Village Kitchen家湘味

The sour and Spicy shredded potato was just so-so. The flavor was plain. I would not recommend it. The Chicken intestines and hunan stir fried pork are really spicy. They are good along with white rice. BUT they are BOTH SALTY. Really salty. You have to drink lots of water. Many people have recommended this Chinese restaurant and they think this is the best Chinese restaurant in San Diego. If so, I would say maybe Chinese restaurants here are less competitive than I expected. Or maybe three dishes is a small sample size. We need to try more dishes to have a fair review

Plenty of parking Friendly staff with quick service QR code to view and order online Food was delicious and large portion sizes The buns were were soft and fluffy, paired great with the braised pork belly Beef noodles were delicious!

Scan and place an order by online. Service just okay. They give you water and after drop all your order, they never come back to check on you. Food is good, portion pretty big. Recommended is Grill fish come with some bean sprout, califlower, mushroom and PEANUT. a little spicy. Second is Steam Egg with meat is good for toddler, kids and everyone 🤣. Sweet and sour fish is good too. Its fish fillet. I am not into Potato but my nephew like it. Its Potato slices with pork belly.

New review- They've just introduced several exciting new items! One is the Hunan-style swamp eel, and the other is baby lotus. Both dishes are new to me and absolutely delicious. I've been a fan of this restaurant for a long time, and it never fails to impress. It remains one of my favorite Chinese restaurants in San Diego, known for its authentic flavors and excellent preparation. Although it can get quite busy in the evenings and on weekends, it's worth finding the right time to enjoy a truly exceptional Chinese meal. The restaurant is clean and inviting, with comfortable seating. Highly recommended! Previous review- I ordered Village Kitchen from Hungry Panda 🐼. The foods are so good and authentic. I ordered a chicken pork tripe Herb soup (猪肚鸡汤), a thousand years egg & eggplant & green pepper, and a spicy cumin pork ribs. They are all amazing. I think the chicken pork tripe Herb soup is really healing, it is very nutritious. I definitely recommend people who want to try authentic Hunan style Chinese people.

I never want to leave a bad review for a restaurant because maybe it just a one time bad experience. I went to this place twice all on Thursday, the service was terrible. We ordered a lots of dishes because we’re 7 people. In the end we pay the bill and ask the Togo boxes for leftovers, the waitress said, you guys asking too many, if you want more we will charge! We spent a lot of money to order a lot extra dishes that’s why we have so many leftovers, I can’t believe she can so rude to say so. That’s ridiculous. If I can, I wish I didn’t leave any tips for her. I’ll never come back to this place again. If you want to try the rude service, you can come to feel it by yourself.

We had late lunch at Saturday. The restaurant was open and we stayed there until 5pm. The food is authentic like I had in China. The dish of steamed fish head was big and very fresh. I will come next time to try other dishes. Thanks so much for the service.

I had 4 dishes all very salty. I’ll not plan to come back again ever. Only shrimp fry rice that we can eat not too much salty.

Great experience here. It was a busy Saturday evening but we got a seat and enjoyed the experience. They got the first two dishes out pretty quickly and it was fine waiting for the third.

I went here on a friend's recommendation saying this is one of the best Sichuan restaurants in the San Diego area. My friend and I went here for a Monday lunch to try it out. We ordered the cumin lamb, deep fried chicken with crispy chili, and stir-fried string beans. Food overall is good but could be better. The cumin lamb was my favorite dish and it is served in toothpicks, so you can just grab the toothpick and eat it. It is well spiced and has a bit of spiciness to it, but I expected it to be a lot more spicy as it was barely mild (maybe they're catering to the western audience more?) The deep fried chicken was not as flavorful and spicy as I hoped, even though there is ginger, garlic, etc tossed in. The stir-fried string beans were pretty solid, just the minced pork is on the saltier side. Service is okay as to be expected for these kinds of restaurants. We wanted to Yelp check in for a free non alcoholic beverage but the waitress denied the offer, mentioning this offer was only valid a few years ago. In that case, why don't they just remove it altogether?

