View Edit

Current location Photo of previous location at 508 2nd Street #104

Location
207 D Street
Hours
Lunch: Mon-Sat 11:00am-3:00pm
Dinner: Mon-Thu 3:00pm-9:30pm,
Fri-Sat 3:00pm-10:30pm,
Sun 12 noon-9:30pm
Phone
(530)753-5174
Menu
Viewable Here

Some insist that Hunan is the finest Americanized Chinese food, also referred to as Americanese, restaurant in Davis. And it has a full bar.

Their prices are competitive, especially for lunch — lunch specials include rice (fried or steamed), soup or salad, chow mein, and an entree for $4.75 - $6.25. Most chicken and beef selections cost between $5.00 and $5.25. The soup changes from day to day - it's egg flower soup on Tuesdays/Thursdays and hot & sour soup on Monday/Wednesday/Friday. The lunch environment is somewhat informal. Almost any given day you will find a large group of college students around one of the larger round tables laughing and having a good time. Service during the lunchtime hours leaves a lot to be desired — don't expect speedy service or water refills! At times, the waiters even act like it's a bother just to serve you.

The dinner environment is much more formal and quiet. Prices for dinner are more expensive but servings are much larger. Almost all Soups, Tofu, Vegetables, and Appetizers cost $4.00-$6.00. Pork, Beef, and Chicken entrées typically run between $7.00-$8.00 and Seafood dishes average between $8.50-$11.50. Dinner service is fast and attentive. If you don't want to eat there you can also place an order to go and get 10% off.

Want to avoid trouble while eating and/or drinking here? Check out the Bar Taboos page before entering.

Prior to March 16, 2009, Hunan was located at 508 2nd Street #104. They closed for a few weeks and opened at their current 207 D Street location in April 2009.

Charges

Quite a number of people have noted what they believe to be unauthorized charges/tips, typically in very small amounts (ranging from cents to a dollar or so). Although annoying, this practice is common in some restaurants. When authorizing your card, the restaurant places a hold for an estimated price, before the customer indicates how much tip they are leaving on the receipt. The charge should be corrected in a few days when the final transactions are submitted by the restaurant. Before launching a complaint, be sure you waited a few days before checking your bank statement.

Comments:

You must be logged in to comment on this page. Please log in.

2009-01-01 14:14:33   The Hunan is awesome! I am a big fan of their Hunan Beef and their Honey walnut shrimp. I prefer to go for Lunch because they have their Happy Luncheon where you get a main entree, side of chow mien (which is so good), side of rice (fried or steamed) and a cream cheese wonton. The best part though is the soup included in the luncheon special. I am a big fan of their tasty soups, oh and the salad is great too. I can never quite decide on soup or salad so I usually just get a salad as well :) Dinner isn't too bad of a deal either as they have a similar option to lunch. Overall the Hunan is prob. some of the best chinese I have had. GO TRY IT! —hazeleyes16

2009-02-09 03:10:37   I love coming here for lunch on MWF because they have hot and sour soup on these days. For $6, you can quickly get a large meal. Although everything taste pretty similar, I still think the variety of items you get is worth it. Seems like people complain about customer service since there's only a few people serving a bunch of tables, but as long as I get to order and get my food on quickly, I'm happy. I'd rather have them leave me alone while I'm eating anyway. They do refill your water often. This is my favorite Chinese place for lunch! —TonyaNN

2009-02-14 16:02:01   I think that while the prices for lunch are really good, the level of customer service (or lack thereof) was just too terrible to warrant another trip back. I really only go for the "crab" meat fried wontons but I think from now on I'll just get it to go. I had to wait for the host to even bother looking up from his newspaper to get seated and the waitress started walking away before we were even done ordering. When our food got to the table, we realized they messed up half of our order. Service this terrible didn't even deserve the 35 cents I left. The quarter could have been put to better use doing laundry! —AliceW

2009-02-21 18:57:47   The worst customer service I have ever received at a restaurant —Jtom23

2009-03-01 20:58:14   I would only go for their cheap lunches. As many have mentioned, their service is below par... But then again, how much more can you expect from a 5 dollar lunch. —renee415

2009-03-08 16:02:09   Not crazy about the food here, but eh...

