Happy Hot Hunan
Chinese restaurant · Upper West Side ·
Authentic Hunan cuisine, known for spicy, sour, and smoky flavors.
Authentic Hunan cuisine, known for spicy, sour, and smoky flavors.
"Near the northern verge of the Upper West Side, which has always been an under-the-radar location for excellent Chinese restaurants, lies the alliteratively-named Happy Hot Hunan. Few restaurants serve such a wide range of Hunan specialties (quite different than Sichuan ones, and often spicier). Foods preserved by pickling, drying, and smoking provide unique flavors, including one dish of smoked pork and smoked bamboo shoots." - Robert Sietsema
"Founded by Yunchou Liu and Jia Liu, few Hunan restaurants in the city are as good as this one, with a long menu to match. Hunan food exhibits hot and sour flavors, pickled ingredients, and other staples preserved by drying and smoking. Accordingly, try smoked pork with bamboo shoots and mustard greens that come dotted with garlic and pickled chiles." - Robert Sietsema
"I consider Happy Hot Hunan one of the more distinguished Hunan restaurants in town, where ingredients preserved by smoking, drying, pickling, and brining are frequently highlighted and the food can sometimes be even more fiery than Sichuan." - Robert Sietsema
"This happy-go-lucky spot continues the tradition of great Chinese restaurants on the far northern verge of the Upper West Side. Lacking the elegance of Atlas Kitchen, Happy Hot Hunan seems like your typical neighborhood Chinese carryout — if that carryout happened to be in Hunan. The pork belly with smoked bamboo is prodigal in its smokiness, and mung bean noodles, rife with crushed peanuts and bits of meat, comes with a thick red sauce on the side — pour the whole cup over for some of the best noodles in town." - Robert Sietsema
"I loved the smoked pork with smoked bamboo at Happy Hot Hunan, a Hunan stir-fry ($17.95) where the pork belly is so extensively smoked it recalls Carolina barbecue while the bamboo shoots take on a creamier smokiness; pickled red and fresh green chiles add a level of heat rarely found in American barbecue." - Robert Sietsema
