Central Grand... I'm looking at the address and wondering why I haven't seen the sign for it before? I drive up... where IS this place? I park behind the Chinese mall on 16th Ave. I figure it's got to be around there somewhere. And it is! It's up the stairs and towards the end of the hall.
It's one of those restaurants I wouldn't know what to order unless someone who knows Chinese food is with me. We all gathered for a special pre-Chinese New Year dinner. Thank goodness it was a set menu.
I'm a rural-Alberta kid. The kind of Chinese food we grew up on was chicken balls, ginger beef and chicken fried rice. In fact, most every dish came with rice. Central Grand isn't this kind of place. It's the kind where when you order a fish dish, it shows up still looking like a fish... and there's no rice with.
It's got the big round tables with the lazy susan in the middle so you can keep that food spinning round and round to each of the parties at your table. If you want your own room because you've got 50 people to feed, you'll find that here too. We were all seated in a room just off to the right from the main dining hall.
I wish I could help you out in terms of specific dishes to order, unfortunately my knowledge stops here. But, except for the big mushroom things that I wasn't a fan of, I liked each of the dishes they brought us. The breaded chicken breast was quite tasty, and there was some version of a rice wrap that was certainly a popular dish at the table.
If someone offers you the red bean soup thing as a dessert... well, it's different! Sweet. I ate about half of it before I had had enough.