Hunan Bistro

It was an unexpected foodie stop for me and my friend after a work out! Authentic Chinese food with menu out of this world! The friendly server (he may be part owner)spoke great English. Clients are mainly Chinese as they speak mandarin! I am not a fan of fusion and being in this place almost felt like I was in a travel warp! Recommended! Price was reasonable—-surely a bonus 🎉

Already quite busy at 5PM, this little hidden gem competes with Three Gorges and other staples of Asian cuisine in northwest Austin. The owner is from Hunan and the head chef from Sichuan and their offerings of both styles are delicious, sharable, and reasonably priced. So far, I've had: Salt Pork Bamboo Shoot and Tofu Skin soup with bok choy: Best shared among 4-6 people. It's a lot of soup for two people. Rich and flavorful with very tender pork. 4.5/5 Hunan Stir Fried Pork: Exceptionally flavorful and authentic. Careful, the jalapenos are not de-seeded and really aren't intended to be eaten (I still crunch on some). 4.5/5 Mapo Tofu: Might be one of the best Mapo Tofu I've ever had. I was sweating without my body feeling hot, quite an experience. Very flavorful with soft tofu and goes great with rice. 5/5 Service will take a while because everything is made to order (20 minutes for our soup, 40ish minutes for the main courses). It's worth it!

I walked over for dinner on a Wednesday night and they were super busy. My food took around 45 minutes to make its way out of the kitchen but it was very worth the wait! The meatballs were large and savory! and my favorite thing by far was the mapo tofu. It was super spicy and made me wanna say "Rejoice, boy!"

Great Chinese food! A bit more authentic than the average. The flavours are great - if it was a little spicier with all dishes, it would have hit the spot. The noodles had a great texture, while the stir fried pork were amazingly cooked.

This restaurant has become my Monday regular. The consistency varies a bit on the same dish. Some days can be a bit more spicy, other days can have too much pepper corn, which makes the dish very numbing to eat. Overall, my coworkers and I enjoyed our visits. What we recommend: mapo tofu, 双椒鸡-serrano pepper with chicken (our new favorite, very spicy but great flavor), My pictures: Toothpicks lamb Fish with tofu Serrano chicken Mapo tofu

Hunan stir fried pork and hot sour soup are excellent. The level of spiciness is just nice especially the sliced fish fillet in chili oil. Overall food is great and comforting.

This place is authentic Sichuan food despite of its confusing Hunan name. It is not really a bistro because it is still having alcohol license application in progress. Nonetheless, if you want to taste authentic western Chinese food, avoid ordering fried rice or any kind of noodles. Just go for the beef/fish dishes with a lot of spice directly.

As of April 2023, I would say Hunan Bistro is probably top two best Chinese food in Austin. Another one is Bamboo House for sure. Price is decent, not much service but you come here for food.

I thought I had to go to Houston for good Chinese food like this in TX! The Spicy Chicken is just like Chongqing Chicken The food here is delish!

Heard they have a New ownership so we came to dined in as first time even we always ordered Take out from this place. We absolutely loved the new management which offers much faster service from previous ownership. Food quality always improved and much yummier than before. See pics of what we had tonight. Every dish was delicious! Price is also competitive!

Already quite busy at 5PM, this little hidden gem competes with Three Gorges and other staples of Asian cuisine in northwest Austin. The owner is from Hunan and the head chef from Sichuan and their offerings of both styles are delicious, sharable, and reasonably priced. So far, I've had: Salt Pork Bamboo Shoot and Tofu Skin soup with bok choy: Best shared among 4-6 people. It's a lot of soup for two people. Rich and flavorful with very tender pork. 4.5/5 Hunan Stir Fried Pork: Exceptionally flavorful and authentic. Careful, the jalapenos are not de-seeded and really aren't intended to be eaten (I still crunch on some). 4.5/5 Mapo Tofu: Might be one of the best Mapo Tofu I've ever had. I was sweating without my body feeling hot, quite an experience. Very flavorful with soft tofu and goes great with rice. 5/5 Service will take a while because everything is made to order (20 minutes for our soup, 40ish minutes for the main courses). It's worth it!

