I love Hunan Chef and can't believe I've never proclaimed this publicly before. We used to go here for lunch on a regular basis and I was happy to see the restaurant survived the pandemic. The owner is warm and friendly; the service is fast. I'm sure what I eat is probably not considered representative of its ethnicity, but there are enough Chinese people eating here who can probably vouch for the authenticity of some of the dishes. The menu is vast with something for everyone. I think the only thing I've eaten here that I wasn't a fan of was the combo fried rice. Otherwise, the food is very good and the portions and prices are reasonable. read more

Great, dependable, Chinese food. Good service. Chinese clientele, service staff, and cooks. Highly recommended.

Always excellent food and friendly service. From their House Special tofu clay pot soup ($17 for a HUGE spot!), to their XLB, dumplings, sweet n sour pork.. everything is delicious here!! They do A TON of to go and the kitchen is always busy. I also really appreciate their open kitchen... You can clearly see the chefs artful culinary skills at work, as well as their CLEAN kitchen. My favorites here: House special tofu pocket soup in clay pot XLB Xia Luong Bao aka soup dumplings dumplings cold glass noodles in special sauce eggplant w fish sauce in clay pot large beat sprouts w garlic cumin lamb cubes... so fragrant! See, I told you everything is good here!! On weekends, they also have freshly house made soy drinks and their excellent sticky rice rolls. A popular spot for large parties as well... so they do get crowded and has a wait once in a while. Love this restaurant! read more

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We ordered take out. Flavors are not bad, but they gave us Mongolian beef instead of Mongolian lamb. The dish def did not have the same texture, smell and taste as lamb. read more

Stopped here to eat a soup and hot tea and honestly horrible customer service pretty sure it was the owner herself also food was alright

Very happy with the food here especially with some taste bud fatigue from other places. 1. The fish gluten dishes. I get such a kick of chewing into into these fluffy and juicy pieces. Ps. The clay pot version has a lot of light soup and veggies. Great for a couple days. :) 2. Sweet and sour chicken. Yes, satisfying - like orange chicken. The sauce just makes tastebuds dance and the texture isn't super soft/ mushy. 3. Mushu dishes - so filling and great esp if you're feeling like a DIY mini burrito/taco (with a thin rice paper tortilla?) thing with hoisin sauce. Yum. Would highly recommend this place! read more

We came for dinner on a Saturday around 7PM and the restaurant was not busy. Shout-out to one of the male servers who wore a flower on his head, he was super nice to us and to many tables with little kids. Food deserves a solid 3.5 stars for taste and authenticity. I enjoyed the cumin lamb 孜然羊肉, the fish gluten 鱼面筋, preserved fish with 咸鱼鸡粒茄子煲(both under the chef specials). I would not recommend the dry-fried green bean 干煸四季豆 or the sesame pancake 芝麻大饼 (the outside is not crunchy and it was chewy) Portions are big, however, prices are on the high side as well (but normal for the Bay Area to be fair). read more

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Amy is amazing! She catered to my party of 30 and everything went so smoothly. Restaurant was clean, food was great, and service was top knot notch. They really took care of us and the overall price was reasonable. Definitely recommend. read more

Old school spicy Chinese food. Lunch is $12 per plate with soup which is a good price for the amount and quality of the food on their lunch specials. Service was great. Ambience is casual and limited amount of booth seatings but enough for out visit when we went. read more

We are a frequent customer to Hunan Chef in Pleasanton. It's sort of become a tradition in our family. After our latest visit with our whole family, we officially declare Hunan Chef to be our favorite Chinese restaurant in the area. Their stir fried dishes are top notch, and according to the grandma in the family, the soybean milk is fresh, tasty, and just the right amount of sugar: no sugar. That's a huge compliment. Dishes that are my favorite- Stir fried lamb with cumin Double pepper steamed fish Bean curd with shredded pork All in all, I declare Hunan chef to be the best Chinese restaurant in the area with service, food, and wait time getting a 5/5. If you are ever in the area, i recommend you to go the Hunan Chef. read more

Hunan Chef - Bean curd with shredded pork - Chinese Near Me - Pleasanton, California

