Henry’s Hunan

Granted this wasn’t our first choice restaurant, as our MSG craving palates initially wanted to dine at SO next door only to realize it’s not open for dinner anymore. Being lazy, Henry’s became the fallback plan.
This place isn’t made for the westernized palate. In fact, I don’t think it’s made for anyone non-​Chinese. Arrived to meet my friend who pointed out that there were two menus — one in English and the other in Chinese. Now I’ve been to restaurants with my Chinese speaking friends and they’re always telling me, «you gotta order things not on the menu!» Secret menus were invented by Chinese restaurants, not In-​N-​Out.
Neither of us being Chinese but both of us with adventurous food tastes was more interested in knowing what’s on the Chinese menu so my friend used her phone to translate all the Chinese characters to English. We asked the waitress for recommendations so she pointed out pork belly, green beans, and I like my chicken giblets.
Excited to try authentic Chinese food, one bite into everything and I could feel beads of sweat dripping down my forehead. No amount of white rice I was stuffing my face with could neutralize the spice. Now I handle spice well but exorbitant amounts of spice in every single dish brought out to us that I can’t even taste the difference between the dishes is kinda overkill. This made me wish we went to Panda Express instead for some orange chicken or Kung pao chicken.
My friend and I usually love leftovers but we passed on this one. Maybe I just don’t get it when it comes to authentic Chinese food.

I live nearby, and for many years this was my go-​to place for great Chinese takeout when I’m in my SF place. Unfortunately, the quality and the service have been noticeably declining for a long time, which is weird, since the same owners have a number of other restaurants around the city that seem to still be as good as ever.
Recently, I’ve had long waits for take-​out food, after I’d phoned ahead and arrived at around when they’d told me the food would be ready. Tonight, I couldn’t get them to answer the phone at all, but according to their website, they were open. The answering machine was full, too, so I don’t think it was an isolated incident. This particular restaurant must a really bad manager at the moment; if you want this food (which is quite good), go to another one of their locations.

Slowest service ever. Do not go there if you can’t wait over an hour for you food to be served.

Best hole in the wall Chinese food in the city. We have not had a dish we have not liked. Friendly staff and quick to go service. Seriously if you have not eaten here you gotta try it. We love the meat pie and chicken chow mein. A good kept secret in the city. There are three locations. We go to the natomas location.

The food is amazing if you love spicy. However, like what other people mentioned, the wait time after ordering the food is so long~~~~~~~~~~ I waited about 70 mins, AFTER I ordered the food. This is so different from all the other Chinese restaurants.

Lousy slow service. No hot and sour soup anymore. Food is tasty enough, although there was sand in my spinach on a recent visit. Go to one of the other locations.

Food is good. Service is slow.

Horrendously slow. Was told it’d be a ~30 min wait for lunch. Waited over an hour. I would have stayed if they would have given me tea or even a word that they didn’t forget, but got absolutely nothing.
To top it all off, 2 groups that came in after me got their food already.

They had nothing in stock. Almost every dish we wanted they said sorry no have. Horrible service. The staff just does not care about service. Will never come back here ever again.

Would have gave zero star to the customer service if I could. For the past 8 years living in San Francisco, I have never encountered a restaurant the customer service as awful as this one. The twice I visited here, I averagely waited for more than 50 mins for foods to come out. I was told by one of the waiters arrogantly and somewhat proudly that the averagely waiting time is over 45 mins. The two waitresses seem hate their job being a waiter and serving people. I haven’t seen one smile lit up on their faces all the time. The last time I cancelled my order after a 70 mins waiting, even though I called half an hour ago for reservation. The taste is actually okay and plenty of parking, but I’m not coming back again.

I’ve been going to various Henry’s since 1975. They are uniformly good, fast and cheap and this one used to be no exception.
Went in for lunch with a former coworker a couple of weeks back. Sat at a table. 10 minutes later moved to another table. 10 minutes later order was taken. 10 minutes later plates were brought. 20 minutes later no food. Had to go to a meeting, so we cancelled our order. My former coworker said «F&*ing noodes shouldn’t take so long. And the guy said «F**k you:» as we left. Nice.

As a person from Hunan, I’m highly recommended this restaurant! Even though the decoration is not that good, the flavor& feeling is soooo «Chinese» and Hunan.
FYI. They have some dish which is very authentic you should make a reservation in advance.

