Retro, classic American-Chinese food served gracefully here, plus Tsingtao beer or drinks from the full bar. Ganbei! Cheers!The food is tasty and carefully prepared. Sure, much of the food is the americanized Chinese classics: egg roll, moo shu pork, chicken cashew and lo mein. They also have two full pages of house specials heavy on seafood, "recommended by Cathi and Jim," who I can only guess are the owners. And Hunan serves an extensive variety of vegetarian options, check the inside cover of the menu plus there's more deeper in the menu.I feel the prices here are totally reasonable. Yes, the special entrees are high at $16-22, but the usual suspects like moo shu pork are only $9-11, so the price of a meal is totally in your control. And a bottle of Tsingtao is just under five bucks.We last visited on a quiet weekday evening. Easy to park in their lot and the place was barely a quarter full. Instantly our waiter brought water, tea, drinks, and then our appetizers came quickly. Hot and sour soup was interestingly seasoned and properly thermally not but not even remotely spicy hot, alas. Good service continued with water refills as needed, and our entrees came out after only a short wait.One teenager got the pineapple boat, which was half a pineapple hollowed out and holding dinner: lightly battered and perfectly fried chicken chunks, fresh pineapple and red pepper in a pretty good sweet-sour sauce. Outstanding presentation and very yummy. For the moo shu pork our waiter deftly wrapped the steaming goodies inside four delicate chinese "pancakes" (c'mon, they're tortillas :) using spoons, never touching the food with his fingers. Food prepared tableside, I've rarely enjoyed such good service at a casual place! Dinner for four was $55 before tip and we took home a bunch, ya can't complain about that.You could drop Hunan Chinese Room down in 1982 and people wouldn't look twice - architecture and food are pretty retro. The building has many design notes from the 70s that have been preserved. Tea arrives without asking, as do crisps with duck sauce. The hot-and-sour soup is served in a china bowl with a cafeteria-style metal soup spoon, not a Chinese-type spoon, and chopsticks are not on the table. At the end, a plate with fortune cookies and orange slices arrives. Takes me back to eating Chinese with my parents when I was a whole lot younger :)This is an excellent choice for better-than-casual dining on yummy food, and you can even have a drink with your General Tsao chicken!
Reviewed by :
Chris L.
On:
2/12/2013 12:01:00 PM
Retro, classic American-Chinese food served gracefully here, plus Tsingtao beer or drinks from the full bar. Ganbei! Cheers!The food is tasty and carefully prepared. Sure, much of the food is the americanized Chinese classics: egg roll, moo shu pork, chicken cashew and lo mein. They also have two full pages of house specials heavy on seafood, "recommended by Cathi and Jim," who I can only guess are the owners. And Hunan serves an extensive variety of vegetarian options, check the inside cover of the menu plus there's more deeper in the menu.I feel the prices here are totally reasonable. Yes, the special entrees are high at $16-22, but the usual suspects like moo shu pork are only $9-11, so the price of a meal is totally in your control. And a bottle of Tsingtao is just under five bucks.We last visited on a quiet weekday evening. Easy to park in their lot and the place was barely a quarter full. Instantly our waiter brought water, tea, drinks, and then our appetizers came quickly. Hot and sour soup was interestingly seasoned and properly thermally not but not even remotely spicy hot, alas. Good service continued with water refills as needed, and our entrees came out after only a short wait.One teenager got the pineapple boat, which was half a pineapple hollowed out and holding dinner: lightly battered and perfectly fried chicken chunks, fresh pineapple and red pepper in a pretty good sweet-sour sauce. Outstanding presentation and very yummy. For the moo shu pork our waiter deftly wrapped the steaming goodies inside four delicate chinese "pancakes" (c'mon, they're tortillas :) using spoons, never touching the food with his fingers. Food prepared tableside, I've rarely enjoyed such good service at a casual place! Dinner for four was $55 before tip and we took home a bunch, ya can't complain about that.You could drop Hunan Chinese Room down in 1982 and people wouldn't look twice - architecture and food are pretty retro. The building has many design notes from the 70s that have been preserved. Tea arrives without asking, as do crisps with duck sauce. The hot-and-sour soup is served in a china bowl with a cafeteria-style metal soup spoon, not a Chinese-type spoon, and chopsticks are not on the table. At the end, a plate with fortune cookies and orange slices arrives. Takes me back to eating Chinese with my parents when I was a whole lot younger :)This is an excellent choice for better-than-casual dining on yummy food, and you can even have a drink with your General Tsao chicken!
Reviewed by :
Bryon C.
