It may seem like I post reviews of every meal we eat out but that’s not entirely true. I certainly don’t post reviews of every meal we eat at Grand Szechuan, for if I did it would get rather monotonous.We are probably a couple of meals away from having eaten their entire Sichuan menu. Once we’ve done that we’ll probably go back with our most hardcore friends for a personal “best of” meal.

Indeed, I’ve never actually posted meal reviews of Grand Szechuan—both of my previous reviews have been compendiums of several meals eaten there (see here for the first and here for the second), and the same is true of this one. This covers a number of meals eaten since the summer, and only some of what we ate on all these occasions is pictured: things that were pictured in the previous reviews have been omitted (even I am not that tedious); however, I may channel my inner George Lucas and go back and update some of the really crappy older pictures with (slightly) better ones of the same dishes taken on later occasions.

Anyway, if you still haven’t been to Grand Szechuan you really need to go. It is for our money the best non-high end restaurant in the Twin Cities metro area, and for sheer pleasure it gives a number of the high end restaurants a run for their money as well. If you’re nervous about the potential heat level of the food you shouldn’t be. As this particular set of images shows, some of their best dishes are the mild ones, and even the things that are hot can be asked for at a non-lethal setting (and, frankly, if you don’t ask for it super hot you’re unlikely to receive anything that way anyway).

As always, click on an image to launch a slideshow with proper descriptions of the dishes.

Sweet & Spicy Noodles: From the “Szechuan Snacks” section (now at the top of their updated menu). Always very nice but you have to like your noodles chewy.

Also from the “Szechuan Snacks” section, these wontons are closely related to the Chengdu spicy dumplings (and for all I know I have them reversed).

From the “Appetizers” section this ma la beef tendon is just dynamite.

These bamboo shoots are a cold appetizer, and despite the chilli oil they’re sitting in the coolness makes them a nice relief from hotter dishes.

Can be a bit fiddly if you don’t like chicken hacked up on the bone but well worth the effort.

We don’t always get soup here but this used to be our go-to as our boys like the mild broth and the shredded pork.

But soups lurk elsewhere on the menu as well. The unlikely sounding “Fish and Lamb in Claypot” turns out to be very mild fish balls in a milky broth. There’s not much evidence of the lamb but it’s quite good (and mild).

Less mild but just as good is this “Lamb in Spicy Soup”. Thinly sliced lamb in a (not terribly) spicy and tangy/sour broth.

This dish of pork belly with lotus roots is one we’ve relatively recently lighted upon. It’s really rather good: thickly sliced pork belly and lotus roots in sticky, sweet and slightly smoky sauce.

It’s good to cut the heaviness of pork belly with some greens, and these stir-fried pea tips are a good match.

As is the stir fried a choy.

Another mild dish, this one puts pork and greens together in one dish.

The classic Sichuan dish. I never quite liked Little Szechuan’s version and so avoided it at Grand Szechuan but we’ve been getting it of late and it’s been rather good.

Another mild dish and quite good.

More crispy than spicy really and nothing great, but a nice textural contrast if you don’t have any other crispy dishes.

I am in Los Angeles right now and the best compliment I can give Grand Szechuan is that on a shorter trip to Los Angeles than usual I will probably be willing to eat only one Sichuan meal in the San Gabriel Valley. Not because Grand Szechuan is as good as the best Sichuan places here—it’s at least a full tier down–but because it’s closer to them than the best Twin Cities representatives of other Asian cuisines are to their counterparts in the greater LA metro. I’m going to double down on sushi, Thai and Korean instead.