It was an unexpected foodie stop for me and my friend after a work out! Authentic Chinese food with menu out of this world! The friendly server (he may be part owner)spoke great English. Clients are mainly Chinese as they speak mandarin! I am not a fan of fusion and being in this place almost felt like I was in a travel warp! Recommended! Price was reasonable---place is clean and dainty! surely a bonus

Authentic Hunan/Sizchuan food as always! I've been here countless times and have tried almost everything lol. Today we tried the red oil beef with tofu for the first time, and it's just as good as the red oil fish with tofu. The cauliflower bacon stir fry is underperforming today unfortunately. The bacon (or preserved pork) is too fatty and the cauliflower is soggy. Our server is also one of the best I've had. She's very attentive and came up to fill our water constantly and offered to pack the food for us. The ambiance is typical Chinese. I do wish the restaurant's ventilation is better. The air feels kind of stagnant in there.

The service was actually quite good. There was a hard working young lady who was great. My favorite dish is the Hunan Stir Fried Pork. It's so so good. The sichuan style braised chicken has amazing spicy sauce but the chicken has bone in. Dan Dan noodles are good! Green onion noodle also good. Grandma pork belly is delicious. The rest of the dishes I tried, which personally I thought was not as great but still decent are: Whole fish with chili bean sauce (off menu special) Eggplant with jalapenos (off menu) Yangzhou fried rice (really nice shrimp) Toothpick lamb (too chewy for me but my dining mate liked it) Chicken with peppers (off menu special) Spicy chicken.

Holy Grail for Toothpick Cumin Lamb. I've looked all over Austin for this delicacy. Made to perfection here. Mama Pork Belly is so good. As good or better than Intersteller BBQ. Shrimp Fried Rice was good too!

This restaurant deserves 10 stars on a 5-star scale The food is authentic. I mean it's the same as you would get in mainland China! And the ingredients are fresh, thoroughly prepared. You don't know what to order, too bad

Do you know the rule of 3.5 star Chinese restaurants? A dude named Freddie Wong broke down his rule for 3.5 star Chinese restaurants and it's spot-on. According to him, Chinese restaurants with higher than an average of 3.5 stars indicate that "too many white people like it", the "service is too good" and the food is "not as good as it could be." But he says at a 3.5-star restaurant, "the waiters are not going to pay attention to you. They're going to be rude. But it's going to taste better." This 100% applies to Hunan Bistro. It's just how Chinese restaurants with legit food operate - there are different expectations for service in Asia. Anyway, this is one of the best places to get Hunan/Sichuan cuisine in the Austin metro area (Bamboo House being the other). I had to laugh at the 2-star reviewer who compared this food to the food from some local Asian fusion/dim sum restaurants (read: not Hunan/Sichuan cuisine). My buddy and I go here at least once a month. It literally makes me so happy whenever I eat it, and to have it fairly close by to top it off. We typically get the lamb and fish stew, toothpick lamb, sliced beef oxtripe in chili oil, peppers with preserved egg, dry sauteed green beans, sliced potatoes in sour sauce, and the spicy boneless chicken. When they have it, the 空心菜 (kongxincai, or water spinach - please note that they only have the Chinese characters in the online menu) is my favorite vegetable dish. The sliced beef in chili oil is not bad but I prefer Bamboo House's, whereas I prefer Hunan Bistro's lamb and fish stew. If you like spicy, real Chinese food and don't care too much about service, this is the place for you. A true gem of Austin.

The most authentic Chinese food in Austin. But this is not only why I rated them 5 stars. I hands down have never had such a good experience with service here. The server young lady with bangs is the sweetest soul. She made me feel so comfortable and taken care of. I recently visited on a Friday night, the place was full and I waited awhile to get my food. They only have 1 server and 1 chef on such a busy night. The food still tasted amazing. I feel for the staff being so busy and cooking all these people's dishes. I was patient and I'm glad I got to taste the greatest Chinese home style food in Austin. I don't often praise restaurants like this but the way the lady made me feel she is just so amazing. The chef is amazing because he works so hard but they still don't take away from quality. The food is clean, delicious and well-portioned. Best of all, the price is so damn reasonable, especially for Austin. This place is a favorite. Always walk out with a smile.

I was in an unfamiliar part of Austin. Yelp guided me to this place. The food was excellent. I ordered an entree with a Chile rating of one and it cleared my sinuses. Glad I didn't order a hotter entree.. Entree was large enough that I had lunch the next day. Service was excellent. I do wish the menu was more descriptive.