On:
2/4/2013 4:57:00 PM
There are many typical reviews that start off, "I can't believe that I pass this place every day and in the X number of years I've lived in NameYourTown I've never eaten here!" And that's just how this one starts, too.Hunan is very attractive looking from the outside. There's no reason to pass it by if you're passing. There is ample parking in the lot, just drive on in. After walking up the front steps (or wheelchair ramp if its not too icy--it was the other night and was therefore blocked off with cautionary tape), the big front doors open to a small waiting area. Does Hunan get very crowded some nights? It may, though I can't say it does from personal experience. When the fiancée and I arrived around 6:00 on Friday, there was ample room available inside. So no wait. However, I did appreciate the fact that the waiting area looked cozy and had a nice, long, cushioned bench to relax on, if indeed there are no tables available.Inside, we were immediately lead to the right side. On the left is a F-U-L-L bar with giant screen TV and romantic lounge style tables. Though we went right, my eyes couldn't help but wander left as we passed. Pretty impressive for a Chinese restaurant.We were seated in a booth in the front room (I assume there is a back room if you pass through the restaurant, I just didn't get that far in my travels). The waiter brought us water and tea and noodles with dipping sauces very fast. And he refilled my glass of water promptly throughout the night--only when it was near empty. That's grand! I've been to places where they bombard you with refills after you've taken just a few sips. That's not the way. Hunan's got your H20 fix when you need it, not when its unnecessary!Was there food? Yes, there was food. The only qualm (and its so minor) that I have with the place is that the menu is like a Victorian novel, set in, um, China. All I mean is that it's huge. There are daily specials and some bizarre thing named "Cathy & Jim's recommendations" all over the place. It takes awhile to accustom yourself to what's going on there. In fact, there are repeated dishes throughout. Unless they were subtly different from each other. If that's so, I didn't figure out the nuances. Anyway, you name it, Hunan's got it. Try not to let it overwhelm you. Order slow.I started with a simple hot and sour soup that was everything it should have been and exactly as advertised. It helped the delicious tea warm me up after coming in out of the frigid cold. For my meal, I ordered the shredded crispy Szechuan beef. Holla! Huge dish, huge flavor, huge success. Though the fiancée had her own sesame chicken dish (which was also very good), mine won the night and we both found ourselves finishing the plate. Even between two people, that was not an easy task. I put down my fork and napkin a few times, thinking it was time to call it quits, just to find myself back at it in a minute or two, somehow unable to control my desire for more shredded beef.Speaking of utensils though, I found it odd that Hunan does not offer you chopsticks. There weren't any on the table. I'm sure if we'd asked for some, they would have provided but, it's just curious is all. I didn't mind. Was too busy enjoying the meal.The restaurant is also super cute and the staff is very friendly and attentive. I did not order any drinks but had a sip of the fiancée's white mocha-tini. Very well done.Great restaurant for any night of the week. Plan a night, stop by on a whim, or order ahead and pick it up on your way home. No delivery though. So get off your butt and go.POSTNOTE: Just in case it wasn't clear, this is the best Chinese food you can get in the area. Carry on.
Reviewed by :
Bryon C.
On:
2/4/2013 8:15:00 AM
There are many typical reviews that start off, "I can't believe that I pass this place every day and in the X number of years I've lived in NameYourTown I've never eaten here!" And that's just how this one starts, too.Hunan is very attractive looking from the outside. There's no reason to pass it by if you're passing. There is ample parking in the lot, just drive on in. After walking up the front steps (or wheelchair ramp if its not too icy--it was the other night and was therefore blocked off with cautionary tape), the big front doors open to a small waiting area. Does Hunan get very crowded some nights? It may, though I can't say it does from personal experience. When the fiancée and I arrived around 6:00 on Friday, there was ample room available inside. So no wait. However, I did appreciate the fact that the waiting area looked cozy and had a nice, long, cushioned bench to relax on, if indeed there are no tables available.Inside, we were immediately lead to the right side. On the left is a F-U-L-L bar with giant screen TV and romantic lounge style tables. Though we went right, my eyes couldn't help but wander left as we passed. Pretty impressive for a Chinese restaurant.We were seated in a booth in the front room (I assume there is a back room if you pass through the restaurant, I just didn't get that far in my travels). The waiter brought us water and tea and noodles with dipping sauces very fast. And he refilled my glass of water promptly throughout the night--only when it was near empty. That's grand! I've been to places where they bombard you with refills after you've taken just a few sips. That's not the way. Hunan's got your H20 fix when you need it, not when its unnecessary!Was there food? Yes, there was food. The only qualm (and its so minor) that I have with the place is that the menu is like a Victorian novel, set in, um, China. All I mean is that it's huge. There are daily specials and some bizarre thing named "Cathy & Jim's recommendations" all over the place. It takes awhile to accustom yourself to what's going on there. In fact, there are repeated dishes throughout. Unless they were subtly different from each other. If that's so, I didn't figure out the nuances. Anyway, you name it, Hunan's got it. Try not to let it overwhelm you. Order slow.I started with a simple hot and sour soup that was everything it should have been and exactly as advertised. It helped the delicious tea warm me up after coming in out of the frigid cold. For my meal, I ordered the shredded crispy Szechuan beef. Holla! Huge dish, huge flavor, huge success. Though the fiancée had her own sesame chicken dish (which was also very good), mine won the night and we both found ourselves finishing the plate. Even between two people, that was not an easy task. I put down my fork and napkin a few times, thinking it was time to call it quits, just to find myself back at it in a minute or two, somehow unable to control my desire for more shredded beef.Speaking of utensils though, I found it odd that Hunan does not offer you chopsticks. There weren't any on the table. I'm sure if we'd asked for some, they would have provided but, it's just curious is all. I didn't mind. Was too busy enjoying the meal.The restaurant is also super cute and the staff is very friendly and attentive. I did not order any drinks but had a sip of the fiancée's white mocha-tini. Very well done.Great restaurant for any night of the week. Plan a night, stop by on a whim, or order ahead and pick it up on your way home. No delivery though. So get off your butt and go.POSTNOTE: Just in case it wasn't clear, this is the best Chinese food you can get in the area. Carry on.
