Hunan House Chinese Restaurant

The host was a bit curt, the waitress was very friendly and fast but professional.
Mandarin Duck; not bad, not great, just ok. The duck appeared to be done in a char siu style. The red bbq crust was great. The meat was a little fatty but that’s not abnormal for duck. It was also a little dry and could have been fresher.
Tom yum gai: Thai style hot and sour soup with chicken. A solid soup, though I prefer it with shrimp, the best thing i ate here. Fairly priced at $ 4 for a decent sized bowl.
Right now the restaurant is sitting at about 3.5 stars, then the main came…
Imperial Sea Scallops: this was a mess, a $ 17 dollar mess. The sauce was great, the mushrooms and snow peas were ok, that’s all the nice things i have to say about this dish. The scallops were billed as sea scallops but they were fairly small, nickel size, some a bit larger but not much, one still had the foot attached. They were cooked correctly but had no flavor even though they were submersed in the sauce, they appeared to have been frozen not fresh. The menu says this comes with mushrooms, baby corn, asparagus, snow peas and water chestnuts. There was no baby corn or water chestnut, instead carrot and red bell pepper were added to the dish with no mention to me and to top it off they were both nearly raw. Now I like my veggies to have some crunch but these were obviously thrown into the sauce, cooked for about a minute then served. For 17 bucks I expect more, a lot more.

What a great experience! The entire restaurant was very clean and elegant. I ordered the general tso chicken with white rice and a bowl of chicken corn soup to start out with. Everything was absolutely fantastic. Great staff too! All very friendly and attentive.

With the pursuit of «authentic» ethnic food being the touchstone of culinary credibility theses days, Hunan House and it’s companion restaurant Hunan Lion might be easy to overlook. Their menu is largely comprised of what we have come to think of as staple Chinese restaurant dishes. You’re not likely to find offal or other off-​beat cuts of meat on the menu.
But while many of the dishes that are sold by a hole-​in-​the-​wall take out joints also can be found on the menu, the actual dishes themselves are worlds apart. The quality of the version on offer from Hunan House serve as a reminder of what those take-​out joints are trying to copy.
Given the history of Hunan House, that’s not surprising. You see, the restaurant has HISTORY. It’s something of a Columbus institution. Long before some of the dishes were take out cliches, they were novel. And Hunan House served them with a focus on quality and style.
The atmosphere and service still show that Hunan House is focused on demonstrating the best version of these dishes. The dining room is well appointed and dimly lit. Water glasses and white table cloths adorn the tables. And the service is attentive, as befitting the décor.
The food is also excellent. The mala lamb in particular is one of my favorites. Also fantastic is the sizzling rice soup, which is apportioned into bowls table side. I actively dislike most soup, but this soup is fantastic and I look forward to ordering it again. If anything has been a miss, it’s probably the steamed dumplings which have been doughy and a little bland.
Overall, you can’t go wrong with Hunan House. It’ll give you a new perspective on what is commonly dismissed as Americanized Chinese food. This is what these dishes are supposed to taste like!

Hands down… BEST CHINESE IN THE CITY! Always perfectly seasoned and generous portions! If you haven’t tried it yet, you should. YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.

Classic establishment. Some of the best comfort Asian food in town. Nice atmosphere. Try the different curries.

Americanized chinese food should be better-​priced than this.

It has been several years since I have made it to this place and it is every bit as good if not better than ever! Very clean, great atmosphere, and top notch food and service! I would highly recommend this place to anyone. Four 9f us at there last night and we all enjoyed every bite!

This place is a great restaurant to dine at. Great service and the entrance into the restaurant was very welcoming! The food was delicious. Give this place a try!

Hunan House is north Columbus institution, one of the large restaurants along 161 that have kept their clientele happy for many years.
HH has one of the most varied Chinese menus — you can get just about any kind of American Chinese food, vegetarian dishes, and color of curry. Their lunch specials also run on the weekend. It gets busy on Sunday, when the after-​church crowd arrives, but the service is quick and business-​like.
The further afield of the mainstream Chinese dishes here is where the truly signature dishes can be found. The green curry is better than just about any Thai restaurant in the city (and that is saying something). Their vegetarian options (mainly tofu based but they’ll also veg-​out any style or sauce you’d like) are numerous.
Their signature dishes — the ones we have tried and found to be different — are the chicken and corn soup, the green curry, the mango chicken and the chicken with macadamia nuts. I’m a big fan of their spicy pot of gold, which is deep-​fried tofu triangles in a black bean sauce. The right balance of flavors, cooked right is what keeps people coming back to Hunan House — whether you’re adventurous or not.

