Hunan, back with a wow

When a restaurant closes for eight months, two things are generally true. The first is that it's toast, a goner, fini. The second is that it reopens, but, oops, too late: Its crowd has moved on; there are plenty of other fish in the sea.

This is what makes Hunan, the Main Line fixture since 1973, particularly triumphant. Not only has it opened again after its eight-month hiatus (caused by a Peking duck that overheated the oven, drawing the attention of fire officials to the need for a host of fire-code updates), but its loyal fan base has resolutely returned, embracing their touchstone - welcoming back the Foo family, E-Ni and Betty (yes, he's Susanna Foo's brother-in-law), gifting them with bouquets of flowers, bottles of wine - and hugs.

This is what you earn when night after night, decade after decade, you personally (lovingly?) greet and accommodate your guests, and double-check bags of takeout; ours has reliably been Hunan's hot and sour soup, which is the best I've ever had, garlic broccoli, and a perfect, mild-mannered mu shu chicken with pancakes and plum sauce.

This is the payback for standing up to near-death redevelopment schemes and stiff Chinese-eatery competition with grit and grace.

Old customers stalked the place during its renovation. If they'd see lights on at night, they'd stop to peek in. But few were prepared for the unwrapping: What had been a staid, colorless room had been transformed by a designer (another customer), its new walls of cultured stone alternating with bold crimson and gold stripes, and track lighting sparking things up. On another wall, in silvery calligraphy, is the Poem of Red Cliff (A.D. 1082): "Life is short as a dream . . . ."

Whew, the food has come back the way I remember and love it. The hot and sour soup, cleanly brothy and gently tangy - not the abomination served in most Chinatown spots. (The two cooks who have been with the Foos forever are back at wok.)

But behold, a second big surprise. Not only was the place still faithfully offering the spicy Hunan chicken and other sentimental favorites dating to the home-cooking recipes of E-Ni's mother, Wan Foo, who with her husband, K.C. Foo, opened the original spot in a Strafford hoagie shop, but the menu was also busting a few moves. For lunch, a tasty, crispy-roll Asian po'boy (actually, closer to a Vietnamese banh mi) of slow-roasted pork belly appeared. A salty, crunchy Taiwanese bar snack of wok-fried baby anchovies, green scallions, and toasted peanuts showed up, almost demanding a BYO beer. On the dessert list? A new hit - airy, sugary puffs of banana fritter with scoops of Capogiro's creamy bourbon-vanilla gelato.

The latter are the additions of a new face in the kitchen - Chris Foo, the Foos' son (and Wan's grandson), a Cornell University grad who has worked the front of the house for his aunt, Susanna, and in kitchens from Rock Lobster on the Delaware waterfront to the Tavern, the old-shoe dining room in Bala Cynwyd. (He spent a year in Taiwan learning the mysteries of the soup dumpling at Ding Tai Fung, the popular restaurant of a close family friend. But, no, he's not offering them here at Hunan - darn! "Way too labor-intensive," he says.)

It seemed sometimes that the dowdier version of Hunan was grinding along, overshadowed by the French-Chinese fusion moves of Susanna Foo, and the opening of Sang Kee's bright, contemporary Asian bistro nearby. Some customers, in fact, only dropped in for the takeout, finding the room sleepily low-key.

So it is an inspiration, as much as a surprise, that in their own seventh decade, Betty and E-Ni (who are still deeply involved in Chinese American cultural exchanges and teaching) have reimagined not only the space but also some of the food and, by bringing in Chris and enlarging the kitchen staff, their culinary arsenal.

Even with the new wrinkles the menu remains more familiar than adventurous, thick with Singapore noodles, orange chicken, and fried spring rolls with duck sauce. More fish have surfaced. And down-home fare that customers saw the staff eating is now available at your table; wok-fried eggs covered with spicy ground pork, and Hunan hot peppers.

And of course, there's Betty Foo's pineapple-soy hanger steak, the way she marinated it for the backyard grill when Chris was still a kid.

He puts his version in one of the po'boys.

47 E. Lancaster Ave.

Ardmore

610-642-3050

www.hunan-ardmore.com.

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