Regular customers love Little Hunan, or so they report to the Good Eating section. And we wish that more restaurants of any stripe had the extraordinarily warm service you get even if you’re a newcomer to this storefront Chinese across from Lincoln Village shopping center.
We also wish the food was equally great, instead of the just-fine fare available here. You won’t be unhappy with your selections, but there are so many outstanding examples of regional Chinese food these days that Little Hunan seems average.
It seems almost cruel to carp about the menu, though, when you’re treated from greeting to goodbye with such friendliness. The owner seems delighted you came in and the midmeal inquiry about how you’re enjoying your food is accompanied by little pats on the arm. A companion on one visit was just days away from having a baby, which elicited cheerful comments from the waitress.
With that kind of reception, everything tastes a little better.
You can start with the standard appetizers of egg rolls ($2.50 for two) and potstickers ($4.50 for eight), although there’s nothing unusual here. The scallion pancake ($2.95) is a little more interesting: triangles of fried bread shot through with chopped green onions. They are good to eat alone or to help scoop up a main course. The hot and sour soup ($2.50) was a plus for one taster.
The menu gets extra credit for serving chow fun noodles, those fat, wide rice noodles that are so good stir-fried with meat and vegetables. An order of shrimp double-fried noodles ($7.95) brought a heaping plate of small shrimp, snow peas and water chestnuts in a brown sauce over thick pillows of noodles that had been pan-fried to crispness and then stir-fried with everything else. Like meals at so many Chinese restaurants, one portion was enough for two people.
For other selections, we stuck to the basics. Two “chef’s specialties” were Szechwan string beans ($7.50) and lemon chicken ($8.50). And we tried moo shu pork ($7.75). The portions are generous and the price is great for dinner entrees. The string beans, stir-fried and soft with bits of minced pork, dried shrimp and Szechwan pickles, had the most flavor and a pleasantly spicy, though not hot, sauce. The moo shu pork was prepared tableside into four enormous rolls, with a thin sauce and lots of slivered, sauteed vegetables that make the whole thing a mess to eat, even with a fork and knife. Not that that’s a bad thing, if you don’t mind doing some work to finish without dropping half of the thing on your shirt.
The lemon chicken was the least worthwhile, coming as it did with a thick, gummy batter and really candylike sauce. Dishes such as these are the choices of a lot of American diners, so perhaps they are cooked to mainstream tastes.
Desserts are limited to plates of almond and fortune cookies ($1), but even if you don’t order them, you’ll get one of each, plus a plate of orange sections, with your bill.
There’s no list of wine, beer or booze, but customers are welcome to bring their own.
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Little Hunan
(One fork)
6144 N. Lincoln Ave.
773-583-7770
Hours: 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Sun.-Thur.11 a.m.-10:30 p.m. Fri.- Sat.
Credit cards: A, DC, M, V
Ratings: 4 forks: Top of the class
3 forks: Better than most
2 forks: Very good fare
1 fork: Middle of the road
Reviews are based on anonymous visits by Tribune staff members. The meals are paid for by the Tribune.
