Shaoshan Impression — Restaurant in Bellevue

Delicious and good portion size -

Food: 5 stars Service: 4 stars Price: 4 stars Ambiance: 2 stars Overall: 3.75 stars

Came at 6:20 pm and there were 2 groups on the wait-list, but nobody was waiting by the door. The waitress greeted us and asked us how many, then sat us down right away. This place was 85% full when we entered, and nearly everyone dining here is chinese.

A pot of hot tea was served right away, and there is a bar code on the table for you to scan to see the menu and place an order online. There are 4-5 waiter/waitress in the restaurant and they all look extremely busy. The restaurant is super loud like an authentic Chinese restaurant where nobody cares about how loud they are. They don't place any music here and there is a mix of chatters in Chinese, phone ringing sound, and the sound of the servers rolling the carts to grab the dirty dishes.

There is a queue at the door around 6:35pm. And as a water/tea bucket, I finished the first pot of hot tea and they gave me a fancier tea pot. The tea tasted more concentrated this time and slightly more bitter, which is perfect for my taste. The decor here is interesting... They have nice paintings on the wall, but there is red Chinese style roof in the restaurant ceiling. Sort of like Asian fashion? Modernized Chinese restaurant, I'd say.

Our first dish came at 6:45pm. The Hunan style sauteed pork with rice (small spicy) 湖南肉湯泡飯 was delicious with pork, red bell pepper, garlic, green onion, and douchi. It reminds me of our fav dish from Fan Tang Asian Cafe in Kirkland, Thai Chili Beef Stir fry 小炒黃牛肉蓋碼飯. They are very similar, but they don't top it with tons of cilantro here like they do in fan tang. Also the portion size is much more generous. With 50 cents extra, you get much more rice that's enough to feed 2.

The sauteed black pepper beef in stone pot (medium spicy) 石鍋黑椒牛肉 came at 6:54pm, and it was too spicy for me. I haven't had anything spicy for a while so my tolerance is also quite bad right now. I also just realized why another table asked for tons of iced water earlier... They do have really spicy stuff here, not to mention this is only medium spicy. It was good, but it's also too spicy for me.

Then later my husband told me the waitress actually came to ask if we wanna make it less spicy when I was using the bathroom and he said yes..... So it's actually more spicy than what I had sweat!!! So even though there is a default spiciness level for each dish, you could still ask for customization so that was nice.

They have a basic bathroom with one toilet (one per gender), so there might be a queue when multiple people got the spiciness attack.

Overall I had a great experience here. Our total was close to $60 after everything, but we also bagged half of our food since we just can't finish. The dishes were delicious and the portion sizes for the ones I ordered were generous. They also don't charge for tea like an authentic Chinese place. Btw if you died from eating spicy food here, you might wanna head over to moge tee for an iced milk tea to release yourself from suffering.

Ps. I've read from other reviews about small portions, so I guess it might be a hit or miss and we just got lucky with ours(?).

Pro tips: Come before 7pm at least (preferably earlier). The queue is crazy at 7pm. Ask for a glass of iced water if you aren't ready for the...

I'm sad that I can't leave a 6/5 star review. The food is amazing, but more importantly, the employees here must love their job so much. They're very caring and attentive. I'm gonna sit here and list everything they did to repay their kindness today.

. The lady triple checked with us and the chefs to make sure the food will be what we order. She was patient with us, went back and forth like 4 times to relay info, although the restaurant was packed. . They asked if we wanted to move to a larger table although our group is small, because we ordered large dishes. They helped us move everything to the new table. . Kept coming to pour wate21r and give us more napkins. At one point, we had so many napkins, I thought I would've been so rich had we been in COVID time still. . Before they brought the cake out to us, they wiped clean every single inch of the table. I've been to places where they don't even take all the dirty dishes away. . We didn't ask, but they briefly turned the lights close to our table off and gave us their own candles and lighter to use.

Coming back?...

3rd time we tried Sichuan cold noodles, 黄花鱼， and A菜. 2nd time dinner today we were lucky to get seats early before 6pm. waiting time was about 20mins for two people on a Friday night. Again the service staffs were friendly and prompt even though they were very busy. The wait staffs were the most hardest workers I’ve ever seen and hope they are paid well. They do all the cleaning and bring water to the tables. We ordered 毛氏红烧肉，湖南肉泡饭 recommended for not spicy和茄子刀豆 were all good 😊

The new Hunan restaurant is indeed a quite unique among many already in Bellevue. The service is prompt and friendly. The staffs all work tirelessly. Beef noodles - beef is somehow tasteless but I love the thin noodles. Stinky tofu with hot source is very crispy and tasty good. Most dishes are all with the right amount of salt and not too oily. Though the quantity is on the less side. Also the fish with hot source on the burner is...