What to order at Hunan King if it is your first time

New menus are intimidating, and ours has more than twenty dishes on it. If you want the short version: order the wings, one wok-fired entree, one noodle or rice dish, and take a jar of chili oil home. Here is the reasoning.

Start with Han’s Style Wings

If you order one thing, order the wings. They are the dish our regulars are loyal to and the one the kitchen is quietly proud of. The glaze is lacquered on rather than tossed, which means it sets rather than pooling in the bottom of the box.

They also travel better than almost anything else on the menu, which matters if you are ordering pickup or delivery.

Then one wok-fired entree

Pick one of these three depending on what you actually like:

• Orange Chicken if you want sweet and crisp. Fried, then tossed, so the coating stays intact.
• Jalapeño Chicken if you want heat that tastes like something. Fresh jalapeño and garlic, not chili powder.
• Beef & Broccoli if you want the classic done properly. Flank steak, not the thin grey stuff.

All three are made to order in a hot wok, which is the whole point of the kitchen. Nothing on our line sits under a heat lamp waiting for you.

Add a noodle or a rice, not both

This is where most first orders go wrong. Lo Mein and Fried Rice are both filling, and ordering both for two people means one of them goes in the fridge.

Pick one, and add a protein to it if you want it to carry more of the meal.

Take the chili oil home

The jar on the table is not a decoration. It is the same chili oil our cooks use on the line, and it is the thing people email us about most. Crisp chili, garlic, aromatics in oil.

Buy it once and you will understand why the dishes taste the way they do.

What to skip on visit one

Nothing on the menu is a mistake, but a few things are better understood later:

Combos, if you are ordering for more than one person. They are built for a fast lunch turnaround, not for sharing.

Everything at once. A four-dish first order tells you more than an eight-dish one, because you can actually taste each thing.

The short version

Wings, one entree, one noodle or rice, one jar. That is a first order that tells you whether this is your Chinese restaurant. If it is, the full menu will still be there next week.