Hunan Spring — Restaurant in Evanston Township

I like to ride bikes up to Evanston sometimes to enjoy the lakefront and the quiet atmosphere of the town. Evanston has a number of decent restaurants, better prices than the city, and people seem friendlier. It also makes for a pleasant bike ride heading north from Andersonville.

About a month ago, one one such ride, my friend Allison and I were craving Chinese food. We spotted Hunan Spring and Peppercorn Kitchen on the map and initially stopped at Hunan since it was closer.

After seeing the front of the building, with its sun-faded smoothie poster and strip mall-style “Hunan Spring” sign, we decided Peppercorn would likely be more upscale. We continued into downtown for a meal that cost over $60. It was excellent, though pricey.

This past weekend, we were in Evanston again, and I had a craving for pork kidney. We went to Peppercorn, only to discover they were out. I thought, "Why not try Hunan? It will probably be cheaper anyway." We planned to take our food to go and eat in the square to save on tipping.

We rode over to Hunan. I was not particularly excited, but when we arrived, we found a quiet, well-appointed, modern, and clean Chinese restaurant. Our food came out in about five minutes. For two entrees and an appetizer, we spent $47.08, including tax and tip.

I ordered the shrimp with lobster sauce combination, which came with fried rice and an egg roll. My friend ordered the sweet and sour chicken.

We split a crab rangoon appetizer.

The food was piping hot, plentiful, and on the table in five minutes, though it tasted fairly average for standard American Chinese cuisine.

The crab rangoon was just as expected. They didn’t stand tall on the plate and looked a little misshapen. The filling had a seafood-esque flavor, sweet and salty, with a creamy, cheesy texture. The shells were crispy. This dish is hard to mess up.

The egg rolls were hot and crispy but bland, with little to no meat inside. Perhaps they were vegetarian egg rolls.

The fried rice was average and not greasy at all. It might have benefitted from a bit more oil. The flavor was also lacking. There was no wok hei or seared quality to the rice.

I wondered if it needed salt or maybe MSG. I mixed in some sauce from my shrimp dish along with a splash of soy sauce, which helped bring out the flavor. Still, I would prefer the seasoning to be cooked into the dish rather than added cold afterward. The rice had no meat and few fresh vegetables, but that is understandable at this price point.

The sweet and sour chicken had a thick bread coating, but it was well made and not greasy. The sauce was the usual blend of vinegar, sugar, pineapple juice, and red coloring. It was decent, although it could have been thickened slightly for a more syrupy texture.

The shrimp with lobster sauce was thick and flavorful, with bits of egg. The shrimp were moist and tender without being overcooked. Most were well cleaned, although I noticed one that still had part of the mud vein.

The Bad:

I did not like that the receipt was not itemized. I prefer to tip based on the cost of the food alone, not the food plus tax. It also raises questions about whether the charges match the menu prices. After reviewing the restaurant’s website, I noticed the prices there differ from what we were charged in person.

I also had to get up and ask for hot mustard packets.

There were a few small imperfections in the food, as noted above. For those, I would deduct half a star for food and half a star for service.

The Good:

The friendly staff, quiet setting, clean and modern furniture, and fresh food made this an excellent spot for a Sunday meal with a friend. I especially want to highlight how not-greasy everything was.

This is a "Good Chinese Restaurant." It is not fancy, nor is it low-quality fast food. It is simply a pleasant place to enjoy a tasty, reasonably...

Hunan Spring is successful because it used to be great in the 90's. When I came back to live in Evanston it was a staple in my childhood we didnt always have a lot to eat so when my mom would order chinese i was especially excited. I was happy to see they had recieved an award for food but Since Ive been going there the last 5 years there is about a 1/10 chance ill get something edible. i often get the orange chicken since its basic and if they cant make that they shouldnt be cooking. I continue to go there because there is one chef there that actually cares about the prople he cooks for and when hes there the food is spot on perfect and fresh. any other time the food is tastesless, greasy as hell with no ginger or garlic or scallions which is in practically all chinese meals and i most times have to cook the chicken for another 30 min in oven just to finish cooking it and its always then big clump of stuck together raw chicken with flour and grease with a honey taste. Every time i order here now i pretty much know the food is going to be Atrocious but since there are so many bad chinese places on the northside i gamble hoping i get that one chef. I tried one last time hoping to get that guy and not only did i have to recook the chicken i had to doctor the sauce just to make it edible and the rice and broccoli were oily and smelled so i didnt eat them. Thank you the one chef there for the amazing experiences but the other people there are not qualified to cook for people because they cook the food with hatred in thier heart instead of love. I am a Chef and I study Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine. every meal should be like a formula considering the health of the person its cooked for. Sometimes I just need that comfort food and Im exhausted and will pay up to $40 here for basic americanized food i know how to cook but i wont continue to spend money here when they blatantly are disrespectful toward customers. My Last meal there. Moving on. By the way if you said you get stomach pain from eating here its probably because you have food poison from either raw chicken, or old unfresh ingredients that are rotting. If order chicken and it is in giant oddly shaped chunks you probably need to cook it longer or you may get...

ordered food through GrubHub for a friend to pick up. I live out of state and wanted to treat her and her family. I made sure to put her name and her husband's name on the order for ease of pick up since the site said they would need to show an ID to pick it up. I used my phone number, however, so the restaurant could contact me if there happened to be a problem with the order. My friend's husband went to pick up the food and gave his name. The person working there told him he had to verify the phone number but he didn't happen to know my phone number. They treated him harshly (even though he and his family regularly visit the restaurant.) He left very embarrassed and went home to his hungry family with no food. My friend let me know what happened and I called the restaurant. The woman who answered the phone said they don't use people's names for orders because they get so many but when I verified my number, she said smugly, "Now THAT is the right number." But how would she know my number was the correct number for his name if she never looked at his name. I told her my friend was very upset but still wanted to pick up the order. I said they owed her family an apology upon which the restaurant worker hung up on me! I tried calling back but no one answered so I called back on the home phone. I told the worker we needed to either get the food or our money back. She then laid the phone on the counter without responding. I stayed on the phone about 15 minutes, hoping someone would pick it back up. About another 10 minutes later, the restaurant called back and the woman claimed they had been "trying to reach" me even though I was actually on the line with them on one phone and holding the other in my hand. She brusquely said they would refund my money and hung up. No...