Well, it took a month but the tour of our favourite restaurants in the Twin Cities metro, after our return from a summer away, finally arrived at what is our family favourite restaurant in the Twin Cities: Grand Szechuan in Bloomington. Lunch here in June is how we had bid farewell to eating in the Twin Cities for more than two months. That we did not eat there right away on our return is down only to the fact that we unexpectedly ate very good Sichuan food in Dublin and so had other more urgent culinary desires to fulfill (Mexican and Thai among them). But this past weekend we finally made it there. We were accompanied by most of our usual Grand Szechuan crew. We were a large party of 11 diners (including our boys) and did a goodly amount of damage. Herewith the details.

We arrived at noon on Sunday. Given the size of our group, I had made a reservation. But it probably wasn’t necessary that day. The large dining room was far from empty but it was also less full than we’ve seen it. Then again we’re usually there for lunch on Saturdays and this may just be par for the course. The restaurant itself seems to be ticking along as well as always. They’re still a little short-staffed but Chef Luo was in the house and that was very reassuring to see.

But what did we eat?

I did the ordering, as I usually do—it should go without saying that we eat family-style. I ordered the food in two waves so as to not overwhelm the table and also so that things would come out more or less in the order we wanted and not based on the speed on which the kitchen prepares things (there have been times in the past when we’ve placed large orders and had some starters come out well after the big dishes).

Starters/Appetizers included the following:

• Pork Belly with Mashed Garlic. An old favourite which we had not eaten in a while. It did not disappoint.
• Two orders of the Chengdu Spicy Wontons. It was important that there be enough wontons for everyone. Also very good.
• 8 Second Potato. This is on the specials board by the entrance. We’d first tried it and loved it in June and loved it again this time around.
• Sweet and Spicy Noodles. These thick and chewy noodles are another old favourite and were very good.
• Dan Dan Noodles. This was consumed almost entirely by our boys who gave it an enthusiastic thumbs up.

Along with the starters came their Fish Fillet and Pickled Vegetable Soup, whose sour tang tuned all our appetites up.

Two vegetable dishes:

• The Szechuan Green Beans came out with the starters and disappeared rather rapidly.
• The Fish Flavoured Eggplant was ordered with the rest of the mains. It was very good; though in a pinch I’d pick the Eggplant in Sweet Bean Sauce over it.

The other mains were:

• Shredded Pork with Peking Sauce. This is a mild dish and was a crowd-pleaser.
• Chinese Bacon with Lotus Roots. The boys requested this and the adults who ate most of it—the boys having gorged themselves on the dan dan noodles and green beans—enjoyed very much too.
• Kung Pao Chicken. Grand Szechuan’s version of the Sichuan classic is very good indeed and did not disappoint.
• Ma Po Tofu. The ma po tofu, however, was not my favourite of the many we’ve had there. It seemed saltier and more peppery than usual. But it was still very tasty.
• Triple Flavour Squid aka Spicy Squid Roll. I would have a rebellion on my hands from the group if we ever ate at Grand Szechuan together and this was not ordered. Given the size of the group we got two orders of this as well. It remains one of the Twin Cities’ best restaurant dishes.
• Diced Fish with Chopped Dry Pepper. A newer favourite, and completely new to a few at the table, this was very good as well.

For a look at everything we ate, click on an image below to launch a larger slideshow. Scroll down to see how much all of this cost, for thoughts on service and to see what’s coming next.

The staffing issues have meant some turnover in the front of the house, with some familiar faces less visible on recent visits. We were helped, however, by one of the servers who has been there since the beginning and it made everything very easy. Price? It was a lot of food. Counting our boys as the equivalent of one adult, with tax and 20% tip, the total came to just over $27/head. Which is already a total steal for the food we ate. But we over-ate like crazy in order to finish everything up. Truth be told, it was enough food for 12 normal adults. And so the real price/head was closer to $23, which is just insane. I don’t need to tell my regular readers we’ll be back. If you’re reading this and somehow still have never been, go. And if you need help figuring out what to get, check out my guide to ordering at Grand Szechuan.

Okay, the next restaurant reports this week will be from Ireland and Italy. I’m not entirely sure what next week’s Twin Cities report will cover. Maybe Ethiopian, maybe Mexican, maybe Thai, maybe something else entirely. Let’s see how it goes.