Reviewed by :
Anne D.
On:
2005-06-07
My family and I love this traditional Chinese Restaurant in Morris Plains. Their fresh food and service make you feel like you're really getting the Chinese Food experience. Order family style from their huge menu and practice your chop ...?
Reviewed by :
Anonymous
On:
2006-01-27
Best Chinese food in NJ, no question. The restaurant is decorated beautifully, and is comfortable no matter where you are seated. Service is excellent; you are treated as a special guest with each visit. The chef's specialties are to die ...?
Reviewed by :
MatthewV367473
On:
2007-11-02
reasonable wine list, attractive mininamalist "zen" interior, and super friendly staff make this the second best Chinese in NJ (Chendu46 is still my #1).The house specialties are the way to go, but the old standbys are also done well. Not sure if it is the ...?
Reviewed by :
Zirmunai
On:
2007-11-25
Certainly nothing at all like your typical suburban take-out fare. I sometimes come here for lunch with friends and the experience has become predictable: delicious food but frustratingly bad service. The General Tso's Chicken is ...?
Reviewed by :
dinner?
On:
2008-03-04
to satisfy anyone whether they are a fan of Chinese or not.Depending on your table it may seem cramped but definitely not something that would keep you from enjoying a nice night out. ...?
Reviewed by :
Angela_Stelle
On:
2008-10-14
Very nice ambiance that is great for a nice night out but they even keep it family-friendly with a room in the back for tables with kids so you don't have to worry about disturbing non-kid diners. I just wished they delivered! ...?
Reviewed by :
1220951ANG
On:
2008-11-23
deliver. But, it's worth the trip. Scallion pancakes are crisp and not greasy. Steamed veggie dumplings are delicate and scrumptious. They make a mean Scorpin Bowl for two - unless you like your libations big, then it's great for one! ...?
Reviewed by :
Noreen C.
On:
2008-12-08
Ordered takeout last night and it came to $70 and everyone (4 adults/1 teen girl) were still hungry! Small containers were only half full with 2-3 ounces meat/chicken in each, 8 small shrimp for $14. Mostly celery and carrots. ...?
Reviewed by :
Anonymous
On:
2008-12-08
We ordered for 4 adults, 1 teen girl. Cost was over $70 for takeout. Small food containers only 1/2 full - mostly sauce, celery carrots. Very little chicken/beef. Complained about portiion size and Cathy said she was often told their portion sizes were generous. For what 2-3 ounces meat, 8 small shrimp for $14 each!! Cathy never even offered us a discount on our next order. My brother, sister and I will never order from there again. Food was only okay - ordered all spicy and nothing was spicy at all. Loyal Mr. Chu fans forever.?
Reviewed by : Chris L. On: 2/12/2013 1:30:00 PM
Reviewed by : Chris L. On: 2/12/2013 12:01:00 PM
Reviewed by : Bryon C. On: 2/4/2013 4:57:00 PM
Reviewed by : Bryon C. On: 2/4/2013 8:15:00 AM
Reviewed by : Anne D. On: 2005-06-07
Reviewed by : Anonymous On: 2006-01-27
Reviewed by : MatthewV367473 On: 2007-11-02
Reviewed by : Zirmunai On: 2007-11-25
Reviewed by : dinner? On: 2008-03-04
Reviewed by : Angela_Stelle On: 2008-10-14
Reviewed by : 1220951ANG On: 2008-11-23
Reviewed by : Noreen C. On: 2008-12-08
Reviewed by : Anonymous On: 2008-12-08