Hunan East Restaurant — Restaurant in Flagstaff

I went to Hunan West first with my buddy but we decided it was a little rundown and left, it is interesting to note that the food prices here are $2.70 cheaper than Hunan East for lunch, thought that was pretty odd. If they aren't affiliated with each other I am not sure why they haven't revamped the name?

I have no idea how this place has a 4.5/5, I drove up here with a friend to checkout Flagstaff and we decided to eat here for lunch. I ordered the General Tso's Chicken with Hot and Sour Soup ($11.04 before tip-$13/after tip). The soup was really bland, not a lot of effort put into it, mostly just flavored water. The General Tso's Chicken was a solid 70% vegetables and 30% actual chicken and they were small pieces. I asked for an egg roll and it was just barely larger than a chap-stick. The seating arrangement is relic status, wooden seat booths, cheapo metal chairs for table seating, and a very rundown feeling from the entire place.

I go to an amazing Chinese food place in Apache Junction, their lunch special is only $6.29 and comes with soup of your choice, entree, choice of rice, and a spring roll. The quality of food is also better at the place in AJ compared to Hunan East. The cost of the lunch special at Hunan East started at $9.59~ and went up. It's not that great of a value/deal.

Maybe the community just really loves this place, but as an outside visitor it's one of the worst places I've been to for Chinese food. On the other-hand, the staff was really friendly, so it has that...

Arrived at 715 pm, the Restaurant was about half full And the take out business was brisk We were seated promptly &Wait staff Greeted us quickly. We were served almost immediately the complimentary hot tea Which WAS NOT VERY hot. We ordered the egg flower soup large size, A vegetable chow mein no mushrooms and shrimp chow mein. The egg flower soup arrived , had good flavor W/ a sparse amount of peas & carrots and was NOT hot enough, a bit concerning to me.. My main dish arrived a few minutes after we finished the soup ... it was steaming hot. The vegetable dish was delayed as not being quite ready. The shrimp dish was flavourful W/Ample serving size, But had too many Green bell peppers for my liking.The fried rice was tasty. 8 to 10 Minutes later the vegetable dish arrived we think they did add mushrooms originally and had to redo the dish, The wait staff commented that the broccoli wasn't quite done as too why it was delayed but it still seemed undercooked. Overall I thought the meal was average , With my biggest complaint being the temperature of the tea and the egg flour...

The service was 5 stars from my server but that's just half of going out to a restaurant. With that said, I am not overly impressed with the food mainly because I make my own stir fry at home with delicate ingredients and instructions from non other than America's Test kitchen recipes. I ordered the Hawaiian 5 O which comes with mixed breaded meats of shrimp, chicken and something else. The fried rice was bland and dry. Very disappointing. The sweat and sour sauce is the same as everywhere else in American Chinese cuisine which is that tangy red sauce you use for egg roll dipping. The veggies are raw. Gross. Who likes to eat raw onions? I love incorporating the flavors of my whole main dish when I'm cooking it myself which means the veggies are COOKED with the meat and sauce til tender. This sounds very conceited but this place is no better than the rest. Merely mediocre with the food. For being voted the best in Flagstaff I was expecting homemade sauces instead of an "out of a...