About 10 minutes into lunch at Legendary Spice this past weekend, the missus turned to the rest of us and said, you know, this might actually be the best Sichuan restaurant in the Twin Cities. We were dining with friends who are core members of our Grand Szechuan crew and none of us could quite muster up a rebuttal. The truth is both restaurants are very good indeed. But we eat at Grand Szechuan very often and have developed a deep familiarity with their menu. This familiarity, tended over more than a decade, has bred love, not contempt; but it is true that Legendary Spice’s somewhat different repertoire of Sichuan dishes sometimes feels fresher by contrast. This was certainly the case on Sunday when not one dish was less than excellent. Here are the details. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Twin Cities Chinese
Grand Szechuan, September 2025 (Bloomington, MN)
I regret to inform that till this past weekend it had somehow been almost five months since we’d last eaten at Grand Szechuan. I blame our summer travels and the fact that most of the friends we typically go there with were out of town when we got back. On the other hand, I am very happy to inform that is now only three days since our last meal at Grand Szechuan. We went back for lunch this Sunday with most of our aforementioned crew of Grand Szechuan regulars and did our usual excessive order. We got a mix of all-time favourites and dishes that we had not ordered in a while. Do I need to say that it was an excellent meal? Well, it was. Continue reading
Zao Bakery + Cafe (St. Paul, MN)
It’s been two months since my last Twin Cities restaurant report (of two lunches at two locations of El Super Taco) but here I am again. I have for you today a look at a restaurant we’ve been wanting to eat at for the last seven months: Zao Bakery + Cafe. They opened on University Ave. in St. Paul (where else?) just short of Dale last December and were rapturously received by the masses for their self-service offerings of Chinese buns and dumplings and other snacks as well as a limited offering of noodles, noodle soups and congees from the kitchen. These are all things we enjoy very much and hence our desire to eat there. Why it took so long, I can’t quite explain but we did finally get there last weekend. And I am glad to report that we were not disappointed in the slightest by it. Herewith the details. Continue reading
Grand Szechuan, April 2025 (Bloomington, MN)
We didn’t go out to eat this past weekend. The missus is out of town and the boys and I spent what felt like the entire weekend setting up our community garden plot in advance of the rain that has been pissing down in southern Minnesota since Monday evening (and will continue through Wednesday). But I have a Twin Cities meal report for you anyway this week. It’s of another meal at Grand Szechuan in Bloomington. We’d eaten this meal with friends just about a month ago. At the time, I’d only just reported on another meal eaten at Grand Szechuan just a few weeks prior, and so I’d held off on posting the report, expecting to merge it with a report on our next meal there. I do hope we’ll eat there in June before our summer travel plans get going but if not the memory of this meal will have to tide us over till the next. Continue reading
Dim Sum at Jade Dynasty (Minneapolis)
I’d promised a review of another lunch at Grand Szechuan for last week but never got around to posting it. I’ve been terribly busy at work with early preparations for the second run of my Bombay-Seoul off-campus program and just did not have the time to resize all the pictures (this is also why I did not post any more reports from Delhi in March last week). And when it came time to post this week’s Twin Cities restaurant report, I decided to hold off a second Grand Szechuan report in less than a month—I’ll combine that report with that of our next visit (which will doubtless be before the summer). Here instead is my first-ever report on a new’ish Chinese restaurant in Minneapolis: Jade Dynasty. Specifically, it is a report on their dim sum offerings. Long-time readers know—and some take really personally—that I am not very high on dim sum in the Twin Cities. Did Jade Dynasty change my mind? Read on to find out. Continue reading
Grand Szechuan, March 2025 (Bloomington, MN)
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. Continue reading
Legendary Spice 3 (Minneapolis, MN)
