TOM ANGLEBERGER Special to The Roanoke Times

These jolly, well-fed gentlemen hang in the entryway of Christiansburg's Hunan House.

Tom Angleberger knows what he likes. So we've asked him to eat at NRV restaurants and write about them. If you have a restaurant to recommend, e-mail him.

Tom Angleberger

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The Hunan House is one of the area's longest-running Chinese buffets, but the relatively recent addition of a Mongolian grill is the best part.

Like the Crown Buffet's grill in Radford, the Hunan House lets you select uncooked ingredients yourself and then cooks them for you. When you get it right, the result is fantastic -- hot, fresh and with plenty of your favorite ingredients in it.

The Hunan House's Mongolian grill can't compete with the Crown Buffet for flair -- you don't get to see your food get cooked -- nor are there as many ingredient options. However, the Hunan House's sauces are different and result in very different tastes.

My first concoction was a mix of zucchini, mushrooms, onions and long, thin noodles. To this I added something labeled Mongolia BBQ sauce. The result was delicious. Very flavorful and just slightly spicy.

I tried again with the black pepper sauce and received a very different, but also delicious, plateful. (By the way, if you're looking to add meat to your dish, it's in a little white appliance near the other ingredients.)

As for the rest of the buffet, it has its ups and downs. Like other Chinese buffets, there is sometimes the problem of keeping the buffet items hot and fresh. When you get something straight from the kitchen, however, it is often very good. I had a nice crab Rangoon and a tasty spring roll, but was unlucky with a piece of fried chicken that was not so hot.

Two of the three stir-fried entrees I sampled were quite good: the black pepper chicken and General Tso's chicken. The fish, sauteed mushrooms and egg drop soup were also good.

Clearly I'm not the only one who finds a lot to like at the Hunan House; the place really filled up while we were eating. And, of course, there's an extensive menu of take-out items available as well.

Bottom line: Christiansburg's Hunan House offers a good buffet with a great Mongolian grill.