Hunan — Restaurant in Ponca City

The food was good. It's a buffet. They have a decent selection. Not something you would write home over, just a really decent meal at a decent price.

50.00 for 5 people including drinks, one of which is a 6 foot 4 and a half 14 year old with a hollow leg. We all left contently full.

However, my 5 stars is for the staff. I am absolutely impressed with the staff and how amazingly attentive they were.

I am in congestive heart failure, (18% Heart function) and we decided to take the kids to the buffet as a break from our reality.

I can barely walk, and had my walker with me. I am outrageously slow and every couple of steps I take, I start coughing like I have the plague, and that slows me down even more. (i always cough into my shirt when I'm in public as it sounds horrible). I promise it's not something that can be cought, it just kinda jump starts my heart.

Anyway, I'm also pretty independent as to not burden my children and husband more than I have too. I sent them on to get their food, and meandered my way around the buffet tables.

And I lost my strength and stamina and started to physically tremble. My husband noticed as he watches me like a hawk and I handed him my plate and asked him to go get me some rice from the other side of the buffet.

I stood still at the edge of the buffet waiting, and this amazing man from the kitchen came out immediately to my side to make sure I was ok. (Slender dark hair man with white apron)

He was kind and loving, and looked so worried. I reassured him I was fine, and he hesitated to leave, but politely excused himself. He stood just out of sight and watched me as I slowly made my way back to the table.

He repeatedly peeked out of the kitchen to check on me. He did it without making me feel uncomfortable. That is key!

I was treated with class, and grace, where usually I am treated like an insurance claim waiting to happen.

It was really amazing to see such kindness from a stranger. I just wish I got the young man's name.

Our server was Ashley. She was so attentive and kind also.

The ( red hair - male) host at the front counter was absolutely darling and polite and professional.

EVERY single member of the staff that we had contact with was astronomically professional and simply amazing.

The crew at this buffet made such an effort of "service" with our family, that I'm impressed.

Whoever hand picked this crew knew what they were doing and should be proud of their Team!

Thank you so much for the compassion you all showed, in an industry that is fast paced and impersonal at times.

Y'all really made an amazing impression and we will be back again, the next time I'm...

We are in town for a family get together. There are 38 of us, about half kids, from an infant to 3yr old to 5 yr old to 12 & 13. We called Hunan out on Prospect to advise them we were coming, so they could freshen/ back up the buffet. They opened a party room for us, which was great. We greatly appreciated them doing that for us. We were all pretty disappointed with most everything else, except the table service. Pretty sure they added tip to ticket (which, to me, was totaled in a very odd way. Total number adults, total number kids. Payer for each group, go to register & say how many adults& kids in your individual group. I wanted individual group tickets, I was afraid there would be people left on their ticket after we had all paid & gone!

BUT! Floor was so sticky our shoes stuck to floor, making it hard to walk. The tables were all just as sticky as the floors. I tried cleaning one with wet napkins. Table was so sticky, napkin didn't want to move! Buffet wasn't kept up. I pointed out a couple of empty pans to who I thought was the manager, & she said yeah, it takes 25 minutes for the chicken to cook. No back-ups, with regular customers PLUS a large group coming in? I did manage to snag about 5 pieces of fried okra. When time came for dessert, everyone just had a cup of ice cream. When I went to the dessert bar, I saw why! There were lots of empty pans, 1 piece of ?cheesecake?, & a couple of dry something or other, plus an almost full pan of vanilla pudding. I told 3 employees as they passed by, waited a bit for pans to be filled, which didn't happen, so I had...ice cream. The plates & silverware were clean; drinks were refilled once we all got drinks. Nobody was in a uniform. Person I pegged as manager was wearing a t-shirt & shorts. Not what I expect from a professional! All in all a very...

PROS: I live 45 minutes to the east, in Pawhuska so when I'm running errands in Ponca City, I always dine here. I've never been met with an unpleasant staff member. The servers are always smiling, happy and do their best to get you seated if there is a line. Why they never include a spoon with the cutlery is a bit of a mystery but I'm not going to ding them for that. They're also on top of refilling my beverage which is always a plus so 5 stars for the current wait staff.

CONS: The buffet is never HOT. It's not necessarily cold either, just a little warm. The Chinese food isn't nearly as good as the Chinese buffets in Tulsa but it's still decent enough, especially the Sesame Chicken and egg rolls. I do get a kick in seeing the okra on the buffet. You would only see that at an Oklahoma Chinese restaurant. The dessert cookies are REALLY, REALLY good. Another thing: a lot of the menu items are cooked really, really bland, not enough spice & kick in them. That might also be due to them not being as warm as they should be so for overall quality of food, I'm only going to give them 3 stars out of 5.

It's a shame Ponca doesn't have another Chinese buffet opening up soon if only to light a fire under Hunan's butt and inspire them to do better. It's a nice little restaurant and like I said, "decent enough" food, they just need to take things to the next level and instead of being "good," be "excellent."...