The restaurant was pretty spacious with the tables spaced decently apart. You scan the QR code to access the menu and place your own order online. We ordered the sautéed cauliflower, smashed eggplant with century egg, steamed sea bass, sour and spicy potato shreds, grandma's braised pork belly with steamed buns, and pumpkin pie. They brought out the first few dishes relatively quickly- the eggplant, cauliflower, potato shreds and pumpkin pie, but the two meat dishes came out when we were mostly full and done eating. I feel like they could have delayed the veggies a little bit so that there wasn't such a big gap in between. The cauliflower was the best dish, even though it was a bit salty. It was nothing compared to the saltiness of the other dishes though. I've never had such a salty steamed fish. I could only take one bite. The strange thing was that they served the fish on the metal tray it was steamed in, not on a plate. Presentation aside, it wasn't worth getting because of the utter saltiness of the fish. The potato shreds were so incredibly spicy that it was hard to eat. I understand that hunan food can be spicy, but they might have asked for a preferred spiciness level in case people can't tolerate that much heat (especially for people not used to it here). It was a pretty big plate though so it was very shareable. The pork belly and eggplant were also salty, but decent enough. I prefer the eggplant from "taste of hunan" in Mira Mesa. The pumpkin pie didn't taste like pumpkin at all to me. It was nicely deep fried and tasted more like a mochi type of cake but there wasn't much flavor. I prefer the pumpkin cake from Shangxi Magic kitchen (better presentation and flavor).

After forget taking pictures of a few Uber eats order, I eventually got chance to visit the store to test fresh cooked meal. I do believe they have new chief on board because all my order are tasty. Would come back if I am curving for Chinese food.

Mashed eggplant with century egg was hands down my favorite dish! It surprising because I don't usually like mushy food, but it was soooo delicious. The cumin ribs and cilantro lamb were great too. Go in a group since more people will mean you can try more dishes!

We casually found this online and wanted to come try the food. Restaurant is usually quite empty with a few table filled. The decor is pretty simple with bird cage hanging , clean table and dining area. The food came out hot and timely manner. I love that every thing is ordered using the QR code on the table, which make things a lot easier. The food was good not too spicy with plenty of flavor and large portions so definitely bring friends. I like the bamboo dish and cauliflower. The presentation for the eggplant is cool but it didn't really stand out in taste. Definitely skipping the corn bread, I got it cause it looked good in the photo but very tasteless and bland.

I happened to be in the neighborhood charging my vehicle. I looked around for somewhere to eat while my car was charging. I ordered the beef cilantro with green onions and peppers. Just the right amount of spiciness! It was very good with white rice. Friendly people and the restaurant was very clean.

Super yummy! We got so much food. We also got a booth! #boothlife Service was really nice. The Yelp check-in coupon for one free non-alcoholic drink is expired. Ordering is via QR code and online. The wall murals are super pretty. You can only split the bill with maximum of two credit cards.

First time come to this restaurant today and also my first time tried Hunan foods. The restaurant was clean, not too crowded, staffs were nice, and especially they played all famous C-Pop songs from (I'm not 100% Chinese but those are all my favorite songs too). The foods came out pretty fast in nice display. * Wintermelon was fresh sweet from real fruit, not the sweet from sugar and the black bean in it is the bonus point, reminded me that my grandpa used to cook those beans for our family when I was little. * The pork intestine soup was yummy; no bad smell from the intestine at all; the soup was very light and taste pretty good. (I used to drink this type of soup with lots of whole big black/white pepper so I wish if they could add some black/white pepper, it is even much better) * The tofu is just amazing. It is not normal tofu. It made from rice. Texture like you eat mochi. Melt on your tongue, but not heavy rice texture (you need to order over $50 to have this place cost of $4.99, but trust me, it worths to try). * The steamed fish took a little longer to wait (about 20-30mins). We thought they forgot our fish but they didn't hahaha. It came out really fresh and lots of meats. We were the table of 2 girls (me and my friend) and we ordered a lot coz foods were so goos. We couldn't finish so I took home for dinner. I shared these foods with my sister and her husband for our dinner and they all love it so much. I would say I love this place and will definitely come back (with more friends) to explore more other foods on their menu. If you want real authentic Chinese foods & can eat spicy .. this place is a MUST TRY !!!