You have been disconsolate, wondering if I would ever post a Twin Cities restaurant report this week. I apologize: it’s been a very hectic week and a half and I just did not have time to get it ready to post on schedule on Wednesday, or even yesterday. But dry your eyes, tell your emotional support team they can go home: here I am now with my third report on a meal at Legendary Spice, probably Minneapolis’ best Sichuan restaurant. Now, you’re probably wondering how this can be my third review of Legendary Spice when there’s only one other review with its name in the title. That’s because when they opened, it was under the name Lao Sze Chuan and I first reviewed it as such. After a year or so the ownership split and what was Lao Sze Chuan became Legendary Spice—though the menu did not change. Meanwhile, a new restaurant named Lao Sze Chuan opened not too far away. We have not yet been to that new incarnation of Lao Sze Chuan (which, I believe, has the same menu as Legendary Spice). At some point I’ll redress that oversight; here now is my report on our dinner at Legendary Spice this past weekend. Continue reading
Grand Szechuan, Christmas 2024 (Bloomington, MN)
We bade farewell to Twin Cities dining in 2023 with lunch at Grand Szechuan on Christmas and it seemed only right to see 2024 off the same way. We once again descended on them with a bunch of the people we eat there with most often and once again had a bit of a blowout meal, comprised largely of old favourites—and also one dish that I ordered without telling anyone (look to the left). 2024 was a year in which we ate out a lot (see my post from yesterday on my favourite restaurant meals of the year). Our meals at Grand Szechuan were among the highlights of the year and this last lunch was no exception. Given the vagaries of the restaurant world—to say nothing of the additional stresses of the pandemic—we feel very fortunate that Grand Szechuan—our family’s favourite restaurant in Minnesota—is still going strong. And we are very grateful that they are still putting out food at a very high level. Continue reading
Grand Szechuan, October 2024 (Bloomington, MN)
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. Continue reading
Lèpot (Minneapolis)
No, not fondue, Chinese hot pot.
I was alerted to the existence of Lèpot (or is it Lè Pot?) about a month ago in the comments on my writeup of Kung Fu Hot Pot. I actually ate lunch there just a few days after that but it’s taken me a long time to get to writing it up given my ongoing backlog issue. Anyway, here is that writeup now. I ate lunch there by myself on a Saturday in mid-July en route to Surdyk’s to check out their summer sale (I restricted myself to just one bottle of mezcal, because I am restrained like that). Getting to and away from Lèpot was a bit of a trial on account of road construction on surface streets and ensuing traffic snarls but the meal itself was simple enough to sort out. Here’s how it went. Continue reading
Grand Szechuan, Summer 2024 (Bloomington, MN)
Yes, I am aware that I did not post the last New York and Seoul restaurant reports from my winter and spring travels that I’d said I’d post this past weekend. Let’s not dwell on that. Let’s instead look to the present and to the Twin Cities metro. It has been a dangerously long time since my last Grand Szechuan report—a full four months, in fact—and so here is a mid-year check-in. It comprises a look at two separate meals eaten just a couple of weeks apart in July and August. The first was a small affair with just the four of us in attendance; the second featured a larger group of seven. At the first meal we placed a fairly basic order of ye olde Sichuan cliches; the second was quite a bit more extensive (and also had more than twice as many dishes). Both meals were very good; the second was truly excellent. Here is a quick report on both. If you haven’t been eating at Grand Szechuan this summer, it’s not too late to correct your error. Continue reading
Tea House III (Minneapolis)
At the end of my last review of Tea House, the Twin Cities’ OG Sichuan restaurant, I noted that it would likely be less than three years—the time elapsed since the prior review—till we came back to eat there again. Well, that was in the spring of 2018. In my defense, the years of the high pandemic had something to do with many of my review plans/promises of that period not being kept. It’s also true that when we get on Highway 35 to go north for Sichuan food it’s very difficult to not get off at Exit 6 and head to Grand Szechuan instead of driving for another 20 minutes. In the interim, however, Jon Cheng—the Star Tribune’s restaurant critic and one of the few professionals in the area who doesn’t seem to think his main job is to be a booster—named Tea House the best Chinese restaurant in the metro. That was in 2022. We’ve been meaning to get there ever since to see if very dramatic changes had happened since our last visit. Well, we finally got there this past weekend. Here’s how it went. Continue reading