The food tastes good. The amount of time taken to cook it is beyond ridiculous. If you don’t care about your time, then sure, come here. I’ve been here 3 times now always hoping it would be better. Each time has resulted in immense regret. On a not so busy night, you have to wait 1h+. On a busy night, a trip to China would be quicker. Fml, I’m sitting here waiting right now — it’s been 50 mins. hopefully I’ll get my food in 10 more.
update:
actually turned out to take 75m to get dinner.
however, I wanted to call out an injustice that I witnessed. they turned away a couple (Caucasian guy and girl) at 730p although they close at 9p, I thought this could be due to how terribly slow they are, but then right after they took in a group of people that consisted of 2 girls and 2 guys all Asian. I didn’t think much of it until they turned away a second group with 2 Caucasian guys and one pleaded in mandarin to stay, saying «even me?». after they were turned away, another group of 2 girls 1 guy (all Asian) were let in not 2 mins after. from my point of view, this is f’d up.

Really great authentic Hunan food! This place is perfect for people that want a nice spicy meaty meal. My personal favorite are their ribs. At lunch they also provide free sweet and sour soup! The only thing I would say though is the food tends to be on the over salty side.

The food ate was maybe 2 or 3 stars, but based on service, like many other recent reviewers I wish I could give zero stars. A friend and I wandered here for lunch on a Saturday, and it took over an hour for our food to come out. We watched each dish slowly trickle out of the kitchen, one by one, incredibly slowly. I guess they cannot make more than one dish at a time? When we politely asked the waiter to check on the status of our food (which, by the way, I don’t think we would have been able to do without my friend who speaks fluent Mandarin), she strolled into the kitchen, came back and told us there were two more dishes ahead of us. No urgency, no apologies.
On our way out, a couple of diners looked at us and said, «The first time and the last time we’re going here.» I felt the same way.

Where shall I begin? I’ll start with positive aspects, how about that?
1^st. Easy to find as it is directly across from the Benz dealership. Parking is reasonably easy to find; we went there during Friday rush hour at 530pm. The place was fairly empty at that time so we were seated quickly and were able to put in our order in a fashion.
2^nd. We ordered spare ribs, chicken gizzards, and «bo cai.» All were tasty and delicious. The pictures you see on Unilocal are representative. Some look very homemade but the taste is great.
Now for the other aspects.
The owners have no idea how to run a restaurant. I feel bad for the 2 older women cooks I saw in the kitchen. They make a great meal. I’ll give them that but their kitchen is literally run like a home kitchen. It’s like when you were young and you shouted out to mom to cook up your favorite dishes for dinner and she did it. These ladies have very little prep in the back as far as I could see when I stuck my head into the kitchen. They are literally making everything from scratch as the orders come in. THIS WOULD ACCOUNT FOR THE VERY LONG WAIT TIMES that everyone has mentioned on Unilocal.They are literally working dishes one at a time. Add to the fact that have of their food is stored /​refrigerated outside the kitchen downstairs or in the front of house which has the cooks running back and forth… now you’ve got a recipe for ultimate time warp. We literally waited 1 hour for our 3 dishes. When asked why a larger group of guests who came after us received their food much sooner than us, the reason was because they called ahead to order. (another Unilocaler had this happen to them as well)
The front of house.
The waitresses were fine. Not rude. They do their best. Give them a break. They are just study abroad students who do not really know the etiquette because they are not getting the guidance from their bosses.
The manager /​boss /​owner or whatever was there the whole time. You could it was him because of his demeanor. Plus he walked to the back of the restaurant and brought out some expensive looking Chinese rice wine to drink with his friends at a table behind us. He makes no effort to ensure speed of execution. No effort to acknowledge his customers and to see how they are doing. He doesn’t take any orders and doesn’t seem to care that food service is happening today or the food is coming out tomorrow.
Although the food is excellent, this place has many issues in terms of expediting and front of house. And at ~$ 50 for those 3 dishes at dinner time with a wait time of ~1 hour… um, there are many other options in SF to satisfy your stomach. These managers /​owners need to realize «So’s» is literally RIGHT NEXT DOOR. If they can fix these issues, they will do well. Otherwise, the rising rent of SF will do them in because in the almost 2 hours we spent there, I only saw ONE table get turned over from 5−7pm during almost peak dinner time on a Friday. Mind you that when we left the restaurant, it was almost full with one long table of 16 being reserved no doubt for their called in pre-​order group which would get precedence over any walk-in’s later. The capacity is ~50−60 people.
In conclusion, I really want to like this place. I really want to sample more of their food. But the wait time is absolutely ridiculous. The guy at the next table literally ran out of laptop power, smart phone power, and resorted to good olé fashion magazine reading during his wait. So if you literally have NOTHING to do and don’t mind waiting an eternity, come here. Bring your phone, bring your reading material… but not your appetite initially. Make sure you give your stomach about 30 – 45 minutes of pre-​hungry time before arriving… or else you might just forget you were hungry!
So I give it 2 stars… only because of the food. If it were not for the taste, it would be well… use your imagination…

