Hunan Empress

This is quality Chinese food. The restaurant is a hole in the wall, but they know how to do the food right. I always go for takeout. They say they’d been in business for 38 or so years, and the food is the reason why. I enjoy the sesame chicken, and the crab rangoon is killer, as is the fried rice,

Not so good. I used to come here often until discovering Mongolian BBQ in the next plaza. Way small portions of meat and food seriously lacks flavor. I usually get the chicken or beef with brocolli and there was seriously like four small pieces of meat each time. No oyster sauce or soy sauce, no seasoning in general equals very bland food. Would never come back.

It has probably been 8 years since my wife and I dined at the Hunan Empress. I remember why now. Like Yogi said, no one goes there because it is too crowded. That it was this evening at 6, and the restaurant was probably 95% full.
Service was slow, very slow. Even getting water was slow, and it took forever for our orders to be taken. When the soup came out the temperature was at best tepid, and the amount of vinegar in the hot n’ sour soup was way out of balance. The egg roll was also not done. I never hot the mustard based dipping sauce I asked for
We were a party of 10 and the entrees took 4 trips and 5 minutes for everyone to be served. My dinner was just ok, the beef was salty and mild. One of our party ordered a spicy beef dish and it was anything but spicy.
What was really strange was how long it took to get a bowl of rice for the 10 entrée’s, and when that was empty having to ask for the bowl to be refilled.
Was this a 2 star review, or a 2.5 star review. The answer is yes, and you can choose whichever ranking you wish.
It will be at least another 8 years before I go to Hunan Empress again.

Bad attitude, bad food no flavor and bland taste, poor customer service i wonder if they think there the only Chinese food chain in t h e area diffently need a new mgt. and menu

Appetizer and tea when you sit down. Loved it! The food was fresh, and huge portions. Came on a Sunday evening. Had egg rolls for app, sesame chicken and chicken lo mein… was only able to eat half so we have lunch leftovers. Service was prompt and attentive. Price? Only $ 23! Yes and thank you and we will be back!

We’ve been going to Hunan Empress for years. Tonight is Christmas eve and we knew they would be busy so we made reservations. We purposely went early (5:00 PM) before things got really crazy there.
My wife and I both ordered combination dinners. She got the cashew chicken, I opted for the chicken and shrimp combo. We both got crab ragoon and egg drop soup.
We both love the Chinese «chips» and sweet and sour sauce that’s on the table when you sit down. We munched on those and drank tea, and after just a few moments the waiter brought our soup. After that he bought out the crab rangoon.
Service was excellent until we got to the entrees. My wife selected white rice with her dinner and the waiter brought it out with her cashew chicken. However, when he brought out my chicken and shrimp he said he needed to go back for my fried rice.
10 minutes later I still didn’t have the fried rice, and asked a different waiter to help me. My original waiter brought the fried rice and to add insult to injury, it wasn’t very good. It was bland.
I’ve always enjoyed their fried rice, and even ordered just fried rice in carry out from time to time. Tonight it was a total disappointment.
I didn’t make a fuss, in fact despite the misstep I still gave the waiter a 20 per cent tip, but I probably won’t rush back there. There are cheaper places around with much better fried rice. I don’t know what happened. It wasn’t even that busy yet.

Going downhill… Fast.
We’ve been eating here for almost eight years and loving everything from the egg rolls and fried rice to the lo mein, moo goo gai pan and mu shu. Hunan Empress has been our ‘go to’ for carry out. Close to home, always quick and tasty.
Except the last two times… We’ve been told 45 minutes for carry out… Which I could probably live with if it weren’t for two things.
1. When we go to pick it up, we WAIT an additional 20 – 30 minutes! An hour is TOO LONG to wait for pork fried rice and egg rolls.
2. The food quality is declining faster than the service. We’ve had undercooked pork and chicken and the food doesn’t have much flavor.
If these last two experiences had been our first, We would NOT be going back. As it is, my husband is going to take some convincing.

The food here is amazing all of the different kinds of soups are amazing I also recommend chicken fried rice and the general tsos chicken
This place is affordable and is really good the device is great and there is take out

Best Chinese food ever!!! Way better than every other I have had. We order from here almost weekly. Super yummy! Best potstickers ever! Also lo mein is amazing!

I do love this place. I moved to N Ca for a couple of years and really missed it. Now I’m back and am, again, a regular.
It’s just good fairly cheap Chinese take out. It’s not fancy, it’s not authentically Chinese like what you can find in SF Chinatown, but it is just darn good American Chinese take out. My favorite is their chicken with broccoli. I’ll def continue to be a regular since American Chinese take out is my go to when I’ve had a long day.

There are very few Chinese restaurants in the area. This place happens to be very conveniently located. Right on olive, right next to Brunswick Zone.
The menu is good and they have almost anything you want. However, the food is not good. We had four different dishes but none of them were up to the mark.
The server we got was not at all courteous. All of us challenged each other to make here smile. Unfortunately, no one won!
I wouldn’t go there again!