A hidden gem in Austin. One of the best Chinese restaurants in the greater Austin area (the other one I would say is the newly opened Bamboo house). Haven't tried their Chinese American dishes, but our favorite is their Crab Roe with Tofu, DanDan noodle (a bit spicy), and "huang meng ji" (you won't find this dish in their menu but it's written on a blackboard in Chinese). They also have the best spicy grilled fish in town (not sure about its availability now), which you have to pre-order it to avoid the long waiting time for this dish. For those who cares about service, well, they only got one server so don't expect quick service. It may be a good idea to ask for the preparation time for each item you've ordered, some of them could take very long time to prepare. But at least I won't say the service bad. By the way, in California or New York you could get better authentic Chinese food, but a lot of them don't even take credit cards while at the same time offering horrible service.

Delicious delicious delicious. We drove across town for this one. Barely any wait but we got in just after the lunch rush. Honestly had a hard time choosing because everything looked good. We settle on the potstickers, the beef and broccoli and the pork belly. Everything came out hot, definitely a cook to order place. Even so if only took about 12 minutes for everything to get out to us. The pot stickers were the best I've had ever. Could of just eaten those and been happy. The Bok Choy that came with the pork belly was fantastic. It's a hard thing to cook and they really nailed it. And the pork belly was extremely tender. The broccoli in the beef and broccoli was definitely marinated in the sauce because it was very flavorful and I loved how the carrots were cut. The beef was cooked perfectly and was tender. I loved the rice container and it was cooked perfectly as well. Which is always awesome because some places mess that simple step up. Definitely a place to check out if you ever get the chance. I'd go with the pork belly for sure! Can't wait to go back and eat something different.

It's been a while so I thought I'd write another review! I've been doing take out from many Chinese restaurants lately, and honestly have not been impressed with them. My mom even told me to just stop ordering Chinese food because she found everything to be too greasy and salty for her taste. Finally I remembered Hunan Bistro and gave it another try! Food was ready and the person was quite courteous, and I paid with a credit card with no issues, and was out in less than 2 minutes. Giving it a 5 star because this is probably the only Chinese restaurant in Austin that fits my Hunanese family's taste. Totally understand how people could encounter bad service at Chinese restaurants and give 1 star reviews, but the food is good and there are authentic options you really can't find anywhere else in Austin.

Great food, nice people, some times takes a little longer then expected because they are always busy. But it's worth it.

The food is delicious, authentic and consistent over many years. Take-out only as ambiance is not appealing.

I came here with my Chinese friends on a whim, craving Chinese food and being in the area. I think we all really enjoyed it - there were a lot of unexpected dishes on the menu.. it felt pretty legit. It seems like a decent pace to come with a big group. Service was fine, we got our water & tea refilled through the meal and were able to flag down our server as needed We ordered: - Lotus root with sticky rice - one that my friend was excited about but was totally novel to me... It was lotus root, braised or steamed so that it absorbed the sweet sauce and cooked the sticky rice inside. Sliced thinly so everyone could have a few slices. - Ox tail & beef tripe cold dish - served cold (intenionally) and covered in Sichuan chili oil, enough to capture the ma-la (numbing) spice flavor, without being terribly spicy. - Scallion oil noodles - served with green onion and ground pork.. a hint of sweetness but apparently that's how they are meant to be. The noodles were nicely cooked, thin enough to be wrapped in flavor with a satisfying chew. The freshness of the green onions was appreciated through the flavorful oil - Dandan noodles - served with ground pork, mala spicy oil, and sesame paste.. some green onions for freshness. Although the sauce was bit salty and spicy, but I happily would have eaten the whole tub of rice to go along with it.. - green beans - classic Chinese dish that's really hard to make at home. They did a good job with this - Kou shui ji -aka mouthwatering chicken - steamed chicken is covered in flavorful Sichuan pepper oil. I think I was too full to enjoy this by the time it came out. The chicken pieces were a bit bony as well, making it a bit more effortful to eat. I might try a different dish instead of this one next time.

