This is totally a 5-star place, but not the typical 5-star place. This isn't a 'take your date out for a nice meal in a romantic atmosphere with an eloquently prepared entree' type of place... no, this is the "other" type of 5-star place. This is the 'my friends and I just came back from an all day hike, we're tired, hungry, and want something healthy to eat in a cozy, relaxed environment at a good price' kind of 5-star place. Or the 'my wife and I worked our assets off all day on a house project and just want to go some place cozy, get treated well, and eat some good, hot, healthy, fresh food at a good price'. Yeah, that's the kind of 5-star place this is!
It's true, this is the basic Mongolian 'put everything in a bowl and throw it on the grill' type of place (it's not BBQ, but I like the misnomer in the name), but there is a huge selection of food: veggies, meats, noodles, nuts, oils, sauces, garlic, fruit, etc... and it's all very fresh!! I've been to other Mongolian grill type places... Mr. Chang, you know I'm talking to you... where I just question the stuff I'm putting into the bowl. Not here... this place is fresh.
As to the flavor... it's dee-lish!!! But then again, if what you put in the bowl doesn't taste good, then you'll have to get a mirror to lay blame. You can make your food as healthy, vegetarian, vegan, or carnivore-lovers as you want... you can make it as lean as you want, or dripping in oily sauce. You can make it as low-carb or carb-o-loaded as you want. For me, it's a couple scoops of hot oil, one scoop of sesame oil, some soy superior, some teriyaki sauce, TONS of garlic and water, a lot of ginger water, and other little finishing touches on a heaping bowl of veggies, thin-sliced beef, and some yakisoba noodles with peanuts on top.
I'll tell you why we like this place so much... it's not far from us, it's a family owned/run business, the owner always greets us with a hug as we come in and makes us feel at home, the place is cozy (not fancy, but clean and comfy), we always leave feeling totally satisfied, we can eat what (and as much) we want, the food is fast (soup right to the table, and the grill as fast as we can load up the bowl and get it grilled) the meal includes hot soup (hot-n-sour or egg-flour), rice (which we never get), or wraps (which we always get), the food is always cooked perfectly, and we walk away happy at a good price. I mean, if you were to ask me what 'more' I could want out of the experience for the price... uh... well, my wife would ask for a selection of tofu in the raw food bar, and I could go for some tempeh, but other than that, nothing. For the days we need this kind of 5-star treatment, the Mongolian BBQ is where we go! read more