This is the only authentic Hunan food I've had in the US, so mentally I compare it in 2 ways - to the Hunan food I've had in Shanghai (which, admittedly, is not in Hunan) and to Sichuan food available in the US. Easterly is nearly as good as the Hunan food I've had in Shanghai, which is a huge accomplishment! Anyone who has been to China knows the Chinese food is so much better there that it's depressing eating at most of the places here. Compared to Sichuan food, which I think is more common than Hunan here, Hunan is less greasy, doesn't have the numbing spicy (mala) taste, and tends to use more vinegar and pickled things. It's pretty similar to me spice-wise, although my coworker from Guangzhou looked like she was going to die from the heat. So on to the experience. I came in a large group (10), which is definitely the best way to eat Chinese food. You can order more food, try more interesting things, and, especially since 7 of my dining companions are Chinese, we got tons of great stuff I never had before. I'd like to go dish by dish, but unfortunately for me my aforementioned Chinese coworkers ordered... in Chinese. So I don't know the names of anything we ordered. Check my photos if you want pictures though. I will say, the catfish dish (it's in a lot of photos) is seriously amazing, with a sweet and vinegary and spicy flavor that was addictive, and a silky, soft texture that had me drooling. I could have eaten an order myself. Throughout the meal, most dishes were medium spicy, and if I'm being picky, a bit greasier than what I had in China. But still, this is almost as good as that, which is a glowing endorsement. The service was typical (efficient but impersonal), and you should feel free to call out the waiters if you want something. This isn't rude in China, and it will get you extra napkins or whatever much quicker than waiting for them to check on you. I actually think this makes more sense, as you can get service when you need it rather than having the wait staff come bother you on the off chance you need help. Pricing here is a little higher than people are probably used to, it was about $25/person for us with tax and tip, which isn't cheap for lunch. That said, we did order a ton of food, so you could probably get out for $18-$20 if you don't starve yourself beforehand and then stuff yourself during. They take credit cards but I would assume, in typical Chinese fashion, they only let you split it 2 ways. Bottom line, this place was awesome, I loved every dish we had, and it wasn't too pricey. If you want real Chinese food this is one of the closest places you'll find in the Bay Area. But it's still much better in China! read more

See all

This is a long due review. While the food is decent, there's room for improvement in customer service. Despite arriving early with only three occupied tables, we had to draw the waiter's attention to get seated. Towards the end, when we needed assistance in packing a dish, the waiter suggested we do it ourselves, displaying unprofessional behavior. read more

Came here for lunch today as my wife loves chinese food. The we ordered a beef dish but the beef smelled rotten and tasted funny. Don't recommend this restaurant at this location. There's another one in cupertino that serves better quality food. read more

Pork with lettuce and fried rice were pretty good. Pork was really spicy. I may try different dishes.

If you like spicy Chinese food, you have come to the right place! The Hunan Style Braised Pork Belly is a much try if you like soft, well seasoned pork belly with a bit of sweetness. The pork feet is next best dish. It was the most spicy dish we ordered, however, the meat was so tender and tasteful that I could not stop after the first bite. The price was also very reasonable compared to the dishes' portion. A great place to stop by for a quick taste of authentic Chinese Hunan cuisine! read more

See all

Had high hopes for this Hunan restaurant but it failed in a couple of aspects: first, it is way too spicy which I almost need to call for help. I'm used to spicy food btw. The spicy is not delicious spicy which is purely spicy and makes people uncomfortable. If you are going to make food this spicy, at least warm or ask customers how spicy they want. Second, it is very oily which is not healthy. Third, it is pricy. Won't come back. read more

They have very authentic Hunan dishes. We kept going back every other week. Prices are reasonable.

