We've never dined in, but we've done takeout multiple times. This place does truly traditional Human food, which is to say that if it has a spicy pepper ?️ by it, be prepared for the heat! For a base starch, we love their chow mein and fried rice. Their veggie spring rolls are a great appetizer. For this time, we tried the Basil eggplant (loved it), Mongolian chicken, and Hunan bean curd. Both chicken and tofu were quite spicy, but the flavors and textures were all great. They were so friendly when I picked up the food and we will probably eat in next time to try that out.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Hemant Patel
This is the only place left in the Bay Area that use the original 90's recipes from Hunan in SF. Others in SF are close, but not the original taste. The place doesn't look like much from the outside, but the food is excellent and many celebrities have enjoyed the food here. Check out the wall of fame! I used to work in silicon valley and ate here 3-5 days a week. I now live an hour away but Everytime in the area I will eat here and take a catering tray home.Vegetarian options: A handful of vegetarian optionsParking: Limited street parking but only an issue during peak lunch time
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Hot and Sour Soup, Fried Rice
Vincent G.
My family has been coming here since the 90s. The food is always good but the spice level varies visit to visit!
Matt C.
Greatest Chinese Restaurant that has ever existed. Every dish is a revelation and we have going here 20+ years
Mike C.
Highly recommend! Great food. Great service. And, super clean. The owner brought complementary appetizers. Our food was brought to us quickly. I have nothing negative to say about this place.
Jami D.
Food was fresh and delicious, especially enjoyed the orange chicken. Portions are generous. Service was good. We'll definitely be back.
Camille L.
I'm really not sure how this restaurant gets 4 stars. It's 2-3 stars at best. I had to throw away the dry fried string beans cuz they lost all structure n crunch (over fried). It's such a simple common dish - usually has soy sauce and onions - this was not salty and too spicy and no umami. Onion pancake had literally 8 pieces of onion - so like 2 per cut slice. Lamb was ok. Missing umami. Pictures of food speak louder than the rating on this one.
Mel M.
My family loves this 'hole in the wall.' The staff are always pleasant and friendly. The food is DELICIOUS. The garlic chicken is our go to, highlighted with bell peppers, carrots and bamboo shoots.
Toy L.
This used to be a popular place in early 2000s for AT&T Business Sales people who worked off N1st and Montague (former Hyundai Semiconductor building). I stopped by again today with a coworker and the spicy basil beef and spicy shredded pork with bamboo shoots was very flavorful and spicy but not too spicy like some other Hunan places where you can only have a few spoonful before sweating profusely and the salty sweat burns your eyes, haha. The combo fried rice was a good compliment to the spicy dishes.
Cheung Wong
The food are simply bad. Sweet and Sour Pork has almost no park, just batter mostly. The Salt and pepper tofu has no salt, and barely tasted the pepper. The fried rice has minimal egg in it. I am not sure where all these good review comes from.
Absolutely obsessed with their garlic chicken over rice lunch plate. If it's dinner time you must buy a la cart but it comes with a lot of meat for the dinner portion. Love to order it spicy which means they toss it in their chili paste oil. It has bamboo shoots mixed in with other veggies like carrots and green peppers.
Suresh Bhatia
We love the Hunan style Chinese food here
Imelda D.
I ordered food for my daughter's baby shower and specifically requested a full tray for three items, which included mostly carrots and cabbage for the veggies, crispy wonton, and salt pepper fish. However, I was disappointed as the meat was not fully cooked, the salt pepper fish was mostly flour, and the tray was only half full. I paid $247 for 1/4 tray each of the three items, and our guests barely touched them due to the poor quality. It was a waste of money, and I would not recommend this place to others
Julio Arevalo
The garlic chicken and basil beef rocks!! Get it spicy ?.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
James Y.
I'm sorry to report that I cannot recommend this place, although I am willing to give this place another shot. My review is limited to just the food as I did not dine inside the restaurant (I had a take out order, and the electricity was out the day I visited). While the limited service I had interacted with was just fine, it was the food that really disappointed me. The hostess was nice, the gentlemen in the back--maybe also the chef, seemed nonchalant about things. The decor inside the restaurant seemed old and dated, but hey, it looks like a small hole in the wall Chinese restaurant, right? So fitting?Okay, let's get to the food. We ordered the Onion Cake, the Kung Pao Chicken, and the Basil Eggplant. The Kung Pao Chicken was inedible. So let's talk about the Onion Cake. It was fine, a bit surprising that it wasn't called a deep fried Onion Pancake, because that's exactly what it was. I've yet to encounter an onion pancake that's a deep fried, but it wasn't too bad. The onion to pancake ratio was also rather low. While I wouldn't order this again, it wasn't bad. The Basil Eggplant was actually fairly decent. I am a fan of eggplants and basil, and this dish was done rather well. Flavor was decent, but could have done with more basil. This dish left more to be desired. Now, the Kung Pao Chicken was inedible. Regardless of all of the ingredients I was able to pick out, all I could taste was salt. It was simply much too salty for any good and we ended up throwing this dish away. There wasn't any vibrant spicy or umami flavors. No hints of peanut flavors, although plenty was used (old peanuts?). It was just simply too salty and overbearing where eating this dish with rice was unpleasant. I would honestly give this place a try again, but I'd be cautious with my second visit.
