Very Disappointed. Ordered Seafood Soup, taste like straight garlic . So nasty, could not taste the seafood. Added hot oil to improve the taste... was an epic fail. Will never return, told sever , server did nothing, I paid and left disgusting Garlic Soup on table. Such a shame because reviews seemed good and I was excited to try their food. Big mistake, huge thumbs down, I'm not sure who was cooking that night and not mention the poor customer service. read more

Hunan Bistro - Seafood Soup - Chinese Near Me - Austin, Texas

Really bad experience of ordering to-go food during this COVID19 period. The front desk forced me to pay by cash only, no credit cards accepted. They don't give any explanation why doing this, I guess it might help them do something under table and skip from sales tax (Google similar things you can find lots of restaurant owners are doing this). When I said I haven't prepared any cash and I'm on the way to restaurant, no ATM card, they just hang up the call rudely. No more Hunan Bistro in future. read more

Arguably THE BEST CHINESE RESTAURANT in Austin, the quality and authenticity is WAY ABOVE any other vines restaurants. We order from this place almost every week since pandemic started, they were on UBER EATS for a while but now we have to pick it up from the restaurant, well, not the most convenient but definitely worth the drive. Some of our favorites: cumin lamb, pork and bamboo shoots soup (refer to the pic), whole fish, grandma's pork belly. The food here is so flavored and super comforting. It reminds me of my grandma's cooking. The portion is huge. They always pack very well for us. Never spill. We usually call in to order before we drive over. They take both cash and credit card. Happy that I have this place to live through the pandemic. Would keep ordering from here. read more

Hunan Bistro - Chinese Near Me - Austin, Texas

The Yan Du Xian is great here and you really can't get it anywhere else in Austin. It's a traditional Shanghainese soup with cured pork, bamboo shoots, tofu knots, and bok choy all cooked in a flavorful pork broth. Perfect soul food. We also tried the stir-fried green beans and the fish with preserved vegetables. Everything was delicious! The menu is an interesting mix of dishes from all around China, but predominately features Sichuan and Hunan food. It does have some other Shanghainese specialities like stir-fried rice cake and a sweet gluten dish both of which I'm excited to try next time I come! Highly recommend this place if you're looking for some authentic Chinese food in the Austin area. read more

Stopped by for a dinner with 6 of us. It was very slow night. There was only one table is occupied and the remaining tables were opened. The waitress (owner's son) wanted us to squeeze into a small table that is usually sit 4 people. It was ridiculous. He probably had his brain stuck on his butt hole. I got to argue with him to put two table together and he threw his temper. If I didn't have my MIL with me, I will argue and walk away. Also, we ordered 7 dishes. Those 7 dishes won't even fit into one table. Being frankly, the food was decent. Service and attitude is the worst. I spend thousands dollars every month on restaurants on business meals. Also, I typically give at least 20 percent tips (a lot greater with excellent services). I haven't seen anyone that treat their customers like this. I didn't want to tip at all but my lovely wife encouraged me to tip only 10 percent. Recommend that you stay away from it. It's not worth it. read more

Hidden away in a small strip mall, Hunan Bistro is one of those great authentic chinese restaurants that you're surprised to find here. It's a small shop - no more room than for 50 people but the food sings here. Of all weekends we came on Chinese New Years Saturday thinking it'd be impossible to find seating anywhere. We go there later at 1pm and there was thankfully space. Our family opted for the tomato egg soup, toothpick lamb, fish in fiery sauce and dry fried green beans. The tomato egg soup is exactly as they say it is - brothy, tomato egg which so many people grew up eating and will provide an instant punch of nostalgia. The green beans are also very good - flash fried with some bits of pork that have great flavor. The toothpick lamb is phenomenal - cumin rubbed, non-gamey lamb that is just fatty enough. It's the best dish of all that we had, so I would definitely recommend that on a return trip. The water boiled fish is ok - nothing special compared to other places I've been to. Prices are on the higher side and the portion sizes are ok - not the largest but will satisfy most people. Overall though, great chinese restaurant for those who want to try something different and off the beaten path. read more

First good chinese food i've had since moving to austin. Got the cumin lamb and some beef dish, the lamb was phenomenal. I'll be trying the toothpick lamb next time (it was sold out T_T when i arrived) read more

This place is named "Hunan" Bistro which means Hunan Cuisine. I am surprised to find Zhajiang Cuisine. This adds the diversity of Chinese Cuisine around Austin. Our server is super nice and helpful to tell us which dish is the top sale in the restaurant. Overall, the food is very authentic. Stir-Fried Cabbage is little bit different from other Chinese Restaurant. It's smash fermented bean curd, sliced Chinese Bacon to stir-fried with Cabbage with chili. Very good! Grandma Braised Pork Belly is full of flavor, it's very authentic. Ginger stewed Farm chicken is similar with 3 cups chicken, but it stir-fried with leek instead of basil. But chicken are very small pieces, watch out the bone. Sliced ox tripe with chili sauce is very good for appetizer. I am very happy to find this place, this will be my place to have Chinese food. read more

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Great food, nice people, some times takes a little longer then expected because they are always busy. But it's worth it.