We ordered two items from these guys today, the Griddled Fried Tofu and the Stir Fried Pork with Pepper. The first thing we noticed was they came with no rice at all unless you specifically order rice separately. I had to run home to get rice so we could eat lunch. Both items were described as "medium spicy", but I can definitively say both are very spicy. We eat a lot of spicy food at a lot of asian restaurants in the Bay Area, and these are easily way over on the spicy end of the spectrum. There's no way anybody would rate them as "medium". And the fact that they came with no rice at all is ridiculous since you use rice to offset the spiciness of spicy foods. OK, the pork with pepper probably should have been titled "with peppers" since I thought the title meant black pepper. The green chiles it came with, which make up literally half of the dish, looked like green beans. So, hey, my mistake, and it did taste good, but wow that was a whole lot of chiles and pepper seeds to fill half the dish with it. I can't imagine anyone saying "hey, can you make that spicy?" because it's just not spicy enough. Again, it was half chile peppers filled with seeds. The tofu tasted good, and it looked like it was quite spicy, because of the red oil, but it turned out to be not as spicy as the pork with pepper. And again, there's no way these two foods should be described as exactly the same level of spiciness, since one was clearly intended to be very spicy and the other was not. So, maybe there are mistakes on their menu with descriptions, etc. But I honestly don't want to buy spicy food from a place that refuses to give you any rice with your meal so you can adjust the spiciness to your tastes. Of course, you can buy it extra for $2 per person, but that's ridiculous because the food and portions are already overpriced by about double what they are actually worth compared to other similar restaurants. It's too bad, because the food looks really good in the menu pictures, but wow, what you get is not what you see when you're ordering. In the end, it's expensive for what you get, you get charged for any rice you want for your rice dish, and the descriptions are way off or downright wrong. I wanted to give them 2 stars instead of only 1 star because the food did actually taste good ... along with the pound of cooked rice I got from home and the 48 ounces of water I drank. However, after discussing the food with my Vietnamese wife who has worked in Chinese restaurants for most of her life, over 30 years, she insisted this restaurant's food does not deserve more than 1 star. Her words were, "Any Chinese restaurant that charges nearly $20 for a dish and then extra money for rice, then loads a dish with that many peppers, has no idea what they are doing." read more

I'm realizing the restaurants in the corporate area tends to be held to a lower standard for food. Although the food here at Easterly is decent, it's not the best and you feel skimped out on portions. I ordered takeout and received a tiny little box of food (I got Kung Pao chicken) for $13 tasted "alright" not even "pretty good". It feels that their motivation to provide their customers good and reasonable food is out of question since they feel they'll still be able to operate their business on the sole fact that there is corporate money in this area. In such a great location, I wish they'd step up their game and be in business for good reason-- which is to provide customers with good food at reasonable portions. I'm sure they have it in them to do it, but it's apparent they're holding back or don't care about customers enough to do so. I'll still be making the drive to Jade China all the way out in Milpitas area since this area seem to can't get it together with offering Chinese food fairly. @Easterly if management cares enough to come across this, you're alright but for such a new restaurant you're really making the risk of losing customers early on. You're repeating Yan Can's mistakes and you clearly know that didn't end too well since you took over their location. I was really hoping Yan Can's replacement would be a step up. read more

Easterly - Chinese Near Me - Santa Clara, California

See all

Would not give this place a 5 star based on all their food. However, their spicy sour fish is the best one we've had in the bay. 5.5/5 The fried rice is sometimes really good for the Bay Area, sometimes a little too wet. 4/5 (add Chinese pepper salt if you have it) The cauliflower and pork dish was really good in terms of flavor; however, do not order it expecting to have meat. It is 95% cauliflower. 4/5. The chicken soup flavor is really good. Has some bones like a traditional Chinese chicken soup as a heads up. 5/5 大推他們的酸湯魚片，真的是南灣最好吃的酸湯魚片。他們家的墩雞湯也很好喝，一定要試試。 炒飯有時候有點濕，整體來說不錯。 花椰菜味道挺好的，但豬肉有點少。 read more

Excellent and authentic Hunan style food. Good selection of dishes. Service was prompt and friendly. read more

Easterly - Dinner - Chinese Near Me - Santa Clara, California

See all

I've been looking for a menu like this after my favorite Hunan style restaurant closed down. Very nice experience. Every dish was great. For a spicy heavy menu, was still able to get several heat not spicy items that the kids could handle. read more