The food here is authentic, and the best spicy dishes in San Diego. I love their grilled fish so much. When the grilled fish got on the table, the tangy aroma immediately hit my face, and my mouth watered. I couldn't wait to pick up a piece of fish and put it in my mouth, and I immediately felt the sudden deliciousness, which was fascinating. Taste carefully, the chewy fish, with the spicy and salty taste, seems to be a fusion of all the flavors in the world, very wonderful. Other dishes are fabulous too. Rice is free refills because the dishes are all rice killers. Service is okay. You order with a QR code, and the staff will bring dishes out. Refill water and provide to-go boxes.

I came here tonight with two friends from Hunan. They were enthusiastic that this was the most authentic Hunanese restaurant they have found. Come here if you want food from the Hunan province. My personal favorite was the whole fried fish with chopped peppers. As note, the food is quite salty, so you definitely need to eat it with rice.

Unfortunately, this place was not for us. The only thing we thought that had some flavor was the cumin pork ribs. The beef with bamboo shoots tasted bland or more like just Maggie to flavor it. Even the beef stir fry noodles tasted exactly the same. Their food upset my partner's stomach all night.

Authentic hunan food! Menu is mostly Chinese but does have some engish description--only online menu through phone. Lots of spicy dishes-- I recommend getting mild if you are not up to spice level. Very delicious and appetizing food with large portion size. They give warm water to the table. All the dishes we ordered were good. I highly recommend the sauted cabbage dish and lamb stone pot!

The dishes here are authentic to Hunan cuisine and very tasty, and even my picky partner from Beijing likes it. We've gotten the whole fish head twice. It's a huge platter--spicy, savory, topped with two different types of pepper. We also get the mashed eggplant and century egg which is rich, oily, and spicy in a way you can't stop eating. We ordered the pea shoots in broth, which is topped with ground meat and chopped century egg. We also got the pig stomach soup which was not stinky at all and in fact very fragrant and spicy--even my partner who doesn't typically like stomach enjoyed it. I took my parents here as well, and they loved it. Note: if you pay in cash, there's a discount.

Flavor was good and not too oily. I didn't see pick up options on food delivery apps i have so went to the restaurant and got take outs. Staff were friendly based on my limited interactions. Of the three dishes we got, I would recommend chicken feet.

Came back for another visit.. ordered bbq fish which surprisingly was bigger than previous times. I did the check in where it said can get one free drink..asked the server about and was told they no longer do..if that is the case don't put on yelp!

Hunan cuisine tends to be heavy in flavors: salty, spicy & oily, this place was no exception. The dishes were adequate & def tickled our taste budds. Grandma's braised pork was delish, fatty and melts in the mouth, wish there were more preserved veggie though. It was served with white buns ala Peking duck style, it also paired well with white rice. Mapo tofu was silky and had that tingling mala spice. Cumin beef ribs was just ok, perhaps we were spoiled by cumin lamb in other places. Yunwu bamboo shoot bacon was adequate, wish they use fresh bamboo shoots instead of the dried version. Pickled wild chili with beef was ok, the meat was tender. Chili fish fillet in pickled vegetable soup packed more heat than we expected. Overall it was a descent meal, as with most things now it wasn't cheap. The Fantuan delivery service took 2 hours and does not justify its high fees.

Came here on a recommendation from a friend and it was so good! Got the mashed eggplant and preserved eggs- it was very flavorful. Ordered lamb cumin - 8/10. The lamb was wonderfully flavored that reminded me of Muslim street food in Northeen China. But each piece of lamb came on toothpicks which was a lot of work to eat. Also ordered shrimp fried rice which was fine. Next time we are going to order some fish! Can't wait to come back. Like most authentic Chinese restaurants, service ensures you order, get your food, and have drinks. They don't constantly check up on you (which I like), and you may have to flag your waiter down to get a check, so don't feel bad if you need to do that! Also I tried to redeem a free non alcoholic drink from yelp but they said they don't offer that anymore, which is fine because they gave us a 15% off discount for no reason (we didn't ask for it, and don't know why we got it lol) so they tried to make up for it :) Definitely check it out if you want authentic Chinese food!

