My Happy Hunan Kitchen — Restaurant in Boston

Walked in to look at a menu and order takeout. Was happy to see one of my hard-to-find favorite dishes as well as many intriguing dishes I've never tried. Quickly narrowed in on a couple of final candidates.

Asked the hostess(?) a few simple questions about the food and she became rather snippy. She was OK at first, if terse. Then when I asked what kind of beans were in a dish and she didn't know, she told me to look up a photo of the dish on my phone. I explained that my phone didn't have that capability and she was kind enough to look up the photo for me on her phone. But then when I asked whether this dish had any protein, she snapped, "I can't tell you about the protein content of this dish because I'm not a nutritionist."

It took me some moments to register that this shocking rudeness had soured my experience here beyond repair, then to walk out. It's so disappointing that if I want to try the food here, I'm going to have to prepare myself to face this rudeness down again. I can't say for certain if that'll ever happen.

But for now, I give this restaurant 2 stars for its promising menu. I hope that its management may benefit from this feedback and make the necessary changes to: (1) the restaurant's customer friendliness (maybe have on-site photos of dishes? a more descriptive menu? "Happy" and "golden" do nothing to describe flavors); (2) its staff (be better informed about the dishes, such as whether or not they contain meat?); and/or (3) its workplace culture (maybe an overly stressful work environment caused the hostess to have a bad day?).

I may not be a tech-savvy Hunanese gourmet, but I am from time to time a hungry person who likes to try new foods after ascertaining basic information about ingredients. And I'll bet there are many more like me out there. If you're one of them, I wish you the best of luck navigating this restaurant. You...

This place is awesome! I don't know about what used to be here -- sushi??? -- but this place is super legit, delicious Hunan food. (If you've never had it, you've gotta try it -- you might be forgiven if you mistake it for Sichuan cuisine but just because it's spicy doesn't mean it's the same! Hunan cuisine is one of the great 8 sub-cuisines of China and it's excellent: spicy, yes, but also really complex; plays with sour, savory flavors much more often.)

We got takeout via Doordash (COVID, hooray) and it came on time, hot, and delicious. We got the sticky rice with steamed ribs and corn ($22), the sauteed Chinese cauliflower with pork belly ($16ish), the chicken gizzards with pickled longbeans, and the pork lard fried rice. Everything was excellent. The fried rice was rich and aromatic without relying overly on salt. The gizzards were great -- the longbeans do a lot to offset the gamey taste and texture of gizzards. The cauliflower was to die for, and the ribs were also beautifully tender and flavorful.

Total, we paid $85 after tip (delivery was free). Portions were generous; if the food weren't so delicious, we probably would've had enough for 5 meals (2 people)...

I can't wait to order takeout from this place again, and visit in person after all this is over! Hunan cuisine is going to be the next hot thing in the same way Sichuan was 5 years ago, and I'm...

Sad to see this place doesn't have more reviews! I don't know what Hunan food is supposed to be like, but everything I've gotten from here has been super tasty, and also a nice departure from typical Chinese-American takeout. My fav dish from here has been the steamed pork ribs over sticky rice and corn. The porky flavor infuses the rice and sweet corn and it's soooo good. The corn almost tastes like sweet cornbread thanks to all the fat and sticky rice surrounding it.

We also got the spicy chicken gizzards. For the record, I'm a wimp and ordered everything on the "less spicy" scale, which turned out to be the perfect spice level for me. I'm glad they offer like real deal spicy for heat-lovers, but also respect kinda wimpy folks like me :) Gizzards sounds weird, but combined with rice reminded me a lot of a southern dirty rice, except a little more acidic and spicy.

The cauliflower dish was fantastic because they were stir fried with bacon. Reminded me of a lighter, crunchier version of collard greens and lardons.

I guess I don't know anything about Hunan food, but the strong, fatty and smoky flavors kinda reminds of American southern food.

Anyway, this place has proven itself to me. I'd feel confident ordering any dish, even though I don't know what any of them are supposed to be like. But I'm sure they'll all be fun and...