where jess ate

Mike and I were meeting some friends in Mississauga for lunch one weekend and since we had a craving for dim sum, we ended up at Grand Chinese Cuisine. The restaurant is located on Dixon Road, just west of the 401, in the DoubleTree hotel.

Walking into the restaurant, we all felt underdressed. The interior of the restaurant is quite classy looking, with fancy chair covers and what not. It was pretty empty the entire time we were there, probably due to its location.

Unfortunately for those who love cart service, they don’t have that here. Like most dim sum restaurants, they provide you with a menu which you fill out yourself. The dishes are priced as follows: small ($3.30), medium ($4.80), large ($5.50) and extra large ($6.50). I’d say most items we ordered were either medium or large, so the prices here are a bit on the higher side.

We started with the classic Har Gau – crystal prawn dumpling (4 pieces for $5.50). These plump dumplings looked and tasted pretty good. However, my only complaint would be that the skin was a little thicker than I’d like.

The next dish that came was another dim sum classic, Siu Mai – pork dumplings with scallop and fish roe (4 for $5.50). The restaurant added a bit of flair to the usual siu mai by adding the scallop and fish roe on top. Similar to the har gau, these siu mai were large and plump and while the scallop was a nice touch, the taste of the entire dumpling wasn’t anything special. We probably shouldn’t have gotten two orders of this…

Since we all really like dumplings, we ordered the Steamed Seafood and Chive Dumplings (3 for $5.50). I’m not sure if I’d call it a “seafood” dumpling since all I could taste was the shrimp. It was basically a har gau with chives in it, but boy did the chives make a huge difference. This was one of my favourite dishes of the day. Highly recommended!

When I saw the Baked Turnip Pastry – “in thousand layers” (3 for $4.80), I had to order it. It’s one of my favourite dim sum dishes but not all restaurants serve this.

When the dish first arrived, I was disappointed by its presentation since they were so thin and skinny. However, looks aside, these were delicious! I loved the shredded turnip inside and the flakiness of the pastry. The taste of this didn’t let me down!

Another dish we ordered was the Beef Tripe – with ginger and green onions ($3.30). I don’t normally like tripe that much and this dish really didn’t change my mind about it. I don’t think I’ve ever had it served this way before. It was pretty oily and had an incredibly strong ginger flavour, so if you’re not a fan of it (I’m definitely not), I wouldn’t recommend ordering this.

Next came the Pan Fried Turnip Cake – with Chinese sausage ($4.80). The presentation of this was adorable and resembled sushi! It came with six cute little cakes wrapped with a thin strip of seaweed. Now, looks aren’t everything, but this dish certainly delivered. The cakes were delicate and simply melted in your mouth. Delicious!

We had to order one of Mike’s favourite dim sum dishes, the Baked BBQ Pork Puffs – with pineapple (3 for $4.80). One of our friends didn’t know what this was and when they bit into it, they thought it was some sort of apple pie. I have to admit, these BBQ pork puffs were on the sweet side and I couldn’t really taste the pineapple that was advertised on the menu. I thought these puffs were just okay. I definitely preferred the ones at Crown Princess a lot more.

Now, here’s another example of the lovely presentation at this restaurant: the Sticky Rice – filled with assorted meats wrapped and steamed in a lotus leaf (3 for $4.80).

The sticky rice came served in three adorable little pouches which resembled little coin bags. Despite the cuteness of these little pouches, I found the rice to be a bit on the dry side and since they were so small, there really wasn’t very much to eat. The only thing this really had going for it was its presentation.

Another thing we typically order at dim sum is the Steamed spare ribs – in black bean sauce ($3.30). The ones here were great! They weren’t too fatty, greasy or chewy. And for only $3.30, compared to everything else, this was a steal!

Something we thought was interesting was the Deep Fried Eggplant – stuffed with eel (4 for $4.80). I’m used to seeing this at dim sum restaurants stuffed with shrimp but never eel.

I found the flavour of the eel to be overpowering and as a result, couldn’t really taste much of the eggplant. I thought it was not bad but Mike really enjoyed this.

We also ordered the Sliced Beef Rolled in an Onion Pancake (5 for $5.50). The pancake itself was tasty and not too greasy. It was also nice that the beef wasn’t too tough or chewy either. This dish was served with a sauce that tasted like hoisin and overall we all thought this was very tasty. Something I’d definitely order again.

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