I ordered Village Kitchen from Hungry Panda . The foods are so good and authentic. I ordered a chicken pork tripe Herb soup (猪肚鸡汤), a thousand years egg & eggplant & green pepper, and a spicy cumin pork ribs. They are all amazing. I think the chicken pork tripe Herb soup is really healing, it is very nutritious. I definitely recommend people who want to try authentic Hunan style Chinese people.

Top 3 Hunan restaurants I've been to in the states. Super authentic and huge portions that reminds me of flavors of home. Highly recommend

Came here for lunch with my dad whose family originated from Hunan. He said the dishes here remind him of his mom's cooking when he was a child. What a compliment! Food was so delicious, my mouth is still watering thinking about it! Five stars!

I don't know the service, because I order Togo every time, it was expensive n the size is small, n they charge you each bowl of rice , no coming back

Food: 4.5/5 - Spicy Grilled Fish ($33.75)-- loved how it was presented in a plater propped up with a high stand. The dish consisted of chili pepper, soybean sprouts and cauliflower with breaded fried fish being the focus attention. Taste of peppercorn existed in every bite. Loved it! - Morning Glory ($16.75)-- simple (just vegetable stir-fried in garlic) but a good addition to other dishes. - Mashed Eggplant ($16.75)-- thousand year old eggs were creamy. Perfectly prepared. Not oily as the last few times we had it. Completely enjoyed it! - Grandma's Braise Pork ($19.90)-- best of all the dishes. The pork layer just melts in your mouth. The buns were soft and flavorful. Glad we ordered extra. - Buns ($7.75) - Rice ($8.75)-- for five people. Service: 4/5 Yan, our waitress, was pleasant to talk to. She kept coming to our table to check if we were ready to order. We had fun practicing our limited Chinese with her.

Absolutely the worst take out food I've ever had, and I've ran restaurants for a decade. We ordered (4) soups with mushrooms, chicken, and noodles, and they only contain mushrooms and one piece of beef... that's it. No silverware, no napkins, no soy/green onions, add-on, nothing. Just broth and mushrooms. Absolutely the most money I've EVER WASTED AT ANY RESTAURANT IN MY ENTIRE LIFE!!!! AVOID THIS PLACE LIKE THE PLAGUE!!!!! This restaurant does NOT deserve to be in business the way it rips people off and overcharges for BROTH.

This is one of the best Chinese food in San Diego. I will definitely order them again

This place is our jam. Flavorful, authentic Chinese cuisine. We get the Farmers Beef Medley, Century Egg, Pickled Wild Chili Beef, Shrimp Fried Rice. All great.

Very authentic and surprisingly reasonable place for the original Taiwanese restaurant in North San Diego located on a busy street with the most potholes in Southern California! If I were the owner, would contacted the city manager's office a very long time ago. The braised beef ribs were soft, salty but tasty. The deep fried fish was seasoned with Ma and gave me little numbing sensation of my tongue. The fried chicken was way too salty for my taste. I liked the shrimp fried rice and chicken mushroom soup. We had Chinese bokchoy and plain rice and ribs, and Taiwanese Donuts with sweet condensed milk! I'm awestruck by the nobleness and new flavors but the saltiness and strong regional flavors got to me. I was going to give four stars but then I realized how dirty the entire restaurant was. Another very negative thing about the restaurant was that the Yelp Free Drink coupon was not honored. The service was decent but the sole lady spoke very little English.

best spicy Chinese food in town. SD最好的湘菜馆。双脆，手撕包菜，烟熏腊肉都是最爱。牛蛙也很好。每次去都会不小心点多 吃辣的千万别错过了

This restaurant is extraordinarily delicious. The taste is very unique than what I'm used to. I was told it is highly authentic, and they're right. It is. I haven't tried all the dishes...yet. But I will. If you are open to different flavors and textures, I recommend this place. You won't be disappointed.

