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Very Best Restaurants: Hunan Chinatown

Very Best Listing | Very Best by Cuisine | Very Best by Location

Hunan Chinatown **
Washington, ¢

Too many Chinese restaurants dazzle during the opening months, begin to show inconsistencies, then slip into mediocrityall within their first two years. Some purposely employ "opening chefs"master cooks who make their living by drawing crowds to new restaurants before moving on to the next job. Others lose their top kitchen staff to competitors.

Henry Wong, the late sage of Chinatown, used to tell the story of a chef in the neighborhood who took off his apron during the height of a lunch hour and walked to the restaurant across the street because its owner had offered him a higher wage.

Hunan Chinatown has distinguished itself over the years with consistent cuisine and attentive service. If it is not the best Hunan-Szechuan restaurant in the area, it surely is the most reliable. Working from a menu that is brief by Chinatown standards, its kitchen serves classic interpretations of boiled dumplings in spicy peanut sauce, a superb tea-smoked duck, unshelled shrimp crusted with spicy salt, an exquisite Two Flavor Lobster, and the definitive General Tso's Chicken. The names of the dishes may be familiar, but this kitchen cooks them so well that it seems you are tasting them for the first time.

Hunan Chinatown , 624 H St. NW, Washington; 202-783-5858. Open daily for lunch and dinner. MapIt!

QUALITY: ****Excellent; *** Superior; **Very Good; * Good
PRICE RANGE: $$$= Very Expensive; $$ Expensive; $=Moderate; ¢=Inexpensive

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