Tonight we decided to go out for Chinese. I love buffets, but my husband doesn’t. We decided to come here.
Service at the front was great, and we were sat immediately. The waiter came over and got our orders, and food didn’t take long to leave the kitchen.
I ordered the hot and sour soup, and it was FANTASTIC! It was my first time eating it, and I really enjoyed it! My main dish was general tsos, which I’ve had here before. I’m used to the chicken being soft and easy to chew, but that wasn’t the case tonight. The chicken was hard, and didn’t have much spice to it.
My husband and daughter enjoyed their meals, and I know we’ll be back. Maybe next time if the chicken isn’t hard, I’ll give 5 stars.

I love the Hunan House and I don’t care who knows it!
I have been eating here for over 20 years and it is hands down my favorite Chinese restaurant. I rarely eat in but the vibe of the restaurant is nice.
My go to is the Spicy Triple Delight. I get mine with no peanuts and fondly refer to this dish as spicy triple D no P. The hot and sour and wonton soups are great. the lettuce wraps and egg rolls will blow your mind. My family loves the sesame chicken, noodles and orange shrimp.
I’m getting hungry writing this review! Do yourself a favor and check this place out.

This is my go to Chinese restaurant here on the north side forgive me I just can’t get past the consistent yumminess of everything and anything I order in or for takeout. I’d probably have hundreds of check ins here but when I order out I always forget to check in. Tonight I ordered the won ton soup for two and the chicken and green beans. Yummy as my go to’s are chicken and green beans, general tsaos and the imperial sea scallops. I also love their spring rolls that are in light crispy wrappers stuffed with oriental veggies shrimp and pork num num num. the chicken and green beans are in a nice Btiwn sauce and the beans have the perfect crunch that appeals to the texture in my mouth. The won tons are perfect I just lovvvvveee this soup at this establishment my absolute favorite with the shrimp the bits of cabbage and the most excellent won tons with pork cooked just right. You want to treat your mouth to awesome Chinese take it here your mouth will be happy and have the widest smile ever no kidding!

My dad started taking me here over 30 years ago and I’ve never once been disappointed!

This is a «nice» restaurant with white tablecloths and waiter service. You can order takeout ahead.
My mother-​in-​law often worries about how they stay in business because she doesn’t see a lot of cars in the lot except during holidays. Last night, there were a dozen carryout bags ready for pickup and the dining room filled up while we were there. I don’t think she’s worried anymore.
Dumplings are served with a delicious ginger soy sauce. For comparison we got the chicken with asparagus and the shrimp with asparagus. Both were delicious. The chicken had a brown sauce which wasn’t sticky and light in flavor. The shrimp had a white sauce and crunchy sweet walnuts.

4 stars for the SIZZLING RICE SOUP, most memorable dish at this restaurant by far– definitely a must try if you’ve never had it!

We were looking for some great chinese food the other night and wanted to try a new place so the missus and I hit up Unilocal!to find someplace local we had yet to try. I searched through Paul F’s reviews as we have pretty good common tastes and found he really liked the Hunan House and had given it very high rating so we decided to give the place a try as it was only a few miles from our house.
Arriving there you could see this was a big restaurant. It looked really nice, not a shop mall scrub buffet type Chinese place but a real honest to goodness quality Chinese restaurant. Going inside we were greeted after the gentleman finished up a call (that just rang as we arrived) and were pretty impressed with the interior of the restaurant, which is really, really nice. I also appreciated the fact it’s not too bright, it’s sort of on the dark side. I know many may not like that but it suits me just fine as I prefer the atmosphere of more laid back and traditional dining.
We started out with some Crab Rangoons and WOW… they were utterly fantastic. Probably about the best I think I’ve ever eaten. Very impressive! Next we got a couple of egg rolls and again, they were quite good. Very hot as they were just out of the kitchen, which was nice, no messing around getting us the food, we got them quick and they were ready to eat after a few minutes of cooling down. Next up I had the hot and sour soup which was top notch as well. The broth was quite thick and yummy, just how I like it!
For my entrée I got the Dragon & Phoenix which was spicy prawns on one side of the plate and seasoned, breaded chicken in ginger sauce on the other side of the plate. Both were excellent. The prawns tasted very fresh and they were plentiful. Also, they had just the perfect amount of spiciness. I did have to take off my one shirt I had worn over my main shirt as it heated me up, LOL! The chicken in ginger was simply awesome and my fiancé said she enjoyed it a slight bit more than her Sesame Chicken, which by the way she loved.
In conclusion — this is now our favorite Chinese restaurant, surpassing the Lucky House and Panda Inn at Polaris. The only caveat was they are a bit more expensive than either of those places. Of course in their defense we did get an appetizer, extra egg rolls, soup and drinks (tea/​diet coke) in addition to our entrees so if you were to keep it to just an entrée it’d be much more reasonable.
The pecking order in regards to price would be this place at the top, then Panda House on Polaris next and finally Lucky House so it’s up to you how much you really want to spend but at any of these three places you will get some great food, the difference is mostly going to be in the actual dining experience itself with Hunan House being the best dining experience, then Panda House and finally Lucky House (which also discounts 10% when you do carryout which is nice).
My thanks goes out to Paul F. and his wonderful review and pictures of this place. He’s never steered me wrong yet and this is another grand slam of a restaurant!

