Hi all,
We're finally getting a great Chinese restaurant in downtown JC! Grand Sichuan (which has locations throughout Manhattan) is taking over the DJ Garden Noodle Shop storefront on Grove Street. They're currently offering 15 items from the Grand Sichuan menu until the transition (including the name change) is complete. I went last night and had an amazing meal, even with the limited menu. They expect to be fully up and running in about a month. So exciting!

Grand Sichuan is the one Chinese food restaurant I will deign to eat. The parrot mouth is delicious and healthy, crispy eel not to miss, and the duck is amazing. I am delighted that this restaurant is here, and frankly, I have grown a little tired of hearing about the good wholesome kielbasa that is getting everyone so giddy.

Perhaps I am exceedingly easy to please or not the epicure that I like to think that I am but I am pleased they are coming to the neighborhood. Looks good to me.

http://www.thegrandsichuan.com/

Hmmm...the restaurant website talks up its decor, and not the food. I'll admit I set a pretty high bar on Chinese restaurants because I'm Chinese. It just seems far too many restaurants - even those in Chinatown - nowadays try to cover up mediocre cooking with liberal amounts of MSG. I think the last really superb Chinese meal I had was out in Flushing.....

I used to go to the one by my old apartment in Hell's Kitchen. Generally good food. Ask for something Spicy and it actually comes SPICY. They tend to use tongue numbing quantities of Sichuan Peppercorn but that's the Sichuan way I believe.

Hopefully they'll have better service than their HK store did...they would get kinda bitchy there.

Ate here over the weekend--delicious, and have been craving the kung bao chicken, string beans, and refreshing cucumber appetizer since.

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Has anyone had bitter melon (and likes it?). I am not sure if it is an acquired taste, but I tried it once and wasn't that keen on it. I hear it is very good nutritionally, and an 'authentic' chinese dish.

It's an acquired taste. My parents really like it, but I'm not that keen on it. It seems there are certain Chinese dishes the first generaion really loves, but that palate isn't shared by the next generation - the one raised in the U.S. Abalone and sea cucumber and fish-head soup are also such dishes. My mom blames McDonald's for killing our taste buds. Perhaps.

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I love bitter melon with black beans and meat, chicken or shrimp if you make it at home you can blanch the bitter melon in boiling water for about a minute, the longer to do this the less bitter it is.

HOLY CRAP THE FOOD HERE IS SPICY!

Dont think i have ever drank this much water so quickly in my life

I tried Grand Sichuan last night for the first time and was very pleased.
I'm not an expert on Chinese food, but I did live in Manhattan for 15-20 years, and got used to the average quality there. I've never understood why the Chinese food on this side of the river was, comparatively, so bad. (Sorry, but I think that Big Chef and Future suck.)
The spicy dishes at GS were hot, but the ingredients tasted fresh and their individual flavors were distinguishable within each dish. And nothing was OILY !
I'm looking forward to an expanded menu.
And hoping for a version of cold noodles with sesame sauce that matches my memory of what the dish should be. AAhhh.

I went back to Grand Sichuan last night to check out the renovations and the new expanded menu. The place looked good, and the food was even better. I usually get the same types of dishes, but there are some very interesting choices that I would like to try--for example a pumpkin seed soup, conch dishes.

Had delivery from them last night. Not the best Sichuan in the world, but by FAR, the best Chinese food available in Jersey City.

The OX tongue & tripe was delicious and tender. Wonderful Dan Dan noodles. Excellent pan fried eel--awesome! And the smoked tea duck was nice and juicy and flavorful. It's nice to have some new options.

They do not appear to have shark fin soup, by the way.

here is the menu:
http://www.thegrandsichuan.com/?p=78

Coronalime: did they serve the eel over greens? I am wondering if it is the same dish I used to get at the midtown location. It certainly was delicious

Went there twice this past week. First time ordered two dishes and appetizer, second ordered three dishes (w/ my wife).

Both times we ordered the dry and sauteed string/green beans. They were really really good. In my entire life I never had string beans that were so seasoned and cooked so well. Quite simply they were amazing... I'm salivating now thinking about it.