Grand Szechuan, March 2024 (Bloomington, MN)
We got back to Minnesota on Wednesday, March 27. On Sunday, March 31 we ate our first meal out. Of course, it was at Grand Szechuan, our family’s favourite restaurant in Minnesota. It’s always one of our favourite ways to welcome ourselves back to Minnesota after extended travel. And given that we hadn’t eaten any Sichuan food in three months—and no Chinese food beyond one Korean Chinese lunch in Seoul and one Indian Chinese dinner in Delhi—it was a particularly great way to welcome ourselves home after a long time away. We were joined by two friends who often eat with us there. Here’s how the meal went. Continue reading
Grand Szechuan, December 2023 (Bloomington, MN)
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. Continue reading
Kung Fu Hot Pot (Minneapolis)
On Friday I had to drive up to South Minneapolis to pick something up—okay, okay, it was three bottles of mezcal. As I was probably going to be up there close to lunch time I tried to figure out where I might grab a bite in the general vicinity. One of the first places I thought of was Szechuan Spice, the small Sichuan restaurant that we’ve quite enjoyed in the past. A few minutes later I discovered that they closed earlier this year—apparently, this was first said to be for renovation but they never re-opened. I was very sad to find this out as we’d liked a lot of things we’d eaten there. I was intrigued, however, to see that the space had been quickly filled with a hot pot restaurant named Kung Fu Hot Pot. As I noted Szechuan Spice’s closure in a comment on my most recent review of a meal there, I noted that I might check it out soon. Flash forward to three hours later, when the missus and I sat down at a table by the window. Here’s how it went. Continue reading
Grand Szechuan, September 2023 (Bloomington, MN)
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. Continue reading
Grand Szechuan, June 2023 (Bloomington, MN)
We are out of Minnesota for most of the summer. Fittingly, the restaurant meal with which we bid goodbye to the Twin Cities metro was a dinner at Grand Szechuan with many members of our usual Grand Szechuan crew. I am very pleased to report that the restaurant is now all the way back from its staffing issues that lingered from late last year into the early part of this year. Yes, we had a very good meal there in late March (see here) but that had still featured the smaller, folded paper menus and there weren’t many familiar faces to be seen. At this meal we were once again presented with large, formal menus. Not everything that used to be on the pre-crisis menu is on it—no “Spicy, Hammered Chicken” for instance—but it is mostly comprehensive. And though we didn’t see Chef Luo at this meal either (though we were at an out-of-the-way table behind the check-in desk) we saw plenty of other faces we’ve known for a while. And, most importantly, it was a rather excellent meal. Here are the details. Continue reading
Dim Sum at Yangtze, 2023 (St. Louis Park, MN)
I bring shocking news: we went out to eat dim sum in the Twin Cities. Regular readers of the blog know why this is shocking. It is not a secret that we—my family and I—are not fans of the dim sum available in the Twin Cities metro. Despite what a lot of people will tell you, it’s not really very good—both on its own merits and when compared to what’s available in American cities with large Chinese populations. In fact, you don’t even have to compare the local scene with that in Los Angeles’ San Gabriel Valley to find it lacking; we ate better dim sum in Denver when we lived in Boulder in the early-mid 2000s. In the past, Yangtze in St. Louis Park was the one place we would eat dim sum at from time to time. But our last meal there—back in 2017—was a big disappointment and, given that it’s a 50 minute each way drive for us, we swore off returning. But we needed to be in St. Louis Park at midday on Sunday and as I cast around for a place to eat an early lunch at Yangtze was right there. And so we decided to give it another go. And we kind of liked it. Herewith the details. Continue reading