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I eat Hunan with my boyfriend at least once a week sometimes more and every time the food comes out in less than ten minutes! The owner is a wonderful woman who often offers to bring us our food to our car while we wait for our to-go order. The service is always quick and the owner is such a funny and lighthearted spirit. I thoroughly enjoy my visit every time and if you are a returning guest she remembers you and your order The food is also amazing! This is the ideal takeout spot read more

Hunan Chef - Orange chicken, Vegetables and Beef Chow Fun - Chinese Near Me - Pleasanton, California

Horrible experience here. Worst customer service ever. Did a takeout order on a Friday night and ordered 4 dishes. When I went to go pick it up, they were missing an item. When I asked them about that missing dish, they asked me, "Do you really need that dish?" I was really confused as I had ordered it over the phone and it was missing. I responded, "Yes, that's why I ordered it." She said "Well I didn't charge you so we didn't give it to you." I was super confused at this point. I kindly responded, "Yes I need the dish because that's my order." She says, "The chef can't make it right now. You can get it next time." Then I responded, "The lady over the phone confirmed my order." So I assumed What kind of service is this?! Why so many excuses for that one dish?! Never coming back to this place. Don't recommend. Don't come here. read more

Terrible customer service, we came in with a group of 12 and the lady is so rude she told us they cant seat all of us on 1 table.. hey, no problem just give us 2 tables next to each other it doesn't have to be connected just close to each other would be fine. But the lady gave us attitude saying "she has to clean the table and cant seat us close together". It was not even busy to begin with. She is just lazy and want to just close the store. Unfortunately we where not given a chance to review the food.. with a terrible customer service, i will just take my business elsewhere read more

This place is great. We stumbled upon here after a really disappointing night at the summer Night Market. We were the last ones into the restaurant and the staff was really nice, helping us choose the best dishes and didn't rush us at all even though they were cleaning up. The dishes were all really good and authentic. I got the lamb with cumin, eggplant, hot and sour soup, and also the dual flavor fish fillet. Everything was cooked perfectly. I even came back a week later to get the lamb and eggplant again for a quick takeout for dinner. Would definitely go again when I'm nearby. read more

Having tried more dishes here and eating here now pretty regularly, it's a true gem for legit Chinese food in the valley

Placed an order Saturday afternoon/picked up around 2:30pm. Staffs have their mask on. Appreciate the gesture! My all the time favorite ZaZhangMien was slightly salty this time. A little disappointment, but the hot/sour soup was still soooo good. Ordered a serving of rice to go with an eggplant dish and saved that for dinner. The bill came to about $41-$42 (before tips). read more

Delicious food and service is acceptable. They are too busy to take care of the clients sometimes.

This is my local go-to spot for Chinese food. The food is good and authentic! Service has always been friendly. I've dined in, ordered for pick up and the food has been consistently good. I like that they cater - easy when I need to bring something for a potluck and don't want to cook. read more

Woman who answers the phone changed the price because the posted menu online is not accurate. I called again and asked her about her price because she changed it while we were both on the phone. I guess these are very desperate times- add another $3 to the main dish as they are not accurate on their online menu prices. Honey Walnut Shrimp are NOT 12.95!they are $15.95- I ordered 2. as of 04/15 5:00pm Also the Chef Special- You will be charged Schezuan Beef- Insist on the special- that is $13.95. The vegg rolls are $6.95 and the fried vegg rice is $8.95 Total for your meal $67.50 I suggest you try another place- the food is ok but Overpriced. Insist on looking at menu Inside the restaurant because it is not accurate online. read more

We've been here a few times and, frankly, the food is lacking both in authenticity and flavor. It doesn't feel home cooked either; it feels cheap, like they used lower quality ingredients. The noodles in the noodle soups are soft and not al dente. The seafood and tofu clay pot isn't even a Hunan dish (like all the other items on the menu) and had a total of 2 pieces of shrimp. Szechaun style fried chicken with dried chili oil? Let's hide the 5 wings we used for the whole dish in all these chilis. Stir friend lamb with cumin really did not have any cumin and was all onions. You can tell they mainly cater to the western palate by how generic much of their menu is. Honey Walnut Prawns and Kung Pao Chicken is on the very top of their lunch specials for a reason. When's the last time you saw the romanized characters, "MuShu"? 1995? You can also tell they mainly cater to a western palate by the way their attitude changes when they're serving Chinese speaking people and English speaking people. read more

