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Went for the first time yesterday with my family. We went knowing next to nothing other than there was a no menu policy and the cookbook is a good read.
It's not a huge restaurant but it's simple and clean, and being sat next to the window at lunch was lovely as even on an overcast day it was plenty bright. Staff were very helpful. The only thing I'd say that is really worth taking into consideration here is that even if you tell the staff what foods you don't like/can't eat it won't necessarily mean that you'll like the food. I found it great, but a couple of dishes weren't as popular with the people I was with. I don't drink so I can't say much on the wine selection but the teas they have were lovely.
Summarily, it's great if you want to go somewhere for a quiet, stress free meal. The removal of choice leaves you with this odd sense of anticipation for the next dish that'll be brought out. And even with the number of dishes, the smallish portions mean that you're unlikely to overindulge too early in the meal.
I'm likely to go back, maybe for dinner or another lunch when the opportunity arises.
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This restaurant does not have a menu. The chef comes over to your table and asks "WHAT YOU WANT" :) It little scary but I guess it is part of the restaurants trademark. You are being asked in detail about what you don't like and how spicy you want your food to be. When I first went there I said medium and for my taste it was still to spicy. Last night I said "mild to medium" and it was perfect except for the chilli beef, which is supposed to be spicy but it was really good.
I can say that I enjoyed every dish they have served, it is a big difference to what you normally get in standard chinese restaurants (e.g. Royal China or Ken Lo's memories). Hunan's food indeed qualifies for a finer cuisine. The wine list is quite long and my Riesling from Germany was a perfect match with the food.
Service is the downside of this place. Although everybody is friendly, some of the waitresses hardly speak English and do not know what they are serving. Last night when we asked what the dish was she said it is a carrot cake (huh?) which turned out to be very tasty fish. They also are not paying much attention to take away empty dishes and at times we had up to 3 plates from previous tapas on our table.
Although Hunan is not cheap at all, I still say that the food is worth the money. I would not book it for a romantic dinner or a special occasion but definitely when I just want to go and enjoy some good food.
Visited November 2012
I love this place. Its a cracker, really interesting food that never disappoints and the welcome is lovely. It only scores 4 instead of 5 becuase the price is punchy and has been slowly go up and is consequently gradually pricing me out.But everyone should try it once. Trust me. I love the set up - just say what you do and dont like and they just bring you lots of different light courses until the finale - the duck. Virtually no carbs or rice. Just really tasty different dishes.
When I booked I was quite sceptical given that I'm a fussy eater and like to know exactly what I'm going to eat. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the variety and the authenticity of the food. The chef even came out to check if everything was okay and replaced two dishes that I didn't really enjoy. Been back a few times since and am constantly amazed at the new dishes that come out every time!
II am sure that we must be reaching the endgame, but there is a large platter of lobster with noodles being paraded round the table. I confess that my heart almost sinks, but there is no world in which lobster with noodles will actually make my heart sink and I get a grip and eat it. It is at the duck and crispy pancake stage that we lose the will and actually say a collective no. We also decline the toffee fruit dessert,showing admirable restraint.
Eat / talk / eat.... The deal is well-known - no menu, you eat what you are given*. If you're willing to try something new and have a good appetite, then what better way to eat: the dishes just keep coming!
At £42.80 a head for food it's not cheap, and not your everyday grab-a-bite, but definitely worth the visit - tripe and intestines were surprisingly good!
Service is charming and helpful and there's a good selection of wines at sensible mark-up from retail.
*dislikes / allergies excepted!
The Master. Mr Peng the Chef Patron is a genius who does not compromise on quality. He hails from Taiwan but has been taught to cook Hunanese food by a fellow gastro black belt.
Mr Peng has passed on his knowledge and skills to his son Michael and together with Mrs Peng they run a superb operation.
The food is superb and cooked with a light delicate touch despite the fact that Garlic , Ginger, Chilli and Corriander prevail.
There is a well chosen wine list to compliment the food - try the outstanding Feluga Pinot Grigio.
There are a couple of menus but just ignore them and put yourself in Mr Pengs good hands and he will just keep sending a barrage of small dishes.
Circa £35-£50 per head ex wine depending on how much and what you eat.
If you are looking for the standard Cantonese heavy MSG food with lots of rice and noodles stay clear of this place.
Our favourite Chinerse in London leave the food to the owners and be assured of a great evening.
When I discuss Hunan with people, half of the people have never heard of it, and the ones who know it think it is one of their favourite Chinese restaurants in London. Hunan is definitely one of my favourite Chinese restaurants in London, located in Pimlico and it is amazing in so many ways, and if you love Chinese food and have not yet been there, you must book it now. For those of you that have not followed my food reviews, my boyfriend and I are going through the alphabet and each week depending on the letter you have you need to chose a cuisine or country that starts with that letter and a restaurant that serves this food (we have already done A (American food) and B (Bolivian food)). This week was my turn, and I had to choose a cuisine starting with the letter C and I decided to take the bf to Hunan (he had never been there before). Hunan is a provi
Hunan since 1982 Going to Hunan is like opening a treasure box. Even though you get familiar with their signature dishes over a few visit, the excitement of having a long, delicious Chinese feast with exact wine to match how you feel on the day revisits you every time you head to Hunan. フナンに初めて行った時はまるで宝箱をあけたみたいな気分でした。 何回か通ううちにおなじみのお料理とかもでてきます。でも、毎回お店に向かうときには、長ーい、美味しい中華三昧の夜とその日の気分に最適なワインを いただくことが、やはり楽しみで仕方なくなるのです。 Hunan is located in affluent street in Pimlico. Hunan is a province of south central China. Its cuisine is renowned for its use of chilli pepper. Szechuan is famous for two different heats in its seasoning - one from chilies and Szechuan peppercorns for another. Hunan cuisine is renowned for its heat and sourness in their seasoni
This is an experience, not a place to repeatedly visit, but if you have a large appetite and great company this would be the concert version of food.