The food is good but left my tongue buzzing like not heat, but some chemical they use in their food. I will not go back there. It has always been good but something has changed. read more

food quality drops quite a bit , the flavor is either too salty or too less. I am not sure what happen maybe the chef left. Also no mask wearing for the crew read more

This a new restaurant located in north. I love spicy food and human food is always spicy. I made a reservation in advance for 10 people and 9 dishes. Every thing is smooth. We loved the pickle green bean, pepper mixed with eggplant and picked pepper fish with tofu most. The restaurant is so popular, so I suggest you to make a reservation before you go. Most popular dish is the pickled pepper fish head. read more

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Hidden gem in my backyard. The food is so fresh. The fried rice cost extra but is so good.

Very authentic Chinese restaurant! Their food is just like we had in China. Super good! Super tasty!

I have to say, today I had the best authentic Chinese "jiangzhe" style lunch in austin. If you want to try zhe jiang style food, you must try this restaurant! Hunan bistro has been opened for a while, but I have never been there before because lots of my friend told me their dinning environment is not very good, air condition has problem, and some over priced. Recent they did remodeling, hire new chef for different style dishes. Since my mom is from zhejiang province, and I really like jiangzhe style food, but in austin, we never had such a kind of restaurant. So as soon as they reopen, i went there for lunch. Very satisfy with food and service, must give a five star. Hope they can keep this quality, and highly recommend to all people who love authentic Chinese food. read more

So, we've been to Hunan Bistro five times now. For anyone who has had the opportunity to travel to and eat in China, this place brings back memories of delicious cooking smells wafting in side alleys in Hong Kong, Beijing or Shanghai. You can see by the clientele that the cooking must be pretty close to the original version: most patrons speak Mandarin from what I can tell, and if you are the type who will pass on a restaurant because it looks too "ethnic", you are making a serious mistake. The hot and sour soup here makes other versions served in Americanized Chinese restaurants taste like the Las Vegas version of The Eiffel Tower: fake and short on flavor. The mapo tofu is as good as anywhere I have had it. Grandma's pork belly is divine. Hunan beef is a dream of flavor and softness. The home tofu is a delight. The jasmine tea marries with the spicy flavors perfectly. Now for the warning: some of the menu descriptions correspond to unexpected offerings, and yes, you might be taken aback for example by a dish of tender meat slices swimming in a broth that is not really consumable, the whole thing covered by a mountain of sliced red peppers. The flavor feels very authentic and clearly remind many customers of their hometown cooking, so you know you are getting the real deal, but it may come as a bit of a surprise compared to fare that has been dumbed down to appeal to non-Chinese expectations. The best thing to do is: load the adventuring program, orders several dishes that sound good and go exploring for a change. Excellent place (that has never made me sick btw,) and that has the power make you forget that you are in a little strip mall in central Texas. read more

I ordered fried rice and spicy chicken. They all taste salty, overdose of MSG. It's nice that they provide drinking water. Because you really need a lot of water if you order food here.. read more

Came on Sunday @ 11:00 am and the restaurant was full by 11:30 am. There are menu for Asian and menu for American. Cumin lamb 4/5 I like the dish the best. It's flavorful with fresh cumin. Chicken pot 3.8/5 they use fee range chicken and meat was tasty. Eggplant dish 2.6/5 it was too oily and not lots of flavor Food was mild compared to most of Szechuan restaurant. Food was authentic Hunan Food. Overall food here is tasty and pretty clean. read more

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I noticed this restaurant had "authentic" Chinese food, so I decided to give it a try. I was the only guest at the restaurant. Typically, when you are the only guest in a restaurant, it means you are taking a big risk. No one else there means it's not worth eating there? I ordered green pepper chicken. I was thinking it would be like pepper chicken or pepper beef. The waiter brought out a soup. That was totally not expected. The chicken had bones, and skin on it. That was not what I expected either. The "thing" was greasy. One bite of the chicken and my lips went numb. I decided to just take it home and feed it to my dogs. My dogs wouldn't eat it. That's how bad it was. A total waste of money. read more

Most authentic Chinese food in Austin. People who don't give five stars don't understand

The food is delicious, authentic and consistent over many years. Take-out only as ambiance is not appealing.