We came here on a whim, trying to get authentic Chinese food while in SD. We were pleasantly surprised by how authentic the food is here. Fairly spicy, but delicious and the portion was large. We ordered the mashed eggplant and preserved egg, pork ribs, and farmer's pot medley. Everything was delicious and between the two of us, we couldn't even finish half of all the dishes. Will definitely revisit again when I'm in the area.

The food is so delicious, I like it,the taste is really great ,nice and spicy, but it also tastes

Great North Eastern Chinese food that hits the spot. Very authentic dishes and lean towards the more spicy side of things which is what I like. Not many in San Diego so this is one of my go tos.

The food tasted pretty good! Unfortunately the staff there do not pay attention to hygiene. When we asked for more rice, the girl grabbed the rice container with her entire finger with the glove sticking inside the container and used the same container to fill more rice in it. We saw that she used that same gloves for cleaning the tables and preparing bills. That was just gross. That messed up the entire experience. She also looked unhappy the entire time. Two stars only for the tasty food.

Really great cauliflower, like best I've ever had. They are costed in a salty coating and then deep fried to a golden crisp, must eat while hot. We had wanted to order a whole fish but it would've taken 25min to cook. Instead we ordered the fish head dish which was a huge portion! We did see some who ordered dishes beyond their spiciness limits, so do ask to reduce spiciness levels if you need it

Delicious and authentic Hunan cuisine! HUGE portions so keep that in mind when you're ordering. Very fast service and nice staff

I wish I can pick 0 star. Terrible customer service and food!!! I was first time visit the store. First~~two small medium dishes cost $51.46 was kinda pricey, the food they recommended is terrible, 30% of little tiny frog chunks with 70% chopped onions and celeries cost $35+, and too salty for me. The other food I ordered was veggie style cost $16+ , they also charge for rice. It turns out $51.46 after tax with 10% of discount. First time to see the hand writing tip with 15%, 25% and 35% on the receipt even though there is printed custom trip on the receipt. The waitress literally told me I HAVE to pick one of her hand writing tips from 15%, 25% or 35%, sounds like I am not allow to custom tip, more ridiculous, she was literally waiting in front of my table for almost 10 minutes to see how much tip I am going to tip. Due to I am really unhappy with their food and customer service, I wasn't generous at tip, when she saw me wrote on the custom trip, she's upset. I left before she yelled at me. NEVER EVER COME HERE FOR THE TERRIBLE FOOD AND CUSTOMERS SERVICE !!!

Cheap, big portion, and authentic Chinese Food. You know it's a good place when service is bad for Chinese food

Came here for lunch with three other girlfriends. We ordered family style to share and each of us picked a dish that had meat (cumin ribs), fish (red pepper specialty fish fillet with Chinese pickles), and veggie dish (Hunan style lotus roots). I was the only one who doesn't t speak the language and so glad the menu had colored photos and English description. Once you decide what you want to order, you mark off the boxes on the piece of paper like Japanese Sushi and Dim Sum style. Our forth dish was supposedly a secret item that was not on the list or in the menu. It's the eggplant served in a clay pot. As I took a look around at other tables, I saw others ordering that too. We also ordered rice. Everything we ordered was delicious. It was not spicy like other Szechuan places but it was full of wonderful spices. The ribs were filling and the eggplant was an addiction. We had left overs for each gal to take home their favorite dish.

Chiming in with another one star review and agreeing it should be zero. Food is overpriced, extremely salty, horrible service. How much MSG was dumped into the brown, brown, brown sauces? I had to take 2 extra-strength Tylenol as soon as we returned home. Wishing we had not eaten here this evening. I have eaten in many Chinese restaurants thru North America including Vancouver, and in Hong Kong, as well as in the homes of Chinese post docs here in San Diego. Never had food this bad. It wasn't like this 5 years ago. Stay away, stay far far far away. Panda Express would be an improvement.

All of Their foods are very authentic. Our togo is always the eggplant with thousan eggs, fried cabbage(amazingly good) chicken pork stomach soup, fried pork intestine, cumin pork ribs and grilled fish. Their server is always super friendly and refill water on time. They do get busy after 630pm ish even during weekday so make sure you arrive as early as possible.

