Village Kitchen家湘味 — Restaurant in San Diego

This is one of my favorite Chinese places in San Diego, alongside Village North. They serve Hunan cuisine which is known for its spiciness and unforgiving assault of flavors on the palate, so be prepared for a heavy tasting meal and perhaps lots of rice and ice water!

Some of the highlights here include the preserved pork--I like it both in the stir fry and in the dry pot. The stir fry can be a tad dry at times, but the fresh garlic leaves more than make up for that, and the dry pot is just so flavorful with the smoked bamboos, giving the dish as smoky of a flavor as you will ever find in Chinese food (which should appeal to any BBQ fans out there). Chairman Mao's braised pork is quite good, similar to many other braised pork dishes, with a fermented bean curd flavor, as is common in the braised pork of certain Chinese (non Shanghainese) cuisines. The deboned pork rib with fried egg casserole is actually one of the milder dishes on the menu in terms of flavor, but not in terms of spiciness! It's one that I enjoy very much as well for some lighter dishes to balance the others. On the other hand, the pickled chilli with pork is quite a spicy dish, with the aromas of the chilli pepper making the dish very very good.

Of the non-pork dishes, the Chef's Beef Brisket is quite good, a little bit reminiscent of beef noodle soups except served as a dish without noodles and soup. The mapo tofu is a simple but very flavorful dish with plenty of Sichuan peppercorns to numb your tongue. The steamed egg here is possibly one of my favorite steamed eggs I've had, with some good flavors and a very good texture on the egg--not over or underdone. The eggplant with green chilli and century egg dish is one of their signatures for a reason. The flavors are very balanced with the eggplant serving as a good base.

I could probably go on about the other dishes since there really hasn't been many that have disappointed me. I highly recommend coming with a group of people to order and try more dishes and seeing which you enjoy the most! I also noticed that the dishes tend to be spicier in the summer, since perhaps it fluctuates with the spiciness of the chilli peppers which may be seasonal, so if you want to give yourself a challenge, definitely come...

Their food is really salty as always, but tastes good for sure. The young waitress is a serious problem as always too. Last time we went to lunch on Sunday, 8 days ago. I asked to-go boxes when we finished. She sat there asked me how many without any kind words. Actually, all my three dishes were full, so if she pay attention or just took a look at my table, it'd be really obvious to see how many I need. When she delivered the boxes, she gave me a normal box for the fish soup. I didn't wanna say something like it's a wrong type of box, so I said it might be too small for the soup (I even don't wanna mention it's not okay for the soup) . She said "if it's not big enough, I will give you another one." And then, she came back with a POS machine when my two hands were busy on baggaging my food. She asked me if I wanna pay by card or cash. I said give me one second. She just left the machine there and left. I waited for a while, and then I realized she didn't wanna come back anymore, so I picked up the machine and paid the bill. She probably thought she could let me stay there forever, but she didn't know I'm a server too. Additionally, I'd feel so shameful if I treat my customers like that. And it's even not the first time I had her service. At that time, she charged me a normal price without giving me 12 percent discount which they give to everyone. When I asked her the reason, she lied that I had to pay online to get the discount and she could not do anything at that time. She probably thought I never ate there, so I didn't know they give everyone that discount no matter dinning or pickup. So, please really be careful their service. ALWAYS CHECK YOUR BILL BEFORE GIVING THEM YOUR...

Overpriced poor quality food, not at all like in China. I have visited Beijing, Xi'an, Yichang, Shanghai, and Zhengzhou in China. The restaurants where the locals eat in each of these areas have excellent food prepared by owners who take pride in the quality and preparation of their food. They serve some of the best food I have ever eaten with large portions, fresh ingredients, and fair prices. Village Kitchen is the opposite. The food is bland and every corner is cut to maximize profits. The lamb pictured in the menu shows chunks, however what is served is miniscule shavings of lamb like the wood shavings from a pencil sharpener. The only flavor of the lamb dish was an overabundance of cooking oil. When I got home my body decided to reject the meal from both ends. My wife ordered the pork stomach which was also bland and priced double that of better quality restaurants. If you are planning to spend at least $50 for two people, a way better meal can be had at the many better Chinese restaurants in San Diego like...