Hunan Ranch — Restaurant in Austin

We have been dining at Hunan Ranch several times over the past couple of years, and they are pretty good. However, on Sunday, 6/25/23, something tragic happened to me as I was eating here with my husband, mother, and brother! My husband and I ordered General Tso's chicken, requesting NO spice, to share. Our waitress appeared to be a new employee, who I had not seen before and spoke very little English. It tasted good, but after a few bites, my throat suddenly swelled up and felt like it was on fire! My brother saw the fear in my eyes and then asked if I was choking. I was scared because I could not breathe or speak at first. My husband told me to remain calm, while I was trying to keep from hyperventilating. I grabbed tea, kept drinking and finally was able to speak. My throat remained on fire for at least 10 minutes, and the burning sensation spread to my tongue and upper lip. The waitress was a bit busy and did not come to ask me what was wrong. She only came by to ask if we wanted more tea about 15 minutes later. I noticed that most of the staff were employees I had not seen before and were gathered in a group talking at the front center of the restaurant for several minutes. I would hate to think what would have happened to me if I was dining there by myself and was not approached by the staff for a long time after having such a violent reaction. My husband and brother said they ate something very hot which caused their mouths to burn for about 10 minutes, too. Maybe there were some hidden peppers that we did not see? Were they added to our meals by mistake? I have never had that happen to me in my 50+ years, and we had asked them not to add any spices to our meal. I refused to eat any more and now am afraid to eat here again, which is a shame since it is a nice restaurant near where we live. Eat here at your own risk!

UPDATE: We have returned to this restaurant a few times or so and the service has improved. I noticed one of the regular waitresses is back who is very friendly and remembers some of the food items we usually order! The wait staff is also very attentive and watch/check on the customers more often since this happened to me. The spice level is fine...

I got my food delivered so I did not experience the atmosphere or service. That being said:

Overall everything was Less than mediocre at best. Some of the food I ordered was sheer garbage.

For example: I got the teriyaki chicken dish with fried rice. It looks like wet chicken in brown sludge. I did not want to eat it at all just from looking at it. I tried a piece of chicken and there was nothing teriyaki about it. It was not good at all. Over cooked chicken and that sauce was not teriyaki. It was terinasty. I put that the side. No thank you.

I ordered the pu pu platter which looked like an absolute nightmare. Believe me, it tasted worse. Everything from the chicken wings to the eggs rolls to the fried crab Rangoon’s was completely tasteless, over fried, over doughed. Just dough and more dough barely any filling. At times I was just eating fried flour. Just pieces of nothing fried.

I have to admit, the most decent dish I ordered was the sesame chicken. That I was able to keep down without wanting to… it was heavy on the fried and dough side. It was decent at best but even that was so sad.

The fried rice was just as expected. Overcooked, completely tasteless, there is no love at all and you can taste it.

Please understand I root for every restaurant when I order. I ordered from this one based on the reviews and stars. I was excited to order from you guys because I wanted a Chinese restaurant to order from weekly. I wanted to genuinely like the food but honestly I will never be ordering food from here again nor suggest others do. Even if you guys offered to let me eat for free for a duration of time, I would happily decline because I will not put this product in my body. Sorry for such a negative review it’s not my intention but this...

I frequently crave sushi and just as frequently find myself not wanting to leave home to get it. I have a place or two I usually call up, but recently I got the urge to branch out. This place was close and had decent reviews, so I figured I should give it a shot. The girl who took my order was very sweet as was the gentleman who delivered my order. It arrived in an acceptable amount of time (and to the right apartment which is sometimes a challenge for me.) While the whole menu looked pretty tasty, I was set on sushi so I ordered "tuna tartar" and their veggie roll. Both items were okay...I might eat them again, but will probably try something else from the Chinese side of the house next time. The "tartar" had a good amount of spice, but seemed to be lacking something. I will say the avocados they used were perfect...the odd thing about this dish were the accompanying pita chips...yes, pita chips. I could really have used a nice crispy fried wonton--it was just kind of off-putting. Lucky for me there was more than enough to fill me up without the chips (and certainly a great dish for sharing. The veggie roll was supposed to include cucumber, yellow daikon, avocado, and asparagus. The one I received had no asparagus and very little of that wonderful avocado, but overwhelming amounts of daikon. The rice was well cooked, though. Also, this may not bother some, but the soy sauce they included was the gross fake stuff with caramel coloring. Not a big deal since I keep a stockpile around, but be warned. I'd give them a shot again to try some of their other dishes, but I'll probably stick with Momiji for my...