If I could give them zero stars, I would. Such terrible service. My two friends and I ordered our food. Our appetizers come out 20 mins after. And we’re starving but willing to wait. About another 20 mins after that we’re starting to get hangry and we get up to ask our server how long our food were going to take. She replies back and says it’s going to be another half hour to an hour because they have a huge group of people coming in and they need to serve the group food before serving us food. But that once that party has been served, they’ll get started on our food. What. The. F***! We ask her to clarify and she just says it’s going to be a long wait because the other group needs to be served first.
First of all, what the hell.
Second of all, why couldn’t you fcking tell us that we were going to have to wait so long and wait until the group coming in after us has been served, before we can be served our food? How does that make any sense? Should’ve told us that from the very start!
Last of all, don’t go there if you want people to know what «common sense /​courtesy» means. She didn’t even apologize but asked us to pay for our appetizers instead. Wtf to the max.

This place prepares authentic home-​style Chinese cooking. I spent 2 months in a village in China and this food is on par or better. The food can be as spicy or not spicy as you like, provided you are not spice intolerant. This all comes from the «secret» menu. If you can speak but not read Chinese they will help you navigate the menu, and are especially friendly to non-​native Chinese speakers.
All this said, know that Friday and Saturday evenings can be very busy. Also I can’t speak for their English menu because I don’t care for Americanized Chinese food.

I’ve been to Henry’s Hunan twice, once as a clueless customer and once with my Chinese friend. Believe it or not, they have two different menus. An English and a Chinese menu.
The English menu has the reg, what you’d find at Panda Express. The Chinese menu is where the real dishes are. Usually, to get the Chinese menu you need to ask for a table in Mandarin and speak Mandarin fluently.
The food was awful the first time. I felt like everything was a big goop of randomness and it lacked flavor and salt. I didn’t know what I was eating.
The second time (with the Chinese menu), the food was actually good. We ordered gizzard, shredded beef, and pork slices which were spicy and addictive with lots of bell peppers, celery, chilis, and jalapenos.
I was confused by the two different experiences. What is going on? We’ll probably stick with going with our friend who knows how to order with the Chinese Menu in the future.
If you can read Chinese, try this place out. If not, I would pass on this.

So it’s gonna be your favourite
Or it’s gonna go down in flames
You can tell me when it’s over
If the endorphins high was worth the pain
(I may or may not have a song stuck in my head for too long)
I’ve been debating if I should review this place because it’s probably the best kept secret in Soma, and I almost don’t want to share with others. On the other hand this place is not for everybody (as you can see from some of the reviews)… So I’m probably safe!
Don’t come here if:
— you don’t *love* spicy food
— you like Americanized Chinese food more than authentic Chinese food
— you expect the same experience as other Henry’s Hunan chains
— you are on a date (it really isn’t even remotely romantic)
Think twice if:
— you are not comfortable in an all Chinese environment
— you consider Sichuan food very spicy
This place is on a quiet street in SOMA. It has a very humble appearance (looks like it was converted from either a diner or taqueria) with cheap tables and chairs. But if you are an adventurous foodie and want to taste authentic Hunan food, give this place a try, it may just blow your mind.
It may used to be just another Henry’s Hunan, but I think the owner has changed. It still has a regular English menu, but they also make authentic Chinese dishes on the side. They weren’t used to be on any menu and you have to just know about them, now at least they are written down on a separate menu.
If you aren’t Chinese, politely refuse the nicely bound English menu and insist on the handwritten Chinese menu on a small piece of paper. If you can’t read Chinese, consider bringing a friend who can, or order from my list:
Super spicy:
— 小炒肉/​pork with peppers. I’m not sure what kind of pepper it is, but it sets my stomach on fire
— 鸡胗/​chicken gizzards. Chewy and nicely flavoured
Very spicy:
— 猪手/​pig trotters. Good way to get some collagen!
— 红烧鱼/​steamed whole fish. Covered with chili peppers, but the fish meat is not very spicy without the juice. It’s a combination of spicy and sour flavour (from pickled veggies) which I love.
— 孜然排骨/​cumin pork ribs. Needs no explanation but probably one of the best you’d find in the city.
— 麻辣牛蛙/​spicy bull frog. A little boney, but the meat is worth the work of spitting out bones. This is a very popular dish and it often run out.
Mild:
— 藕片/​lotus root chips. Love the crispy texture. It’s one of my fav dishes
— 手撕包菜/​hand peeled cabbage with chili pepper. Not that spicy but very flavourful (with a hint of vinegar too)
I suggest that you order one from each category. If it gets too spicy, they also sell sweetened milk and it’s the best way to overrule the burning feeling.
Or, you can just look at what dishes your neighbours are getting and demand the same thing.
The manager (or owner?) Jason is very nice and accommodating. We made a reservation for a large group and placed the order ahead of time. When we got there the table and food were both ready!