Road Trip: Hunan Style Restaurant - San Gabriel (Los Angeles)

Believe it or not, even after having Shengjian Bao at Kang Kang Food Court, Xiao Long Bao at Giang Nan, and Jiaozi at Qing Dao Bread Food, we still weren't through! You see we dropped by Tianjin Bistro to pick up Suan Cai Yang Rou Guo which I had on Christmas Day. While waiting for our take-out, I noticed that the long awaited Hunan restaurant had opened across the street. Seeing the name on the sign got my interest.

You see this restaurant had the same name as a place that was on our "list" for the longest time before it burnt down...... When I mentioned this to the Missus, we decided to grab a bite. In cases like this, we employ our "left-over" strategy, in which we make sure to select dishes that would still be good the following day.

We entered, and was seated immediately. The first thing we noticed was in spite of the place being almost full, there were no wonderful fragrances of chili in the air.... not a good sign for us. The menu was rather small in comparison to other Hunan restaurants in the area, and seemed to have quite a few dishes that seemed more like Sichuan than Hunan.

The interior of the place is very, well, red, with a kind of strange mish-mash of decor.

There was a woman manning the front desk right as you entered with toddler in tow. Three young ladies, all of whom seemed to be college students were scurrying around. And then there was the bell..... that all powerful bell, you know, the one that Chinese restaurants use to let the staff know that dishes are ready. I'm sure that the woman had taught the girls that the bell is all powerful, and a ring of that bell supersedes any action, be it taking an order, clearing a table, and perhaps bodily functions. Every time that bell went "ding", all three girls ran to the window like crabs scurrying up the shore at midnight. Once, one of the young women was in the process of taking our order when.... "ding". The girl immediately stuffed her pad into her apron and went running off! Unfortunately, she finished second best (I wonder if there's some kind of "ding" point system going on) as another girl had gotten there first. The young lady turned around, and headed off... to another table! The woman with the toddler had to remind the girl that she had been waiting on us!

And though the Missus was a bit irritated at this, and even a bit more at the freebie little dish of peanuts and peppers, which looked very pretty, but was very bland.

I was having a blast watching the girls run like crazy....... with all that wasted motion, it was obvious that they were new to this. I bet their feet hurt like the Dickens after work.

Eventually, we did get our order taken, and after a bit of a wait our order arrived.  The first item was the Steamed Hunan Style Preserved Meat:

The Hunan Pork was the best of the items on the plate. The texture of the pork was nice, a bit waxy, but not too greasy. The smoked fish and duck were very dry and almost tasteless. As a whole, the flavors seemed watered down. There wasn't much heat to this in spite of the chilies. Not even close to the version we enjoy the best at Hunan Seafood. I will say that the steamed rice was of good quality, and fragrant....perhaps it was the best item we had all evening......

The other item we ordered that evening was the Sauteed Lamb ($9.98), the stir fried lamb and cilantro dish I enjoy so much.

First the good; whomever cooked this has good technique, the lamb was melt in your mouth tender. The ratio of cilantro to lamb was good.  The not so good, of all the Hunan dishes I've had in the area, this was one of the blandest..... In spite of us ordering this dish "very spicy", there was not the faintest sheen of sweat on my forehead. It also needed a good dose of salt. When I reheated this dish the next day, I added a good dose of soy sauce and a pinch of sea salt.......

There was an interesting and very telling vignette that we watched unfold on a table right across the way from us. A gentleman in perhaps his late forties, early fifties, and two boys that assume were his sons were seated there. The boys looked to be perhaps of college age. The father looked around the place, and kept talking to his sons. He pointed across the street couple of times.... and then it came to us.... Hunan Chilli King is right across the street! When their dishes arrived, the gentleman had one bite..... and entered into "protest position"..... he folded his arms and wouldn't eat another bite during the rest of the meal. He kept talking to the boys, and though we couldn't hear what he said, he kept looking across the street........

It's obvious that this place is still going through all of the problems associated with opening day. From what I saw on my way to the restroom, the kitchen is staffed generously, but the dishes come out fairly slowly. It was fairly obvious to the Missus and I that in regards to technique, our dishes were prepared well. But both dishes fell short in the flavor department. So perhaps we'll revisit one of these days.

Hunan Style Restaurant
529 East Valley Blvd
San Gabriel, CA 91776

Comments

[kat]

too bad they weren't tasty, they sure looked nice!

[ed (from Yuma)]

Pretty food. Nice pics. Too bad the taste wasn't there.

I typed this, then looked up at kat's comment. I could have just written "like kat says"

[Kirk]

Hi Kat - Really bright colors, huh?

Hi Ed - There is no doubt that the cooks here have technique. It's just that the food was underflavored for us.

[Dennis]

A very fun read Kirk! Too bad about the dishes.

[Kirk]

Hi Dennis - Yes, it was a disappointment.

[Rosa]

I just need to bite the bullet and make the drive out to the SGV. It's been too long since I had good Chinese...actually, any Chinese.

And all your links to those dumplings...mmmmmmm. Unfortunately, my husband hates dumplings. But if there's meat n' rice, he'll eat it. *sigh*

[Kirk]

Hey Rosa - Check out Giang Nan - he can get some Shanghainese stuff with rice, and you can get some pretty good XLB!

[SK]

Off topic, I remember you mentioned a while ago that Sammy from Sammy Sushi had resurfaced at Wal Mi Do. Do you happen to know if he's still there?

[Kirk]

Hi SK - Sorry to say Sam left sometime in June or July of last year. I'll let you know if he resurfaces.