Hunan Solon

This was my first time eating at Solon and the red Thai curry was good. The servers were friendly but the manager had a horrible attitude. He was standing right behind me when the check arrived and before I could even include my tip, he said that you must tip at least 18%. This was really unprofessional from his side.

I do not get all the negative reviews. I actually miss this place. We lived in the area for 13 years and this place was close to where I worked. I always ordered the Garlic Chicken, extra spicy and the hot and sour soup. The main dish was quality chicken with really fresh vegetables and the soup was perfect hot and sour. They were always friendly at pickup and I always tip for to-​go orders. My company doesn’t fly me out any more and I haven’t been in a while, but seriously, I hate the word bland! Use a more descriptive word PLEASE!

Not good as my imagine. The soup is bland, not delicious, like many stuff mixed together. The corn fish does not taste good too. It is too bland without any flavor.
The spicy pock garlic is not spicy, also we did not see garlic and pepper too.
The vinegar potato is too spicy. Maybe the chef is too busy to take care of quality.
But the speed for them to prepare the dishes is quick. I do not think it represent Chinese food.

In US you don’t find many good Chinese restaurants. I’d say Hunan Solon is good enough for those who’d like to try Chinese food in Cleveland.

We have been coming here for 20 years. The food is usually great and the service is speedy.
We came here for Father’s Day as this is my dad’s favorite restaurant. It took them an hour to get our food. We talked to them about this poor service and they were extremely rude. They didn’t do anything for us.

I was told this is the best Chinese in Cleveland and it probably is, but when you are use to west coast Chinese, it is par for the course. I had sesame chicken, fried rice, soup and an egg roll to go and took it back to the hotel. So, I only experienced the front counter and the food, my thoughts:
The guy at the counter carried on a 10 minute conversation while two people waited in line. He nicely apologized, saying it was an old friend. It was mildly frustrating, and the lady behind me got angry.
As for the food, the chicken was soggy, and kind of bland. I realize I took the dish to go so the sogginess is whatever, but I only ate ¼ of the ample serving because honestly it wasn’t that good. The spring roll was typical. The winner, the hot and sour soup.
I have had better (not in Cleveland) but I have had worse.

The food was delicious! Staff so professional and the restaurant is very clean. Appe

My family and I just moved in the neighborhood and wanted to find a local Chinese restaurant which this one came recommended by a friend. We typically order enough good so we have leftovers for lunch the next day.
Me and my wife ended up getting sick half way through the meal and had to through all the leftovers out.
The egg rolls were extremely greasy and the sesame chicken should have been labeled sesame breading.
I don’t know if we caught them on an off night but we will not be coming back. Hunan east on Richmond road across from Richmond mall is twice as better for half the price.

Best Chinese takeout on the east side. Great dumplings and egg rolls. Other food is fresh and the portions are generous. The food is promptly prepared and reasonably priced making a great option for take-​out.
The restaurant is clean but not intimate. It is located in a strip mall and parking is plentiful.

Best authentic Chinese in Cleveland. I really love their fried rice and Pad Thai. And their bubble tea was yumm

Very disappointed at this place with a recent visit. There are not many options in Solon area for Chinese food, and this one is close to work. We went for lunch. The gentleman who sat us had nice suit on, but was not polite. He wanted to seat us at a booth by the kitchen, and I asked if we can sit the other one down the isle a bit farther. He replied «what’s the difference». I have never got this response ever from a host.
The food was very generic. If you like high sodium, oil, load of sauce typical American Chinese food, you probably will like it. But not my taste. It’s far from real Chinese food.
We asked for separate check upon ordering but still got one check at the end. I asked for brown rice with extra charge but still got fried rice. Nothing went right. The guy came back with water and check with tons of bad attitude.
Not recommended.

Very happy the authentic menu us now on the web site!

i feel sick from the sheer amount of grease that i just ingested, but god is it delicious. i’m also pretty sure their vegetable fried rice, along with everything else, was absolutely loaded with msg. i also got some sort of tofu dish, some noodles, an eggroll. i got it as take out but it smelled so good that i sat in the car and started eating.
it’s a little bit of a far drive for me so i don’t think i’ll be back too often but if it were closer, i’d be there every week, which is probably just about enough time for my bowels to normalize after the subjecting them to the grease.