—strawberry

2009-03-08 16:47:10   In short: If you are willing to endure bad service for great (albeit Americanized) cheap food, this is the place for you. I went last night as one of a party of five, including some non-students. We had to wait for about five minutes, but that wasn't a problem. The waiter took our order, we waited for about thirty minutes with not a trace of food, not even the soup we'd ordered. Meanwhile, two parties that had been seated after us had been served. We flagged down a waitress, who told us very promptly that our waiter had left our order in his pocket and forgot to place it- interesting that she knew this and didn't bother to tell us. Our waiter came back to our table, offering us free soda about five times before he finally got the hint and walked away. When he brought the food out about fifteen minutes later, he had the order wrong. The food itself was excellent, though. MAJOR HINT HERE: If you order something with meat and vegetables (e.g. Mongolian Beef, Sweet and Sour Shrimp), they seriously skimp on the meat and put in as many veggies as they can, so ask for no veggies if you know you like Mongolian Beef and lots of it. We had planned not to tip, but one of my friends felt bad and left three dollars, about 7% of our $45 bill. Hopefully that got the point across. The food is good and so are the prices, but the service is awful and I feel like we got the short end of the stick mainly because we are undergrads and they think we'll wait for anything. —acparsons

2009-04-10 15:26:12   While the food was great, this place EASILY had the worst service of any restaurant that I've been to since living in Davis. When my friend and I were seated we waited 10 minutes to get just water and menus, which were only given to us upon request. I requested tea as well, and they brought 1 cup for 2 people. The food came out in an average amount of time and tasted good. After we were done and went to went to pay for the meal, we requested that the check be split. The person working the register said..."I guess" and then proceeded to lecture us on how hard we were making his job, and that when we "got out into the real world" we would understand this. Both my friend and I have worked in the restaurant industry for a number of years and understand that it takes no more than 30 seconds to split a two person check. It was almost enough to cause me to go back in and remove the tip from the table.

Long story short, if you want the food, get take out, because the customer service is absolutely horrible. —davisreviewer

2009-04-18 15:18:43   Orange chicken. OMG so good. —CodyDuncan

2009-04-26 18:37:37   A few simple things to remember here - first, don't expect great service when your meal costs $5. Second, short of you witnessing the waiter spit in your food, NEVER omit a tip (and 7% might as well be 0%) - this will only make service worse. Last, remember: the food is cheap. They don't make their money splitting checks. They make them by turning tables. Although the cashier might gripe a little, I've never experienced true rudeness from any of the staff. Like most servers, they're probably overworked and under-appreciated. Just my two cents, FWIW. —BigRedGiraffe

2009-05-04 16:20:06   Good food with good prices. Try their special lunch, especially the honey crispy walnut shrimp, yummy! —thtly

2009-05-04 16:22:23   When I ordered the fried wonton, I expected to have some meat. However, they're just the fried wonton wrappers. They should've stated that in their menu. —thtly

  • I always was under the impression that fried wontons were just the wrapper, anyways. I've never seen a restaurant offer fried wontons with meat before, although that would be interesting to try. brookeb

2009-06-16 12:46:01   They had a rat problem in their old location. There were dead rats in the kitchen area when the space was demo'd in April. After they moved out you could see the rats crawling around the empty space. Saw it with my own eyes. Never again will I eat at Hunan. —jimb62

2009-06-22 20:16:38   Hunan is the worse place to eat! Do not go there, they have bad customer service and treat their customers like S**t —Karina

2009-07-14 20:35:46   How do they get their food out so fast? Makes me wonder, even though it is delicious! Customer service sucks tho! —davisgirl10

2009-07-16 21:31:41   It takes awhile to get your food after you order it even when the restaurant isn't buisy. However, I do love their lunch specials. —BryceH

2009-07-24 10:14:30   The new location is a bit nicer, and oddly enough, the host and waitress (who I think are the owners?) were more friendly here than at the previous location. The food quality has gone downhill, though, which is sad because it was already deliciously crappy and cheap haha. I wouldn't even pay the ridiculously cheap $6.50 or whatever it is now. The last couple of times I've been there (new and old location) the noodles tasted weird. And for some reason, whenever I've ordered at night, the food has given me a huge stomach ache (but that's never really happened during the afternoon). My friend and I have discussed that maybe they use the same oil all day and so by dinner time it's really dirty and gross. —Kiran

"2009-07-28" Let me start off by saying that if you haven’t tried Hunan restaurant, then your truly missing out! Hunan offers some of the best quality Chinese food in the city of Davis, and at a reasonable cost. I am always looking to try new places to eat in Davis, and lets face it, as a college student, money doesn’t always come so easily.

