Babaili Restaurant Menu

Babaili Restaurant brings the flavours associated with Xi'an and the wider Shaanxi region to a full-service dining room on Willis Street. The cooking is bold and savoury, with noodles, breads, dumplings, skewers and shared dishes offering several routes into the menu. Weekday service is focused on dinner, while weekends add lunch, making the room equally suited to an evening banquet or a slower daytime exploration of dishes designed to be passed around.

The Xi'an staples give the menu a strong sense of place. Hand-pulled noodles arrive with braised meat or in the classic oil-splashed style, while cold noodles can be dressed with tahini or regional seasoning. Roujiamo places braised pork inside a baked bun, and steamed buns come with pork or beef. Dumplings filled with beef and vegetables or pork and vegetables can be ordered dry or in sour soup, creating a useful contrast between chewy dough, broth and spice.

Beyond noodles and bread, the menu is built for a table that wants variety. Starters move from smacked cucumber and wood-ear salad to aromatic ribs and Xi'an calabash chicken. Seafood may be steamed with ginger, scallion, tofu or vermicelli, coated in salted egg yolk, or served in chilli, tomato and sour broths. Sizzling beef and lamb, dry-pot fish, kung pao chicken, Shaanxi mixed stew and slow-braised pork dishes carry the meal into richer territory.

The barbecue menu offers a more casual way to order, with individual skewers spanning lamb, beef, pork belly, chicken, prawns, squid and vegetables. That breadth makes it possible to add a few smoky bites to a noodle meal or assemble an entire shared spread. Vegetable dishes such as garlic choy sum, mushrooms with pak choi, sweet-spicy eggplant, green beans and mapo tofu provide further balance. Tea-infused cocktails extend the regional idea into the drinks list rather than treating beverages as an afterthought.

Address: 278 Willis Street, Te Aro, Wellington 6011, New Zealand

Get directions

Moved or closed? Tell us: Moved·Temporarily closed·Permanently closed