We've never dined in, but we've done takeout multiple times. This place does truly traditional Human food, which is to say that if it has a spicy pepper ?️ by it, be prepared for the heat! For a base starch, we love their chow mein and fried rice. Their veggie spring rolls are a great appetizer. For this time, we tried the Basil eggplant (loved it), Mongolian chicken, and Hunan bean curd. Both chicken and tofu were quite spicy, but the flavors and textures were all great. They were so friendly when I picked up the food and we will probably eat in next time to try that out.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
This is the only place left in the Bay Area that use the original 90's recipes from Hunan in SF. Others in SF are close, but not the original taste. The place doesn't look like much from the outside, but the food is excellent and many celebrities have enjoyed the food here. Check out the wall of fame! I used to work in silicon valley and ate here 3-5 days a week. I now live an hour away but Everytime in the area I will eat here and take a catering tray home.Vegetarian options: A handful of vegetarian optionsParking: Limited street parking but only an issue during peak lunch time
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Hot and Sour Soup, Fried Rice
My family has been coming here since the 90s. The food is always good but the spice level varies visit to visit!
Greatest Chinese Restaurant that has ever existed. Every dish is a revelation and we have going here 20+ years
Highly recommend! Great food. Great service. And, super clean. The owner brought complementary appetizers. Our food was brought to us quickly. I have nothing negative to say about this place.
Food was fresh and delicious, especially enjoyed the orange chicken. Portions are generous. Service was good. We'll definitely be back.
I'm really not sure how this restaurant gets 4 stars. It's 2-3 stars at best. I had to throw away the dry fried string beans cuz they lost all structure n crunch (over fried). It's such a simple common dish - usually has soy sauce and onions - this was not salty and too spicy and no umami. Onion pancake had literally 8 pieces of onion - so like 2 per cut slice. Lamb was ok. Missing umami. Pictures of food speak louder than the rating on this one.
My family loves this 'hole in the wall.' The staff are always pleasant and friendly. The food is DELICIOUS. The garlic chicken is our go to, highlighted with bell peppers, carrots and bamboo shoots.
This used to be a popular place in early 2000s for AT&T Business Sales people who worked off N1st and Montague (former Hyundai Semiconductor building). I stopped by again today with a coworker and the spicy basil beef and spicy shredded pork with bamboo shoots was very flavorful and spicy but not too spicy like some other Hunan places where you can only have a few spoonful before sweating profusely and the salty sweat burns your eyes, haha. The combo fried rice was a good compliment to the spicy dishes.
The food are simply bad. Sweet and Sour Pork has almost no park, just batter mostly. The Salt and pepper tofu has no salt, and barely tasted the pepper. The fried rice has minimal egg in it. I am not sure where all these good review comes from.
Restaurantji Recommends
Absolutely obsessed with their garlic chicken over rice lunch plate. If it's dinner time you must buy a la cart but it comes with a lot of meat for the dinner portion. Love to order it spicy which means they toss it in their chili paste oil. It has bamboo shoots mixed in with other veggies like carrots and green peppers.
We love the Hunan style Chinese food here
I ordered food for my daughter's baby shower and specifically requested a full tray for three items, which included mostly carrots and cabbage for the veggies, crispy wonton, and salt pepper fish. However, I was disappointed as the meat was not fully cooked, the salt pepper fish was mostly flour, and the tray was only half full. I paid $247 for 1/4 tray each of the three items, and our guests barely touched them due to the poor quality. It was a waste of money, and I would not recommend this place to others
The garlic chicken and basil beef rocks!! Get it spicy ?.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
I'm sorry to report that I cannot recommend this place, although I am willing to give this place another shot. My review is limited to just the food as I did not dine inside the restaurant (I had a take out order, and the electricity was out the day I visited). While the limited service I had interacted with was just fine, it was the food that really disappointed me. The hostess was nice, the gentlemen in the back--maybe also the chef, seemed nonchalant about things. The decor inside the restaurant seemed old and dated, but hey, it looks like a small hole in the wall Chinese restaurant, right? So fitting?Okay, let's get to the food. We ordered the Onion Cake, the Kung Pao Chicken, and the Basil Eggplant. The Kung Pao Chicken was inedible. So let's talk about the Onion Cake. It was fine, a bit surprising that it wasn't called a deep fried Onion Pancake, because that's exactly what it was. I've yet to encounter an onion pancake that's a deep fried, but it wasn't too bad. The onion to pancake ratio was also rather low. While I wouldn't order this again, it wasn't bad. The Basil Eggplant was actually fairly decent. I am a fan of eggplants and basil, and this dish was done rather well. Flavor was decent, but could have done with more basil. This dish left more to be desired. Now, the Kung Pao Chicken was inedible. Regardless of all of the ingredients I was able to pick out, all I could taste was salt. It was simply much too salty for any good and we ended up throwing this dish away. There wasn't any vibrant spicy or umami flavors. No hints of peanut flavors, although plenty was used (old peanuts?). It was just simply too salty and overbearing where eating this dish with rice was unpleasant. I would honestly give this place a try again, but I'd be cautious with my second visit.