Hunan

Photo of previous location at 508 2nd Street #104

Some insist that Hunan is the finest Americanized Chinese food, also referred to as Americanese, restaurant in Davis. And it has a full bar.

Their prices are competitive, especially for lunch — lunch specials include rice (fried or steamed), soup or salad, chow mein, and an entree for $4.75 - $6.25. Most chicken and beef selections cost between $5.00 and $5.25. The soup changes from day to day - it's egg flower soup on Tuesdays/Thursdays and hot & sour soup on Monday/Wednesday/Friday. The lunch environment is somewhat informal. Almost any given day you will find a large group of college students around one of the larger round tables laughing and having a good time. Service during the lunchtime hours leaves a lot to be desired — don't expect speed service or water refills! At times, the waiters even act like it's a bother just to serve you.

The dinner environment is much more formal and quiet. Prices for dinner are more expensive but servings are much larger. Almost all Soups, Tofu, Vegetables, and Appetizers cost $4.00-$6.00. Pork, Beef, and Chicken entrées typically run between $7.00-$8.00 and Seafood dishes average between $8.50-$11.50. Dinner service is fast and attentive. If you don't want to eat there you can also place an order to go and get 10% off.

Prior to March 16, 2009, Hunan was located at 508 2nd Street #104. They closed for a few weeks and opened at their current 207 D Street location in April 2009.

• Feature article in Davis Life Magazine
  

• Restaurant review article in Davis Life Magazine

Quite a number of people have noted what they believe to be unauthorized charges/tips, typically in very small amounts (ranging from cents to a dollar or so). Although annoying, this practice is common in some restaurants. When authorizing your card, the restaurant places a hold for an estimated price, before the customer indicates how much tip they are leaving on the receipt. The charge should be corrected in a few days when the final transactions are submitted by the restaurant. Before launching a complaint, be sure you waited a few days before checking your bank statement.

Comments:

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• Reviews from 2005 ~ 14 comments
  

• Reviews from 2006 ~ 6 comments
  

• Reviews from 2007 ~ 29 comments
  

• Reviews from 2008

2009-01-01 14:14:33   The Hunan is awesome! I am a big fan of their Hunan Beef and their Honey walnut shrimp. I prefer to go for Lunch because they have their Happy Luncheon where you get a main entree, side of chow mien (which is so good), side of rice (fried or steamed) and a cream cheese wonton. The best part though is the soup included in the luncheon special. I am a big fan of their tasty soups, oh and the salad is great too. I can never quite decide on soup or salad so I usually just get a salad as well :) Dinner isn't too bad of a deal either as they have a similar option to lunch. Overall the Hunan is prob. some of the best chinese I have had. GO TRY IT! —hazeleyes16

2009-02-09 03:10:37   I love coming here for lunch on MWF because they have hot and sour soup on these days. For $6, you can quickly get a large meal. Although everything taste pretty similar, I still think the variety of items you get is worth it. Seems like people complain about customer service since there's only a few people serving a bunch of tables, but as long as I get to order and get my food on quickly, I'm happy. I'd rather have them leave me alone while I'm eating anyway. They do refill your water often. This is my favorite Chinese place for lunch! —TonyaNN

2009-02-14 16:02:01   I think that while the prices for lunch are really good, the level of customer service (or lack thereof) was just too terrible to warrant another trip back. I really only go for the "crab" meat fried wontons but I think from now on I'll just get it to go. I had to wait for the host to even bother looking up from his newspaper to get seated and the waitress started walking away before we were even done ordering. When our food got to the table, we realized they messed up half of our order. Service this terrible didn't even deserve the 35 cents I left. The quarter could have been put to better use doing laundry! —AliceW

2009-02-21 18:57:47   The worst customer service I have ever received at a restaurant —Jtom23

2009-03-01 20:58:14   I would only go for their cheap lunches. As many have mentioned, their service is below par... But then again, how much more can you expect from a 5 dollar lunch. —renee415

2009-03-08 16:02:09   Not crazy about the food here, but eh...

—strawberry

2009-03-08 16:47:10   In short: If you are willing to endure bad service for great (albeit Americanized) cheap food, this is the place for you. I went last night as one of a party of five, including some non-students. We had to wait for about five minutes, but that wasn't a problem. The waiter took our order, we waited for about thirty minutes with not a trace of food, not even the soup we'd ordered. Meanwhile, two parties that had been seated after us had been served. We flagged down a waitress, who told us very promptly that our waiter had left our order in his pocket and forgot to place it- interesting that she knew this and didn't bother to tell us. Our waiter came back to our table, offering us free soda about five times before he finally got the hint and walked away. When he brought the food out about fifteen minutes later, he had the order wrong. The food itself was excellent, though. MAJOR HINT HERE: If you order something with meat and vegetables (e.g. Mongolian Beef, Sweet and Sour Shrimp), they seriously skimp on the meat and put in as many veggies as they can, so ask for no veggies if you know you like Mongolian Beef and lots of it. We had planned not to tip, but one of my friends felt bad and left three dollars, about 7% of our $45 bill. Hopefully that got the point across. The food is good and so are the prices, but the service is awful and I feel like we got the short end of the stick mainly because we are undergrads and they think we'll wait for anything. —acparsons

2009-04-10 15:26:12   While the food was great, this place EASILY had the worst service of any restaurant that I've been to since living in Davis. When my friend and I were seated we waited 10 minutes to get just water and menus, which were only given to us upon request. I requested tea as well, and they brought 1 cup for 2 people. The food came out in an average amount of time and tasted good. After we were done and went to went to pay for the meal, we requested that the check be split. The person working the register said..."I guess" and then proceeded to lecture us on how hard we were making his job, and that when we "got out into the real world" we would understand this. Both my friend and I have worked in the restaurant industry for a number of years and understand that it takes no more than 30 seconds to split a two person check. It was almost enough to cause me to go back in and remove the tip from the table.

