Grand Schezuan Chelsea (AKA Chelsea Chinese Restaurant) – Cheap in all ways, but tasty

On a sunny and cool day in November, I was craving some hot spicy soup as I biked through Chelsea. Not interested in a quick salt fix if the ramen variety, I pulled up to Chelsea Chinese Restaurant at 229 9th ave. Funny, it its technically Grand Sichuan 24 Inc that runs the joint, but you can’t tell from the outside or inside.

I ordered my usual Chinese fare barometer from lunch special menu – hot and sour soup (vegetarian here) and General Tso’s chicken.  Price tag only $6.50. Pretty good desk it seems for a two part lunch.

They quickly bring a pot of boiling hot tea. I’m no tea expert, but I always thought two hot if water kills flavors or something. Regardless, it still had some heft and I started to warm up by the thimble full. You know what I’m talking about.

Then came the hot and sour soup, wontons and duck sauce. The soup was actually quite delicious- spicy, not too thickened but not brothy, just enough vegetables with nothing weird. Also, the vegetables they used seemed fresh, which is nice when you often get canned mushrooms.  The wontons were the boring French fry type made off site, and the duck sauce thin without much flair, though maybe made at the restaurant.

Before I could finish the soup, the General Tso’s came out. The plate was sad, 60% white rice mound (not sticky enough), 15% cabbage, carrots and bell peppers,  5% sauce and 20% chicken, maybe 8 pieces somewhere between popcorn chicken and mcnugget size. While I’d generally prefer more chicken, what was there in the plate was wonderful. Crispy exterior with real juicy meat and not too much breading. The sauce was great as well, somewhat sticky sweet and spicy. Could have used more of each and less rice.  The vegetables didn’t fit except the cabbage, would have preferred broccoli.

The decor looks like a Chinese restaurant from the eighties or early nineties, and the waitress was brusque but had an Asian Julia Stiles thing going. Think 10 Things I Hate About You meets Serving $6.50 Lunch Specials (before the transformation to a caring person).   Oh yeah, $6.50 is too small for a credit card.  Good to know ahead of time.

All in all, the main dishes were tasty but not enough of what I wanted. Service matched the decor with a certain ‘je NE sais Quoi’, if Quoi translated to ‘know if they care’. It doesn’t btw.

For $6.50 it’s not bad (an A health rating its good), but the quality of food means everything else is sacrificed.

I might pick up a quart of soup to go next time I roll through, hold the wontons.