What better way to mark your return to Minnesota than with a meal at Grand Szechuan? You’re right: there is none. I got back from Delhi on Friday evening, and at noon on Saturday we descended on Grand Szechuan for lunch. It had somehow been three months since our last meal there (this Christmas blowout). We made up at least partially for lost time with another large meal. We were a group of 10 regulars—the four of us plus a few friends we eat there with often. The only surprising thing about the meal was that we did not order the Triple Flavour Squid/Spicy Squid Roll. We did get some other dishes we order often but supplemented them with others we hadn’t had in a while. The absence of squiddy goodness notwithstanding, it was another excellent meal at our family’s favourite restaurant in Minnesota.
We arrived not too long after they opened and there were only a few tables seated—though they were already doing brisk takeout business. By the time we left, about an hour and a half later, a fair number of tables were occupied. As a party of 10 we had been seated at one of the larger tables. We got some tea and quickly got down to bidness.
What did we eat? As is our practice, we ordered in a couple of waves (given how much we always order, the table otherwise gets overwhelmed very fast). First to arrive was a soup that we had not eaten there for a very long time: West Lake Ground Beef Soup. Soon after, orders of the Szechuan Dumplings and Szechuan Wontons were also placed on the table (the easiest way to decide which of the two to get is to get both). In lieu of Dan Dan Noodles we got the Szechuan Cool Noodles (which we’d also not had for a while); rounding out the opening salvo was an order of the classic Couple’s Beef. All were very good but the soup may have been the consensus favourite of this round.
Larger plates included the following: Double Cooked Chinese Bacon, Country Style Chicken, Mapo Tofu, Chengdu Grilled Lamb, Minced Beef & Peanuts with Tofu in Chilli Sauce, Ma La Fish Fillet with Tofu in Spicy Broth, and Squirrel Fish. We hadn’t had the Squirrel Fish—so called because the fish is cut and fried to resemble a squirrel’s tail—in a very long time and it was a highlight for everyone. If you’ve not had it, the crisp, deep-fried fish fillets are dressed in a rich, sweet sauce. Like the West Lake Ground Beef Soup, it’s not a Sichuan dish per se, I don’t think, but the Sichuan dishes on the table were no slouches either. The Country Style Chicken, Chengdu Grilled Lamb and Mapo Tofu were as good as ever (though our family now prefers Legendary Spice‘s take on mapo tofu with fish); and the other dishes also made strong cases for being ordered more often. The Double Cooked Chinese Bacon is basically a smokier version of the Double Cooked Pork; and though the Minced Beef & Peanuts with Tofu in Chilli Sauce was slightly redundant alongside the Mapo Tofu, it was rather excellent as well.
Oh yes, it’s good to eat your veg and so we did. I may have gotten away with not ordering either the Dan Dan Noodles or the Triple Flavour Squid but my benevolent dictatorship at these group meal outings would come to a very quick end if there wasn’t an order of Szechuan Green Beans on the table. Alongside it we ate the Fish Flavour Eggplant, which was another highlight as usual (the eggplant version of the classic dish may be my favourite over the pork and chicken versions).
For a look at the menu and 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 friendly and efficient as always. Cost? With tax the total came to $221.65. With an added surcharge for credit card payment that went up to about $230. With tip, we paid just around $270 or $27/head. That’s a crazy good value for the food but the effective per head cost would be even lower, considering we took enough food for at least three hungry adults home with us.
If I had to quibble about anything at Grand Szechuan, it might be that nothing new has shown up on their specials board by the entrance in a long time. But it’s not like we’re running out of things to eat there. The menu is so capacious that it’s possible to encounter, as we did on this occasion, long-ago favourites almost as new dishes. Maybe we’ll get a few more of those on our next visit, which is likely to be much sooner than in another three months.
Okay, what’s next on the food front? This weekend I’ll have another report from my recent Delhi trip. Next week’s Twin Cities report will likely take in Thai food in St. Paul. Let’s see how it goes.