Very Disappointed. Ordered Seafood Soup, taste like straight garlic . So nasty, could not taste the seafood. Added hot oil to improve the taste... was an epic fail. Will never return, told sever , server did nothing, I paid and left disgusting Garlic Soup on table. Such a shame because reviews seemed good and I was excited to try their food. Big mistake, huge thumbs down, I'm not sure who was cooking that night and not mention the poor customer service.

Hidden gem in my backyard. The food is so fresh. The fried rice cost extra but is so good.

The food wasn't bad (Spicy Chicken and Chicken Corn Soup), and delivered fast, but the Spicy Chicken was the single most annoying entree I have ever eaten. You know those long skinny red hot peppers (Tien Tsin chile peppers) you get 2-3 of in a typical order of say Kung Pao anything or General Tso's or anything spicy? These folks decided to slice them up into tiny 1/4" or less size pieces so that are nearly impossible to pick out. There were 3 1/2 OUNCES of them in my entree. Never again.

Ridiculously slow and pricey, also the taste is not good / authentic at all. For $25-30 per person this is way below the average and expectation.. NOT RECOMMENDED

Been here a few times now, and it never disappoints. Really good food - love the toothpick lamb, so juicy and perfectly spiced. Their spicy is really good spicy (if you are a spice lover). Ordered fish in chili oil once and the fish was super soft and yum. Service is about slow, but the food compensated for it. Overall- really good Chinese restaurant in the area

Really bad experience of ordering to-go food during this COVID19 period. The front desk forced me to pay by cash only, no credit cards accepted. They don't give any explanation why doing this, I guess it might help them do something under table and skip from sales tax (Google similar things you can find lots of restaurant owners are doing this). When I said I haven't prepared any cash and I'm on the way to restaurant, no ATM card, they just hang up the call rudely. No more Hunan Bistro in future.

Arguably THE BEST CHINESE RESTAURANT in Austin, the quality and authenticity is WAY ABOVE any other vines restaurants. We order from this place almost every week since pandemic started, they were on UBER EATS for a while but now we have to pick it up from the restaurant, well, not the most convenient but definitely worth the drive. Some of our favorites: cumin lamb, pork and bamboo shoots soup (refer to the pic), whole fish, grandma's pork belly. The food here is so flavored and super comforting. It reminds me of my grandma's cooking. The portion is huge. They always pack very well for us. Never spill. We usually call in to order before we drive over. They take both cash and credit card. Happy that I have this place to live through the pandemic. Would keep ordering from here.

I ordered fried rice and spicy chicken. They all taste salty, overdose of MSG. It's nice that they provide drinking water. Because you really need a lot of water if you order food here..

Very authentic Chinese restaurant! Their food is just like we had in China. Super good! Super tasty!

food quality drops quite a bit , the flavor is either too salty or too less. I am not sure what happen maybe the chef left. Also no mask wearing for the crew

The Yan Du Xian is great here and you really can't get it anywhere else in Austin. It's a traditional Shanghainese soup with cured pork, bamboo shoots, tofu knots, and bok choy all cooked in a flavorful pork broth. Perfect soul food. We also tried the stir-fried green beans and the fish with preserved vegetables. Everything was delicious! The menu is an interesting mix of dishes from all around China, but predominately features Sichuan and Hunan food. It does have some other Shanghainese specialities like stir-fried rice cake and a sweet gluten dish both of which I'm excited to try next time I come! Highly recommend this place if you're looking for some authentic Chinese food in the Austin area.

Stopped by for a dinner with 6 of us. It was very slow night. There was only one table is occupied and the remaining tables were opened. The waitress (owner's son) wanted us to squeeze into a small table that is usually sit 4 people. It was ridiculous. He probably had his brain stuck on his butt hole. I got to argue with him to put two table together and he threw his temper. If I didn't have my MIL with me, I will argue and walk away. Also, we ordered 7 dishes. Those 7 dishes won't even fit into one table. Being frankly, the food was decent. Service and attitude is the worst. I spend thousands dollars every month on restaurants on business meals. Also, I typically give at least 20 percent tips (a lot greater with excellent services). I haven't seen anyone that treat their customers like this. I didn't want to tip at all but my lovely wife encouraged me to tip only 10 percent. Recommend that you stay away from it. It's not worth it.