Also got the sliced beef dish... man that thing was waaaay too hot for me.

And honestly, this is def. one of the better Chinese restaurants in the metro NY area (think it's a little more authentic than Chinatown b/c a lot places there are catering to the tourists and use MSG)

I grew up eating in Flushing, Chinatown, been to Hong Kong and Taiwan and Singapore, so I consider myself to have quite high standards for food. Just to give some credibility. =P

But yes, we'll def. be back to this place.

The last time I was there, I asked for a dish that's on the menu of their 24th/9th ave location and they said they'd make it if they had the ingredients in-house (which they did). So try asking about the eel.

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yes, this shouldn't be a big shock to anyone who's tried (and failed) to get a decent hamburger overseas. obviously restaurants will cater to their audience, look at what happened to burmese cafe - authentic, great, beloved by chowhounders and now sadly closed.

at any rate, grand sichuan is a great asset to have in the neighborhood & i'm pretty stoked about it.

fwiw i think big chef is better than your average "hunan" american chinese takeout joint. if you're in the mood for general tso's chicken theirs is one of the better ones, doesn't tend to be soggy.

also a comment about the korean version of ja jang myun - i've only ever seen it as vegetarian and like many korean dishes you should only attempt to order it at a place that has it as a specialty. i made the mistake of asking for it off menu at a korean place once and received a less than polite recommendation to go to the chinese restaurant across the street.

This is some of the better Chinese in JC, and it's great to have them here. Best to order delivery from them, though. We went to the restaurant to eat there the other night, and it was a less than spectacular experience. We did have a nice waiter, but the atmosphere is dreadful. First, they should put up a new awning outside that actually says "Grand Sichuan." The only thing indicating we'd found the right place was a Grand Sichuan take-out menu scotch taped to the window! Inside isn't any better. Bare, pink walls, nobody manning the front desk. Frankly, it was a bit weird, and I wasn't surprised we were the only ones there (hopefully they're doing a better business with deliveries, otherwise they won't be long for this neighborhood). Once the food came, it was great. Cold spinach and ginger appetizer was good, as was tea smoked duck.

I'm a long time fan of their 24th St. location. We went on Friday for the first time at this new location.

we went for our standard dishes:
- wonton in hot oil
not the same smoky flavor hot oil sauce as 24th st., but nice fresh tasting wontons. fairly hot. recommended.

- dan dan noodle.
hotter than the wontons for sure... 3.5 out of 5 on my 'heat' scale, personally... really nice balance of flavors in the sauce, and just the right amount of ground pork. the noodles themselves weren't as good as the 24th st. ones... might just be my persnickety taste for great noodles.

- kung Pao chicken
nicely done. good flavor complexity/balance. mild heat as this dish goes typically. if anything it was a bit sweet for my taste, and had carrots or sweet yam in it... don't recall seeing that in this dish ever before. overall, really nice.

- pumpkin with spicy green peppers
this was a new one for us. really liked it. pretty fancy preparation: a large portion of jullienned pumpkin. perfect crunch crisp stir fry. great balance of jalapeno pepper. spicy, sweet crisp goodness. definitely recommended.

agreed the ambiance is basic altho with cloth tablecloths and napkins, but that's what I expected... they're also just opened up... I'd much rather be a part of their soft opening than having to wait for this great addition to the JC fare. And, just like 24th st. they give you nice fresh orange slices and a hot towel at the end of the meal... bill came to ~$27. Plenty of leftovers taken home.

Looking fwd to trying some of their whole fish and the tea smoked duck - one of my favorite Sichuan (and all around) dishes.. I still remember the one I had in sichuan province 10 years ago.

btw... the address (which is a bit difficult to track down at the moment):
342 Grove St.
Jersey City, NJ

We got takeout last night. Best dish was the pork with chestnuts. I think the cut is pork belly -- it looks like bacon. You have to work around the fat, but the meat is incredible.

I had the orange chicken the other night and it was terrific. Not the typical "chewy, dark brown batter on some weird chicken part orange chicken." You could actually taste the orange flavoring and the chicken was in more of a strip form.

Very tasty.

