The room was awash with good smells coming from the back of the kitchen. As we sat down, the kind waiter asked us if what kind of drink we would like with our meal. This was the atmosphere at Hunan Plus in Chinatown as my family and I sat down to eat a dinner meal.

The restaurant was a small little place on the side of the Welcome Food Center parking lot. Although there were not many interior decorations inside the building, the restaurant still had a homey feeling that came from the smell of the various dishes that were being cooked in the back. Tables were spaced evenly around the dimly lit room with a big round table in the corner for large groups or families.

Max Zhang, the manager of the restaurant, told me of how he became the manager of the restaurant.

“This restaurant has been around for about 30 years,” Zhang said. “It changed owner from my sister to me and I have been running the restaurant for 15 years.”

Zhang also used the experience that he had running restaurants in China in Hunan Plus.

“I was a restaurant owner for 6 years in China,” Zhang said. “And I brought many dishes that I had in my other restaurants here to Hunan.”

As I stared at the menu, I was quite overwhelmed. There were all types of different food from Kong Pow Chicken to Chicken Fried Rice. Every type of Asian dish that I remember was available on the menu. Everything looked so good that I could only wonder what the restaurant’s most popular dish was.

When I questioned Zhang about this, he had to think for a while.

“I think that our most popular dish is the Kong Pow Chicken,” he said.

The Kong Pow Chicken, called Ji Ding, in Chinese, is a dish that consists of bits of chicken lathered in an almost sweet sauce.

On the day that I went, there weren’t many people. However, from the few groups that I did see, it was mostly families trying to enjoy a dinner meal. Customer’s ages ranged from 5 years old up to about 50. Contrary to what I had thought where there would only be people of Asian ethnicity there, there were actually people of all races however, from Chinese to Latinos, to Caucasians.

Throughout the meal, our waiter was always attentive and ready to meet any demands that we needed. Whenever we waved, they would come for even the most trivial of reasons. The wait staff at Hunan Plus really surprised me as in most restaurants that I had visited before, one would often have to try to find their waiter to get their attention. But at Hunan, it seemed as if we were the only ones there made the meal seem almost like an exclusive experience.

Overall, I would rate this restaurant a four out of five as the food was delicious, the atmosphere of the restaurant just felt warm and nice, and the place was not too crowded or noisy as we ate.