My last two Twin Cities restaurant reports have been from the high end of the market: Oro and Tenant. Let’s now go back to the more affordable end of the price spectrum. Price, of course, has no necessary bearing on quality or enjoyment of a meal; and it certainly doesn’t when the affordable meal is at Grand Szechuan in Bloomington. As I’ve said before, it is our family’s favourite restaurant in Minnesota, and is the place we eat at more than any other. It having been a dangerously long time since our last meal there (about two months ago), we went back this weekend for a bit of a blowout lunch. Here’s how it went.

We were accompanied by a bunch of friends who join us there often: we were a party of 12. To be safe, I’d made a reservation. These are usually needed more for weekend dinners than lunches but when you’re a very large group it’s best to make a reservation as there aren’t so very many tables there that can hold 12 people. We arrived at 12.30, sat down and very quickly got down to business. As is the norm in the benevolent dictatorship that is the experience of dining out with me at restaurants where family-style eating is the correct approach, I ordered for the table. Our friends have been hostage to this for so long now that they will actually tell you that they look forward to it.

So as to not have the table overwhelmed by the rapid-fire arrival of dishes that is the norm at Grand Szechuan, I ordered in two waves. First a few small dishes, a soup and some veg to get us started. Among the small dishes were Cold Bean Jelly, Beef Tongue in Chilli Sauce, Dan Dan Noodles (for the younger set) and the Chengdu Spicy Dumplings (we got two orders so as to not come to blows). Some had the cold bean jelly at the top of this opening round, I thought the tongue was the star. But all were very good. Along with these starters we got the Lamb in Spicy Soup. Despite the name and the livid red colour, this is not in fact a very spicy soup. It is, however, very good indeed. An order of the Szechuan Green Beans closed out this round.

Once all these dishes were on the table I ordered the next wave. These included another order of the green beans and the Stir Fried A Choy to increase our vegetable exposure. On the meat front were the following: Garlic Pork Ribs, Fish Flavoured Pork, Country Style Chicken and Chengdu Grilled Lamb. There was not a miss in the lot. The seafood representation was carried by the Ma La Fish Fillet & Tofu in Spicy Broth and the Spicy Squid Roll/Triple-Flavour Squid (my dictatorship would end very quickly if I denied people this favourite). Tofu was also present on the table in the form of Mapo Tofu and Tofu with Salted Egg Yolk (not on the menu but it’s one of our favourite dishes there). Again, there was not a single dish that disappointed. I think a number of people had the ma la fish & tofu in spicy broth at the top of their rankings.

It was a lot of food but we demolished almost all of it, taking only a few leftovers home. For a look at everything we ate, launch the slideshow below. Scroll down to see how much it all cost and to see what’s coming next.

Service was very good. We’re always taken care of by the same server and she always takes very good care of us. Price? With tax and 20% tip the total came to $322. This is for 12 people. And counting leftovers we had enough food for 12 hungry adults (at this point our boys eat like adults at Grand Szechuan but the party also included two younger children). So a per head price of just about $27/head. And if we’d paid cash it would have been a little lower still (there’s a credit card surcharge). Incredible value either way for the quality, quantity and range of what we ate. We’ll be back again before two months are out.

Okay, what’s next on the food front. This Thursday I hope to finally get restarted on the last of my California reports from June and I even have the wild ambition of posting a second one of those reports over the weekend. Next week’s Twin Cities report will feature a return to the high end: either the dinner we ate at 112 Eatery last month or the dinner we’re scheduled to eat at Spoon & Stable this weekend. Let’s see how it goes.