You’ll have leftovers for days after lunching at Grand Szechuan in Bloomington. The spacious restaurant is tucked ingloriously between a GNC and a Dollar Tree in the nondescript Valley West strip mall, less than 15 minutes from the Mall of America, but don’t hold that against it. The father-son dream team of Luo and Dan Guanghe launched their own eatery in 2008, after two decades toiling in other people’s kitchens. When dining in, kick things off with a round of snacks and appetizers (sesame rice balls, “elder sister” diced rabbit, and refreshing Sichuan cucumbers) before graduating to enormous share plates of cumin-rubbed lamb or pork ribs, twice-cooked Chinese bacon with rice cakes, delectable mapo tofu, tasty Dan Dan noodles, snappy Sichuan green beans, Chung King fried chicken served with a raft of chilies, and minced beef with peanuts and tofu drowning in a glossy slick of lip-prickling chili sauce. It burns so good. 🔥🔥🔥
Grand Szechuan
Valley West Shopping Center, 10602 France Ave. S., Bloomington, MN; 952-888-6507.