Spicy Hunan Kitchen 湘私馆 — Restaurant in Woburn

Authentic Hunan dishes, clean food, warm service! My husband and I have been frequent loyal customers of this owner’s restaurants for more than seven years.

Authentic— I lived in Hunan for five years in my college time, so really appreciate the authentic Hunan dishes from this restaurant and the owner’s former restaurant (Sei Bar of Wakefield).

Clean food— I have very sensitive digestive and nerve systems. Any food with artificial additives (coloring or flavor enhancers) or preservatives give me severe headaches. This is why i avoid most Chinese restaurants in greater Boston ( or anywhere in US for that matter) because their food gave me headaches each time, but not Spicy Hunan (and Sei Bar). Spicy Hunan has been our safe “ go out to eat “ place for all these years. Before the Owner opened the Spicy Hunan, we used to drive 30 minutes to her Sei Bar. Since the opening of Spicy Hunan, we now drive 45 minutes to Spicy Hunan.

Warm friendly service— I always felt welcomed and the waitresses are friendly. Regarding tipping (considering the recent reviews by a customer about tips), living in the US for more than 30 years, I learned a long time ago that standard tip amount in restaurants is 15% on pretax bill. Tips are for the service ( not the food, although some people mix these two). Above 15% is for exceptional service. Now after the pandemic, it seems everywhere prompts for 18% or more tips including my neighborhood seafood shack. A nearby bakery even automatically add 14% so called Administrative Fee to any purchase bill for the back kitchen stuff in addition to the expected tips for the front service staff. Even though Spicy Hunan’s bill prints pre-calculated amount for 18% or higher, when I pay, I usually calculate 15% in my head for the custom amount. My calculations may be more or less (when my husband pays, he may be more accurate). In any case, the service staff has always been polite and respectful even at their busiest times. The pandemic and high inflation may have raised prices and service staff expectations across the board. If any place deserves such raises, it is Spicy Hunan.

The food is delicious! Our favorites: stir fried pork with green pepper (must order every time!), cumin lamb, stir fried cauliflower, smoked pork with green...

My boyfriend and I ate here for the first time last week and although a bit short staffed the service was good and the sushi was delicious. We enjoyed the food so much we returned last night. Last night we ordered a special roll, Sashimi regular and a sashimi deluxe. The roll arrived first. The roll was good but I’m not sure what happened after this. For 25-30 minutes we waited and no one stopped by to checkin or explain the wait. Finally the 2 sashimi trays came out. Everything about it looked unappealing. The presentation. The food. All of it. I tried the tuna first and it was frozen. The rest of the sushi looked old and/or had been sitting out for awhile. I also attempted the yellowtail and shrimp but could not eat it. This was our first experience at a restaurant where the food quality was so poor that we were fine with paying and just leaving it. Whatever the reason may be the quality of the sushi and service changed in a week our negative experience could have been avoided if there was communication. If the food quality was due to low stock we would’ve ordered something else or if they realized the sushi was frozen when preparing our trays we would have ordered differently or gone else where. Nothing was communicated to us. Not even during the 30 minutes we waited for the remaining food. It’s a very unpleasant, actually gross experience to eat raw food that is frozen or expiring. I rarely write reviews and understand staffing issues and meals aren’t perfect every visit but this experience was enough to write one. To add something positive to this review; the waitress was immediately understanding when we brought the quality of the sushi to her attention. She said she understood and did not charge us for the sashimi. We appreciated that but unfortunately we will never return because of the experience. It...

The waitress who served me and my friends on the night of Nov 26 was extremely Rude and insulting.👎 My friends and I (4 people) went to the restaurant because we liked the foods. But we never expected that we encountered a Horrible Waitress! We placed our order with the waitress around 7pm. We never expected that we would sat there alone more than 1 hour and no waitress came back. We all starving and feel cold. No one ever gave us water. Our neighbor tables who came later than us already got their foods and drinks while we had nothing.

On 8pm, we asked the waitress twice for the reason. Her answer in the first time was to ask us if we had placed the order because she couldn't find it. (???) We were SO surprised and told her we placed the order One hour ago. She heard that and left. My friend and I saw her picked up a small paper which very like our order. She read the paper and typed in something on the computer. She came back but she never mentioned/apologize for forgetting placing order for us. On the contrary, she only made rediculous excuses. She said the only reason was because the restaurant was too busy……Around 8:40pm, She Threaten to cancel my order and asked us "Just get out" if we didn't want to wait extra long time (after we have waited more than 1 hour for dinner). We never said we wanted to cancel order before she asked us to cancel the order……She gave us stink eyes, roll her eyes, very impatiently, angry and yelled at us. This is Very Unacceptable and insulting. Garbage waitress! At that time, we couldn't find the manager or any person who was in charge to talk to. As an old customer, I have to say foods there were great but we would never back to the restaurant because the horrible...