Hidden away in a small strip mall, Hunan Bistro is one of those great authentic chinese restaurants that you're surprised to find here. It's a small shop - no more room than for 50 people but the food sings here. Of all weekends we came on Chinese New Years Saturday thinking it'd be impossible to find seating anywhere. We go there later at 1pm and there was thankfully space. Our family opted for the tomato egg soup, toothpick lamb, fish in fiery sauce and dry fried green beans. The tomato egg soup is exactly as they say it is - brothy, tomato egg which so many people grew up eating and will provide an instant punch of nostalgia. The green beans are also very good - flash fried with some bits of pork that have great flavor. The toothpick lamb is phenomenal - cumin rubbed, non-gamey lamb that is just fatty enough. It's the best dish of all that we had, so I would definitely recommend that on a return trip. The water boiled fish is ok - nothing special compared to other places I've been to. Prices are on the higher side and the portion sizes are ok - not the largest but will satisfy most people. Overall though, great chinese restaurant for those who want to try something different and off the beaten path.

So good. I will patronize again. Very authentic Chinese food, especially suitable for Chinese tastes, especially fish

This place is named "Hunan" Bistro which means Hunan Cuisine. I am surprised to find Zhajiang Cuisine. This adds the diversity of Chinese Cuisine around Austin. Our server is super nice and helpful to tell us which dish is the top sale in the restaurant. Overall, the food is very authentic. Stir-Fried Cabbage is little bit different from other Chinese Restaurant. It's smash fermented bean curd, sliced Chinese Bacon to stir-fried with Cabbage with chili. Very good! Grandma Braised Pork Belly is full of flavor, it's very authentic. Ginger stewed Farm chicken is similar with 3 cups chicken, but it stir-fried with leek instead of basil. But chicken are very small pieces, watch out the bone. Sliced ox tripe with chili sauce is very good for appetizer. I am very happy to find this place, this will be my place to have Chinese food.

Just left this restaurant. Call before you go! We approached the counter at 805pm and Their posted hours and online hours showed they closed at 10pm. When we said we were dining in, she turned around and looked at the clock and said they closed at 830p. SMH.

First good chinese food i've had since moving to austin. Got the cumin lamb and some beef dish, the lamb was phenomenal. I'll be trying the toothpick lamb next time (it was sold out T_T when i arrived)

Bathroom had no soap and could use some cleaning, with Covid around you'd think they'd try to at least try to clean...

Most authentic Chinese food in Austin. People who don't give five stars don't understand

I could leave a 0 star review for this place. Terrible service. I ordered my food by phone they told me it would take an hour. After waiting more than an hour，they said it still needed 30 mins. Someone came in while I was waiting, ordered their food and was told that they could do hers first! I will tell everyone I know that don't waste your time like I did.

I have to say, today I had the best authentic Chinese "jiangzhe" style lunch in austin. If you want to try zhe jiang style food, you must try this restaurant! Hunan bistro has been opened for a while, but I have never been there before because lots of my friend told me their dinning environment is not very good, air condition has problem, and some over priced. Recent they did remodeling, hire new chef for different style dishes. Since my mom is from zhejiang province, and I really like jiangzhe style food, but in austin, we never had such a kind of restaurant. So as soon as they reopen, i went there for lunch. Very satisfy with food and service, must give a five star. Hope they can keep this quality, and highly recommend to all people who love authentic Chinese food.

The food is good but left my tongue buzzing like not heat, but some chemical they use in their food. I will not go back there. It has always been good but something has changed.

So, we've been to Hunan Bistro five times now. For anyone who has had the opportunity to travel to and eat in China, this place brings back memories of delicious cooking smells wafting in side alleys in Hong Kong, Beijing or Shanghai. You can see by the clientele that the cooking must be pretty close to the original version: most patrons speak Mandarin from what I can tell, and if you are the type who will pass on a restaurant because it looks too "ethnic", you are making a serious mistake. The hot and sour soup here makes other versions served in Americanized Chinese restaurants taste like the Las Vegas version of The Eiffel Tower: fake and short on flavor. The mapo tofu is as good as anywhere I have had it. Grandma's pork belly is divine. Hunan beef is a dream of flavor and softness. The home tofu is a delight. The jasmine tea marries with the spicy flavors perfectly. Now for the warning: some of the menu descriptions correspond to unexpected offerings, and yes, you might be taken aback for example by a dish of tender meat slices swimming in a broth that is not really consumable, the whole thing covered by a mountain of sliced red peppers. The flavor feels very authentic and clearly remind many customers of their hometown cooking, so you know you are getting the real deal, but it may come as a bit of a surprise compared to fare that has been dumbed down to appeal to non-Chinese expectations. The best thing to do is: load the adventuring program, orders several dishes that sound good and go exploring for a change. Excellent place (that has never made me sick btw,) and that has the power make you forget that you are in a little strip mall in central Texas.