Typical Chinese restaurant with a very big menu. Lots of choices but my meal was underwhelming. I had the General Tso Chicken. It was marked on the menu as hot. I like hot, but not too hot. It had NO heat at all. I think the peppers were added at the end for show, not for flavor or heat. Overall, the meal was bland.

Ok, I travel A LOT for business and I rely on Unilocal reviews to determine where I eat. Today, I decided to try Hunan because I was staying at one of the hotel in the same area. Immediately upon walking in, I was greeted with «pickup?» Uh, hey, how are you tonight… needless to say, it was different. Usually I expect something along the lines of «good evening, are you dining in or picking up?» Or something. Anyway, I decided to try eating in. I noticed something right away that bothered me. Either they determined that I wasn’t going to be worth their time or they figured other customers were more important. I wasn’t asked what I wanted to drink (thankfully I don’t mind just drinking water) and once I got my food I was completely ignored. No one ever asked me how everything was or anything. Finally, they check was just dropped on my table and no one asked me if I wanted anything else. I practically had to flag someone down to get a box.
I would give the service (at least for a young, single, white diner) a 2, with the food a 4, though that’s just for the entrée… I wasn’t a fan of the wontons in the soup. They were weird.

The crispy ginger chicken is the best Chinese dish I have ever had! Similar to generals chicken– but with a lot more flavor! The décor is bright and clean, and servers are friendly. It is not a 5 star restaurant, but it is when comparing to other Chinese restaurants in Cleveland.

This place completely blew my mind. Who would’ve known that there would be an authentic Chinese restaurant tucked away in a strip mall in some random industrial suburb of Cleveland, next to a longhorn steakhouse and a KFC? We came here last week and it was so good that we came back again this week (yes, it’s a half hour drive from my place).
The place gets a surprising number of Chinese clientele. It seemed like all the Chinese people in Solon were there. They also have… erm… very Andy Warhol-​esque pictures of Asian vegetables on the wall.
They have an «authentic» menu and an Americanized menu. If you look Chinese they will automatically give you the authentic menu. (And they will talk to you in Chinese.) If you don’t look Chinese you should request the authentic menu. The menu items are in both English and Chinese. The food is not absolutely perfect but it’s definitely the best Chinese food I’ve had in Cleveland. What we’ve tried so far:
— Japanese soft tofu dish (#34) is _​awesome_​as Fung said in her review — the tofu is delicious and soft and the sauce is fairly authentic.
— The salt baked shrimp (#11) is a great dish too — fried goodness with just the right amount of spice.
— The beef ho fun noodles (#76) had a nice flavor and it was good except they did not premix the noodles with the sauce, which caused the noodles to incompletely absorb the sauce.
— The fish pan fried in brown sauce (#42) had a very tasty sauce that was *different* from the other two but the texture of the fish was sort of flaky (I would say a bad choice of fish)
— The bubble tea (well, more of a smoothie with boba) was what really surprised me. The boba was soft and cooked correctly, and the tea was not overwhelmingly sweet like other places in Cleveland. It was actually pretty decent!
If this place was in Los Angeles I would give it a 4. But for Cleveland, well, we might be coming here instead of Wonton Gourmet from now on.