So good. I will patronize again. Very authentic Chinese food, especially suitable for Chinese tastes, especially fish

Ordered the salted egg yolk pumpkin (4/5), hot&chilli beef (水煮牛, 3/5), and steamed fish (3/5). They were all okay, but I've had better. I just wished they didn't marinate the beef in so much baking soda/tenderizer because it was too slippery to even bite through. Also prefer lettuce underneath instead of bean sprouts. Service is good though. Definitely authentic. read more

Hunan Bistro - Salted Egg Yolk with Pumpkin - Chinese Near Me - Austin, Texas

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This is a great little spot off the usual busy thoroughfare. I ordered takeout through Yelp and it was ready exactly within the time window provided. Food was hot and tasted great even after delaying dining for almost an hour. My son loved the potstickers, on a list of his favorites now. read more

The food is great and very authentic. They don't know how to manage the kitchen when they get even a little busy. This is the second time we ordered take out. The first time the order was missing items. This time it was horribly slow. They said it would be ready in 20 minutes around at 7PM. At 7:45 I was still waiting on my order. Meanwhile every table is being brought out dishes and I'm being told 2 more dishes need to be made. But they insulted me by offer me a 50 cent Coke. So that's something. read more

Bathroom had no soap and could use some cleaning, with Covid around you'd think they'd try to at least try to clean...

The dishes are good but the service is terribleeee! We ordered four dishes and waited for 50 minutes, and not even one dish came out! We were starving and very frustrated. Will not return to this restaurant. Not worth going at all. Very bad experience... read more

Wow. This place was astonishingly bad. The kids ended up eating weetabix instead. The shrimp with lobster sauce had 2 shrimp! When I called them to ask if there was a mistake they didn't offer to take it back or add some shrimp. I also have no idea why it's called lobster sauce. It's actually a clear soup that has no flavour, definitely not of seafood or lobster. Not sure why it's not listed in The soup section of the menu. The crab Rangoon was disgusting and overcooked. The sliced pork was chewy as hell. The rice was so overcooked and the teriyaki chicken tasted like absolutely nothing. The egg drop soup was also flavorless. We threw most of it in the trash. read more

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Ridiculously slow and pricey, also the taste is not good / authentic at all. For $25-30 per person this is way below the average and expectation.. NOT RECOMMENDED read more

I need to plan my next trip back and try more dishes! We ordered the following off the Chinese/English menu that's on white paper near the register. It looks like they also have a to-go American/English menu that's printed on glossy color brochures. -Steamed fish & tofu - a winner with everyone, but be careful to avoid the red chilies at the center if you can't take too much spice (that's me). This is a steamed dish with toasted sesame oil & soy sauce poured on top. Great with rice. -Pork belly (On the menu, the dish starts with "Mao's...") - Great flavor, medium-light spicy, but the pork could have been a little more tender. -Green beans - yummy and not overcooked as it can be at so many other places. I love Chinese salted green beans -- so crispy and flavorful. It looks like it's cooked with shallots, etc. Kid tip: Most everything on the menu we tried was mildly spicy. Even dishes that were "Oh, it's not spicy, kids eat that dish" (I'm looking at you, steamed fish) were too spicy for our young kids. We ordered a chicken chow mein from the American menu for the kids and it was not spicy at all, so that menu is probably the best route to go for tender-tongued babes. Reservations: I called the day before to ask about the need to make a reservation, but the person on the phone assured me that was not necessary for the time-frame and date. We showed up and got the very last table for our group, but then the place was only a third full later. I think since it's a small-ish place that seats ~35, how busy it is will probably fluctuate. Location: Right between a pet store and Reach church. I could really use a tea or ice cream shop next door for post-dinner dessert! Too bad the yummy Crown donuts 2 doors down is not open during dinner hours. Service: With just one person at the cashier and another one pitching in to help deliver food and clear tables, we had to wave down someone to take our order and bring us bowls. It doesn't bother me -- the place is small enough that it's not hard to get someone's attention and the food is worth it. Also, I have no idea how this restaurant is getting labeled as a $$$ place. Each dish is about $10. The dishes are not ginormous, maybe similar in size to Ho-Hos but not as big as Asia Cafe. All in all, I'm glad to see a delicious and reasonably priced Chinese restaurant open up in northwest Austin! read more

One of the more authentic Hunan cuisine in Austin area. Friendly service. Just remember to ask for less oil on the stir fry dishes because then can get overly greasy. read more

