Hunan Restaurant

Went here on the friday during chinese new year and was expecting it to be packed. It wasnt but it was probably due to the fact that it was just after 6pm when we met.
I didnt really look at the menu as we were on a time schedule so my friend ordered for me. If you like your food hot then this is the place for you! Everything came with lashings of chilli and garlic. We had 3 dishes and rice had some very tasty noodles that were served with pak choi. They also serve hot pot and bbq dishes here which are cooked at your table by your own faur hand. I would like to cone back and try the hot pot as it looked interesting and a popular option.

I found Hunan through a review on the Creative Tourist blog. The food here is great, and the menu is blissfully BS-​free. Smoked things taste smoked, pickled things taste pickled, things that claim to contain meat do, indeed, contain generous amounts of meat. Nothing was skimped on, and the portions were great for the price. Two people could easily split a main and leave satisfied. The £2 chinese tea turned out to be a whole pot. Their homestyle, braised dishes left us full and happy. The bill was very reasonable, and the service was attentive without hovering.
The major thing this place lacks is magic. All the food we had was great, but I’m not daydreaming about any of it afterwards. I agree with Natalie W. that this would make a very poor choice for an outing with someone you don’t know well, like a first date or business lunch. If clay pots full of tripe and pickled cabbage sound like a good time to you, or if you’re tired of ordering dishes with expensive ingredients, only to find they’ve been padded out with sweetcorn or somesuch, please make a trip here. There is so much on the menu I can’t wait to try (duck tongues, I’m looking at you), I’ll be back very soon.

I had extremely high expectations of Hunan which were probably unfair but it wasn’t a major disappointment in any case. I ordered my two favourite dishes — fried chicken with chilli and aubergine with pork mince. Both were fairly good although involved lots of garlic which I realised too late was probably not a great idea to eat on a date. I tried to persuade the date to order the Hunan beef with cumin as I have previously eaten and adored lamb with cumin but he went for the sizzling beef which as he accurately pointed out tasted strangely similar to the pork with aubergine. Hm. His fried chicken wings were a little tough. I would give Hunan another go because it’s reasonably priced and they have a pleasing selection of scary Chinese offal dishes on the menu, but it’s probably not a good place to come for the first time with someone you are trying to impress!

A couple of foodie friends had visited this place in late 2013 and commented about the great food it serves on twitter. They suggested we arrange to go with them. 2 months in the planning to go to a Chinese restaurant and here we are at Hunan in the epicentre of Chinatown.
We were a bit early so delved into the menu with a tsing-​tao in hand. Every other customer was from China or this part of Asia suggesting we were not going to get the usual gooey beef and bambou mixture or the gelatinous chop suey.
The menu is mesmerising. Before you even see any food you know you’ll have to be back as you just want to try everything. Between the four of us we had a good go however. We ordered the salt chilli tripes (I love tripes), Braised duck in beer sauce, bean sprouts and peppers, smoked bacon kinda spicy stew, whole sea bass in chili sauce, smoked aubergines…
Boy were we full. But the flavours were just fantastic. It’s very spicy but not so that you can’t taste the food. Plenty of garlic and soy sauce but superbly cooked.
Service was really good too. The range of drinks isn’t great but if you’re happy with Tsing Tao then you’re on. And chances are you’ll be the only one drinking it in the restaurant too as the locals have a strange looking iced tea (I think).
We all loved it and I will most certainly be back for more soon.