House Of Hunan

The dominant flavor here is grease. It’s so potent the greasy air coats your eyeballs. I suspect everything touches down in the fryer here: I’ve never seen deep fried rice cake before. The tofu and eggplant are fried. The vegetarian soup is basically dishwater. And the guy in the kitchen yells nonstop, though I suspect that’s just his speaking voice. When the bill came it was enough to convince us to go to Chinatown next time.

Honestly, I really wanted to like this place. It’s the closest Chinese food in my neighborhood, and I was hoping it would become a staple take-​out if and when I get too lazy to cook. Tried it once with mediocore results, and tried again with different dishes but unfortunately the food was still disappointing.
Maybe I’m being too picky about Chinese food having grown up eating it pretty much every day of my life. However I have to say the food is simply not very good. Some of it was dry and bland, while others was just drenched in sauce and tasted very «Americanized» to me. I won’t be back.

We ordered salted fish fried rice, hot sauce beef with spinach, lemon chicken and beef chow fun with black bean sauce. Decent Chinese food I’ve had in the neighborhood for the price.
Mei confirmed if we knew how the rice tastes and we said yes!
Food was good, fast and cheap. I will be a regular for sure.

Perfect location near the Giants game. It was so hot and delicious. Portion sizes are generous. Highly recommend everything we ate. Bbq Pork ribs, bout and sour soup, pork buns and chicken wontons. Well lit and safe location too. Smart To start hear before the game and have a full stomach for less cost.

Terrible food and service. Impatient and Very bad attitude. They gave me receipt before I finished.

Another place close to work and the best time to go is durning lunch, well maybe about 1ish cause it can get a little busy during lunch. Food is pretty good and for what you pay the portions are not bad either. If there is not something on the lunch menu ask them and they will generally make it for you. Over all a great place to grab some quick chinese.

Saw the lady drop a pot sticker on the ground, pick it up, dust if off and put it back on the plate to serve to a gentleman sitting by himself. So unsanitary!!!

不是到达的。not authentic Hunan at all. It’s a Cantonese place pretending to be Hunanese. Waitress/​owner terrible communicator. Dishes I ordered were dry. Am not returning here ever.

Good food for cheap, came here with coworkers the first time and wasn’t that bad. Ordered the Mongolian beef lunch special with noodles, way too much noodles for the beef ratio, it’s worth the price meal was $ 10 bucks love the neighborhood, think it’s the only Chinese food in the Townsend apartment area

I’ve only been here twice now since I’m new to the neighborhood and appreciated the friendly service, modifying the order to meet my non spicy and low grease taste bud needs. Happy to have a clean and nice Chinese restaurant nearby for pick up.
This isn’t a foodie’s paradise so not measuring it on SF’s overly entitled (so-​we-​think-​we-​are-​Michelin-​raters) standards, but giving it a 5 star for satisfying my quick fix Asian food craving and meeting my #closeby #quickandeasy #modificationw/​oannoyance criteria.
The friendly lady even recalled my last order and predicted my take out and side item.
Sadly, this place may serve as a tempting obstacle to my «cook at home» goals. ;(

«Is the fish fresh?»
«Yes, fresh.»
«It’s not frozen?»
(Long pause, puzzled look, thinking furiously)
«Fish frozen. Dish cooked fresh.»
* * *
(Returning after checking takeout contents a block away:)
«You didn’t give us the rice we ordered.»
«I didn’t charge you for rice.»
* * *
That said, our fish filet with greens and prawns with string beans were well cooked and flavored. And the one waitress, serving the entire small restaurant plus handling takeout, might be forgiven for any problems. So four stars.

The first time I came here, I actually enjoyed what I ordered. Since that time, I have come back two or three times and the food keeps getting more and more bland! It’s coming to the point where I have to put salt all over the food just to have any flavor, and that’s never a good idea.
In addition to the lack of the flavor, the service is generally no good as well. They are rude and usually try to rush us. The only reason I have come here multiple times is because I live close by, but I have had enough. I will be taking my business to South Beach Café, thank you very much. I’ll be surprised if House of Hunan stays in business for much longer.

This place is a life saver on nights when no one wants to cook. Given how close we live to the ballpark traffic can be horrific so ordering any delivery can take over an hour. Fortunately house of hunan can whip up a hot meal in less than 15 minutes. We usually call in our order then pick it up 10 minutes!
Stick with the basics — also their fried rice is great!

This little spot tucked off the main embarcaderi drag has some very good Chinese food at a reasonable price. Fast fresh with lunch specials.
It is not the best in SF, my vote is Eliza’s for that, but a great cheap place to eat in an area of high priced fancy places

I believe the stars you give should be based in the context of the price and advertised expectations as well as my personal preference /​taste.
Here you will get great food for the price. I had the wonton soup and sesame chicken.
The wonton soup had a nice flavor in the broth, and nice texture to the wontons, but would have liked a bit more space in the meat.
The sesame chicken was well cooked, quite spicy, and not too soft or hard.
The broccoli on the plate was very fresh and tasty.
Nice place, pretty quick, and standard Chinese service. Better than my expectations were.

even the steamed rice is bland and needs to be drenched in soy sauce
i live nearby so i wanted this to be good… or decent
i had very low expectations
and i was still surpised by how flavorless everything was — especially because i ordered honey walnut prawn and sweet and sour pork… traditionally those should both be saucey dishes but they were both horrible.
the cream cheese and crab puffs were the only thing that was edible.
im sure this business will be closing very soon.
they dont even give out fortune cookies.
sucks to suck

The woman never smiles but she is on top with her service. Food is pretty good and cooked quickly, close to my house so I am a happy camper. Mongolian beef and soups are yummy.

I’m a fan of this place for a few basic reasons:
They keep it simple. The prices are affordable. The wait staff is kind.
I’m tired of all the over-​priced, reclaimed wood, small portion, mixologist type bar-​restaurants popping up on every block.
This place is super minimal, just like your expectations should be.

At first, convenience took precedence over tastebuds. Newbies in the city, moving day chaos… eventually, hunger took over…
We ordered our staple Chinese takeout food — Garlicky eggplant, Veggie chow foon, veggie potstickers and a side of rice. Now, I have to say, the veggie chow foon was OMG chopstick-​licking good. Normally, I wouldn’t eat it. But that Sunday, my poor husband ended up eating very little of his order! The garlicky eggplant lacked garlic. It did taste good though, no doubt. The potstickers didn’t stand a chance either.
The second time, I wanted mushrooms. Now I didn’t care how they were made, just a random mushroom craving. Turns out they were out/​had very little left. So, I ended up getting my alternate staple — String beans sauteed in a garlicky spicy sauce. Yeah, this one didn’t stand a chance either: D And what made it awesomer was that it contained mushrooms! Probably whatever they had left!
Yeah, the hostess/​order taking lady/​owner is not the most pleasant to converse with. But seriously, who cares, especially if you are getting food to go? It’s not like it’s a swanky place to make connections and what not… Get over it. Enjoy the food. And the cheapness of it. And it’s multiple-​meals lasting quantity.

Lunch Plate-​Tomato Beef over Rice
I found the sauce to be overly sweet and felt like I was eating ketchup sauce. The beef was seasoned adequately and tender enough but the portions were lacking.
Overall Thoughts
Overall, I felt the dish was quite lackluster and would not order it again, nor am I compelled enough to go back to House of Hunan for a second try