Wescosville: Hunan Springs (April 2016)

My spouse and I dined at Hunan Springs for dinner on a Friday night in mid-April 2016, but we have dined there many times in the 20 years since it opened (we live nearby). This location previously housed Widow Brown’s Inn many years ago. Hunan Springs is open for lunch and dinner daily. The restaurant accepts reservations via telephone. Parking is available in their private parking lot.

Hunan Springs is located in Wescosville, close to Route 78 and the Route 222 (Hamilton Street) Bypass in a big multi-story farmhouse (although the restaurant itself only utilizes the ground floor). The décor of the restaurant doesn’t resemble any another Asian restaurant. The main dining room features exposed wood beams and stone walls. Two sets of huge oak doors allow entry from outside. A large fish tank is the focal point in the main dining room, which has several different dining areas and types of seating (booths and tables). Two larger round tables feature a lazy Susan/turntable so that dishes can be shared more easily among larger groups. A second smaller dining room handles overflow crowds, because this restaurant is often crowded and busy. The restaurant also features an L-shaped wooden bar (a full bar with beer, wine, and spirits is available) and a small lounge room/area where you can relax on comfy seating while you enjoy a drink.

As you might imagine, Hunan Springs features Asian cuisine, which always looks deliciously fresh and is nicely presented. As you are perusing the menu, the waitstaff delivers a basket of crispy noodles with two kinds of dipping sauce (hot mustard and duck). We almost always order the pan-fried pork dumplings and eggrolls as appetizers (both of which come with a small portion of yummy sweet cucumber salad), followed by the chicken with broccoli and another entrée; this time it was the sweet and sour pork. The chicken with broccoli is served in a white sauce, which is different than nearly every other Chinese restaurant in the Lehigh Valley, and it is delicious! We order it as one of our entrees every time that we visit. We also like the house lo mein, the cold sesame noodles, and some dishes from the “authentic” Asian menu, including the sha cha beef and kan ben string beans with pork (the string beans are really amazing!) (If you are really adventurous, the authentic menu features unique items like bean curd, taro root, and even jellyfish! Of course, there are plenty of standard Asian dishes on the regular menu.) Dishes are served family style to encourage sharing, although portions are not overly large (usually, we can each eat one whole entrée). For dessert on this visit, we shared the red velvet cheesecake, which the restaurant orders from Sweet Street in Reading, but they also deliver a small bowl of pineapple chunks and the requisite fortune cookies (although on this visit they were chocolate-flavored) when you get your bill.

Service at this restaurant is very good, fantastic even from several of the Asian men who have been long-time employees. Even though we only visit every two months or so, the waiters always remember us and bring us our standard drink order even before we order it! The men are very friendly, shaking our hands and greeting us warmly. Mr. Ho, the owner, and his son Jay are also very welcoming and personable and remember us from visit to visit. This is one of the few Lehigh Valley restaurants that truly makes us feel like we are valued customers. And their tasty food makes us want to return again and again.