Grand Sichuan International

The food was descent BUT we were asked to pay our bill and leave before we were even done with our dessert! I get that they had people waiting but we weren't just lounging around by any means. The server was crazy RUDE about it! At least if your going to have the balls to ask us to leave before we're done be nice about it. I am not a picky customer but come on! I spoke with the manager and he couldn't of cared less. I definitely won't be going back...

Cons: Horrible Service

Posted 10/27/09

Ordered lunch from this place because it had decent reviews and OMG the food was awful!!! I have never had such terrible General Tso Chicken, it was mushy (not crunchy), all fatty meat, just nasty!!! Sauce was pretty bad too ? DON?T DO IT!

Pros: Nothing good about it

Cons: The food was terrible, i threw it away!

Posted 08/20/09

Typical chinese restaurant stuff I will not complain about. The good table was "reserved" for two people of asian decent that came in after us while we were stuck next to the kitchen....... wouldnt seat us until our whole party was there bla bla bla. Who cares!!!!!!!!! Happens everywhere people, deal with it.

The soup dumplings were amazing. My brother and I downed eight of them in a minute..... great stuff.

We ordered Orange Beef and kung Pao chicken/shrimp, which was awful. WOuld not go back to this place because it is nothing special but had to wait for a table.

Pros: Soup Dumplings

Cons: Orange Beef, Kung Pao Chicken and Shrimp

Posted 03/18/09

Appaulled by the treatment these people gave me. I called for a delivery, they were hostile. I should have known better but I ordered from them anyway. 1 Hour and 20 minutes later the guy showed up. I said you are over an hour late. He was very surly and told me that they were busy and if I didn't like it that I shouldn't order from them. I wanted to see if my food was still warm before paying and the guy CURSED at me.

The food turned out to be Horrible too! Argh

PLEASE DO NOT PATRONIZE THESE PEOPLE

Pros: None

Cons: Rude, obnoxious, bad food, deeply disappointed and angry

Posted 01/08/09

I had by far, the WORST restaurant experience at Grand Sichuan. I came in to order a few appetizers. I was told (after sitting down) that there is a $7 minimum/guest to eat in. After putting in a bigger order, I was told that they had RUN OUT of restaurant staples like Egg Drop soup.

Due to this I left a measly tip. Before I could leave a manager(?) came over to me to inform me that 15% tip is REQUIRED (regardless of service). She then proceeded to show me OTHER PEOPLE'S BILLS to demonstrate what 15% looks like! I begrudgingly put down a few bucks. The manager then told me "you don't have to come back".

Wow.

Grand Sichuan's food is fine, but this tacky customer service is atrocious. Strong-arming customers into paying you a tip is not the way to run a professional establishment!

Pros: None

Cons: Customer service, running out of food, minimum $7/person to eat-in

Posted 12/21/08

__get rid of "Larry" the so called manager of this restaurant .
Go out to have a pleasant non rushed dinner with friends _ order from some of the best dishes on the menu_and I will say the food is excellent__then during dinner encounter Larry the manger. Unlike most restaurants managers, Larry , is not there to insure a comfortable easy non-rushed dining experience but makes sure you eat fast to get out . And this happened when the restaurant was not truly busy; most times this place had lines out the door but not any more. Could this be the resulting impact of Larry?
One expects to be rushed in this city but not when sitting down to have dinner. This could be the best Asian in the city if Larry is re-trained or is no longer a manager and the rest of the serving staff is allowed not to rush customers. It would be the restaurant to go to every time you craved great Asian food.
Any one else have this experience ?

Pros: Food

Cons: Manager__too rushed __ rude

Posted 10/15/08

Wow - this place has great Chinese food! My roomates and I went on a Sunday night and had a great dinner at a very reasonable price. You must go and see this lovely restaurant I would recommend this place to anyone who needs deliver .

Pros: cheapfriendly staff

Posted 09/19/08

I've had 3 meals in the dining room of Grand Sichuan, and ordered delivery once. Fine as the food has been (I do like the well-known soup dumplings), the service has been the RUDEST I've had anywhere. Servers expect you to order immediately, don't appreciate add-ons, and act as though there is a minimum order. Our delivery person complained about our 5-floor walk-up (sorry, that's part of the job), and took his 20%+ tip with a sneer. Well, it does feel like being in China, anyway. Be warned.

Pros: pretty cheap, some love the dumplings

Cons: rude, rude, rude. some don't care for the dumplings

Posted 07/03/08

It's all about the Fresh Chicken and the Soup Dumplings - complain all you want about the other dishes, but those two alone will have me coming back time and time again to this no-frills no-nonsense eatery that has to be the best Szechuan this side of Spicy and Tasty out in Flushing. Make sure you find the Fresh Chicken section, and you will know how fresh a chicken can taste.

