Henry's Hunan

Price: $-$$
Rating: 8 (Rating & price key)
Last visit: 12/28/06

Tasty spicy chinese food in a bustling, noisy warehouse-style space. I've never had anything quite like our Diana's Meat Pie appetizer, reminiscent of a tostada, chinese-style. Our mains were two specials - Marty's Special ($8.75), a ham and chicken affair with vegetables and spicy sauce, and Henry's Special ($10.25), mixed seafood with the same vegetables and spicy sauce (it would have been better to order two more-different dishes, and the server could have warned us that our two dishes were nearly identical, but oh well).

The food's spice level (we ordered "medium") was actually pretty high to my pleasant surprise. I preferred our seafood dish, although the smokiness of the ham in the other one was very appealing as well. Both had an excellent flavor and were well-cooked, neither over- nor under-done. On a later lunch, my beef stew, served in a thin broth with vegetables, was flavorful and very tender, but the beef was a little bit fatty for my liking.

Decor is industrial, service is here-then-gone, efficiently taking and delivering orders, but not exactly lovingly. Prices are very reasonable, with few dishes breaking $10, and the quality, at least based on my one lunchtime visit, is good. I consider Henry's to be a Chinese version of a greasy spoon, and it fills that niche nicely.