Hunan Cuisine 湘乡香 — Restaurant in Chicago

Don't go there! This restaurant is not using authentic or right material for cooking Hunan dishes! My husband and I always to go to Cai for Dim Sum at an average cost of 55-60 (tax included) WE decided to try this last Monday on the way to Cai but it turns out disappointing very much. We both love spicy food and know food in Sichuan and Hunan very well. However, the food in this restaurant is not only expensive, but not well cooked, mostly becuase they do not use the right materials. The Steamed fish Head w/Diced spicy Red peppers is extremely disappointing. As the signature dish in Hu Nan, the chef wrongly selected the fish type, which made the fish head had a fishy smell after cooking. The pepper is not authentic, or not made by themselves too but looks like be bought outside. As a result, the pepper is not fresh, sweet, spicy, and could notpenetrate its flavor into the fish. The dish cost 32.45 bucks. The second one, another signature of Hunan cuisine, meshed chili peppers w/century eggs, is too salty and I believed they put some other spices that are not assumed to be included in this dish. The dish is very simple, just salt, spicy and fresh (fried) peppers, soy beans, and a little bit sesame oil suffice. Any additional spices will ruin the dish. Yes, the chef ruined it. A third one, steamed soy beans wi/five special bean curd. Authentic special bean curd in Hunan is very juicy after steaming. This one, very dry and like a stone after steaming. I believe they did not use the Hunan spcial bean curd so we felt we were chewing stone. The material is WRONG! and this one cost 17.45 bucks. unbelievable. Why we did not go to the Aisan supermarket just across the street and steam outrelves for 3.95 bucks if you cannot provide the authentic special bean curd? The only thing that is not bad is the fried vegetable, only becuase the chef did not put too much salt. We spent around 92 bucks, and paid 15% tip. We will never return as the failure rate of cooking in this restaurant is 75% and they don't use authentic or good materials. For many non-Chinese, it is hard to tell whether the materials are authentic. Unfortunately, we were from Sichuan and we lived for a while in Human and we know what good dishes of Hunan are. We packed the fish and bean curd (as it was very hard for us to finish) and my husband said we could reuse them in other dishes at home. However, I finally dumped both as they cannot be used. Too bad. Don't go there. and...

I spent $250 here and left pretty disappointed. The first thing I noticed upon walking in was the lack of any poise and posture among the employees. Their pants were rolled up, shirt wrinkled, posture awful, spoke very casually to the point of unprofessional, and 0 poise to show that this is a “nicer” and pricier restaurant. This lack of poise and posture continued throughout my meal here. On top of that, the waiters were sitting on the tables and chatting and we had to wait a long time trying to get their attention before we were finally helped. At the end, we had to call out to get their attention. Very unprofessional, but not nearly as bad as this next part. They were eating in front of customers! With a huge mouthful of food, ignoring customers trying to get their attention, and then finally walking up as they’re swallowing their massive mouthful that they were working on. Gross! I’ve worked in bars and restaurants that we would have gotten written up for if we did that in front of a customer, that is so not allowed and a terrible look! He wasn’t necessarily rude, but the utter lack of poise and professionalism and the sheer disgusting things he did would cause me to give 0 stars for service if I could. The next thing, I love Hunan food. But the food didn’t taste authentic. There was no love in the food. No passion. The Hunan taste wasn’t there. We even ordered extra spicy and everything came out with no spice at all, some of it flat out bland. We had to send something back and it came out worse. I was so disappointed. Nothing there was cheap, yet nothing there came out with the quality of something pricey. The kitchen-server had no interest in serving us, she was rude and short and when we asked why something came out burnt she didn’t even acknowledge us. Part of what customers pay for is not just the food, it’s the experience. And our experience was awful. And the food was sub par for the price. Not worth it at all. I have no problem dropping large amounts on food if it’s good, for example say the Hunan restaurants in houston chinatown which are excellent, but this particular restaurant here is just not up to par. I had high hopes, we drove an hour from the suburbs for this. Wont be back.

I actually know the brand owner pretty well, he’s a good guy and a good chef. This restaurant does not live up to...

I had an amazing experience in this restaurant. I made a reservation for nine people for my mom’s birthday, when I arrived to the restaurant my table was ready with water and hot tea for us. That was my first great impression. As I was looking over the menu deciding what to order, the waiter gave me some great dishes recommendations that my entire family and I really enjoyed. His costumer service skills were amazing. The restaurant has projectors that show different relaxing sceneries on the walls. We had a birthday cake for my mom, without even having to ask for it, he placed a “Happy Birthday” scenery for her. This made my mom really happy and I felt very thankful for it. His costumer service was always above and beyond. The food was delicious and affordable. I would definitely take another nine people to eat there. By the way, the table is round and nine of us fit there perfectly. It was nice because while we ate, we all could converse with each other. So if you’re ever wondering of where to go if you want to have a great time and bonding with good friends, family or coworkers, this is the place. I highly recommend this place, it was such a delightful experience for my taste buds...