Hunan Taste

Was visiting DFW area and found this place. Had gone to Hunan Bistro the night before and was disappointed with the food (bland, generic flavors... seems they changed chefs). So we were on the hunt for some real Chinese food.

Was skeptical about this restaurant based on previous reviews... but upon closer look, seemed most of the bad reviews were from people ordering Americanized dishes (seriously, why you would order orange chicken or mushu pork from an authentic Chinese restaurant is beyond me.... that's like ordering fried chicken at an authentic Italian restaurant!) We noticed other bad reviews were about service...

Well I don't know about you, but in the US, I don't really go to Asian restaurants for the service. It's all about the food.

Going to a restaurant during the pandemic is unfortunately hit or miss. Sometimes the menu is limited or maybe the food is lacking. Neither of those things happened when we wandered in at 3pm on a Friday (when most spots are closed and unwilling to serve you). Our experience was WONDERFUL! Owner was charming, personable, and attentive.

Food-wise:

Amazingly authentic Hunan food and flavors. I would know, having been born in Hunan... the smokiness, pickled chili's, the savory umami, balanced with a variety of colors and ingredients.... are all super hard to find the States.

We got the:
- Smoked beef with white pepper 白辣椒腊牛肉
- Pork with peppers 农家小炒肉
- Pickled chili pepper fish head 剁辣椒鱼头
- Stir fried cabbage 手撕包菜
- 糖油粑粑 not sure about the English name for this dish... but it's basically like insanely delicious fried brown sugar mochi, for dessert

If you want sweet and sour pork, go to Panda Express. If you want REAL Hunan food, this is the place to be.

Highly recommend
- By a real chick from Changsha, Hunan

The food was terrible, not what it used to be. They got the pickup wrong, we had to drive back, and they didn't even give us compensation for their mistake. The person that attended us hardly knew English and didn't understand what compensation meant. There was only one person tending to the customers.
We used to be faithful clients before the restaurant changed owners. Luckily, the old owners have a small place in the Asian Market where we go to get the food now. It's not a big menu, but the fried rice is exquisite.
Never ordering from this new place again.

UPDATE!!!!
I just found a hair cooked into the chicken pineapple I ordered!!!

Quite authentic Hunan restaurant -- coming from my parents who lived there for 40 years, that's pretty high praise. We came on a week day during lunch and it was pretty empty. There were only 2 waitresses so service wasn't super fast, but they were quite nice and helpful. It did take a while for the food to come out (for a Chinese restaurant, still less time than most western restaurants).

We ordered the following:
- Hunan style smoked pork (湖南炒腊肉) - cooled with dried turnips and peppers, pretty greasy but that's how it's usually cooked
- cauliflowers (干锅花菜) - not the best I've had, has decent portion of meat
- steamed spare ribs with taro (芋头蒸排骨) - pretty yummy
- steamed fish slices (蒸鱼片) - the tofu is super soft and yummy, fish is just catfish, comes with a lot of peppers and is soupy, large portion
-snow pea leaves (豆苗) - pretty small portion, there's no fresh veggies on the menu so you just have to ask what kind they have today

For 4 people we ordered way too much and ended up taking home enough for another full meal. Pretty happy with the experience in general and will come back to try some other dishes!

I've been here about 3 times now. They are extremely slow for dine in as are most places in this area. They are keeping the place dark and no music is playing but dang is the food good. Doesn't replace my top seeds for crazy spicy Chinese food but it is up there for sure. Today I had chicken in ginger sauce which was more like a crazy spicy and numbing chicken soup for the demented soul. It was all so good. I also had pork and chilies which was pretty flavorful and makes you sweat while you eat it. I do like this place a lot and definitely recommend. Don't come for standard dishes, get their chef specials and stuff. Way better.

This place just opened. They took over the location of the old North China restaurant. So far, based on what we ordered, they are really good for Hunan style - very spicy, very flavorful. They are on the right track for being a new addition in the multiple Asian places popping up around north Dallas.

Service - 3
Like I said, they just opened and boy is it packed. Thus it makes sense that service will be slow. Wait staff is running around trying to accommodate everyone and food takes 20+ minutes to get out. We ordered two dishes - a simple one and one that normally takes 20 mins to cook. The first one took 10 mins and we're still waiting for the second one 30 mins later. I sure hope their serve time improves over time.

Food - 4.5
Spicy and good (辣得很爽). They gave plenty of peppers and 酸豆角 in this one dish. All I can say is that it's pretty awesome and makes to want to try the rest of their food while still following the "don't order 3 character dishes" rule.

Price - 4
The price is good given the quality of the food. Worth it.

Other
Rice is free.
They've been open a month.
Call ahead to check for stock and to order ahead if you plan to order any of their fish head dishes because they take awhile to cook.
The fish head (large) is massive.

Came here for Father's Day and it was an amazing experience. The owner was very nice and gave us complimentary tea. It was the best tea I have ever had, such a rich taste. The dishes were very good and had nice flavor and spice. The hunan taste is definitely present in their dishes. If you want fresh authentic hunan food definitely come here.

