Hunan, London

A Chinese friend suggested this restaurant to me, because she knows I grew up in the Changsha, Hunan province, where the restaurant name comes from. Our region is famous for strong chilli flavour. The restaurant, however, mentions the reason: “"”So, we must confess our name, Hunan, is a bit of a misnomer. It doesn’t fully reflect our cooking - it was originally a tribute to the birthplace of Chef Peng’s mentor.Even so, you will still enjoy a few dishes that can be found in Hunan province itself”””

I was going with “daddy” again, another London food trip with him. This is a small but cosy restaurant around Sloane Square. When we were there around 6pm, I was surprised that the restaurant was already half full. We got a small table and I was worrying if daddy felt comfortable since the seat was probably way too narrow for him.

The restaurant did not have a fix menu, instead I presumed, they rotated the menu monthly or even tweaked daily based on available ingredients. A sample menu can be found here. The menu for our night contained a lot of canapés/small bites, a main and 2 desserts. In fact, I noticed they have a lot of wine selections, so I guessed all the canapés are actually a form of “下酒菜” (in Chinese), meaning a small dishes mainly to enjoy together with alcohol. Surprisingly, when I mentioned this place to another friend, who probably and possibly drinks a lot because he likes wine, he gave a good word on here. However, daddy and I do NOT drink, and thus we might be disappointed customers to the restaurant, lol.

The set started from “Bamboo cup soup”, which is the traditional way to start a Chinese meal. It was a bit hot but a good way, in my opinion, to open up the stomach. Westerners might find strange on the starting, however, this remains me home. Regarding the dish, it contained full of unami flavour. The bamboo and, if I remembered, pork paired together very well. The soup are very clear, looking like pure water, which actually required a lot of work. Then we got “Chinese chive dumpling” (top) and “Quail egg dumpling” (bottom). A fun fact Chinese believe Chinese chive is good, well :-), for man, though I doubt there is any scientific proof. Chinese chive usually has a strong flavour but the chef managed to tune it down. The second dumpling was of more traditional cantonese dim-sum set up, with dipping soy sauce. Both dumpling were very good, as expected but good. Then it came one of my favourite dish, “Crisps garlic chili beans” because it is a common and simple vegetable dish in my home town Changsha, pan fry bean with a chilli and other seasoning. I could not remember the full seasoning but it was a mix of chilli, salt and very light sweet. The beans are crunch and not completely overshadowed by the strong seasoning. After the vegetable, we got two meaty main-ish dishes, namely “Prawn dumpling” (top) and “Chilli beef” (bottom). I liked the chilli beef, because it did not look chilli at all, but I could taste subtly chilli flavour; that is, it was not too strong for most customers yet gave a kick in my tongue. I could certainly feel, one need some sips of Maotai, a famous Chinese liquor, here. The following “Xiao long bao” (picture not given) was a bit questionable dish not on the taste but more on the organisation, it could probably move to an earlier dish. We got slightly different dishes from the sample menu afterwards, a deep fried, I recalled, fish then a simple pay fry beef. We then got small wrap with mushroom (top) and other vegetable. It was an interesting way to balance all previous two greasy dishes. It prove a pause for the dishes afterwards “cod in vinegar reduction” (bottom). I hate concentrated vinegar flavour, yet the chef did not do it over the top. It actually contained more than just vinegar but probably some sweet and chilli to provide more layers. The frog leg was actually not as impressive. Of course, it was tender and perfectly cooked. I suspected, we did need some alcohol to make it more interesting. The following are “pork in bag” (top) and chilli sauce squire (bottom). I would give similar comments here: they were for pairing with alcohol. Yet the “pork in bag”, or now known as pork bun, was paired with pickled Chinese mustard, this is a very common pattern in my home town and in fact in many other regions. For me, it was a feeling of home. The squire, since it usually tastes nothing, was seasoning with strong chilli flavour, and yes, another sip of Maotai was needed. We further got two seafood, mussel and scallop (pictures are not given) for, obviously, more sips of alcohol, though sparling water for both of us. The actually main dish, sadly, was a bit disappointed, crispy duck with pancake (picture not given). One can get that from anywhere, but I guess it is a stereotype posh Chinese food for people here. The first dessert was “sugar coating fruit and ice cream” (top), which is likely inspired by a similar traditional dish in Chinese where caramel sugar covering bananas; yet here the chef put extra flour coating outside of fruit. The second dessert was certainly a version of “杨枝甘露” (in Chinese), Mongo pomelo sago. Nothing went wrong nor surprising.

Overall, I really enjoyed here, the restaurant environment was amazing, the food was good, simple and just worked; put it in one word: home (for me), although we did not consume any alcohol. Also it only costed around 100, so not a crazily expensive place. I should have mention daddy and I got a very good laugh for the evening too, as we fashionably and evilly observed other tables, especially a table in front of him (and therefore at my back) and we, maybe, made some “outrageous” and “inappropriate” comments. Let hope we did not embarrass other customers but, meh, who cares, :-). Also there were two tables with birthday treats, everybody just sung the song.