My wife and I moved to Tri-Valley 2 years ago right before the Covid-19 Pandemic and have been coming to Hunan Chef ever since. We love the variety of options they have in their menu and how authentic some of the dishes are compared to what we have tried in China. We especially love the homemade dim sum and pastries they have on their menu. Their Chinese Donut is freshly made in the restaurant from scratch and not store brought from an Asian restaurant like most dim sum place are. We especially love going their doing the weekends because they offered homemade sticky rice rolls that taste as good as the ones we have eaten in Shanghai and Taiwan and homemade soy milk. Sticky rice rolls and soy milk is the perfect breakfast match! Other than their dim sum and pastries, my wife and I love the following dishes: Szechuan Style Fried Chicken w/ Dried Chili(most resturant used chicken thigh or breast but they use chicken wings) Cold Green Bean Sheet with Special Sauce (amazingly addicting!) Sliced beef & Tripe w/ Roasted Chili Vinaigrette (the condiments they have in this dish makes it perfect and you wouldn't be able to stop eating it) Salt & Pepper Pork Chops(you might think you can get this in any Chinese restaurant, but they use Red Fermented Bean Curd to marinate the pork chop before frying. This makes it especially tasty) We would highly recommend this restaurant to anyone wanting delicious Chinese food but don't want to break your wallet. This us definitely a hidden gem in Pleasanton read more

Okay, this place has some of the best tasting Chinese food I've ever had. Let's start with the fried, salt and pepper fish. It is always the perfect portion, in the sense that one order is always too much for just one person, but perfect for two! It is cooked perfectly, with a crispy exterior bursting with flavor with every bite. It truly is perfection. Their honey walnut shrimp is amazing. We're talking huge prawns that are flavored perfectly. I cannot emphasize how amazing the food is every time I get it. I could honestly eat something from here everyday. I highly recommend anyone who enjoys Chinese food, to try this place! It can very easily become your new go to spot for Chinese in Pleasanton. read more

When we first came to Pleasanton in 2000 this was one of 2 Chinese restaurant in town (the better one). The owner, then her son, used to give me extras as we were one of few Chinese speaking customers. Now Ptown is 40% Asians and so many more Asian options and we've stopped frequenting them. Few years back the family sold the restaurant and initially the new owner kept the food geared towards American taste buds. Since our regular Chinese restaurant was closed on Tuesday, I revisited them last Tuesday and their menu had changed to be more authentic. We tried and fell in love with their pig intestines with chili though it was way too spicy. We came back same day and order less spicy version of the same dish. We came back several night in a row ordering pig intestines both the grilled and chili versions. The hot and sour soup was ok, nothing special. Their beef chow fun was stirred fried with enough heat in the wok and I could smell it even before tasting the dish. Yummy! Their jellyfish with chicken was well flavored but it has so much onions - it's essentially an onion salad. I'm not a fan of onions but understand that it is the traditional method of making the dish. We will be back to sample other dishes and get our favorite pig intestines with chili. read more

My daughter and I were in the Pleasanton area for an appointment so we were looking for Chinese for lunch afterwards. Found Hunan Chef on Valley Avenue just down the street from our appointment. First thing we noticed - there were other Asians at several tables eating, especially a table full of Asian women - this is usually a good sign of the food. We went for the lunch plate specials so Taylor picked the green beans and shrimp spicy with the fried rice and I tried my usual favorite, garlic pork, with white rice. Lunch plates came with soup, hot and sour, and it was very good soup. Our lunch plates came quickly and I could see that their version of garlic pork was just the way I like it with shredded bamboo and sliced green pepper. If there had been sliced celery, it would have been perfect for me because I like a lot of crunch with each bite. Taylor's green beans and shrimp came slightly spicy. It was ok but Taylor would have liked a little more sauce of some sort with the green beans. Fried rice was just rice, soy sauce and pieces of egg - no other meats or veggies in it so my daughter thought it was a little bland. A little peas and carrots would have been nice to have in the fried rice. Taylor said that the shrimp was good but the green beans were lacking a bit of flavor. All together though, a good lunch especially for the lunch plate price. If I lived in Pleasanton, I would definitely come back for dinner. read more