Grand Ambition

On the brink of opening the grandest Grand Sichuan yet, the chainlet’s indefatigable founder explains what’s wrong with Chinese food in New York, and how he intends to fix it.

By Robin Raisfeld & Rob Patronite
New York Magazine
May 11, 2008

You might not know it, but this is a precarious time in the Chinese-restaurant world—at least according to Xiaotu (John) Zhang, the force behind the proliferating Grand Sichuan empire (he owns or co-owns five out of eight branches, including a new one in Jersey City and a snazzy Greenwich Village outpost opening later this month). Part businessman, part culinary scholar, Zhang expounds on his plans to yank one of the world’s great cuisines into this century—beginning with the beef with broccoli.

You’re from Shanghai. How did you become a Sichuan expert?
When Wu Liang Ye came to New York in 1993, they offered me a job, so I started learning Sichuan and Hunan food. Personally, I don’t eat too much spicy.

How dire is the Chinese-food “crisis”?
Since 2002, Restaurant magazine has put out a list of the best 50 restaurants in the world, but not many Chinese restaurants are included. Chinese cooking is lagging behind.

What’s wrong with it?
The “three steps of cooking” applied by most Chinese restaurants in America, and even in mainland China, are wrong: marinating and “beating water” into meats, frying meats through oil, and “wrapping” sauces over meats in a wok. In this way, chefs can cook very fast, but the cooking is the same, which is why there are so many dishes.

Why is there no such thing as a Chinese celebrity chef?
Chinese menus are more or less the same; the chefs can be replaced easily and the owners control restaurants. In Western countries, the best restaurants are always small, but in China, the best restaurants are huge (usually more than 1,000 seats). The best chefs have no chance to cook, just manage, and the chef’s function and role have been distorted and delimited.

How do you find chefs who meet your standards?
I don’t cook, but I watch chefs cook a lot, and read cookbooks to understand Eastern and Western cooking. I think a lot to find new ideas and methods, and then ask chefs to test them. In China, using MSG has been written into textbooks; now I ask them to abandon MSG and use broth.

Why can’t there be a great, multi-star Chinese restaurant in New York?
As Obama said, we do need a change. Since Chinese cooking originated from the agricultural society, it is “undeveloped.” We need a “reform and opening” policy, like the Chinese economy, to introduce new techniques and ingredients.

But if it’s not traditional, can it be authentic?
Authentic does not mean good. Some authentic is bad. Too salty, too oily, too spicy. Healthy—that’s good.

What are some examples of the “new Sichuan cuisine?”
Beef with broccoli is an old dish, but we prepare it differently—first boiling the beef, then cutting and cooking it. We will have a pumpkin-seed-and-goji soup; both ingredients are on the top-ten list of health foods in America.

Which Chinatown has the best food?
Flushing, where people from northern China and Taiwan are dominant. Cantonese are dominant in Manhattan, which is declining due to limited space. Fujianese are dominant in Brooklyn Chinatown, but their food is simple.

What do you think of New York’s “fancy” Chinese restaurants?
I really loved 66, and I love Buddakan. They pointed out the future development of Chinese cooking.

What’s your favorite kind of food?
French and Italian. In China, I really love Kentucky Fried Chicken, which is almost totally different from those in America.

Do you ever order delivery?
Almost never.

I just ordered GS for the first time and I'm now a huge fan. I normally don't really like Chinese food, most of the time I feel like everything tastes like some meat in a brown sauce, but GS is delicious. Not too greasy, and I can actually taste the different ingredients. Ordered the Crystal Shrimp Dumplings, some Sauteed String Beans, and the Shredded Beef with Peppers. I can't stop eating it.
If you haven't tried them yet, do it.

I had the orange chicken... delicious! Definitely not as spicy as some of the other dishes they have but still very tasty.

I ordered food from there three weekends ago and it was inedible. I will NEVER order from there again. I would rather starve.

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Just curious about :
a) what you ordered from G.S.
b) where do you get 'edible' Chinese in JC?

I had my first Take-out from GS last week.

I had Red Cooking Pork and Five spiced beef.

