In Which The Hunan Has Hit The Pan: Quest For The Best Chinese Take-Out

My sincerest apologies for the headline, but I couldn’t resist. In most civilized countries, puns of that order are a capital offense, thankfully, we’re not there and I can be as punny as I want.

So this week, I obviously went to the Hunan Pan. That, my friends, is one classy Chinese and Japanese restaurant. One could use the word ‘cuisine’ if one were so inclined. I might be.

This is not a take-out place, you can get it there, but to call it a take-out place would be horribly disingenuous. This is a place to sit down and enjoy yourself, be it at the tables, the sushi bar or the hibachi they’re trying to put in the lower level. This is a place to bring a classy date. This is a place for someone with more money than me.

What, pray tell, was the price for my chicken lo mein and crab rangoon?

$15.64

The mind reels from that price. That’s not take-out, that’s the price of a cheap steak. That’s half a tank of gas (well, ok, maybe 10 years ago). That’s closing in on twice the $9 of Joy Lee, and let me tell you…

…you get what you pay for.

The man at the register was one of the friendliest people I’ve ever encountered at any restaurant and I had my food in about four minutes flat. I didn’t even think it was even my food for a moment because it was really that fast.

The crab rangoon was the second best I’ve ever had in my meanderings about the country (seriously, you need to visit the Pagoda in Norwich, the crab rangoon, c’est magnifique!), and it was nice and big without being so big that you felt like you were eating half a dish of cream cheese with every bite. And I got seven of them, which I think was an accident, but made me about as happy as someone who just found twenty bucks in a coat they haven’t worn since the winter before.

The chicken lo mein was equally well made.  The noodles were good, there was plenty of veggies and the meat was good quality chicken cut into long, wide strips, rather than being small chunks of something that bears a passing resemblance to chicken, and almost certainly is chicken, but it’s the ‘almost’ that really sticks in your craw, isn’t it?

The food here is pretty tasty, but the price is too much for my pauper self, but if you’ve got the funds to support it, I would highly recommend the Hunan Pan.

“A short pencil is usually better than a long memory any day.” –So Sayeth the Wise and Learned Fortune Cookie

4.5 out of 5 stars