I’ve heard many people rave about this place so i decided to drive 30mins out to check it out. First, if you like authentic asian food, get the Japanese Soft Tofu with golden mushroom and pork (from the ‘asian’ menu).
Wonton Soup (3.5): many Unilocalers raved about the wonton soup here so i had to get it. the broth. The broth was better than other asian restaurants but it tasted like water with some soy sauce. Now, the part where i know why people love it is because for once, there’s actually substantial meat in the wonton and it’s NOT just wonton and soup. there’s cabbage, scallions, etc. it was actually your typical chinese soup. Given all that though… it wasn’t an authentic wonton soup that I used to get back in Taiwan.
Japanese Soft Tofu with Golden Mushroom and Pork in Oyster Sauce (4): I got this off the ‘asian only’ menu and i cannot tell you how much I appreciate chinese restaurants that have japanese soft tofu (i usually call them egg tofu). the only other place in cleveland that I know has this tofu is Wonton Gourmet’s Jade Tofu (a MUST TRY). Anyway, i loved this dish. It was a bit salty and not entirely authentic tasting but it was worth getting. i’ll be back for it.
Twice Cooked Pork (3): This is a very authentic dish back in Taiwan and sadly, hunan solon didn’t make it well. Don’t get me wrong, if you don’t know how it should taste like, you will love it. But if you know what it should taste like, you’ll find hunan solon’s too sweet and the pork is sliced wrong. Twice cooked pork should not be ground pork but slices of pork. Either way, the flavors were there… it just wasn’t twice cooked pork.

Strip mall? Okay, we were hungry. REALLY hungry. Checked out the mobile Unilocal reviews, stopped in and were amazed!
Quality, quantity, service. Everything was great. They bring you one menu if you are an Ugly American (yeah, I’m looking at YOU, face in the mirror!) but you can ask for the REAL menu, the Chinese one. Don’t worry; next to the Chinese symbols are English symbols. I mean letters.
Fortunately, I was in the company of two Asian women, so I was welcomed by proxy into the inner sanctum of the «other menu.» Whoa. Every previous post has covered this already, but trust me: it is so, SO good, on all levels.
My fortune cookie summed it all up: «Things may soon get much, much worse.» And my lucky numbers? Blank.

Having spent three decades living and travelling in areas of heavy Chinese populations in both Asia and along the West Coast, I have never been a fan of the Chinese Restaurants here in Cleveland (in fact, typically avoid them). Hunan in Solon is clearly the dramatic exception!
The food at Hunan is authentic — not just «close». Full of marvelous flavor and character, I particularly enjoy their barbecue spare ribs (appetizer, $ 7.00), Cantonese-​style roast duck ($ 15.00), and choy sum with oyster sauce (requested, off the menu). Of course their menu offers the complete «standard fare» known at area Chinese restaurants but at a far better quality. For the more adventurous, some of Hunan’s more flairful entrées include Singaporean Chow Ho Fun ($ 10.00), Tangerine Beef ($ 12.00), Lamb Scallion ($ 12.00), and Beef Yau Tsoi Portabella Mushroom ($ 13.00).
The interesting thing is Hunan incorporates other Asian palates into their menu, including Korean (like the spare ribs appetizer I mentioned) and Thai, such as fresh spring wraps and a complete line-​up of Thai curries available in 9 meat/​seafood/​vegetarian selections. I would estimate their offerings weigh in between 75% Chinese and 25% other Asian. Typically this is a dangerous premise for a restaurant to attempt — but Hunan’s execution of this diversity is flawless and spot on!
The cost ranges from average to a shade under pricey for the less mainstream, more exotic items in regard to the price-​to-​portion ratio. However, once you sample the cuisine you will quickly discover you are clearly getting what you pay for.
The restaurant is located on the industrial side of Solon, easily accessible south of 422, across the complex of small hotels. Use caution: it’s relatively small and insignificant-​looking in the small strip mall it’s situated in and can easily be overlooked.
Some may criticize that Hunan is still Americanized or Anglo-​Chinese. True. It is important to keep in mind this is the best Chinese Restaurant in the area but it must still cater to the NEO palate. Personally, it is not 100% what I’m used to in Singapore, Honolulu, or San Francisco but for Hunan to mimic that level of authenticity and expect to stay in business in NEO would be unwise. On the positive side, Hunan Solon has successfully bridged that crossover well enough that Chinese dignitaries we host have made repeated requests to dine here. (An alternate menu is available for Chinese readers.)
Best Chinese Restaurant in Northeast Ohio? Hunan Solon is without doubt a prime contender for that title.