Grand Sichuan - Grove St. Jersey City, NJ

I'm originally from Hunan, so I'm pretty critical when it comes to Sichuan/Hunan/Spicy food. Keep in mind, this place is in NJ, so by saving $8 toll without going into Manhanttan, I will be good to this place.

We went there last Sat. after spending all day cleaning the apt, so we were HUNGRY. got there around 7pm, found a parking right in front, nice. This place is tiny by NJ standard, but compare to the sister rest. in St.Marks, this little sister is definitly, err.. little. 10 -15 tables and 3 wait staff. We waitted about 15 mins. The front desk host definitely didn't know what the hell she was doing. I forgive her. She's a young fob chick from mainland. Sigh.. typical.


For appitizer, we had Husband and Wife Lung (ox tripe and tongue in chilli sauce, for you non-Chinese) and Sichuan Cold Noodle. I'm going to be nice and just dismiss the Husband and Wife Lung dish, very under par. Too spicy, not enough aroma, tripe wasn't fresh. I've eatten this dish anywhere from Boston to Sichuan, and it's probably one of the worse ones i've had. Moving on, Sichuan Cold Noodle, similar to Dan Dan Noodle, but w/o the grounded meat. It was ok. The usually peanut sauce and chilli oil. Eh.

Yang Zhou Fried Rice. Surprisingly, it was really good! reminds me of my cousin's fried rice, that bitch can make a mean fried rice! but after my tongue getting burned with that Husband and Wife Lung, my taste buds lost all of its strength. This rice dish became bland.

Yu Xiang Eggplant and Bitter melon. Eggplant, nothing special. Bitter Melon on the other hand, was really good. Wasn't soggy like most places need to over cook and drench in sauces, but wasn't too bitter either. Got a nice crunch to it. No sauce to over power and hid the bitterness. Me likey


main course: garlic grilled prawn and chilli chicken (La zi Chicken).

First of all, that tomato and corn sauce/soup that came with the grilled prawn was.. meaningless. What am i supposed to do with it? use it as a sauce to drizzle it on my prawn or drink it like a soup (it wasn't too big of a bowl). hmmm... i think as a soup, in a bigger bowl, this could work. but what's the point? I've never heard of prawn comes with a side of soup. weird. Prawn was cooked perfectly. Nice bite, crisp. Garlic wasn't overpowering. can barely taste it.

The Chilli chicken is a stable in my menu. I've ordered that dish in every Sichuan Rest. I visited. this one I'd say is pretty up to par. It's not overly crunchy and fried like most places. over frying those chicken, can make it very very dry. But this one has some sauce on it and didn't bury the chicken in a bed of red chilli peppers. It was easier on the jaw, since i didn't have to chew and chew and chew to break down the dry chicken.

Overall, I'd give this place a 4 out of 5. Because A) it's 15 min away from my house. B) not so bad to that point it's not worth visiting again. C) good place to satisfy my spicy craving w/o coming to the city.

Nice little jewel in Jersey City.