I finally got the chance to dine at this Hunan style restaurant located in the middle Silicon Valley. The place is clean with a modern style to it. The walls were polished and the furniture matched perfectly w/ its brown and mahogany colors. English isn't their first language. They are fluent in Mandarin. Their service is well and the food came out promptly. My friends and I dined family style. We ordered 3 dishes. 1) Mao's Braised Pork Sauce, 2) Pork Sticky Rice and 3) Fried fish. I listed the best ones first. There are 4 different levels of spiciness. My friends were considerate of me and ordered level 1 spicy. The sticky rice wasn't spicy at all but it help null the spice in my taste buds with it's sticky sweet taste. I can't say if there were other dishes I wanted to try out since I can only handle up to Level 2 spiciness but do drop by and try this place if you love spicy foods. read more

Overall food is good, price is actually cheap considering the portions they give you. Good service

sad face so very disappointing!! we thought this would be good, authentic chinese food but so very wrong. good flavor but SO SO greasy!!!! almost like not edible greasy level. so sad. very fast service though. overall flavor not bad but definitely not worth the gallons of grease. my stomach is now slightly unwell. read more

Easterly - Chinese Near Me - Santa Clara, California

See all

4/19/21 Yup. Confirmed. This here restaurant is my go-to Chinese to-go for the San Jose area. Good bye NextDish. Please see my previous review for more details, but basically this ain't gonna be the bestest Chinese food you've ever had. So don't be thinking that. But for those that grew up in Chinese households like mine where Mom cooked all 3 meals every single day until I was 18, this food brings me back to my childhood. It's like Mom's buy on her very best days, if you know what I mean. And that's really something. 1. White Rice $1.50: I actually did not eat any! 2. Steamed Pork Rib in Sticky Rice with Corn $16.99: So this is interesting... sticky rice, ie #GlutinousRice, like basically a Zhong Zi but without the bamboo wrapper, is like my favoritest comfort food. This one's interesting in that they put corn on top?!??--I got no clue why. It doesn't seem to work well together, but whatever, if you don't like it, it's easy to just pick out. But otherwise the rice is perfectly cooked and the spare rib meat is nice inside. If only they had some salted duck yolks, but well, they don't--then it'll be heavenly. Also note, due to the box I think, the outer layer of rice is inedible. You'd gonna have to cut it away and re-microwave with it lidded to get it soft again. Anyway, not the biggest deal cause the portions are huge and you won't be able to finish it all by yourself anyway. 7/10 3. Steam Egg $8.99: No, not tthe creamiest, most perfectly smooth custard like a pristine Chawanmushi, but it's 80% of the way there. Interestingly, I notice that the custard is molded into the shape of the plastic container, which means they steamed it IN THE CONTAINER. Is that safe? I hope so. Anyway, taste-wise... 7/10 4. Stir Fried A-Choy with Minced Garlic $10.99: I dunno what came over me. I'm usually not a big vegetable fan with a few exceptions--like Chinese Ong Choy (I call that "hollow vegetable" cause the stems are hollow), but I tasted a bit of this sauteed creation of garlic (LOTS of garlic) and this... "A-Choy" (no, I don't believe they mean to call one of my brethren a mean name)..... and I couldn't stop. I ate the whole thing while my 1.5yr old and Mommy just stared at me. Crack made into vegetables folks. 10/10 Thank you Easterly for bringing back a bit of my dead mom. 5/5 #santaclara #chinesefood #authenticchinese #szechuan #sichuan #friedrice #eggplant #stickyrice #steamedeggs #stirfriedvegetables #doordash read more

Panda Express is superior to Easterly. (no joke) The main reason I'm giving this place 2 stars is because of the service. We came here with a fairly large party and we were SO disappointed; they really don't give two craps about their customers. Didn't check up on us at all, and they screwed up on one of our orders SMH. Asked for the check twice before going up to the counter to get it from the cashier myself. Yes, I know it gets busy, but cmon. It's just a bad look, especially if we have a large party. As for the food, we got the Combo Fried Rice, Vegetable Fried Rice, Combo Lo Mein, Walnut Shrimp, Kung Pao Chicken, Stir Fried Lamb with Pepper and Cilantro, Braised Pork with Soy Sauce. Everything was just eh. I don't do well with Chinese food that's super spicy, so I asked the waiter to make everything less spicy, which was definitely a smart move. Still, I legitimately would rather have Panda Express, especially for the prices here. Fried rice was the best thing, in my opinion. The food all seemed pretty oily, and I definitely had that MSG taste in my mouth afterwards. read more