My family and I love Hunan House! The best value is during lunch (up til 3pm), you get a meal with soup and rice for around $ 10 after tax. Both my sister and I get the Szechuan beef and they are very accommodating to our request to add baby corn– we can’t get enough of it! I’ve had both the chicken corn soup and the hot and sour soup and they are both delicious and flavorful. My mom gets the crab Rangoon, which is also delicious.
The atmosphere is awesome, it feels really fancy and nice. My one complaint is your server can be real hit or miss– for example, today we had this real cranky older dude who could barely contain his annoyance when my sister asked for soy sauce. But then other days the servers are super attentive and kind. Oh well, for me the food is worth it and it’s still a 5 star rating. Love Hunan house!

A childhood favorite, so it automatically gets five stars. Plus, this place is amazingly consistent. For example, my friend Sharmeela S. and I recenlty had the sizzling rice soup and we were couldn’t stop raving about how it tastes EXACTLY the same as it did when we were kids. Plus, the décor (like Hunan Lion) transports you back to an old-​school Columbus dining era when people actually dressed up for dinner. Of course, the décor is still the same, but everyone is in denim.
This place has some of the best versions of American-​Chinese dishes, including General Tso’s, sesame chicken, Kung Pao chicken, and sweet corn chicken soup. Furthermore, for the slightly-​more authentic dishes, the Mala lamb and Hunan chicken are stellar. On a recent visit, I tried the pan-​fried noodles with shrimp and chicken (no beef) and the crunchy texture of the noodles combined with the savory gravy equated to an outstanding flavor profile. During the same visit, I tried the salt and peppper shrimp. They were crispy, slightly spicy, and quite a treat.
Lastly, this restaurant has a full bar and a decent list of cocktails from a bygone era (think Mai Tais, etc.). So even if no one else does it anymore, do dress up one night and go on a fabulous date night with your significant other here!

This is one of my favorite restaurants. Its gourmet Chinese food done superbly. Its in a sort of random location but the place itself has a nice ambience. The food is excellent consistently. My favorite items include sizzling rice soup, chicken lettuce wraps, pot of gold tofu, kung pao shrimp, chicken chow mein, hunan chicken, sesame chicken, mala lamb and the list goes on. I can honestly say I’ve never ordered anything i didnt like though their chinese dishes are better than their thai attempts. Try this place, you won’t be dissappointed. Their generous portions and quality make the 12 – 20 $ entrée price justified. This is definitely a step above the casual Chinese dining experiences you might be used to. Another bonus is its open holidays, I like to enjoy Christmas dinner here.

Tried this place tonight for dinner for the first time. It being Hunan House… I kind of felt obligated to try the Hunan Chicken! =) It was really good! Also a really big portion. The only issue I had was an unexpected charge. I’m not the kind of person who usually makes substitutions, especially at Chinese Restaurants, but it came with mushrooms and broccoli and I was just really not in the mood for broccoli tonight. So I asked if I could change it out for another vegatable and they said yes, what would I like. I said carrots and onions. When I went to pick it up, I saw the extra charge and was told it was for adding vegetables. I thought that was pretty ridiculous, since I wasn’t substituting a cheap vegetable for an expensive vegetable or anything; plus it wasn’t a vegatble dish so it’s not like there were that many. Plus she should’ve told me when I ordered. In any case, it was only $ 1 and I was late for something and didn’t really feel it was worth arguing. As it turned out, they in fact gave me carrots and onions in addition to the broccoli, not instead of. *sigh*
But whatever. Overall the food was really good. I’ll probably go there again, and not bother to try to change anything.