If you are wondering why the tribute to Mao, Hunan is Mao's hometown, and Chairman Mao aims to bring authentic Hunan dishes to Sydney. While Sichuan is more internationally renowned for its spicy and numbing dishes, Hunan actually takes centre-stage when it comes to the use of chillis in cooking in China. There is a saying in Chinese that "Sichuan people have no fear of spiciness, Hunan people fear it's not spicy!"
This is a basic but clean old-school Chinese restaurant with friendly staff who write everything in Chinese and have trouble using calculators. Good sign. The Hunan food is wonderfully rich and spicy - along the lines of Szechuan but it actually seemed less oily to me, just heavily spiced. Despite their famous braised pork being unavailable, I got lamb with heaps of chopped veges and chilli, a leek omelette, and some great fried rice. The dishes look expensive, many over $20, but they are large and I got about 5 meals out of $55 worth of takeaway.
Went for dinner on a Wednesday night with a group of 7 and a toddler. A baby chair was available.
There were a few tables but the place was not crowded.
The service was excellent, the waitresses attentive. We were not rushed through the meal.
The food was very good.
Honourable mentions include the house smoked pork with garlic shoots, stir fried egg plant,, stir pepper chilli king prawns, dumplings, steamed fish fillets with pickled green chillies and of course their signature braised pork.
The only disappointment was the smoked duck and smoked chicken dish. Their special spicy noodles was not to our taste although the texture of the noodles was very good.
Prices were average.
I would give it a 4 star rating and I will certainly return again!
Don't go here if you don't like oily or spicy food! I like both, so I enjoyed our meal here. It was my first time trying Hunan cuisine. The pork belly was insanely tasty, which had tofu puffs that had soaked up all the delicious, oily sauce. I also loved the spicy pickled radish. It's an inexpensive, authentic restaurant.
This place is great! We went early on a weekday night, and glad we did as it started filling up quickly after we arrived. There were only 2 of us, so we didn't get to try as many dishes as we liked. I love love love the dumplings in hot & sour soup (my favourite dish of the night). We also had the stir fried leeks and five spice tofu (yummy!) and the pickled green beans with pork and chilli. Everything was really good, and I look forward to trying more dishes with a larger group on my next visit. I thought the portions were quite generous for the prices.
It's authentic, which means that it will be spicy and oily at times. I caught one woman leaving and telling the manager/owner that the food was too spicy. Seriously? That's like going to a French restaurant and complaining that there's too much butter. So yes, go elsewhere please if you want to have some Westernised/Aussie-fied Chinese food. Only serious eaters should eat here.
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My host warned me about the oil and chilli in this place, but I was nonchalant at first until the dishes first arrived. The stir fried celery with straw mushrooms were super tasty when coupled with rice. We also had the braised pork. It was amazing, it came with fried beancurd. I don't usually touch the fatty skin part on the pork but this one was so well prepared, I ate a couple of it. The pork fat is so succulent it will simply just melt in your mouth. The last dish was the steamed fish with chilli and black beans. The chilli was mashed with some garlic, and tasted good with the steamed fish. This place is renowned for their spiciness but our dishes were a little toned down. Overall, the dishes were really delicious. However, there were a couple of drawbacks: the price and the amount of oil in the dishes. The place is a little pricey and it would be best to go in a group to share dishes with rice. Also, be prepared for the crazy amount of oil in the dishes. If you love deliciously spicy foods, Chairman Mao's is a must-try! Just prepared your stomach :p
I'm under the impression some of the less positive reviews are from people expecting westernised Chinese food or Sichuan. It's my understanding from my friends from Hunan prov. that this is pretty authentic. Everything being oily and spicy (Hunan food is the most spicy in the world) and often salty is very appropriate to the style.
Personally I really enjoy Chairman Maos food even having grown up in a place with only westernised Chinese food. It's expertly crafted. I'd especially recommend it to anyone in town looking for something quite spicy, but I find that most of their dishes use the hotness artfully, not as a mask but to stir up the other pungent flavours of the foods. For those less into spicy foods, there are very delicious more mild plates as well.
There's little doubt indeed that this is authentic Chinese (Hunan) food. Very good indeed and I expect highly rated by the Chinese community however most western diners May struggle with the cooking style.
I enjoyed it in a group of 6 for dinner and would certainly return but will cautiously recommend it to those people truly experienced with authentic regional Chinese food.
This restaurant specialises in Chinese Xiang Cuisine (湘菜) which is one of the eight major cuisines in China. Xiang cuisine is well known for its hot spicy flavor (spiciest in the country), fresh arom
Chairman Mao is from the Hunan province in China and he loved his red-braised pork (紅燒肉). He even had his personal chef preparing this Hunanese dish to satiate his cravings. This dish has become his legacy and now Sydneysiders are able to try this dish at
A star restaurant offering nice Hunan Cuisine with generous portion. The food is completely authentic to the Hunan region. They are now closed for relocation... Braise pork belly is a favorited dish of Chairman Mao who was born in Hunan. Really miss their braise pork belly and pickled beans with pork mince. Also like their steamed baby taro with chopped and preserved red chili which is great for a spicy food lover.
The food is so delicious. Spicy oily goodness. My favourite Chinese Hunan restaurant in Sydney. Steamed pork belly with preserved vegetables is pure happiness in a bowl. Highly highly recommend this place. I get serious cravings when haven’t been in a while.
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Finally got to try this place after getting a number of recommendations to go here.
Food
The food we ordered was pretty delicious. The Chairman Mao Braised Pork was nicely cooked and despite sitting in a bowl of oil didn’t taste too oily. The pork had a nice caramelised soya sauce flavour.
Straw mushrooms and celery were nice and has a very fragrant ginger flavour.
Pre-baked small fish and shrimp was probably the most disappointing dish of the night. Not because it wasn’t delicious but just cause of what we expected to get. What we got was these tiny dry fish stir fried with shrimps in chilies. Word of warning, this dish is still quite spicy even though we asked for medium.
The Hunan fried rice was delicious but I couldn’t really tell what made made it Hunan style.
They also give you a nice pickled cabbage appetiser.
Ambience
I like the orange coloured walls and pop art around the restaurant.
Service
Service was very good and attentive. The waitresses were almost too eager to help out.
Price
Three people for dinner including BYOW charge and 1% credit card surcharge came out to around $100 so pretty standard night out in Sydney.
Overall
Really liked this place and would come back again.
Authentic Hunan spicy food.
The spicy pepper is really super spicy. Feel like my stomach is burning... every other dishes is fantastic.
Some of the tastiest Chinese cuisine is Hunan food. So authentic and delicious, I love that is dishes are ones you can't find elsewhere. Some dishes can be insanely spicy but they have plenty of mild or mon-soft options too. The complimentary pickles that change all the time is always so tasty too.
The food here is amazing, if you are a fan of spicy food that is not only just spicy but has amazing flavourful food, this is the place to visit. Best local Chinese food joint, you will not be disappointed.
Handsdown the most authentic Chinese(Hunan) food in Sydney!!! Staff were super friendly and the dishes were just superb!
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