My brother Narc was in town! My mother, Boss Lady, immediately called for a family reunion over dim sum. I remembered Judith, one of the owners at Sukiyaki House, once mentioning she dines often at Central Grand. What is good enough for Judith is more than good enough for me! Let’s listen to Kiss by Prince for this post.
We arrived around 10:30 a.m. and snagged one of the last big tables. The moment we sat down, I could feel my anxiety rise. Customers at the table next to us stood to get to their seats, pressing in so close to my nephew, Roblox, that I felt my nerves tighten. I hadn’t even poured the tea yet when my mother rattled off five orders in less than a minute, filling up our table in frightening speeed.
Two minutes in, as I was pouring tea, Boss Lady was already dropping siu mai into Roblox’s dish, which he doesn’t like, while urging us to eat quickly before the food got cold. Narc gently reminded Boss Lady that there’s no need to put food on their plate, the kids will get it themselves.
I have a recent condition that makes it hard for me to eat, so I asked Roblox and Jellybean to help me describe the food I couldn’t try. My niece observed that the rice crepe doughnut wasn’t as fluffy as she was used to, saying it could be more voluminous, but still thought it tasted perfect with the sauce.
Jellybean softly prodded her brother to describe the soup dumplings, to which he responded: “It’s just… soup and dumplings. What is there to say about soup dumplings?” I foresee engineering as a possibility in Roblox’s future.
With that description and hearing everyone around the table devour the dishes, I thought: to hell with it. One siu mai won’t kill me. My first bite filled my mouth with hot juices and large, crunchy goodness. Damn, this was one damn good dumpling!
Jellybean enjoyed the coconut buns, which looked to me like they were baked in-house. She loved the fluffiness of the bun and noted the sweetness of the coconut filling. Roblox noticed a hair in the remaining bun—or a hair bun, if you will. These things happen. I flagged down a server. He offered to get me a new one, but the place was so busy he must have forgotten. It was fine as we were already getting too full.
Boss Lady selected more dishes, and then she began her shuffle of food onto plates to make room for even more food. She then asked Roblox if he wanted lobster or crab. Roblox’s eyes lit up. Narc interrupted their conversation and stated that dim sum was enough, then encouraged me to try the beef tripe, which he said had good seasoning. He would have preferred a slightly chewier texture, but was happy with it overall.
We tried two types of squid. Everyone preferred the tentacle version over the sweet, battered strips. The tentacle version was served hot, and the coating was crispier. This was Narc’s favourite dish.
I loved my mother’s go-to dish, a meat and vegetable steamed dumpling. The saucy filling was steaming hot and generously portioned, punctuated with crunchy peanuts. Best of all, the wrapping was chewy and tender, not oversteamed. I’d get this again.
Another winner was the rice noodles with soy sauce. It didn’t look like much, but once you picked one up, you could dig into these big, thin rice sheets.
Ludwig’s favourite dish was the gai lan, which had to be ordered from the kitchen. Boss Lady critically gazed at the gai lan and announced that we got premium pieces. I could smell the garlic. Ludwig and Boss Lady both agreed the gai lan was perfectly crunchy—better, they said, than the one at U and Me.
The price for all this food was more than reasonable, at around $20 per person. Central Grand is also one of the few places that still offers cart service. I have to give props to the staff. They worked hard and were always around to help with any requests. And despite the lineups outside, we got plenty of tea refills and all the side sauces without even asking. Hitting the Sauce gives Central Grand two phat thumbs up.
Hitting the Sauce 