I can’t comment on their other food (probably average), but I have to say that the fried rice is absolutely terrible here and in west county in general. I repeat, this review is for the the FRIED RICE ONLY. I don’t know if it’s a different kind of rice, or is cooked differently, but it ends up disgustingly flavorless/​dry/​sponge-​like and no amount of soy sauce will fix it. I love fried rice and I’m the kind to eat every last grain of rice on my plate, and with this place I ended up picking the meat out and wasting more than half the rice.
The best fried rice I’ve ever had was Golden China in the valley, but they closed (should have never switched locations). Second best was North Hunan in North County, but they closed a long time ago. Panda would be a couple notches below them, but is way out in Kirkwood. A notch below Panda I’d put China Wok (North County) and Rice House (Florissant), followed by China Garden (141 & Clayton). WAY below them is Wok Express (Maryland Heights), then Hunan Empress and Summer Palace. I’ve had Zang Chi once and I don’t remember it being much better than Hunan Empress and Summer Palace.
I’m definitely open to suggestions if anyone else feels the same way as me and knows where to get some fried rice that is actually moist and tasty.

The food here is very good and quick. We usually get the Hunan chicken and crab rangoon and it is reasonably priced for me and my boyfriend to split it. We can walk here or take a 2 minute drive so that is pretty awesome. The inside is VERY small though and in the summery months or on warm days outside can be very hot. I would advise you to generally get it to-​go and not to eat there since it can feel suffocating inside on those days. The seating inside is typical in quality for a restaurant like this — mismatch and random pieces; not very comfortable and cheap looking.
Overall I really like this place and they are one of the better Chinese Take-​Out places around town!

Best items are the specials not on the menu, but written on the wall: crispy chicken and honey walnut shrimp!

Very good «Americanized» Chinese food. Can’t go wrong with any of the old standards. Friendly and accommodating.

I love this place. Their food is high quality and has great flavor. It also isn’t super greasy like most Chinese food! Yum you have to try the crab rangoon. It actually has crab in it rather than every other Chinese place!!! Oh and the Four Musketeers (ask them to make it spicy!) rocks.

Let me tell you a thing or two about these kinds of places. There are two things you ask yourself if you’re trying to find some kind of criteria for coming up with a rating. First, did I get sick within 8 hours of my meal? Second, did I pay more than $ 10 after a tip? If you answered ‘no’ to both, you can generally conclude that when you need a cheap meal, this place will suffice.
As for me, I did not get sick or pay over $ 10. I just didn’t think the food was very good. The Coke tasted old and flat and the egg drop soup was almost nauseating. I also got sweet and sour chicken, which was fairly decent. I questioned whether or not the chicken was cooked properly, but went ahead and rolled the dice and ate it. I have no complaints about the service, but I can’t see myself deciding to go here again.

I am consistent in forgetting about this place. I am consistently making a bad move by doing so.
This was one of my favorites before I moved out west. I just drove by there today and had to pick up a lunch. This place is cheap, and good. 6.10 for a lunch order of shredded beef in garlic sauce with 1 veggie roll, crg, and won ton soup. For quick, and cheap Chinese lunches this is a hit. I don’t think the quality is up there with a Sho Wok, but its pretty damn good, and I don’t think there is a Chinese place in STL with a quality/​value combo like this.
This is the Emperess to my wallet while smashing through the «Great Wall of Everything’s So Damn Expensive These Days», and into the stomach of high hopes and gurgling emptiness.

NEW INFO: They deliver!
Got a semi-​massive order of:
potstickers (3 orders — two fried, one boiled, each order is 6), egg rolls (2), crab rangoon (1 order of 6)
#44 Szechuan style shredded beef with no vegetables and extra spice (for the vegetable-​averse and hot-​craving oldest son) — a new order for him, and he really liked the additional spice and (of course) the no vegetables
#52 sliced chicken with garlic sauce
Again, and always, the complementary container of soup. .. quite large, seems like 1.5 servings. This was sooo good and filling. .. a meal into itself!
Hunan Empress is always so accommodating of individual desires for more heat, more-​more heat, less heat, special orders. .. very much appreciated! And it’s always spot-​on!
$ 47.25. Lasted at least eight meals.

Hunan Empress is a place we have frequented many times, but not much recently. I concur with the review that called it good, not stellar. The service is excellent, they are very efficient even when very busy, and they are normally fairly busy on weekend evenings.
The menu is pretty straightforward Hunan and Mandarin style food. On our recent visit, the first in several years, Ms T and I split fried potstickers and a non-​spicy seafood dish. I also had hot and sour soup. I love fried potstickers. These were just OK. Taste was fine, but a little under done. The dipping sauce needed the zing of a little rice wine vinegar. The hot and sour soup was not as good as I remembered. It is a thickened, rich style, but is neither hot nor sour. I had to add soy sauce to say it was decent.
The main dish was a very large seafood platter called Seafood Delight, in a clear thickened sauce. I agreed to share this with Ms T because I knew we did not need two main dishes. I prefer the hot and spicy dishes. For what it was, it was actually pretty good. The shrimp tasted like shrimp and the scallops were fine. Of course it had the usual fake crab. The vegetables were good. I loaded my rice first with a lot of chile sauce and some soy sauce and enjoyed my meal.
No one is going to drive across town to this place but locals patronize it very well. It is certainly a notch or two above the common chains that are in every strip mall. It is very predictable Hunan food, a little short of the mark on the items we had last time, but they have a nice full menu and I know from past experience, there are spicy, richer dishes of chicken, pork and beef that don’t need my doctoring. The spicy dishes will be tame for my taste. Portions are very good and the prices are also quite reasonable. We had all we needed for $ 20 plus tip.