Hunan is known for having some of the best-valued lunch specials in Davis. They offer lunch specials for just $6.50! As I skimmed over the lunch special section of the menu, I couldn’t choose a dish. There were so many options to choose from. One second I felt like having the general chicken, the next second I was craving the sesame chicken! Finally, I decided on the sesame chicken, with half chow mein and half white rice.

After the waiter took my order, I was given a pot of hot tea. I have never tried the tea before, but it was rather tasty. The herbal aroma and taste from the tea really sets you in a great mood for the meal. Hunan also gives you a salad as part of the lunch special. I was rather surprised that they offered a side along with the main course and tea. Although the salad didn’t appear to be anything special, it was very tasty. They serve iceberg lettuce, with honey mustard dressing. The honey mustard dressing has a nice sweet and tangy taste to it. Before I even finished my salad, my food had arrived. The service here is quite fast! The meal included a crab won ton, which was my first time having any type of seafood. I fell in love with these won tons. They were so moist and juicy, and when dipping them in the sweet and sour sauce, they were had a very authentic Chinese (Umami) taste. As I began to eat the main course, the chow mein was very tasty, and not too oily. The sesame chicken was cut into thin and crisp slices, and was very tender. The chicken was very tangy and had moderate spice to it. The white rice was simply as any white rice would be expected; it complimented the rest of the meal very well. If you like your food spicy, I recommend adding some of the chili sauce found on the table, which really brings the food to life. Overall, the food had a very authentic taste to it.

Lastly, the service here at Hunan is very good. The waiter, although she seemed to be rushing a little, was very prompt to replace my dirty plate, and constantly made sure my glass of water was always full. —simranhundal

2009-09-06 21:28:55   This place has horrible service. They guy took us to our seats and my mom and me just sat there for a really long time. We didn't even get our menus! When we left they didn't even notice us leave so some restaurant. —GuavaLava

2009-11-08 20:37:53   The lunch special is the bomb-diggity! served until 3 pm, only on the weekends. Perfect if you have between-class breaks. Service is usually quick and efficient, however, the waiters aren't very friendly. The best things on the menu are: sesame chicken, chicken salad (amazing dressing), honey walnut prawns, and crab meat wontons....we go here basically at least once a week, so its definitely good. —mrandmrs

2009-11-24 20:41:14   Best hot and sour soup in Davis (I have tried them all)! Certain members of the staff are a little rude though. Like the guy who works here and doesn't wear the proper outfit but thinks he can just be cool and wear jeans? What a douche! —JSlice

2009-12-01 16:39:31   The new location causes me to not like this restaurant as much as I used to. I probably won't be going there too much. I prefer the flaming wok in south davis. —jakedavis

2010-03-09 17:21:25   My bf and I went here this past weekend after the farmers market because we were looking for a quick,cheap sit down lunch. We received just that. The soup I got before my meal was quite tasty, i think it was eggflower soup? Anyways, it looked a lot better than my bf's salad he chose. Our entree's were served about 10 minutes after ordering, not bad! The food itself wasn't bad, I was surprised, for the price i'm expecting it all to taste the same but it didn't. I had the lemon chicken, it was tasty but had too much lemon sauce. The lady who took our order wasn't very nice, she got really snappy with me when I couldn't understand what she was saying because of her accent. Other than that it was a pretty good experience. I will return —TICKtacTOEtag

2010-03-31 00:12:00   Great food at a great price. Not great service with regard to politeness but usually they serve you pretty fast. The spicy soup is good and so is the lemon chicken. —tneeley

2010-04-12 00:17:30   Cheap lunches and decent food make me go back here regularly. Honey walnut shrimp, beef in spicy garlic sauce, and cream cheese wontons... yum. I also like the new location. —susiekim

2010-05-08 21:12:02   came here with a friend. Lots of food for little money! Although, i'm not sure if vegetable entrees are vegetarian. Food was pretty good. Food was served immediately and taken right away. Although it didn't feel rushed. Would have appreciated it a bit more if the waiter would have cleared the table and counted his tip AFTER we left. —Vero

2010-05-26 18:45:45   I've been eating at Hunan since I was a UCD undergrad nearly a decade ago. Back then, a huge plate of good quality food for $5 (the happy luncheon) was a godsend. The price has gone up to around $6 since then, and I'm surprised they still manage to keep it that low. The Hunan staff are some of the hardest working people I've ever seen. No matter what time of day or day of the week I show up, I always see the same people working. Sure, they aren't all sparkly sunshine, rainbows, and unicorns when they see you... more like sleep deprivation, sore feet, and nicotine withdrawal. That being said, in nearly ten years of patronage I have never gotten sick, I've always enjoyed the food, and I've sampled a very large portion of their menu. I can see how some people might take exception to their customer service, but I go to Hunan for their cheap, reliable, and very tasty food. Yes, there are times I have to wait a while for my food to arrive, but never so long that I don't feel like it was worth the wait when it's in front of me. Concerning the previous comment about rats: Isn't there flawed logic in saying that you'll never eat at Hunan's new location because rats were allegedly seen in the vacated previous location of the restaurant?

