Chinese restaurant with fast service and large variety of lunch specials.
Reviewer: Jason
Total Reviews: 1040
Reviewed: 2/27/2006
Rating: 7.5
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We stumbled upon Hunan Gourmet while searching for the phantom vegetarian restaurant on Murphy. The entrance is located in the hallway across from the belgium chocolate store. One of the 1st things I noticed about Hunan Gourmet was the lighting. They had bright lights near the tables, on top of the counters, light coming from the windows, it was a well lit restaurant as opposed to the dark dungeons we're used to seeing.
By the time we walked in, the hostess quickly greeted us, sat us down, waters were dropped off, and about 2 minutes into the menu, the waiter dropped off salad and hot and spicy soup. Talk about fast service! We were given the cough cough...american menu with 6.95 and 7.95 lunch specials. I was expecting a small plate of tiny side of rice and my dish. Thats not the case at Hunan Gourmet, hese are full plate lunches with a giant bowl of rice to share. I ordered the beef with chinese greens.
Salad - I dont know about you guys but does anyone like eating yellow lettuce? Its served on a saucer plate, looks like the salad mix thats comes out of a 13 gallon trash bag. It doesnt look appealing, I didnt even try it. In fact, I would suggest that Hunan Gourmet dumps this hideous looking freebie.
Hot and Spicy Soup - water downed bland nothingness. heavy on the corn starch and low of the spicy flavoring.
Service excellent, soup and salad no good, lets hope the main dish is better
beef with chinese greens - this plate is huge and enough for 2 people. Since Terry doesnt eat beef, I had enough takehomes for another meal. Meat was very tender and large amounts of it. The chinese greens were mini bok choy which is one of my favorite vegetables. Veggies werent overcooked and the mix of the beef sauce complimented the mild cabbage. I liked this dish and would order again. Oh yeah, it wasnt salty either, even hours after eating lunch I barely needed to drink water.
Overall, I liked the service, the lighting, the beef with chinese greens. I almost forgot to talk about the rice....so fluffy, so good, Im not even sure my Neuro Fuzzy Zojirushi can cook something this excellent...ok Im exaggerating but I get excited for good ol sticky white rice. Hunan Gourmet was pretty good and with full plate dishes, I thought the value was well worth it.
I was not terribly impressed with Hunan Gourmet. I decided to go with the Hot and Spicy Tofu Lunch Special for $8. The Hot and Sour soup and salad arrived before we ordered (nice touch) and the soup tasted really bland and stale. I finished it, but it was probably the least enjoyable Hot and Sour soup I have ever had. The salad had an interesting dressing, peanuty flavor, but otherwise was just standard. I ate about half of it.
The wait was very short for our dishes. Mine arrived and was pretty large. I couldn't finish it all. The tofu was firm and flavorful, and it was a bit spicy, but not overly so. The dish was also very greasy. It upset my stomach for the rest of the day.
I would probably not return here again. I heard the hostess say sorry to no less than other 3 tables at the restaurant. It got to be almost funny.
Reviewer: Dan
Total Reviews: 84
Reviewed: 10/16/2007
Rating: 6.5
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It's been a while since I've been to Hunan Gourmet. When I saw the entry on Jatbar I thought I'd stop by and check it out again. I arrived by myself at just before noon behind a big group and was seated next to the door. The place was almost full. They were obviously busy and the wait staff was really dashing around. It took a while for my server to arrive, but at least I had hot tea on the table to fight the cool breeze wafting from the door. I ordered off the menu (broccoli chicken) since it wasn’t on the lunch special list. They didn't blink…no problem. Cool. Then I looked at my watch and started timing. In 5 minutes, my salad came (geez - kinda slow). Salad was nothing special. Just OK. Lettuce was good quality. After eleven minutes, my hot and sour soup arrived (getting really slow now). This soup was actually pretty good and I ate most of it. Then, 23 minutes after ordering, my main dish arrived. Wow...this is seriously slow for lunchtime Chinese food. Disappointing. My meal itself was decent and had a nice sauce, but I've had better elsewhere. I did like the fact that they gave me my own heaping bowl of rice, and this rice was pretty good. After finishing my meal I had some trouble getting my waitress to bring me the check. Finally some other server noticed me and brought it. I didn't want to wait yet again for change, so I left sort of a large tip considering the poor service, but my lunch hour was burning up fast. Cost was $10 even. This is slightly high considering I can get a better meal at Hangen in Mtn view for 2 bucks less. Rating is 7.0 so far.
On my second visit I arrive on a cloudy Friday and the place was not very busy. Service was not a problem this time and I received, water, tea, soup and salad before I ordered my food. Cool. Salad was much better this time – a mix of lettuce and crunchy noodles with a light, sweet dressing. Not sure why it was different tha my previous visit. Soup was just OK this time and I didn't finish it. I was in the mood for shrimp, so I ordered the shrimp with broccoli lunch special off the $7.95 lunch special menu (OK, so I like broccoli!). This time I remembered to ask for No MSG. My food arrived amazingly fast – 3.5 minutes. Zounds! The only problem was that I was imagining big, fat shrimp in a white sauce over fresh broccoli and rice. What I got were tiny curled, tail-less shrimp in a thin, brown sauce with broccoli that was way past its prime. This dish paled in comparison to the equivalent meal I used to get at New Ma’s in Mtn View (now closed). The flavor and odor were also a little "off" and I was wondering if this was a result of them throwing together some random sauce as a result of my no-MSG order. I've never had problems with food quality on No-MSG orders elsewhere. This was by far the worst Chinese meal I've had in recent memory. It seriously reminded me of a Chinese frozen dinner straight from the microwave. But I was starving and I ended up eating two-thirds of my meal, finishing up with a plate of rice only. I won't get this dish again. Total was $10, a ripoff for what I received. 6.0 for this visit.
Not sure I will be back to Hunan Gourmet. I may be back someday to try the Beef and Chinese Veggies that Jason had. And because I know others who like this place.
Pros: Fast service when not busy; Some dishes OK Cons: Poor service when busy, Some terrible dishes, higher prices
