noodle bowl paired a single large beef rib (normally $9 on its own) with several fists worth of inch-plus-wide, hand-cut flour noodles, bean sprouts, and baby bok choy mixed with a chili oil, soy, and sesame sauce. Each element was legitimately delicious, though a little challenging to eat with chopsticks due to the slippery, oversized noodles and bone-in beef. When we returned for a second visit, we opted for the minced pork hand-pulled noodles ($15.75), which were exactly the same as the first bowl, apart from replacement of the giant rib with cubes of fatty pork. While the flavors remained strong, the fat was a turn-off, and we wished we’d ordered the rib (or some other protein) instead.