Cauliflower: This wasn't on the menu but we asked for different veggie options. The spices and flavors used in this stir fry were so good! There are small pieces of pork belly that marinate in the same seasonings. Awesome! Cumin ribs: These were soooo tender; the meat just falls off the bone. The outer coating is nice and crispy from the cumin rub. Amazing! Probably my favorite dish. Mushroom beef fillet mild: This was ok. It has that kind of greasy soy flavor. It wasn't bad, just not my taste. Specially tea smoked duck: This has a nice smokey flavor, almost like a ham but in duck format. The skin is super crispy and thin and not that oily either. This was pretty good! I just wish I could taste more tea flavor.

As you can see, we already ate a lot of the food before I could take the photo. So delicious, great presentation, and pretty big portion for a reasonable price.

3.5 star for food and 0 star for service. The 12% discount for dine in which mentioned on their menu website is used to attract the customers to walk in. They don't give the discount even I show them their webpage. The waiter told me that she cannot cancel the receipt after print :(

This used to be a decent place. I don't know what changed. We ordered a 香干肉丝 and 麻婆豆腐 to go. Both fishes were very underwhelming amd don't taste food. I'm so disappointed.

My first time having Hunan food! Came here with a couple friends that really like this place and we ended up getting the cumin ribs, pork belly, mashed eggplant with peppers, and red pepper fish with cabbage. Surprisingly out of everything, the eggplant was my favorite, but every dish was unique. Looking forward to coming here again trying some other items on the menu

My coworker had recommended a dish to me, which I solely came here for. We came during a weekday lunch and it was pretty empty inside. The employees are very quick and efficient on getting you seated, menus, waters, and orders. Mashed Egg Plant w/ Thousand Year Old Egg This was the STAR dish that I came for, and it was amaaaaazing. If you love egg plants and you love thousand year old egg, you will be magically mesmerized by the deliciousness of this unique concoction. And its also cool that they serve this in an actual heavy duty mortar and pestle. As for the other items.... they were whatever. My coworker also says its either a hit or miss. Deboned Pork Ribs with Egg I did like how tender the pork ribs were, but the overall dish was very flavorless. Intestines and Pork Blood in Spicy Chili Oil This was also okay. The intestines taste more like tripe. and the pork blood were more thin slices. And waaaay too much bean sprouts in a giant pool of spicy chili oil. Classic Sezchaun style. I would like to come back here and try more dishes because a lot of items on the menu looked good. But definitely will always order the eggplant dish!

Oh dear, where to begin... I guess the first thing to point out is that it might take 75 minutes before you can begin your meal! And the worst thing about this wait was that we watched our table sitting there empty and un-bused for about 20 min and any time we tried to get someone to clean the table, we were ignored. Even throughout dinner, it was hard to get their attention for anything and we went up ourselves several times to get utensils, napkins, or to go boxes. Aside from the wait and incompetence, food was a hit or miss. The eggplant with century old egg that they mix in a giant mortar and pestle was a solid 5 star dish. It has the unsuspecting heat that permeates your whole mouth and lingers, but boy was it tasty. Another stand out dish was the pork belly with buns, I loved the salty preserved veggies with the fatty pork. The big miss was the stinky tofu stew dish. Now it's not that I'm not a fan of stinky tofu, when it's done right Taiwanese style, I can eat stinky tofu all day. But this dish felt like the gym sock smell was just marinating forever in the stew. Stinky tofu really should be served fried and not in a saucy dish... The other dishes we got were also mediocre, at best.

You might need to rely on the pictures in the menu to guide your decision making, but I've never had more authentic Chinese food. They have a lot of stuff you wouldn't see at most places, like duck neck, eel, tripe and 1000yr old eggs. But even if you choose the regular stuff, you will enjoy it. Everything I have eaten there was a taste sensation. You will not be disappointed.

The food is VERY VERY salty that could hardly eat. Also, the cheapest rice I've ever had. Do NOT come here for food!!!!!!!!!!

Place is clean, stuffs are extremely friendly! Great food! Definitely try the pickled fish soup!!

Authentic Hunan food. If you like spicy Chinese food, this is one of the place to go!! My favi dish here is Lajiao Chao rou ( The Farmer Green Pepper). Yummmmmy :)