Easterly - Walnut Shrimp - Chinese Near Me - Santa Clara, California

See all

This is a prime restaurant in the North San Jose area for authentic Hunan food. As some reviews have concluded the quality is hit or miss. Some of their dishes are very salty and spicy so I would recommend to ask the server for recommendations or bring a person familiar with the authentic Hunan food. This place can get very crowded. As far as the food is concerned I would recommend the white fish in a spicy sauce. I forgot the name of the fish but it is easy to find due to pictures on the menu. They also serve frog, beef and pork meat of You are into that. There are limited options for Vegan people but there are some tofu dishes. Do order some grilled veggies with main course. Overall it's a good place but I found food to very salty and quality is variable depending on the cooks. read more

See all

Tasty! Very authentic. The chicken gizzard was my favorite dish. It is super spicy though! I ordered steamed pork belly for my daughter who can't eat spicy food which is not bad. The bullfrog is a miss. I asked the waitress if it is live frog and I was told it was. However the bullfrog meat was not tender at all - probably was frozen meat. I will definitely go back for some ordinary dishes! read more

See all

Good joint for Chinese exotics. As a non Chinese person, I loved the presentation of dishes and the quality of food. The place is clean and a good option if one wants to upscale the other Chinese joints. I loved the place. The fish, veggies were good. read more

See all

Pretty legit hunan food. The eggplant dish was amazing with a strong kick. Also ordered some octupus stir fry dish because they were out of shrimp noodles and OH BOY IT WAS SO SPICY. Their food overall is actually legit spicy so beware if you cannot handle it. Customer service is great. The water doesn't have ice in it which I don't really like. It's somewhat pricey but not wildly absurd for south bay. read more

Really authentic and flavour Hunan style dishes. We had pork intestines dry pot. The pork intestine is not stinky at all but full of flavor and supper soft. read more

Easterly - Chinese Near Me - Santa Clara, California

I love Hunan food, and I have my regular places, but who doesn't like trying something new? Easterly opened up in Rivermark Plaza earlier this year and I finally had a chance to try it out. When my navigation brought me here I was surprised to see that they took over the old Yan's Bistro. From what I can tell they didn't make many changes to the decor, but unlike Yan's American-style Chinese fare, this menu is real deal Mainland Chinese food. The menu is massive, and I like that they didn't dilute it with American style dishes. They do seem to have those, but they are relegated to the back couple pages in a section called "Fusion Menu." I kind of like that term for a Chinese place trying to say they will adapt their food to American tastes. Is it good? I don't know. I'll never know. I'm in a Hunan joint, so that's what I'll have. It took some time to peruse the menu and I'm not sure I made the best choices. I ordered Fish Fillets in Sour Soup, a favorite go-to, and Rice Noodles in XO Sauce. We also wanted lamb ribs but they were out, so I ordered duck instead and the helpful waiter advised against it saying it was probably too salty to go well with the other dishes I selected. I appreciated the help and chose Simmered beef tendon with brisket instead. The food came out fast. The flavors were pretty good, definitely authentic Hunan. The noodles in XO sauce were forgettable, but the other dishes were solid. Speaking to the waiter we learned the entire staff comes from Hunan Province and most of the diners this particular evening were from there as well. I would call the food homestyle adapted to a restaurant. That's to say these are not elevated chef conceived dishes, but rather time honored Hunan classics made simply. There are so many things to try and I can't wait to go back and taste them. Portions were generous. I had leftovers for dinner tonight and they held up well. For authentic Hunan fare this is worth a try. 3.5 Stars on the first visit, rounding up for service and hope for good things to come. read more

See all

Staff was so nice. I didn't want spicy and he said he'll try to adjust the level of spiciness. It turned out PERFECT! read more

Easterly - Stir D4Stir-Fried Pork with Pepper - Chinese Near Me - Santa Clara, California

See all

Best Xiang Cai in Bay Area. Located in Rivermark plaza. Really authentic food, and definitely on the more spicy side. We ordered these dishes and all of them are delicious! - Lei La Joao eggplant （擂辣椒茄子） - Hong Shao chicken （红烧土鸡） - Xiao Chao lamb （小炒羊肉） - Lotus and Black Ear （荷塘月色） - pumpkin pie （南瓜饼） - Pig feet （潇湘猪手） read more

