Hunan Bistro - New York

This was the worst general tsao chicken I've ever had. it was more of a sweet-and-sour than a spicy sauce Sauce looks like that duck sauce that you buy from the grocery store Chicken was tough Best part about this entire meal was the Brown rice recommend never

I went to this Hunan restaurant with one of my usual groups though with a different host than usual. Hunan food tends to have a sour heat to it and the rather expansive menu here appears to also include some American Chinese dishes and some of the poor reviews are regarding them so perhaps go there for Hunan food. He hadn't been here in a while and this was one of the spots he hosted. We spent maybe around 30 or 35 bucks a person or something similar for a good amount of food.We started with the Scallion Pancakes. They were alright. Could have been a bit crispier but it was OK. We also had the Ox Tongue and Tripe with Spicy Peppery Sauce or more directly translated as husband and wife slices which is one of the cheekier Chinese dish names. The sauce had a good amount of mala and I liked the texture of the offal so I would recommend it. My favorite of the smaller dishes was the Green Pepper With Preserved Egg also known as smashed chilies with century egg. I personally like century eggs a lot and it went quite well with the crunchy pepper and I'm happy that this place unlike some of the newer fancy Hunan places doesn't expect people to mash them up together themselves (even if it is fun. One of the first main dishes that arrived was the Jumbo Shrimp With Spicy Garlic Sauce. This was one of the better main dishes with pretty tender tasty shrimp though the sauce could have been a bit more flavorful. Mao's Red Braised Pork Belly was a solid version. Nicely tender pork and properly cooked down though I had definitely preferred other versions more as though I did like that the pieces were on the smaller end which made it very easy to split it. The Sauteed Lamb With Red Pepper and Cilantro was also just alright. The lamb was a bit gummy though the sour sauce definitely helped with the off texture. The Beef With Pickled Cabbage was also pretty good. The chili sauce as with the other Hunan dishes had a good little sourness to it but yet again the protein wasn't the best. Of the dishes, the weakest ones were the vegetarian ones which was surprising based on the best appetizer. The Hunan Cauliflower was bland compared to many of the other Hunan or Sichuan spots lacking texture also. The Steamed Eggplant With Salted Egg Yolk was well terrible. It wasn't properly cooked with the mixture basically falling off of the eggplant leaning it to be a salty mess which was also just not well flavored.The Hunan food here was alright. Portion sizes were plenty big but there's definitely better places for Hunan food or food from similar regions in the city. Particularly good appetizers of all things but the main dishes needed work (especially the proteins which tasted cheap or poor quality in many cases. I do wish we got a preserved pork dish to compare also.

Ordered a general tso’s chicken for lunch. Couldn’t even eat most of it because the chicken meat was very dry and hard as a rock, indicating that the chicken was not fresh and has been refried over and over again. This is theft given the price for its quality. Stay away.Food: 1/5

Ordered takeout, hit super hard eating some good Chinese food in the comfort of my own space. Food was great. Definitely on the pricier side but portions do not disappointFood: 5/5

A great restaurant for tasty Chinese food. Great menu with lots of pics. The Dan Dan noodles ? here don't really come with much meat. Mainly just the oil sauce. Fried pork belly was great. Definitely a large helping. Serving sizes here are quite large! The atmosphere is modern but somehow very small.Food: 4/5