Long story short, if you want the food, get take out, because the customer service is absolutely horrible. —davisreviewer

2009-04-18 15:18:43   Orange chicken. OMG so good. —CodyDuncan

2009-04-26 18:37:37   A few simple things to remember here - first, don't expect great service when your meal costs $5. Second, short of you witnessing the waiter spit in your food, NEVER omit a tip (and 7% might as well be 0%) - this will only make service worse. Last, remember: the food is cheap. They don't make their money splitting checks. They make them by turning tables. Although the cashier might gripe a little, I've never experienced true rudeness from any of the staff. Like most servers, they're probably overworked and under-appreciated. Just my two cents, FWIW. —BigRedGiraffe

2009-05-04 16:20:06   Good food with good prices. Try their special lunch, especially the honey crispy walnut shrimp, yummy! —thtly

2009-05-04 16:22:23   When I ordered the fried wonton, I expected to have some meat. However, they're just the fried wonton wrappers. They should've stated that in their menu. —thtly

• I always was under the impression that fried wontons were just the wrapper, anyways. I've never seen a restaurant offer fried wontons with meat before, although that would be interesting to try. brookeb
  

2009-06-16 12:46:01   They had a rat problem in their old location. There were dead rats in the kitchen area when the space was demo'd in April. After they moved out you could see the rats crawling around the empty space. Saw it with my own eyes. Never again will I eat at Hunan. —jimb62

2009-06-22 20:16:38   Hunan is the worse place to eat! Do not go there, they have bad customer service and treat their customers like S**t —Karina

2009-07-14 20:35:46   How do they get their food out so fast? Makes me wonder, even though it is delicious! Customer service sucks tho! —davisgirl10

2009-07-16 21:31:41   It takes awhile to get your food after you order it even when the restaurant isn't buisy. However, I do love their lunch specials. —BryceH

2009-07-24 10:14:30   The new location is a bit nicer, and oddly enough, the host and waitress (who I think are the owners?) were more friendly here than at the previous location. The food quality has gone downhill, though, which is sad because it was already deliciously crappy and cheap haha. I wouldn't even pay the ridiculously cheap $6.50 or whatever it is now. The last couple of times I've been there (new and old location) the noodles tasted weird. And for some reason, whenever I've ordered at night, the food has given me a huge stomach ache (but that's never really happened during the afternoon). My friend and I have discussed that maybe they use the same oil all day and so by dinner time it's really dirty and gross. —Kiran

"2009-07-28" Let me start off by saying that if you haven’t tried Hunan restaurant, then your truly missing out! Hunan offers some of the best quality Chinese food in the city of Davis, and at a reasonable cost. I am always looking to try new places to eat in Davis, and lets face it, as a college student, money doesn’t always come so easily.

Hunan is known for having some of the best-valued lunch specials in Davis. They offer lunch specials for just $6.50! As I skimmed over the lunch special section of the menu, I couldn’t choose a dish. There were so many options to choose from. One second I felt like having the general chicken, the next second I was craving the sesame chicken! Finally, I decided on the sesame chicken, with half chow mein and half white rice.

After the waiter took my order, I was given a pot of hot tea. I have never tried the tea before, but it was rather tasty. The herbal aroma and taste from the tea really sets you in a great mood for the meal. Hunan also gives you a salad as part of the lunch special. I was rather surprised that they offered a side along with the main course and tea. Although the salad didn’t appear to be anything special, it was very tasty. They serve iceberg lettuce, with honey mustard dressing. The honey mustard dressing has a nice sweet and tangy taste to it. Before I even finished my salad, my food had arrived. The service here is quite fast! The meal included a crab won ton, which was my first time having any type of seafood. I fell in love with these won tons. They were so moist and juicy, and when dipping them in the sweet and sour sauce, they were had a very authentic Chinese (Umami) taste. As I began to eat the main course, the chow mein was very tasty, and not too oily. The sesame chicken was cut into thin and crisp slices, and was very tender. The chicken was very tangy and had moderate spice to it. The white rice was simply as any white rice would be expected; it complimented the rest of the meal very well. If you like your food spicy, I recommend adding some of the chili sauce found on the table, which really brings the food to life. Overall, the food had a very authentic taste to it.

Lastly, the service here at Hunan is very good. The waiter, although she seemed to be rushing a little, was very prompt to replace my dirty plate, and constantly made sure my glass of water was always full. —simranhundal

2009-09-06 21:28:55   This place has horrible service. They guy took us to our seats and my mom and me just sat there for a really long time. We didn't even get our menus! When we left they didn't even notice us leave so some restaurant. —GuavaLava

2009-11-08 20:37:53   The lunch special is the bomb-diggity! served until 3 pm, only on the weekends. Perfect if you have between-class breaks. Service is usually quick and efficient, however, the waiters aren't very friendly. The best things on the menu are: sesame chicken, chicken salad (amazing dressing), honey walnut prawns, and crab meat wontons....we go here basically at least once a week, so its definitely good. —mrandmrs