Both of them are very good. It was not your regular Chinese take-out. It was not greasy nor too sweet, nor too anything. I have never had a Chinese dish with Chestnuts in it. It was very good. I didn't know Five Spiced Beef was a cold dish, but found them very addictive. It was made with paper-thin sliced beef, makes me want to make a sandwich with them.... no offense.

If you are used to American-Chinease take out, I suppose you won't be satisified. Like if you are used to American Pizza, you will find Authentic Italian Pizza very subtle.

I must say the price was bit on high side for take out (about $18 for two items incl. Tax). If not so expensive, I will frequent this joint.

By the way, I do love greasy overly sweet General Tso Chicken from Goody's, too.

i gave the beef and broccoli a shot based on the quote above - it was very good but insanely oily. you could see a 1/8" layer of oil covering the sauce at the bottom of the takeout dish. i still enjoy the restaurant though was somewhat taken aback

I had my first meal on Friday. It was “Sautéed Clams with Black Bean Sauce”. The meal was horrible. I paid $13 for something inedible. Black Bean sauce was so salty, and clams not very fresh. I miss DJ Garden already. I would never ever recommend this place. What a terrible experience.

I ordered chicken and broccoli with white rice. The chicken tasted like rubber and the rice was about 10 years old. I like Confucious.

We order regularly from here and think it is the best in the area--the chicken and broccoli and pork fried rice combo rules. have tried multiple times others like big chef, confucius, and think GS is superior.

Overall I quite like the Grand Sichuan here in JC (I have also been to the one in the East Village before and have consistently liked it). But I do think this location at least can be a bit variable depending on the dish or maybe who's in the kitchen. The traditional Sichuan food I've had has all been very good, as have some of the American Chinese dishes like General Tso's chicken. But a few of the dishes have been misfires like the one time I got orange chicken.

I had General Tso's for lunch here the other day and was unimpressed. There was nothing WRONG with it, but I would be hard pressed to say it was any better than the other chinese places around. And, considering the cost was higher and the portions less, I won't be returning. (And what's with the odd decor?) Too bad because I was hoping for a winner!

if you are ordering from here, dont judge them by the american chinese food. The dishes i have had are average. But the authentic sichuan stuff is outstanding! thats all that i order from here.

the dry chicken is amazing. yum-my.

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+1000. Very tasty dish.

Does anyone know what "Beef Tender with Spicy Peppery Sauce" is? I forgot to ask last time--is it beef tendon? Given the translucent appearance of the slices I'm guessing that's the case. What a tasty app, though.

+1 on the Dry Spicy Chicken

My wife and I finally went here for the first time last weekend. Definitely the best Chinese food in the area. We like Confucious over at Newport but GS is cheaper.

Love this place! glad they opened up in JC.
Try the soup dumplings. Take a while to make but worth it.

On a side note. Is MSG really bad for you or is it just a myth?

1. Grand Sichuan's authentic Sichuan dishes are very good. I've never ordered their Americanized Chinese food such as General Tso's Chicken so I can't comment. But I don't think it's fair to compare the American-Chinese food from an Authentic Chinese restraurant to Confuscious, which is definitely NOT authentic.

2. Their soup dumplings are nothing to write home about. Soup dumplings are from the Shanghai area and this is a Sichuan Restaurant. It would be the equivalent of saying that you should go to a Tex-Mex restaurant and order New England Clam Chowder.

3. As for MSG, "A comprehensive review of all available scientific data on glutamate safety sponsored by the FDA in 1995 reaffirmed the safety of MSG when consumed at levels typically used in cooking and food manufacturing. The report found no evidence to suggest that MSG contributes to any long-term health problems, such as Alzheimer's disease. But it did acknowledge that some people may have short-term reactions to MSG."

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/monosodium-glutamate/AN01251

Well, Xiaolongbao aka "Soup Dumplings" are actually from Nanxiang, a suburb of Shanghai, so I'd suggest that you go there. But a more practical recommendation would, in fact, be Joe's Shanghai in Chinatown as they are quite delicious (and inexpensive) there when compared to a few other places that I've tried. The ones at Grand Sichuan were previously frozen and when they're steamed, the skin breaks and the flavorful juice leaks out. Very sub-optimal, expecially since people refer to them as Soup Dumplings!