Hunan Chef - Garlic pork lunch plate with white jasmine rice - Chinese Near Me - Pleasanton, California

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Friendly service and reasonably priced menu. One of our favorite spicy Chinese restaurants

MR says...its good Chinese food MRS says... we've been dining at Hunan Chef for quite sometime now. We've tried several of their dishes and we've got our favorites. Below are list of dishes we typically get: - hot & sour soup (this is their famous best selling soup, so they claimed) - salt & pepper fish (light and crispy) - shredded potato with peppers - onion pancake - westlake beef soup (my favorite soup) - chili dry fried chicken - fried croaker (fish sizes varies... sometimes you get small pieces but at least everything is edible) They offer free delivery within 3miles. Good service, friendly waitstaff and tasty Chinese food. read more

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Potstickers were a score! We finally found a place that makes homemade filling and all. Sized right and delicious. Shrimp chow mein was just right as is. Not like others that drench their noodles in sauce and use a lot of veggies as a filler. The shrimp were nice sized as well. Spicy garlic eggplant surprised me with the perfect balance of flavors. The hint of sweetness made this dish very enjoyable. I wish I would have ordered rice to go with it. Tan Tan Noodles sounded good and were for the most part. The peanut sauce wasn't spicy to me though and it almost leaned toward pasty a bit. The noodles are house made so it made up for the somewhat bland sauce that comes separately. Just add hot oil. read more

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Pretty good Chinese food for the TriValley, but can't compare to Chinatown Oakland or SF. We ordered 3 dishes. One was excellent, one was so-so, and one was horribly over-salted. It's obvious they put a lot of care into prepping and cooking the food. Let's start with the good. The walnut shrimp dish was well executed. Shrimps were a nice size, the breading was crunchy, the sauce was a tangy mayonnaise. The candied walnuts were crunchy and flavorful. This dish seemed authentic, but "Hunan", um no. Still, you should order this one. We got the house meat noodle dish, which was like the Korean dish "Jajangmyeon", meaning noodles with black bean sauce. The sauce was packaged separately from the noodles, which was a nice touch. The noodles were fine, however, not as chewy as I liked. DH really liked them. The black bean sauce enrobed tiny bits of squash (zucchini?) and meat. It was okay, but not as savory as we expected. The amount of sauce provided was generous. We had a lot left over. The dish I barely touched was the Chef's Beef, which is made from tiny shreddings of flank steak. Very different from what we expected. We decided to try this, since we don't like the typical tenderized Chinese restaurant beef. It was way too salty, even when eaten with the lettuce it came with. The marinade reminded me vaguely of teriyaki - sweet and salty. I detected faint hints of mushroom soy sauce. We had nearly the whole box left over, so I stir-fried some cabbage the next day and added this. It worked out okay, since the cabbage diluted the saltiness. I wouldn't recommend this dish, even if it's salted properly. The order came with some mighty tasty fortune cookies. They were thin and crispy, not individually sealed, and heaps better. I suspect they get them fresh from a nearby fortune cookie factory. They also included some shrimp chips, but we didn't eat these. We tried their delivery service, which was prompt (took about 40 min), and free if you live in the Pleaz. Prices seemed pretty steep...more along the lines of a sit-down restaurant. With tax & tip, our meal was $45. We're light eaters and had quite a bit of left overs. Would we order again? Probably, but we would try different things. read more

Hunan Chef - House made meat noodles and walnut shrimp - Chinese Near Me - Pleasanton, California

I like Spicy and flavorful Chinese food, hence though this Hunan restaurant will be ideal but unfortunately that was not the case. Ordered Kung Pao tofu take out. It was nothing like a Kung pao Tofu! Was not fried but boiled, didnt had the typical red color but was in white color, didnt had any Kung pao flavors but had some generic white sauce with lot of boiled onions. Overall it was a gooey mess. The person who took the order was good and shared greetings but that's about it. read more