I don't usually complain, but I specifically look at the times of operations for restaurants especially when we order online. We ordered as the picture shows they are OPEN today, yet we called after not receiving our food only to be told they were closed. No email, no phone call, no text. I would have appreciated any of those instead of sitting here waiting for food that we thought we were getting delivered not knowing they closed today for whatever reason. I appreciate my card not being charged but still some form of communication would have been very appreciated.

Let's be honest, Dallas Chinese food scene is average at best. I have yet to find a good authentic Sichuan food places. Or a good dim sum place. Or any Chinese food place that is worth the money. If you want really good authentic Chinese food, your two best options would be buying a plane ticket to NYC and LA. Or you can drive down to Houston where good Chinese restaurants exist and it's only a few hours away. One would think that there should be some good Chinese places in Dallas, since it's a big city and has a decent Chinese population. I'm sorry to disappoint you, I have yet found those places.

Aside from the rant, Hunan taste is one of the best Chinese places around town. The owner and chef are from Hunan, China. The first time I went I was not impressed, but either I have lowered my expectations or I ordered better options from the menu, Hunan taste has grown on me and It's been pretty consistent every time I came. I love spicy food, and this place has so many options. Even if you can't eat spicy food, there are other options.

Recommendations:
Ask for the house special, it's some kind of traditional Hunan food and involves some tofu product taste best in a soup form (sorry I don't have the name for you). It's interesting and I have yet had this at any other restaurants here.

Another two staples are "beans and gizzard" 酸豆角炒鸡胗 and something kidney (ask for the spicy type and shown in pic 1) 口味腰花. I tried another tofu dish, and it is pretty good as well (pic 2; notice this is different from the other tofu thing that I mentioned above) 铁板豆腐
dry pot cauliflower (not sure if this is the correct name) 干锅花菜
Fish slices (not sure of the name, but it is frequently listed as a special on the special menu from the entrance)

Atmosphere and service are next to none. But do you actually go to a Chinese food place and expect those? I don't.

One of the few options for Hunan cuisine in the area. I personally don't have the experience to speak to its authenticity, but it's quite good.

One note--Hunan cuisine tends to be oily and spicy, which often puts it in comparisons with Sichuan cuisine. They're each different types of spicy, though. If the tingly, numbing, peppery spicy of Sichuan dishes were not your thing, give Hunan dishes a try: they're just pure spicy... perhaps the spiciest of Chinese cuisines.

My family was excited to see a restaurant that also offered classic dishes from our region, northeast China.

\\ 回锅肉 (P4. Twice-Cooked Pork)
- tender pork belly slices
- flavorful: simultaneously peppery, tart, spicy
- the flavors are because they're infused in as it's boiled first and then stir-fried

\\ 红烧肉 (D23. Mao's style Braised Pork Belly with Chili Pepper)
- a favorite among our diverse crowd
- for our group of thirteen, we ended up getting two
- the fat is creamy and savory, while the lean part is still tender
- portion size isn't very much though...
- each chunk is a little bigger than bite-size
- two chunks were enough to satisfy my appetite for them while still leaving room for other dishes

\\ 空心菜
- forgot what this was called in English on the menu... but it's a simple stir-fried Chinese water spinach
- not spicy
- great option if you want some veggies for a more balanced meal

\\ Bok Choy
- forgot what this was called on the menu
- savory
- not spicy
- yum, fresh, juicy, crisp
- if i come back, this can be a go-to veggie option for me

\\ 地三鲜 (N2. Northern Style Vegetables)
- eggplant, potato, bell pepper
- oilier/shinier than we make at home, but that's restaurant-Chinese for you
- not exactly my favorite...

\\ 小鸡炖蘑菇 (N8. Stewed Chicken with Mushroom)
- wrong type of mushrooms... they used generic white mushrooms in grocery stores; should be a forest mushroom...
- didn't see any glass noodles
- chicken does come with bones in it so be careful!

\\ 水煮鱼 (Steamed/Boiled Fish with chili)
- traditionally a Sichuan dish, i think
- kind of spicy, peppery/numbing
- still pretty tasty here but i'm not Sichuanese... it seems pretty similar to what i've had at other places

\\ 湖南鸡 (C11. Hunan Chicken)
- not very remarkable to me...
- the chicken was quite soft, but the texture didn't really feel like meat anymore
- i haven't had this dish very much in the past so again i don't know if this matches expectations

Overall, the flavors are pretty yum. There are lots and lots of protein options, so it's not exactly the most vegetarian-friendly. Rice is on the house; portion sizes aren't too generous... That said, if you share with lots of friends, it can still be decently reasonable (less than $15 per person).

Also... this might sound like common sense, but I wouldn't recommend coming to this Hunan restaurant for Northeast dishes... That said, there aren't many other Northeast cuisine options in town (yet), so if you want to see what the Northeast has to offer, at least you can get a taste here.

This restaurant is closed, sign has been taken down and a For Lease sign on the door.