Hunan

my husband and i went to this restaurant last night and the service was terrible.

my issue is not with the food: it was good - what there was of it. there is no menu: you are asked how hungry you are: a little, quite or very. we said quite. my friend who goes there often said we would have course after course. they failed to appear. what did appear was very good but not nearly enough. and what food we did get we had to wait for hours, literally. for the final dish, supposed to be the main one, he offered us SLICED duck (which takes 24 hours to prepare) rather than CRISPY duck, which is standard fare. as a reviewer of asian restaurants i am sure you know the difference. he was able to offer us the sliced because a table downstairs had cancelled last moment. he offered it to us after admitting that we had not been given the proper food.... when it arrived it was crispy duck. the waiter preparing it with his two forks refused to accept that we had been offered sliced duck. we all sat there stating, again and again, that this was not sliced duck, etc. he carried on preparing it, refusing to meet our gazes, saying quietly, 'really?', 'oh?' and just ignoring us. finally i got hold of another waiter and asked for the manager. he arrived and took the dish away immediately and admitted the mistake. but it was not a mistake: that much was painfully obvious. the manager had known what was happening and clearly thought we wouldn't notice. i am sure that you can dine there and have a good experience. we had a bad one. other people should know about it. i should have written this review this morning when i am more 'stable'.
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kirsty mackay
1 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Wednesday, July 08, 2009

i used to come to this restaurant with my family in the late eighties and early nineties. we always loved it. i moved away and i did not return until tonight. my wife booked a table several weeks ago. we picked the hunan because we were meeting a friend of mine, who is a director and a partner in one of the pimlico green companies, and so it was most easy for her to join us - and while i had not been to the hunan for a decade, at least, my friend told me it was her favourite restaurant and it had only got better. she told that there were no menus, they brought you a succession of delicious dishes, and the service was excellent. unfortunately, because my wife booked rather than my friend, the owners did not recognise the name so we were given a rather dreadful table upstairs. the food was delicious - but only arrived after chronic prompting - and arrived in tiny samples.

the food was good (rather than excellent) - but the service was terrible - our service was overseen by a woman who seemed to think we had no idea about chinese food. after a series of annoying discrepancies and extremely sparse offering the evening was (finally, and completely) ruined when we were presented with crispy duck rather than sliced duck. anyone who is familiar with the difference between these two dishes knows that the difference is irreconcilable. the chinese woman played dumb. she refused to acknowledge what she had herself pretended to write down only an hour before: sliced, not crispy duck. in the event the crispy duck was dry and tasteless. clearly, the management had believed we would not know the difference. appalling - stupid - completely unnecessary. the attempts by the maitre d' to pretend that it was a mistake were embarrassing: as he apologised for the woman's behaviour she stood behind him glaring... never again.

the reason the evening was finally, and completely, ruined by the duck incident was the barefaced belief by the chinese woman (i believe the proprietor's wife) that we were so ignorant we didn't know one dish from the other. how wrong she is!
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john stockdale
2 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 1
Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Went to Hunan last night with a group of 10 friends and having lived in HongKong and other parts of Asia I have to say it was one of the best chinese I have ever had !

The service was excellent. We called several times to amend our reservation which must have been very annoying but the staff was very nice about it. During the dinner our server (a tall girl with short hair) explained all the dishes to us, joked around with us and was absolutely nice and fab.

I can't wait to go back!!!!!
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10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Friday, June 26, 2009

Been before and so jumped at the chance to go again. We sat at the table, ordered a bottle of wine, then waited to be asked the "meat or fish" question before all the food starts to arrive. But we waited some more....20 minutes in all. Not good.

However, this proved to be a blessing, as the chef/owner spotted our table and asked what was going on - after telling him the 20 minute wait story, he told off his son (Michael - good lad) and his missus (always moody) - before asking if we ate "everything" - we do.

I recommend the "everything" choice as we seemed to get some dishes other table weren't getting (duck tongue salad being one). Simply incredible - 14 dishes of incredible complexity and taste - really special and the best Chinese food I've had outside Hong Kong.

One beef dish was way too salty, but I love this place and will look forward to returning when the opportunity arises.

14 dishes + a £38 bottle of riesling and the bill came to £130. We could of ate more, but still full. Leaving aside the wait - it was a really enjoyable meal.

Whilst I am a advocate of free speech, anyone who think this is a by numbers Chinatown place should have their opinion ignored.
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coops
8 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 8
Sunday, March 29, 2009

A truly awesome gastronomic experience!! I celebrated my 28th birthday last Saturday afternoon at Hunan. We were a party of 8, but due to district and circle tube lines being closed everyone was late! And if you have eaten here before (I had once before, hence why I wanted to introduce my friends to this amazing restaurant) you will know there is only a short window of time to eat in the afternoon as the kitchen closes at 14.00.

We asked the owners son, Micheal if he could possibly make an exception and see if the chef would be willing to keep the kitchen open a little bit longer. And we were lucky as we didn’t stop eating till nearly 15.00.

Also because we were a large party some were pescitarians and others pretty much open to trying anything, our waiter had no problems with this what so ever. He merely said he would bring an even mix of meat and fish dishes for everyone. All our dishes were fresh, delectability exciting and mouth-watering, each plate delivered to our table got a ‘wow’ reaction from all of us!

The restaurant is family run, cosy and neutral in its décor. But you go to a restaurant to enjoy their food and your company all of which we did and thoroughly!

The next part was the bill, and being as it’s the year for battening down the hatches with regards to money because of the credit crunch, the bill was very fair. It came to approx £30 per head for food, and the alcohol was kept within reason. I wanted to pop open a bottle of champagne, but with the credit crunch I had to be reasonable with costs amongst my friends. So the entire food bill for 8 people was under £330 (incl. of service charge too!)

Incredibly good value for money, as we got 9 courses of food, desserts and 2 bottles of wine, and a special treat for me the chef was kind enough to keep his kitchen open for bit longer!

So this restaurant is a must if you are a ‘foody’ and want something a little quirky, and great value for money.

Happy eating my foody lovers!!
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Yan Nim-Chi
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Monday, March 09, 2009