Here is my annual report from meals eaten at Grand Szechuan, the restaurant we eat at more often than any other in the Twin Cities metro. It is probably our family’s favourite restaurant in the area, one we eat at over and over again without repeating too many dishes from their voluminous menu. Twin Cities restaurant reviewers often make inflated claims for the quality of our restaurants relative to those in major cities. Oddly, Grand Szechuan never seems to be brought up in these conversations—odd, because in our opinion it is the one restaurant in the area serving any kind of Asian cuisine that would hold its own in Los Angeles. I’m not saying it would be in the top tier of Sichuan restaurants in Los Angeles but it would be a successful restaurant (and in fact their menu includes things we have not seen at our favourite restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley). Of course, I am referring here only to their Sichuan menu (which is the bulk of their menu). I have no idea what their American Chinese offerings are like; they’re probably good but they’re not the reason to go here.

If you have still somehow never been, the dishes in the slideshow below and in previous years’ roundups (see here) should give you plenty of good ideas for putting together a meal at Grand Szechuan. Let me suggest, however, a good order for a party of eight. By the way, you should order as though for a party of eight even if you are a party of two—this way you can get a sense of a wide range of flavours and textures and take lots of delicious leftovers home. No matter how much you order, you have to order to eat “family style”.

A recommended order for the first-time diner at Grand Szechuan:

1. Sichuan cold noodles
2. Spicy hammered chicken
3. Sichuan wontons in chilli oil
4. Fish fillet in milky white broth
5. Fish-flavoured pork
6. Chengdu style sauteed pork belly
7. Fish with cold bean jelly
8. Triple flavour squid (spicy squid roll on the menu, I think)
9. Chengdu grilled lamb
10. Sichuan green beans
11. Eggplant with sweet bean sauce

Does that seem like a lot of food? Shut up and eat. And if you can handle the heat ask for the food to be made extra spicy.

There is very little in the slideshow below that has not been covered in a previous annual round-up. But it’s good to confirm how consistently excellent their food remains.

One of our favourite dishes but we don’t get to order it very often because the boys always want dan dan noodles.

This from the Sichuan specialties menu is very good and I’m not sure why we don’t order it more often.

Inevitability.

These hand-cut noodles are a big favourite too.

Got this after a while this year. Excellent.

Slightly spicy, cool cucumbers are a good contrast.

Excellent as always.

The friends we usually go with always want this and we’re always happy to eat it.

More fiddly is the bone-in mouth watering chicken but I like it better anyway

Another excellent small dish that we should order more often.

An excellent relief dish from the heat.

An old favourite.

The crispy duck is probably my favourite of their duck dishes.

And these are probably my favourite of their ribs.

The boys love this sticky, sweet dish of pork belly with lotus roots.

Likewise.

A very nice stir-fry of pork belly.

Soupier than on past occasions, this needs a large group to eat a little bit each.

Just excellent.

The frog legs iteration of their pickled pepper dishes–this is very good.

One of our favourites, got here at a lethal setting.

Another favourite.

This is a bit sweeter.

Altogether milder, another of our family favourites.

I think we might have got this for the first time this year. Not bad but nothing I need to get again.

And the inevitable triple flavour squid. In order to showcase its centrality to the meals we eat here with our usual group of friends I have not one but three photographs of it from over the year.

So.

And so.

Their mapo tofu is very good indeed—though I did like the version at Golden Horseshoe better.

Another excellent relief dish.

Their beans are always a crowd-pleaser too.

And the a-choy is always good too.

Coming up next from the Twin Cities: lunch at Krungthep Thai in St. Paul. After that I will have a report on a recent dinner at Demi in Minneapolis and lunch at Magic Noodle in St. Paul. There might be some Delhi reports mixed in there as well.