Came on Sunday @ 11:00 am and the restaurant was full by 11:30 am. There are menu for Asian and menu for American. Cumin lamb 4/5 I like the dish the best. It's flavorful with fresh cumin. Chicken pot 3.8/5 they use fee range chicken and meat was tasty. Eggplant dish 2.6/5 it was too oily and not lots of flavor Food was mild compared to most of Szechuan restaurant. Food was authentic Hunan Food. Overall food here is tasty and pretty clean.

Great food had lunch there with large group. Multiple dishes and all were fantastic. Authentic Chinese cuisine.

I noticed this restaurant had "authentic" Chinese food, so I decided to give it a try. I was the only guest at the restaurant. Typically, when you are the only guest in a restaurant, it means you are taking a big risk. No one else there means it's not worth eating there? I ordered green pepper chicken. I was thinking it would be like pepper chicken or pepper beef. The waiter brought out a soup. That was totally not expected. The chicken had bones, and skin on it. That was not what I expected either. The "thing" was greasy. One bite of the chicken and my lips went numb. I decided to just take it home and feed it to my dogs. My dogs wouldn't eat it. That's how bad it was. A total waste of money.

Waited 2 hours for pickup order although they said it was one hour wait when we called. Don't come to this place if you need to plan for dinner times, nights, and etc. waste of time and the food isn't great either.

Horrible experience. I paid 15% per-tax tips and about to leave. The manager interpreted me and said the tips was not enough and there's a minimum tips policy so she wanted to force me to pay that amount. What the heck is minimum tips policy? She said my tip is less than 12%. The funniest part is that she calculated after-tax percent and wanted me to pay tips for tax. Excuse me? I can pay any amount of tips as I want. That's totally based on your service. And sorry the service was just poor and the dishes were served in plastic one-time plate. 15% tips is definitely overrated your service lady. And forced me pay tips for tax? That's illegal. Hope the restaurant can train their manager well.

Ordered the salted egg yolk pumpkin (4/5), hot&chilli beef (水煮牛, 3/5), and steamed fish (3/5). They were all okay, but I've had better. I just wished they didn't marinate the beef in so much baking soda/tenderizer because it was too slippery to even bite through. Also prefer lettuce underneath instead of bean sprouts. Service is good though. Definitely authentic.

This is a great little spot off the usual busy thoroughfare. I ordered takeout through Yelp and it was ready exactly within the time window provided. Food was hot and tasted great even after delaying dining for almost an hour. My son loved the potstickers, on a list of his favorites now.

The food is great and very authentic. They don't know how to manage the kitchen when they get even a little busy. This is the second time we ordered take out. The first time the order was missing items. This time it was horribly slow. They said it would be ready in 20 minutes around at 7PM. At 7:45 I was still waiting on my order. Meanwhile every table is being brought out dishes and I'm being told 2 more dishes need to be made. But they insulted me by offer me a 50 cent Coke. So that's something.

One of the more authentic Hunan cuisine in Austin area. Friendly service. Just remember to ask for less oil on the stir fry dishes because then can get overly greasy.

Wow. This place was astonishingly bad. The kids ended up eating weetabix instead. The shrimp with lobster sauce had 2 shrimp! When I called them to ask if there was a mistake they didn't offer to take it back or add some shrimp. I also have no idea why it's called lobster sauce. It's actually a clear soup that has no flavour, definitely not of seafood or lobster. Not sure why it's not listed in The soup section of the menu. The crab Rangoon was disgusting and overcooked. The sliced pork was chewy as hell. The rice was so overcooked and the teriyaki chicken tasted like absolutely nothing. The egg drop soup was also flavorless. We threw most of it in the trash.