If you are ordering using their Yelp menu or the menu on their website, be aware that the actual prices are higher than either of those, in some cases by as much as $3 per dish. I bought five entrees and an order each of soup, spring rolls, and steamed rice. With tax, I calculated the total to be around $81, based on the prices on the website, which would have been a pretty good deal. But my order ended up being more than $101, which, despite the fairly large portions, was too much for decidedly average food. read more

I love this place ! The food is good. The service is great and the prices are reasonable! If you like spicy or sweet and sour their menu offers great selections. I highly recommend! read more

The biggest issue we had was their customer service and time management. We ordered take out and they told us they are busy and to get there 35 minutes later. When I got there I waited another 40 more minutes. No apologies, just constantly saying, "we are busy." Not letting us know how much longer it will take. Watching people who came way after us getting their food first. When asking when they expect the food to be ready after waiting quite a while they said they're still waiting on 1 dish and it took 20 minutes longer from there, while the rest of my food was just sitting there. The honey walnut shrimp should be crispy and it was more like soggy walnut shrimp, probably because it was sitting in the box for 30 minutes while the last dish was being made. We ordered 5 things and some were decent. Lots of oil and salt, which is to be expected. But definitely not worth waiting over an hour, with 40 minutes of that being in front of the restaurant. My wife was very upset waiting in the car with our baby, my parents called in 2 times asking what is taking so long when we ordered at 5:45 and didnt have our food around 7pm. The third time my dad called to tell me to cancel the food but I had just gotten it. My whole family decided we are not going back here. But we wish them well and hope they can fix some of these customer expectations and service issues for their future customers. It seems they have a loyal customer base and the food is not bad for the area. I'm sure it tastes better in the restaurant or served immediately. read more

Clean. Fair prices. Attentive and friendly workers. Hot and sour soup lacks sufficient spice and tart. Their interpretation of General chicken has a light batter and incorporates red chili and black bean in the sauce. Fortune cookies served on money tray a bit unsanitary. read more

Hunan Chef - Hot & Sour soup (not very hot or sour), helpful waiter, generals chicken, fish with black bean sauce and spicy seafood noodle - Chinese Near Me - Pleasanton, California

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The wait is long as kitchen only focused on take out. Not helpful service and may not come again.

Your service is really slow when people get food to go I was in a hurry to get somewhere please have better service

We ordered the honey walnut prawns. These prawns were so delicious. Not overly sweet or over battered. The broccoli beef was very juicy, piping hot and tender. It had just enough sauce and we paired with with rice. This lace was a big hit for my bf who always orders the same dish when we eat this cuisine. The food was very fresh as well. Staff was kind and professional. The place was clean and every had a mask on during these times... read more

First of all, the food I was able to eat was tasty! The braised ground beef and cilantro soup was delightful! And I had rice, and rice is rice. Hard to mess up. But I also got a cucumber salad (which is the reason for this one star), that had a hair in it. Very disappointing. I ordered food through postmates because I'm very sick with the flu, so I don't have the energy to leave the house. Postmates won't refund me for this item and I can't go to the establishment itself because I don't have a receipt also I am highly contagious. read more

Hunan Chef - Cucumber salad with a hair in it. - Chinese Near Me - Pleasanton, California

service is always nice, feature dishes are always good, and the price is reasonable! Good deal and never let me down.

This review is long overdue. This has been our go-to place for Chinese food - hands down the best in town for authentic flavors. I crave their food if I haven't ordered in a while! We had dined in before the pandemic and staff is always very polite and attentive. These days we do take out and the service is very quick. Our favorites are the Hot & Spicy chicken, Hunan style shredded Pork, Stir-fried Lamb with cumin, Salt 'n' Pepper Tofu and Fish fillet with chilli oil. Mind you, these are all on the spicy side :-) So if you love spicy food, try these - and they do make accommodations on the level of spice you need as well. Hot & sour soup is amazing too read more

Deleting a duplicate review because of a Yelp glitch. Read my previous post for my thoughts. read more

Hunan Chef - Chinese Near Me - Pleasanton, California

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