Pros: Good value, Fresh Chicken

Cons: Ambience, Service

Posted 02/28/08

I studied abroad in Beijing last spring for 5 months and I would describe this restaurant as between "american chinese" food and authentic chinese food. They speak mandarin, not cantonese, so I could practice the language.

Also, to explain the confusion about the restaurant being closed: there were two locations both on 9th ave (one between 50th and 51st and a second at 24th) and the first closed sometime in the fall of 2007. The woman who answered the phone at the 24th street location told me something about a lease running out.

Pros: good food, nice staff, speak mandarin, moderately priced

Posted 02/25/08

The Sichuan food here is good, suitble for most customers, even Chinese torist groups who enjoy eating here. However, the restaurant is still open and why city search marks it "close?"

Posted 01/30/08

Went there for dinner Friday night and ordered a few traditional Sichuan dishes. First were two appetizers - spicy beef & tripes; sliced conch w/hot oil. The sliced beef was tough (should be tender) and the dish was too salty. The conch on the other hand was superbly bland! Then the three entrees we had: Chicken w/chili pepper; spicy "water" cooked fish; string beans. The string beans were okay, hard to go wrong there. The chicken again was overly salty but otherwise was okay.

The fish was the dish we went for and was the dish we were most disppointed in. It was totally cooked the wrong way. As the waitress put it down on the table, we all looked in awed and she was quick to say this is "how we do it here." I said this is not how it's cooked [authentically] and you should've told us when we ordered [in Chinese]. She said "I don't know what kind you had before" but yet she was quick to tell us that this is how THEY do this dish! It was as if we ordered a beef stew and was presented with chunks of burger patties [no sauce] instead. A total disappointment.

I had the same dish at the sichuan restaurant on St. Mark's in June and it was made the authentic way.

Cons: Long line and not authentic

Posted 07/15/07

I've been going to this place for at least five years, and I haven't noticed the decline in food quality mentioned by others, but I am pesco-vegetarian (I do eat shrimp, fish, tofu, all veggies, etc.), so I can't comment on the quality of their meat (pork, chicken, beef) dishes. The service is authentic Chinese. Of course it's surly. Low- to mid-priced Chinese restaurants throughout the City and throughout Mainland China have surly service - for good reason. Slave labor is hard. They cover three times more tables than staff at most other NYC restaurants, are mistreated by management, and get less than minimum wage. Illegal? Yes. Who turns them in? The staff can speak only "restaurant English," if that. Many are illegal immigrants. They get nothing for courtesy but fired. Courtesy takes time, and each server has to keep pace with the others or management boots them, and they can't get another job. They work hard for next to nothing so that you can enjoy cheap, decent food. It's fair to call the service poor, but it's not fair to complain about it. All that said, this place is better than its competitors because the food is better. There are some Chinese restaurants with wonderful service -- and prices double or triple those at Grand Sichuan, for food that is no better.

Pros: Thumbs up for food that beats its competitors

Cons: Service is the same as you find at Chinese competitors - surly

Posted 03/11/07

We were enjoying our first dining here including Mapo tofu and other spicy meal.
Then found an insect (ok, starting with "R" , but City Search don't allow me to use that word) in our vegetable sauteed!!! We totally lost our appetite, told the manager what we found (they took out this meal portion from our bill). The terrible part was not only this, then hostess approached us, complaining that the tip was too small and said "it sometime happens, but we work for tip!". Well, if SOMETIME happens this, I swear that we'll never come back again!

Posted 01/13/07

The food was great - big portions, very tasty and inexpensive. The dumplings are delicious. Although the wait was long(without reservations), its worth it. A must go when you are in New York. The best part... it is not touristy!

Pros: Fast service once you are seated

Cons: The waitresses lack in personality what the restaurant makes up in food quality

Posted 12/05/06

There are very few restaurants in NYC offering authentic Chinese food at better prices. Not the perfect restaurant to go on a date, but definitely worth checking out.

Posted 04/30/06

Definitely not what it used to be. What was once one of the only truly "worth the wait" dining experiences in the city, has sadly become quite disappointing. Compacted with the long lines, terrible service, and mediocre food, I give a thumbs down. Real shame.

Posted 04/06/06

Don't go!! The food was awful, and the 'so-called' meat was unspeakable. Service was rude as well.

Just wondering how anyone could give positive reviews about this place!?!?