Anyway, if you're anti-Joe's Shanghai for some reason, then perhaps try some Shangainese restaurants in Flushing. I would imagine that some of those restaurants would have a comparable fare.

A highly recommended read on Authentic Chinese Food in China:
http://www.amazon.com/Serve-People-St ... ney-Through/dp/0151012911

But anyway, I don't want to ruin soup dumplings for all, but the author explores the origins of soup dumplings in the book and even reveals the secret ingredients that goes inside these famous dumplings. Perhaps after a read, you'd share the author's point of view, in that even after finding out the truth, these delicious xiaolongbaos are too hard to resist! (Just not at Grand Sichuan! But I do recommend the ChongQing Spicy Chicken, you can't get any more authentic/delicious/spicy than that without actually visiting China)

Have you not comprehended anything I wrote? Good soup dumplings in Jersey City/NYC is almost an oxymoron.

Do you actually have any idea how you even go about making xiao long baos? It is most certainly not made to order at Grand Sichuan, simply because they do not have enough foot traffic to justify such a large undertaking.

By the way, I actually speak Mandarin and I've been to all the places I just told you about. I can't help it if you can't tell the difference between kobe beef and a big mac.

I thought that one of the tricks to getting the soup in the dumpling is to freeze the soup into an ice cube and then put the ice cube in the dumpling.

Shanghai Cafe and GreenBo(sp?)(its on bayard) are tasty places to get "soup dumplings" if you don't wanna go to Joe's on Pell st too

I've heard from many, that the soup dumplings here are nothing in comparison to the real ones in Shanghai... something about the broth and the very thin thin skin of the pouch.

But, that still doesn't stop me from walking from wtc up centre st to chinatown to get me some tasty cheap dumplings... and that shouldn't stop anyone either.

The ones at grand sichuan are frozen. In general the frozen ones can be bought in packs at the large grocery stores in chinatown in the freezer section. They are easy to steam at home and gobble up.

+1 on Shanghai Cafe (on Mott, just north of Canal Street) - the crabmeat and pork soup dumplings there are, inmho, better than Joe's. They have lots of other good stuff on the menu too. A word of caution to the uninitiated: Eat soup dumplings with caution, or you'll end up squirting hot soup all over yourself. The trick is to place the dumpling on a Chinese soup spoon, take a tiny bite out of the side and suck out the soup first. Enjoy!

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Umm, I was told that the soup actually has a high fat content so that when the dumpling is made at room temp, it's actually more like a paste. Once it's steamed, the fat melts and becomes the "soup." The stuff tastes good, but probably isn't all that healthful....

dont you just hate it when people confuse 'good food' with '100% authentic, anything different must be bad' food? and then continue by berating you? yeah, i hate it too.

honestly for the 99% of us who will never fly to china just to try their authentic dumplings, we really could care less if it tastes just the way they make it or not. we just want something in jc that tastes good. obviously what 'good' means is different for everyone, but then again that's really the point - good does not necessarily always have to equal authentic. (the same goes for people flooding the taqueria threads with inane babbling about whos tacos are the most authentic - really who cares)

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Yeah but... the Soup Dumplings at Grand Sichuan are neither authentic nor good. They fall apart on contact. Someone asked where you could get good Soup Dumplings and I replied with a few recommendations. It just so happens that when you make something and call it Soup Dumplings, invariably, it's going to be COMPARED to the original. Otherwise, don't call it that.

If they simply called it dumpings that fall apart upon contact, I would certainly have no qualms with it.

Here's an interesting interview with the guy behind Grand Sichuan. He touches on the whole authentic vs good thing..


Grand Sichuan Interview

For what it's worth, I think their food tastes great, and I've enjoyed trying things I normally don't see on more run of the mill chinese menus.

my favorite is MEI LAI WAH on bayard st.!!
i love their siopao and shumai.

for roast pork and rice, i go to BIG WONG'S

for late night drunken mess food i either go to HOP KEE or WO HOP.

then for dessert; red bean or green tea ice cream, cross the street from mei lai wah to ice cream company they got over there!