Jeff and I first learned about Hunan Garden 2 from our friend Karol Ann. This has been one of her favorite places since she was young and is now in our back yard, so we figured it was worth a shot.
The atmosphere is pretty much your average Chinese restaurant. They have cups on the table and came around with a pitcher of tea. If you want something else, you better speak up quickly!
The first time we went, it was for lunch. We got lunch specials that came with our entree, fried rice, soup, and an egg roll (Karol Ann's favorite part!). It was tasty, filling, and a good deal. I got the Sesame Chicken with Egg Drop Soup and Jeff got the Sweet and Sour Chicken with Hot and Sour Soup. We both enjoyed it very much. They do feature daily lunch combination specials - for $5.62 (tax included) you get a combination entree that is almost always two kinds of chicken (usually sesame chicken and somthing else), fried rice, soup, egg roll, AND your drink. Not bad at all!
Dinner another day was an interesting experience. Everything is served family style, but there is nothing on the menu that indicates this! We both ordered Sesame chicken thinking that it was individual plates, but ended up taking one whole order home because we could have easily shared one (or ordered two different things!) Entrees are typically served with steamed white rice, but there is nothing on the menu that indicates this, either. You can get fried rice for an extra charge, but again, not on the menu (the server did tell us there was an extra charge when Jeff specifically ordered the fried rice)! This also means that if one person orders fried rice, everyone gets it! I have no idea whether the extra charge is per table or per person. At dinner when you get your fortune cookie with your check, you also get a "fried banana", which is sliced banana wrapped in a wonton wrapper, fried, and topped with honey. Jeff enjoyed it! In fact, he gobbled up both of them, so I didn't get to try it! I'm not a huge banana fan usually, but I was willing to try it. I guess I'll have to wait until next time!
They do offer "family dinners" for two or more people. This usually runs around $12 per person and includes a mixed appetizer plate that includes egg rolls and a few other things, soup, and an entree for each person. The options for this are pretty limited to what I would guess are some of the most popular items (Sesame chicken isn't an option, boo hiss!) Like the other dinner offerings, white rice comes standard but fried rice can be substituted for an extra charge. I am really not sure if your drink is included in this or not. That is about what we ended up paying for our dinner because Jeff got an egg roll and soup on top of his dinner (but I didn't) so next time it would probably be worth doing that if we are in the mood to try something different.
This is definitely a "regulars" place. It's good food and a pretty good deal. But it isn't particularly "welcoming" to new people who aren't familiar with the system. I guess they've been in business long enough that they don't really need a ton of new customers. We will be back, but we won't ever order two of the same thing again!
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