See all

Not starting off well. We have a reservation for 12 people, why the hell are we sitting on stools? I expected this in Asia at a night market, not in San Jose, CA. Hope the dishes will wow me to change my thoughts. Update: food was decent. Just the stool was too awkward. read more

Easterly - Stools??? - Chinese Near Me - Santa Clara, California

Great place for spicy and flavorful food. We visited on a Friday, so had to wait a while. Awesome service too! read more

See all

Ordered the following: Meat with radish: 3 star, taste is ok, but too salty. Pork soup: 3 star Eggplant, garlic and meat: 3 star Felt nothing special about this place. read more

Easterly - Chinese Near Me - Santa Clara, California

If you haven't been to ER, try this restaurant :-) What happened? I ordered food here at 10/8/21 on 熊猫外卖, and I felt some foreign object in my mouth. It was an iron wire roughly 2-3cm from the food they made! It was shocking for me to take it from my mouth using my hand. Seeing it visually was exceedingly disturbing. I was watching TV while I was eating. I remembered my main was on TV, yet I still remember I cannot chew their healthy food properly. Maybe I should not chew that much, then I would have been in heaven. I want to stress here that I CAN NOT imagine what would happen to me if I had not eaten slow enough. What Easterly's response was? I reported this incident to 熊猫外卖, who then reported it to Easterly. The response I got was: Easterly is willing to remake to food for me for free PROVIDED THAT I go to the restaurant to pick it up. This IS THE most "professional" and "decent" response I have ever gotten in my life. If one has a functional brain, they would have asked if their customer is okay and need assistance for hospitalization. What do you think? I want to say 熊猫外卖 recommended I go to the hospital to take necessary actions. Right, Easterly did NOT mention this as you probably have guessed. What did I do? I went to a hospital, and paid the fee with my insurance and out-of-pocket fees. I also paid the fees to back and forth to Uber. I also paid for the stupidity of the unhygienic nature of Easterly Santa Clara. I emailed them to ASK them to take the responsibility for their liability on 11/15/21. Had 38 back and forth messages till now(6/4/22), I have gotten zero $ for the reparation of the incident. FYI: If you are a reporter or lawyer who is interested in my case, please contact me directly at wwwangzhou@gmail.com. Thanks! read more

Ordered Stir-fried Pork with Pepper during the lunch hour last week, the Stir-fried Pork with Pepper had all of the pepper seeds stuffed inside, not taken out. The fresh chili seeds mixed up with pork altogether, are very nasty. I don't think the Chinese grow up chewing these nasty chili seeds, maybe the chef of this restaurant did. Then another order is garlic stir-fried green Veggie A-Choy, which has not much garlic, has no garlic flavor at all, just a lot of oil mixed with A-choy Veggie. read more

I really wished I had a good experience here because we're missing a good authentic chinese food around this area but....my goodness. What I experienced here was beyond a shadow of doubt, one of the worst customer service I have ever experienced. We ordered 3 different entrees: Dumpling, Eggplant with Garlic & Cilantro and Stir Fried pork with pepper. I was pretty excited to see the dumpling coming out first because I was pretty hungry at the time. This wasn't a dish recommended by the server but heck...it can't be that bad if it's on the menu right?? I took an innocent bite into the dumpling. The first taste sensation I had was wrong. The food was lukewarm. Okay...I mean I never had dumplings lukewarm but maybe this place is special. The next sensation was mushy....Something is definitely wrong. . I took a peak at the food and discovered red and uncooked pork...not good.. I immediately left it on my plate. (Remember this dumpling for later) Obviously I was disappointed but I thought to myself, everyone makes mistakes. I'll decide whether to warn my fellow yelpers depending on how they handled the situation. I alerted the closest server. No apologies but she did bring the dish back to the kitchen. What happened next was truly baffling. They brought back the dumpling but this time the server said "You have one less dumpling now [because you took a bite earlier], and we'll give you a small discount".......what??...you're giving me one less dumpling because I kept that raw dumpling on my plate? And even better, no apology was given. Additionally, the dumplings look like they just dropped it back into the pot and recooked it until it was done. They're soooo generous that they gave me a 9% discount on that dumpling entree. That was last straw of giving them a chance. Don't expect any hospitality coming here. If you do decide to try, I hope you have better luck. read more

