Having travelled both Hunan and Sichuan extensively, and being married to a Hunan girl, I feel I have a certain degree of prior knowledge of this style of cuisine (which BTW is from Southern China, not Northern as claimed by some other reviewers).
Firstly I should point out that no restaurant of this type can be completely authentic and expect to survive in Melbourne. To be authentic, they would have to serve river fish with thousands of tiny bones in it; include a bit of bone inside every single morsel of meat; force you to pick through a mountain of roasted red chillies to locate said morsels; and serve such unfamiliar delicacies as braised whole bullfrog, dog meat, chicken's feet and so on. Plus they would never think of offering such non-local transgressions as Peking duck, Yangzhou fried rice or San Choi Bow.
You will find none of the former but all of the latter at Mao's, and that's OK, because
there are plenty of genuine Hunan and Sichuan flavours featured in this menu. On our visit tonight, we sampled their signature Chairman Mao's Pork (known more prosaically in China as "red braised pork", it was indeed a favourite dish of his); fish in spicy Sichuan broth; and Ma-Po tofu. Flavours were exactly as I've tasted them in these dishes' home provinces but the ingredients were better; and (Hallelujah!) - no bones.
Service was both fast and courteous, and our order was served quickly. We washed our spicy food down with Qingdao and Asahi beer, making sure not to mention the Senkaku, er, Diaoyu Islands when ordering the latter.
In case you're not convinced, I can tell you that my two companions (being wife and brother-in-law) are both from Hunan and they loved the food as much as I did. Big thumbs-up from us, and we will certainly go back for more. read more