18 courses - they're not kidding. It's a test of how long you can last. The kitchen ensure there is always food on the table, so unlike a French meal with sizeable breaks between course, this is a 4 hour food extravaganza.
I suspect we only survived because we were vegetarian and a lot of the dishes were salad-like and light. The use of the cornflour-based sauce seemed like a repeating pattern but there were some real gems in the meal like a water chestnut preparation, a warm salad wrap, a handmade noodles with soya sprouts and a green aubergine with a mild ginger and chilli seasoning.
Had it not been a cold night, we would have walked a few miles after this well-spent evening.
An amazing diner experience ! We came here with our one year old. The staff was incredibly nice and helpful. The food is incredible, everything from the soup to the Peking duck was superb. The service is even better. Will definetly come back.
My husband has been coming to Hunan since 2006 and it’s incredible to see the quality as good as ever.
Mixed feeling. Very reasonable price, £65 per head, for a quality prefixed menu lunch. But, it is not a top flight Chinese restaurant. A top flight restaurant would use better ingredients.
It seems to me the restaurant has dozens of dishes and recycles them over time. The first course soup dish is the best one. The rest of the course is decent.
I’ve to say wines are very reasonably priced, or even cheap. 2011 Ornellaia is 290£. Anywhere else would be more than 400£.
We visited on a Saturday evening. It’s a relatively small venue. The fixed price menu was priced at £95 each, and comprised of 16 starters (often bite sized) plus 1 main and 1 dessert. We were a group of 3 with differing dietary requirements and the restaurant handled this with ease, providing individual substitute dishes where applicable.
The food was excellent! A great variety of dishes on offer (including scallops, monkfish, steak, duck, lamb…) and the flavours were consistently good. I liked that there was a bit of spice in most dishes. I also liked the flexibility of the menu, whereby a couple of extra items we asked for were provided free of charge.
Service was friendly and the meal was well paced. The bill for the 3 of us came to £556, of which £230 was spent on drinks. This was an excellent meal overall with a differentiated menu concept. I look forward to a repeat visit.
UPDATE:
The Hunan team reached out and kindly rectified the champagne mishap - the speed at which the team responded and rectified was amazing. Thank you!
ORIGINAL:
Some mixed feelings about our anniversary dinner this week. Overall, we had a really lovely time and I would recommend as a really unique, enjoyable experience.
PROS:
- Food was incredible, not crazy expensive, and you will definitely be FULL
- Staff and service were fantastic! Servers were knowledgeable and friendly
- Overall vibe of the restaurant was perfect, a great place for a special occasion
CONS:
- We were offered two glasses of champagne as an anniversary celebration drink… that we then had to pay for…
- The duck main was okay, unfortunately not to the same standard as the other courses
- Service charge is 15% due to the number of courses and knowledge required from staff (as per Hunan’s response below), which makes sense but diners should be made aware of!
One of the best dining experiences I’ve had in London. Quality and fresh food, amazing and attentive service, intrigue and excitement behind the unknown menu. Had the vegetarian menu and was very satisfied.
These pictures are from a visit a while ago so hopefully don’t ruin any surprises. Anyway, the dishes just kept coming out so there are many more to be surprised by. We were stuffed by the end.
You will be sitting for a long meal so make sure you give yourself plenty of time. We sat at 12:40 for lunch and didn’t leave until 3:15 PM. Great if you have the time to relax.
The lunch is 12 courses but honestly they gave us 20 courses! We felt very full afterwards even though they were all small sharing plates. As for the food itself, there were some clear favorites from the table (the intro soup, the fried green beans and the fried cod) but some of the dishes with meat including the beef was lacking in flavor and the lamb was over cooked. The duck course was a bit dry as well. The dessert of red bean pastry and matcha ice cream was just right and not too sweet, I liked my banana fritter with ice cream.
All in all, got more courses than we had expected and some very notable dishes but just enough subpar dishes (mostly the red meat dishes) to drag it down to four stars.
Also service was nice but a bit inexperienced.
I am so impressed by the food and how tasty it was. Every dishes was so delicious. The variety of food that you were served with is definitely worth what you paid for. It was a different kind of experience to be having Chinese cuisine in small portion. Loving it so much.
Such a great experience for my anniversary. I’m usually skeptical of tasting menus because I never get that full but this one is well worth the money. The small plates are beautifully done and the main course at the end makes sure you are full! It’s like a chinese banquet for two, the format of a tasting menu is actually very well suited for chinese food. Authentic flavors too. They gave us two free flutes of champagne and at the end of the night they had an extra crab dish so we got that too for free! The dessert courses are amazing as well. The staff were super nice and very diverse. I highly recommend coming here :)
Eating at Hunan is an experience like no other. We had 18 courses over the 3 hours we were there for dinner and it flew by. It's paced perfectly so you don't feel like you have to roll home! The staff are attentive and friendly and the wine list caters for all tastes. Every dish was excellent but the stand out dish was the soup and lamb. I'd recommend a visit to anyone.
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