Easterly - hmmm yes..raw dumpling - Chinese Near Me - Santa Clara, California

See all

Attention1: this is authentic Chinese food, which many locals might not be familiar with Attention2: Hunan is famous for fresh chilly dishes and they are supposed to be very spicy The most delicious authentic Hunan cuisine you can get in the entire Bay Area, open kitchen that you can feel the foodie atmosphere. the quality of dishes are stable for the 2 times we visited. The service is nice and quick. ( compared with other authentic Chinese restaurant) One reason it is so good is they actually run bunch of stars restaurants in Zhuzhou, Hunan, the cooks are experienced ones sent from their company. Recommendations(so sorry for not remembering the English name): 辣椒炒肉 ( the pork and jalapeño) 剁椒鲶鱼 ( the whole catfish with fresh chilly ) 剁椒鱼头 ( the fish head with fresh chilly ) read more

See all

Ordered 4 dishes Fav - 小炒黄牛肉 （beef stir fry) The flavoring of some dishes are heavy which caused some stomach discomfort after the dinner. read more

See all

I was going to write a long post but here's the tl;dr: - two menus (one for Panda Express Chinese food and one for authentic) both printed on pink paper - all servers were just lazing around and none of them look like a server. (One of them almost tripped while texting on his phone) - food was VERY expensive, super greasy and not authenticate - one dish came out okay (definitely cooked by Chinese cook) and one came out horrible (cooked by a Mexican cook and looked nothing or tasted like it was suppose to) - service is weird (its subpar even compared to other Chinese places and that's saying something) - found some rope in our dish but the staff was eating dinner already and talking loudly so no one cared read more

Easterly - Chinese Near Me - Santa Clara, California

See all

I can never have enough of it! Very authentic Chinese food. Give it a shot, particularly if you want something spicy!

I recommend *stir fried beef with pepper! My friends like the rice with corn and pork(or something of that naming). Fish in a sour soup was also good, but even their mild was quite spicy. It's quite busy all the time, so the servers seem to be in hurry, but on the positive note, it is worth the wait! read more

Easterly - Chinese Near Me - Santa Clara, California

First time here, was excited to try Their food. Ordered 5 dishes Some of the dishes I forgot the English name of it. Beef noodle soup, more Tendon Than beef. soup is more on the salty side and doodle is not as tender. There is a dish with large pork slices and it tasty very dry. Egg plant was good. Bathroom does not match the restaurant style Instead it's more like a dirty Togo restaurant's bathroom. Story on the wall saying the restaurant group started in 2005 and have experienced Chefs But I guess dish speaks for itself. Branding and taste does not match. Hope they will improve or change the story on the wall read more

Easterly - Beef noodle soup - Chinese Near Me - Santa Clara, California

The food here is horrible. Panda Express is 10x better than this. We ordered an egg fried rice, beef noodle soup, and kung pao chicken. The rice was overcooked and had random chunks. The beef in the noodle soup was very hard to chew with a rubbery texture. The kung pao chicken portion was small and the chicken had a weird aftertaste. I won't come here again. read more

See all

This is a nice Hunan Chinese restaurant. I found that it wasn't super cheap (dinner for two was about $40) but the food was tasty. It was however EXTREMELY spicy so be warned if spice is not your thing. We got the 水煮牛肉 beef in chili oil and it was swimming in this delicious but very spicy sauce. The lamb we got was even more spicy. It must have been all those fresh jalapeño peppers! Rice is extra here. read more

This is a new restaurant that has taken over the YanCan spot. They have two menus - one traditional American Chinese food and another, what I imagine is, more authentic Chinese. Not sure if that is the long term plan or just while they figure out their niche. I am hoping they lean towards being traditional Hunan as their name alludes. Service was fast and curteous, food was fresh, and the place is clean. With the open kitchen concept, they may need to figure something out when cooking chilis. There were a few of us in there coughing from the chili fumes every once in awhile. read more

Easterly - Kung Pao Chicken - Chinese Near Me - Santa Clara, California