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The food was good but not the service. The lady had a attitude for some reason. Had to ask for napkins, forks, soy sauce (twice)and water a couple of times. The restaurant was hot but it was close to 100 degrees today. Went to the register to pay and used a credit card. Filled out the receipt and didn't add a tip to the card (Actually left cash on the table so it wouldn't have to be reported). She looked at the receipt and looked at me and said no tip!!! WTH... I went back to the table and actually took half of the tip back! Hopefully she want continue to do that in the future. I will never go back again even though the food is a four star!!! read more

I have gone here a few times with my family. We typically always order the dan dan noodles as an app. and then we get the spicy fish head for an entree. We could never figure out where it is on the menu but they have it! I like the way it tastes. It is very spicy. Almost everything I have had there is spicy. Unfortunantly, my stomach is never as happy about the experience after. I noticed I'd say the 4th or 5th time going. And no, not because it is spicy. I eat spicy food all the time and that doesn't happen. Also, the service is never great. Whether it is busy or hardly anyone there, they are never orderly with there service. Overall, the prices an not bad, it taste good from a spicy food lovers stand point but may not feel so good later in the day. And if you are looking for a spicy fish head,it is here! read more

Hunan Bistro - Chinese Near Me - Austin, Texas

I'm here at the restaurant 1. I don't think they liked the fact that I came with change. 2. They are not hospital at less not with me and I really felt and feel uncomfortable so not good at a restaurant. I haven't taste the food as of yet but I'm giving them a (5) because of the food. Hey I've been here over 20 minutes and haven't even been offered Water! read more

I have two nieces who were born in China and lived there 6 and 11 years respectively. These girls love traditional Chinese food and they would totally love Hunan Bistro. It has a lot of dishes I'm chicken to try (like chicken feet...). However, they have Americanized Chinese food as well. I ordered General Tao's Chicken. It was so heavily breaded I wouldn't recommend it. My companions, however, loved their fried rice, etc. I'm giving the 4 stars for them. My vote is 3 stars. The restaurant isn't very large and there were a lot of people eating there who enjoyed their lunch and then enjoyed visiting with their neighbors. Service was slow, but I think that's just growing pains. If you're a Pei Wei fan like me, give it a pass. If you like traditional Chinese food this place is for you. read more

My husband and I were regulars, but were driven away by this waiter's bad attitude and awful service. There are better places anyway, but this was conveniently located and fast for lunch. We always had a good experience with the waitress, but the one waiter who works the lunch shift is a terrible, rude man. He brings cold soup, will bring one meal out then wait fifteen minutes to bring the other. We ordered glasses of water and they literally tasted like dirty dishwater so after that we would just get cans of Sprite. We are not unkind people. We are always respectful and tip well. So I don't know why he was always so hateful, but he controls the food so good luck getting a meal if he doesn't want to feed you. I hate to say that, but he just seemed so put out by our very presence every single time we were there. My friend and her husband tried to eat there and he kept telling them "you're next" ....but they were never next, were never seated and finally left after 40 minutes. The last straw was the day I tried to place a takeout order. As a restaurant full of happy people sat eating food, he told me "no lunch today." I looked around at all the other people eating and politely asked if I could just order some take out. He said "no, we are too busy. Come back in 25 minutes." He could have just taken my order and said it would take 25 minutes to make it, but instead he told me to leave. I don't like to give a one star review, but we so many instances of bad service that I felt it was appropriate to share our experience because we literally never go here now and avoid it. read more

We just tried Hunan Bistro tonight for the first time and it was very good. Was very busy with 20 or so customers of all ages but my order was ready within 15 minutes of when I placed it from home through the Yelp app. Their staff was friendly and everyone in the place seemed satisfied and happy. I saw several families sharing a meal together and was very impressed with the simple but friendly atmosphere. The food was authentic, fresh and still warm when I got it home. We had a simple non spicy chicken dish (forgot the name) and I look forward to trying a spicier dish the next time when I am not sharing with my wife. We will also definitely tell our friends in the area to try this place. read more

Come here if u like spicy dishes, sliced beef with chili sauce in appetizer is a must have.

1. Food, basically you could do the same with sauces from the grocery store. Perhaps, you'd even cook the meat, pork in this case, up to a proper temp. 2. Environment, cold as can be. We were there for what seemed like ages but was probably more like 10 minutes without any music or anything. 3. Table, condiments? We could have used some. There wasn't even sugar for tea. 4. Service, didn't expect much. We got less. They could refund us for the meal and we wouldn't come back. read more

The food was very salty, wasn't as good as before. The server can't even handle the check properly. We have 4 cards paid for the bill. He messed up the account. Very bad experience. Suggest all the customers check their bills carefully and keep the receipts as proof. read more