Hunan Restaurant — Restaurant in Monterey Park

I was in the area and wanted something more authentic than your average chinese place. I've never had hunan food but have wanted to try it for years. I'm glad I found this place. I walked in at around 7 on a weekday. Everyone in the restaurant was asian and all speaking chinese... I saw that as a good omen. I sat down by myself and the waitress took the cup and saucer w the dead fly on it away, as I would be eating alone. I'm undeterred by the fly. It's just a fly. ( bathroom and kitchen were exceptionally clean; the bathroom spotless). This is obviously not the place that non Asians frequent. Everyone in the restaurant takes a long look at me as I try to decifer this menu written in Chinese (YES!!) thank God there are pictures. The waitress brings me hot tea and chopsticks. I clean my sticks and cup w hot tea and continue browsing this amazing menu. I'm so excited. I have no idea what I want; I want it all. I decide to get a pork dish because both china and I love pork. I'm looking for an authentic hunan dish, but I honestly don't know what a real hunan dosh is; I'm a virgin. I had to resort to ordering the tastiest looking pork picture (I desperately need a Chinese friend fluent in mandarin). I order. As I wait for my meal I wonder if I have been hyping up this food in my mind so much that it will be a let down. This meal will never meet expectations. I've been craving, dreaming about this for months. And now I have the opportunity, the pleasure of diving into some (semi) authentic chinese food. When the food arrives I know I made the right choice. The dish is overflowing with roasted and sautéed green beans, some kind of skinny long chili, sliced at about a quarter inch, a smoked, braised pork belly and some5hing the restaurant calls hunan sauce. Here... i... goooo.... I'm not very good at chopsticks. The experience I have is using then to grab cannabis from a jar when I worked at a medical cannabis club and that was almost 6 years ago. I struggled, but I wasn't going to let two little sticks destroy this event. I mixed the dish up a bit then grabbed a single spear of green bean and a nice chunk of the pork. I could not manage to grab a chili pepper. The flavor exploded in my mouth. The park's smoky flavor smacked me in the face but then came a cured and braised flavor. This bacon is special. At the same time the sweet roasted earthiness of the green bean came through. The green bean also had a spicy smoky flavor,definitely a contribution from being sautéed with the pork and peppers. The sauce was available in perfect amounts. It coated the food but didn't overpower it. There was a significant amount of oil, but it wasn't over oiled. The chili peppers were almost perfect. They were crunchy but not raw, the flesh was semi sweet but the inside was spicy. I ate this with white rice and that controlled the heat considerably. When I was able to catch all three ingredients at one time the dish became magic in my mouth. The portion was huge. I probably only ate one third of the plate. Bonus!! I only gave this review a 4 but that's because I don't believe there are 5s anywhere. If I could break it down; this place, this dish, solely based on food quality, flavor and presentation, is an...

You ever seen those videos on youtube where they’re like:

“If the place got 3.5 stars, it’s got really good food?”

Yah same story here. Outrageously amazing food. The new chef worked 20 years at a five star restaurant in China and you can definitely tell in the way he cooks and presents the food. Everything’s got Wok Hei and it’s spicy without overwhelming the other flavors at work and you can definitely tell they got a good chili plug

Must haves: Egg with Chilis Pork intestines Stir fried beef with chilis Eggplant with century egg

I ain’t had food like this since I went to Hunan and you know you in the right place cause they had a table of OGs killin a plate of the chopped chilis whole fish and chatting it up.

If you want to eat food as close to actual Hunan as you can get,...

This place is tucked into a small plaza right next to the Courtyard Marriott hotel. We went here twice in three days. We were a little skeptical at first because of the review but the food is superb and is traditional spicy Hunan cuisine. If it matters to you - no MSG used in the dishes, you can tell. We had stir fried cauliflower, diced frog, pickled green beans with minced pork, stewed red chili tofu, all were tremendous. Portions are good...