—Wajinki

2010-05-28 15:32:17   The lunch specials have gone up $.50. —strawberry

2010-06-02 14:45:10   food is nice. Service is so so. Its cheap and it feeds me so im happy with this place. —PaulV

2010-06-07 00:38:00   LUNCH SPECIAL IS THE WAY TO GO! —melamazing

2010-06-16 17:16:53   I love their food because it comes with a big portion. Also, the service is good. The hot & sour soup and kung pow chicken is very yummy. Another dish I like is steamed fish because it's very fresh. —Jiahui

2010-07-16 17:18:21   This is my son's favorite restaurant. The General Chicken is very good. —JasperD

2010-09-03 15:15:08   GREAT PLACE TO EAT, lunch or dinner!! totally affordable prices —thtly

2010-09-13 20:48:02   Oily food with lots of fat and virtually no flavor. Nice people but disappointing food and no ambiance. —jsg718

2010-11-04 10:36:57   Last night they almost overcharged me by $10.00. Good thing my 10 year old happened to add up the bill before I paid it. —JasperD

2011-01-24 12:35:09   great food at great prices, but recently did not enjoy the walnut chicken (they should warn you about the buttery, creamy sauce they douse it in) —tneeley

2011-02-27 21:48:58   Tried this place for the first time a week or two ago. I must say the fried rice was okay, the chow mein surprisingly good even though it was just noodles (the chow mein I am familiar with has sprouts in it as well?). I had the crispy honey walnut shrimp and was disappointed in the amount of shrimp I got. I only got maybe 8 of them. Probably will not order that dish again, but will go back if I want Chinese food, although this is a tough rival to Silver Dragon, where I feel you get much bigger portions. —redbike

2011-06-06 13:56:12   I've eaten here so many times in the last two years that I've lost track. Sesame chicken is my go-to because it's consistently good and the sauce is awesome with everything it leaks into (ie rice and noodles). Lemon chicken, walnut chicken, and general chicken are also safe ventures. I'm overwhelmingly guilty of being part of the "large table of college students" being rambunctious and bordering on obnoxious. Surprised they still tolerate us (though we do bring fairly consistent patronage and usually end up seated away from the room of more normal people). Don't think I've ever eaten there at the beginning of the lunch hour - usually near the end, when there are fewer people and service is faster. The staff is polite but usually rushed. They're well-seasoned with ringing up a split check by now, so groups of ten have never been a problem.

Not really a restaurant to bring your family if you want to show them the fine-dining side of Davis. The lunch hour attracts more of the starving broke student ilk. But overall, I'm always happy with the price of the meal compared to its quality and quantity (I have a black hole where a stomach should be but most of the people I eat with will box up half of their food for later). My "worst" experience yet has probably been my forgetting to ask for a pair of chopsticks and having to eat with a fork (though it does say something about server scarcity). —JaniceW

2011-07-30 02:12:13   this was my 2nd time eating here. Got the braised whole fish again and it was pleasant just like the first time, if you like whole braised fish that is. It's actually quite tasty. I also had the mixed veggie with tofu, pork with black mushrooms and seaweed egg flower soup.

I didn't know that the usual seaweed egg flower soup is dark in color like there's soy sauce added to the soup base. I thought it's usually cooked in a lighter broth with the addition of starch for its thickened consistency. The soup is ok but lost a lot of that seaweed aroma/flavor.

The braised fish was decent. With it's crunchy skin and moist white meat, it was quite pleasant.

The mixed veggie with tofu was disappointing because the veggies tasted old and none of it tasted fresh. The aged veggie taste was masked by the sauce that flooded the bottom of the plate. But for just a little over 6 bucks, i can't really complain but i wish they still used fresher ingredients considering Davis is pretty much a farm town.

