Hunan Restaurant in Belgravia, London is a unique place. Founded in 1982 they are most well known for not having a menu. You simply walk in, tell them your spice level and dietary requirements and they will handle the rest.
London is home to many brilliant chinese restaurants such as Yauatcha and Hakkasan, and I’m happy to say this is up there with the best of them. See below for the restaurant’s location, sample menu and Instagram page.
The Restaurant
Walking past the attractive exterior you’re welcomed by a cosy, if slightly sparse interior. It was quite crowded when we went and we felt somewhat claustraphobic. The decor was also a bit dated though up to the task. It is a small restaurant but certainly doesn’t compare the lavish design of some similarly priced restaurants in London.
Staff were very friendly and attentive and were very helpful explaining the food and menu.
Hunan Menu
Hunan offer a 12-course tasting menu for lunch and an 18-course menu for dinner. At £58.80 per person for lunch and £92.80 per person for dinner it is not cheap. The wine menu is also very extensive and similarly priced.
You can also order lobster, crab and other things as a supplement but we just went with the standard lunch menu. I also tried a non-alcoholic cocktail called Jukes no. 8 which is marketed as a Rose wine substitute.
Hunan Food
At 12 courses there is a lot to talk about. Service was quick and efficient and started almost immediately after sitting down. My overall impression was that a lot of the dishes were a bit bland, but had a very delicate balance of flavours. So if you like more subtle tastes then I would recommend. Our 12 courses were as follows:
- Chicken soup with pork mince: very tasty and though the pork reminded me of pet food, the flavours were just right (7/10)
- Tempura green beans with crispy garlic (8/10)
- Irish Beef Rib: a bit bland but good texture (6/10)
- Pig ear and jellyfish: an acquired taste and strange cartilaginous texture but my partner loved it (6/10)
- Prawn dumplings: standard dumpling you’d find in any chinese restaurant (6/10)
- Crispy lamb: beautiful taste and texture (8/10)
- Steamed sea bass with pineapple dressing: very delicate fish, subtle flavour (7/10)
- Monkfish and mangetout: also very well cooked fish but not much flavour (6/10)
- Venison with peppercorn sauce: nice meat and fiery pepper sauce (8/10)
- Spinach rolls (7/10)
- Clams: beautifully fresh with very delicate flavour (9/10)
- Crispy duck pancakes: same as what you would get anywhere, a bit dry (6/10)
- Toffee apple and banana: a good take on the classic banana fritter (8/10)
Final Thoughts
Hunan is definitely a good restaurant, but were weren’t blown away. Their whole them of having “no menu” seemed like a bit of a gimmick to me. It essentially functions as a monthly tasting menu which certainly isn’t unique. Although we chose the spicy option, none of the dishes really even registered as spicy. Only by dipping in the chili sauce did I feel any heat. That being said, every dish was perfectly balanced, if a bit on the bland side.
We ended up paying £149 in total for lunch for 2. This only included the lunch set menu, one non-alcoholic cocktail and a bottle of water. Frankly I do not think it is worth it at this price. The food was nice overall and there was some novelty to having 12 courses with “no menu”. But unfortunately I don’t think i’ll be coming back.
London has such a wide range of high-end chinese restaurants that I feel there are much better options out there. For example, Hakkasan has an extravagent vibe with much more intense flavours. Yauatcha Soho has an exquisite dim sum tasting menu for a much lower price. And finally I’ve been told Min Jiang has the best crispy duck in London. So in my opinion there are much better options out there.
