This is not the last restaurant report I’ll be posting this year—I still have one each to come later this week from Dublin and New York. It is, however, a report on our last restaurant meal in 2023. Fittingly, it was eaten at our family’s favourite restaurant in the Twin Cities metro: Grand Szechuan. We descended on them for lunch on Christmas with our most die-hard Grand Szechuan crew. There were eight of us and we did a fair bit of damage, with an order that was a mix of old favourites and some things we had not got in a while. It was an excellent meal and the perfect way to bid farewell to Twin Cities dining for a while. We’re going to be gone to Bombay and Seoul (and then Delhi) for a few months—there will be lots of excellent eating done in all those cities but we’ll miss Grand Szechuan anyway.

If you’re eating at Grand Szechuan in a large group on Christmas, it’s a good idea to make a reservation. When we got there at noon it wasn’t quite full yet but when we left at 1.30 they were jammed, with people waiting. Their tables for eight are pretty large but, as is our wont when eating at Grand Szechuan, we ordered quite excessively: a total of 13 dishes for the eight of us (two of whom were our boys). Ordering excessively at Grand Szechuan is something I recommend to everyone (consult my guide to ordering there, if you’re not a regular).

What did we get?

We started with orders of the Chengdu Dumplings, Sliced Beef Tongue in Chilli Oil and Dan Dan Noodles. We hadn’t got the tongue in a long while and it was just excellent. The dumplings and dan dan noodles (mostly for the boys) did not disappoint either. Coming out quickly alongside these opening dishes were the classic Szechuan Green Beans and the Cumin Pork Ribs. The former is a mainstay on every order we place there; the cumin pork ribs, on the other hand, is another dish we hadn’t gotten in a while: it was a highlight at this meal, with just a perfect fry job and the cumin and chillies tingling nicely together.

A big tureen of Fish Fillet in Milky White Broth was set down in the middle of the table, which was at this point already pretty full. This is our favourite soup at Grand Szechuan—though there are other contenders as well. Five more dishes then showed up in quick succession, all but overwhelming the table’s capacity: we had to vacuum up the last of the tongue and dumplings to make room. These dishes were: Tofu and Beef with Chopped Jalapeno; Chengdu Grilled Lamb; Chairman Mao’s Pork Belly; Eggplant in Sweet Bean Sauce; and Fish Fillet and Tofu in Szechuan Chilli Broth. The lamb and the eggplant we get often and both were as good as always. The pork belly is an occasional indulgence—you really can only get it when eating with a large group—and we enjoyed it greatly. Of the other two dishes, the tofu and beef with chopped jalapeno is one of my favourites: a mild dish that is all about the texture of the soft tofu and the thinly sliced, slightly fatty beef; and the tofu and fish fillet in chilli broth is one of the missus’ favourites (as they know us well there, it came with a healthy sprinkle of crushed chillies over the top).

Two more dishes remained. The first was the show-stopper of the meal: a whole bass fried to a crisp and set down over a pool of sweet and hot chilli-bean sauce. We normally get this with walleye but they didn’t have walleye on the day. The bass was a good consolation prize, and probably a better size for a group of eight that had already ordered about four dishes more than strictly necessary. Of course, it wouldn’t be a meal at Grand Szechuan without an order of their Triple Flavour Squid/Spicy Squid Roll. I almost forgot to order it; the day would not have gone well for me if I hadn’t remembered at the last moment.

To see everything we ate, launch the slideshow below. Scroll down to see how much it all cost and to see what’s left to come on the blog in 2023.

Though I forgot to do so myself on this occasion, I do recommend ordering food in waves at Grand Szechuan when in a large group. Most dishes will come out pretty quickly and if you’ve ordered a lot, there will both be little room on the table and some people will lose sight of things not on their side. Of course, a benefit of over-ordering is leftovers. We took a lot home. Considering that the half we took yielded more than four adult portions, it’s safe to say that we had ordered enough food for 12-15 hungry people. Even taking the lower number this meant our per head cost at the meal was $24 (the total with 20% tip was $292). A crazy value for the quality and quantity.

If you’ve not eaten at Grand Szechuan, or not eaten there in a while, there’s still time to at least end your year on a very high note.

Okay, I will not have a Twin Cities meal report for a while now. (I will have another Indian grocery store report though.) Later this week I will post my last meal reports from Dublin in the summer and New York in October. I do also have some quick meal reports from Belfast—but I’ll put those up in digest form in January probably. And I have one whisky review left. On the weekend I’ll post my look back at the year, including the list of favourite meals—in the Twin Cities and elsewhere. Come back for as much of that as you’re interested in.