The Pork with black mushrooms looks almost identical to the plate of mixed veggies. The only difference is that there's pork, black mushrooms and a few other veggies not in the other dish. Other than that, it all looks the same with the same sauce.

Service was actually quite decent with a friendly staff but due to the quality of food, I will not return. I believe that even if a restaurant is not as expensive, they can still use fresher ingredients to make a pleasing meal. sadly to say, I will no longer return —C.Ling

2011-08-29 15:39:33   Hunan is the best. I go once a week and I can't get enough. —Anony252

2011-10-03 17:48:02   The best option for Chinese food in downtown. Nice big portions and a great lunch deal. Service is friendly. —smartgirl

2012-12-30 22:07:08   I really like the food here, but the customer service is often disappointing. Almost always get my food to go. —AlexLN

2013-02-13 18:46:01   I ordered take out for dinner. It's not that cheap or all that good. It was quick and hot, though. I suppose I'll be continuing my search for delightfully trashy Chinese food around Davis. —rhamm

2013-02-14 19:22:44   Customer service is horrible! The guy at the front desk is so rude and a racist. He has special treatmwnt for some! The guy is sooo rude and has a bad attitude!! —Yess

2013-04-28 10:43:33   Love this place!!! Happy Luncheon is the best lunch deal in Davis!! —EmmyThill

2014-07-10 15:57:36   The food is good. However, as the Charges section stated, seem like the minor charge annoyance still exists. I'm not sure if it's because the cashier can't remember the price right, or they purposely just do a little extra charge for their own benefit. If it's for their benefit and greed it's almost like stealing, just imagine every time when your charge should be 15.14, they charge you 15.2, I guess a little amount, they think you won't notice, but how about after 5 or 10 times, bad for business. Then sometime, when order To-Go, it says 10% off, but they just take out the tax charge and consider that as 10% off, hello, Davis tax rate is 8%, not 10%, see stealing right there. I guess everybody resorts to all kind of way to gain money now a day. SIGH —Cyclonus

2014-07-15 09:43:52   Another thing I noticed recently is the un-freshness of certain dish Hunan provided. I'm not sure if this is ongoing already, but example is usually when something has shrimp, pork or some kind of meat in it, you can end up taste something bad(or something smell bad in it); I bumped into this situation once recently when I ordered their take-out, and while I was dinning in the restaurant, I have heard at least 2 tables of customer complain about such issue to the waitress, the waitress/waiter will of course take that dish away and offer an excuse; either way, I think this is already more than enough to be a problem of Hunan. As food business, I believe fresh preserve measure is a very important factor, since if this measure is not perform well, it can lead many seriousness such as health problem and such. As a matter of fact, I think it's unacceptable to even have such problem in a restaurant, any restaurant with that problem needs to be shut down, but that's just me. So, I'm not sure if Hunan is short on money so they start to use expired food material to save, they're just slacking off, don't care, or whatever it is, this is something that someone needs to be aware of! —Cyclonus

2016-05-23 16:31:22   I have been a long-time (~10 years) fan of the lunch specials at this restaurant (so inexpensive, fast, and delicious!), and have been coming once a week for the past year with friends. Unfortunately that all changed today when we received remarkably terrible service, didn't tip, and then were publicly berated by a new server (manager?) and told never to return. To summarize: Myself and two friends went to Hunan on Monday for lunch, as we have for a year. 1) The glasses all had something floating in the water, probably oil. 2) It took the server 15 minutes to take our order. (Remember place has always had famously fast service) 3) We waited 20 minutes for our food, and only one of three plates came out. 4) Since we told him not to wait, my friend ate slowly and eventually finished his plate. After he finished, another 15 minutes went by until I got my plate of food with no explanation or apology. 5) The third and final plate came 5 minutes after the second, and about 25 minutes after the first. 6) We walked up to pay at the front, I left a $0 tip and explained our dissatisfaction. The gentleman never apologized, but instead got into a loud argument basically saying that he deserved a tip because he walked our food out to us. I told him we were long-time customers who have always tipped well (I tip over 20% here because we really like this place and it makes the total even for my meal). He then said he was going to remember what we looked like and told us he never wanted to see us in the restaurant again. Conclusion: The restaurant has gone under new management a few months ago and the service has become terrible. The new wait staff are slow, serve unclean dishes, and are rude. I am sad to say that after 10 years of eating here, I can no longer recommend this restaurant to friends. —chickendinner

2016-08-04 23:21:28   Dreadful. Went once; never went back. —JamieJamison

Edit tags