Hunan Mifen | Lawrence — Restaurant in Sunnyvale

Was looking up some new restaurant to try, and came across this. While I was sad the hotpot place closed down, at least it was replaced by something I could enjoy... so off I go! The ordering process is fairly straightforward, scan a QR code and select on your phone. You can also pay directly via the website so it was very convenient. I decided to try the first one (beef bone mifen soup, super spicy) since that seems to be their most popular dish. My food came out quickly, with the mifen and meat served separately. The server warned me to start with only a small amount since the spicy level is very high. He was not wrong! I put 1 piece of beef bone in the mifen broth and even that small amount transformed the clear broth to a very spicy soup! I do enjoy the spiciness though, and was very happy with the flavor. It doesn't look much but was actually very filling! I wasn't able to finish and brought maybe 1/3 home for dinner. I enjoyed the meal so much that I came back again! I tried their tripe spicy mifen the second time and enjoyed that quite a bit too. I kind of wish they have a "normal beef" spicy mifen option... Sometimes I am too lazy to chew on beef bones or tripe and just want to eat tender beef chunks. The soups with beef chunks aren't super spicy and it doesn't sound like I could customize it. If they can add a beef chunk super spicy mifen that would make me a happy girl. But as is I will...

I thoroughly enjoyed everything about this place. It was easy to order, through your phone and all the food came out very quickly, fresh and tasty. I can see why there’s like 3 in the area. They had a combo special which is worth getting it, comes with a noodle bowl, appetizer and mung bean soup.

Food: Spicy Beef bones combo

Spicy Beef Bones: Try this first and add a little before you go crazy. The chili oil is amazingly tasty but also surprisingly a lot more spicy than I thought. Very addicting and good but also did not put too much (maybe less than half the oil) but definitely made the noodle soup much more enjoyable Marinated Tofu: great compliments to add to the soup. Has great flavor and tastes better with the noodles and soup Fried chicken: nice bites to share, was not too memorable except that it is how you would expect it. Fried lotus: it looks like a French fry and taste a little bit like it with less starchiness and a lot more stringy. Almost like a web. Interesting and a bit bland but was cool to try Soup: very refreshing, definitely helps out with the heat...

Hilarious experience alert. Tldr, the owner should learn how to properly do business with customers.

They first forgot to put an item in my pickup order, and called me after I’ve picked up the food and driven away. I declined to drive back because it’s too far, and we agreed I’ll be refunded.

Then after waiting for 3 days, I see I’m still charged full without any refund, so I contacted them, and they told me I ordered through a 3rd party platform so I’ll get refunded by the platform. So I called the platform (39miles), who promptly explained that this is NOT how it works, and they ended up contacting the restaurant owner.

In the end the owner refunded me privately for the item, but it’s still pre-tax refund. At this point I’m just too tired and didn’t want to waste any more of my time on their unprofessional...