Cons: Poor service, Awful food

Posted 12/16/05

I used to like Gran Szechuan for its affordable, fresh, yummy Chinese food. However over the years the service (which was never its crowning point to begin with) has gotten surlier and surlier, especially, frankly, to non-Chinese patrons. They act like you're being an annoyance when you try to flag a waitress to do the normal things you'd want a waitress to do, like take your order and bring you chopsticks or water or tea or your check. And the quality of the food has also gone down. It used to be worthwhile, but now it's just annoying. Good soup dumplings though.

Pros: Inexpensive, Good lunch special, soup dumplings!

Cons: RUDE, crappy service, food only so-so

Posted 12/08/05

I came to Grand Sichuan for my birthday with 10 friends on a Saturday night. With most other places that claim to be able to handle big group (Tony Di Napoli for one) you can't expect much on a Saturday night. Well Grand Sichuan was a different story. We were sitted right away and had constant good service. The food was delicious. Try the fried dumplings for an appetizer! The desert they gave me for my bday was a little strange but still a nice thought.

Pros: Food, Service, Dumplings!

Posted 09/08/04

The best Chinese food. Mapo tofu is best I've ever had. However the hostesses are very rude. The service is whatever. I would recommend going only for great chinese food. Or opt for take-out instead.

Posted 04/09/04

I've eaten at every great chinese restaurant and the spicy beef dish here was just divine. The soup dumplings were also very good, as was the lobster sauce. Well worth the trip

Pros: not expensive, helpful service

Posted 01/29/04

We ordered from here after finding it on Zagats where it has a 23 rating for food. Sadly, I cannot agree. We ordered the orange flavored beef which was not even edible, let alone distiguishable as beef. The chicken and peanuts was mediocre. To give credit where credit is due: the pan fried dumplings were decent. I will not order from here again.

Posted 05/03/03

This used to be my favorite chinese delivery spot but perhaps management has changed because the quality of food has fallen off completely. Hoping for their old cubed filet I was instead presented with a greasy mound of fatty steak in an unappetizing sauce. It was inedible.

Posted 04/12/03

One of the best Chinese restaurants in Manhattan and a great value. The food is consistently good and authenthic. The chefs are all from mainland and they haven't been americanized yet. His other restaurants on 51st and 37th are also good. The menu is interesting and he has a great sense of humour.

Posted 02/09/03

The Grand Sichuans run by this chef are the best Sichuan in the city.
And cheap too.

I've been several times and always order the Sichuan dishes. There is lots more on the menu, but i cannot comment on anything else.

This review is so brief maybe some will find it not very helpful, but there isn't really anything more to say, it is all around the best.

NYC is lucky to have this place. Let's hope they continue to keep the authentic food top notch and the prices reasonable.

Service can suffer when it is crowded. Branch on Lexington and 33rd does not seem to have this problem-- yet. Also becuse of its popularity and almost constant state of filled-to-capacity, the Chelsea menu is shorter (relatively speaking, as it is quite extensive) than other branches with the same chef, like Lexington.

Posted 01/26/03

If you crave authentic, spicy sichuan food, look no futher than Grand Sichuan. There's a beef dish, can't remeber the name that was the spiciest chinese dish I have ever eaten (and I've eaten a lot) and it was great.

I've been to the other locations (Hells Kitchen, Canal Street) and find this one to be the best. From what I gather each has different owners and for me the Chelsea location stands out.

It's not the friendliest place in the world, and waiting for a table here is a drag so try to come during off-peak times or carry out. It's the real deal for sure.

Pros: Authentic

Cons: Ocassional Waits

Posted 12/11/02

Went there yesterday eve first time and the food was quite good and very generous portions. However, we found a piece of cardboard in one of our mains, alerted the waiter and all he did was take it and walk away...
Fairly inexpensive but you only get what you pay for...

Posted 08/27/02

A neighborhood favorite, you need to get there early on Sunday nights when there is a line for tables. The straight forward frech tasting food is even better brought to your home. Try the General Tso's or let them chose for you!

Pros: good food, good take out, friendly service

Cons: can be crowded

Posted 08/20/02

It is always a favorite hangout place for Asians who love authentic Sichuan. The food is good and reasonably priced. But it is a long wait during the weekend.

Posted 08/15/02

Simply addictive. Their Sichuan specialties are truth to the orgins, and I can't resist it. The prices are great.

Pros: Authentic, Fresh, Group Atomosphere

Cons: Decor, Overtaxed staff

Posted 08/06/02

Very authentic Sichuan food. Restaurant can get crowded which only proves its popularity. Long menu filled with interesting stories about different menu items.

Posted 07/22/02