After having tried all of the items on the menu though, the best one is still just the plain signature beef noodles
I've been going through the other items at Siye Niula, and that ganchaomian above looked better than it tasted. At least it came with a side of their clear soup, which I liked much more. The other thing that I've since tried here is their hongshao bowl, whose deep-tasting soup is pretty good. But I still prefer the clear original.
So I've rotated through a few of the other bowls available at Siye Niula, particularly the suancai version above, as well as the mala one.
I went for their signature bowl above: the noodles, beef, broth, and chili oil were all good enough for me to clear the entire bowl, even if it wasn't as aromatic, fatty, nor punchy as Shejianjian, Xibu Mahua, and Yi Zun.
The pork katsu curry rice was average by comparison. We would have liked the pork to be more crisp and the gravy to have a stronger curry flavour.