I think the problem was not just that this was a Mongolian barbeque and you didn’t know how to choose food at Mongolian barbeque. The problem is also that this was apparently not a good Mongolian barbeque. Next time you want to try Mongolian barbeque, find a good one. Make sure it has lots of meats, vegetables, sauces, and spices. You might want to ask one of the employees for some suggestions for what to put in your bowl.
If there aren’t any good Mongolian barbeques in your area, well, you’ll have to forget about going to one regularly. If there was only one Burmese restaurant, for instance, within 100 miles of where you live and it was terrible, you wouldn’t keep going there. You would reluctantly accept that there were no good ones for you to eat at regularly. In cases like this, you will reluctantly have to accept that the only chance you will have to eat at this kind of restaurant is when you’re on a trip.
I’d never heard of Mongolian BBQ before reading this thread. I’d have been similarly confused if I went to one of these places without knowing what it was, especially if it was called a buffet and wasn’t really a typical buffet. However, after reading about it I really want to try it, and because of this thread I’ll know what to do if I ever go to one. So, I guess I learned something new today.
Anyone know of a Mongolian BBQ in the Pittsburgh area?
Precisely. That is a crappy restaurant, and it would be crappy if it were a steakhouse or a deli or anything else. I suggest not going there again, especially since you apparently have more options in this matter.
Well said.
Now that you know how it works, Wesley, you can have yourself a big ol’ time at a good Mongolian BBQ. And a good Mongolian BBQ is heaven.
Extremely well said. The closest Mongolian BBQ to where I live (the benighted Havre, MT, up here in the nosebleed states) is in Missoula, a good five hours away. I cannot eat there except when I’m in Missoula for other reasons. (Good thing I have relatives in Missoula, so I have excuses to make the trek fairly often.) The restaurant is called HuHot (apparently one of a small chain), and it is very very good. They have a ginger ale that is extremely tasty and, of course, the great food and sauces cooked up on an extremely hot round metal griddle. I do believe I could do twelve bowls of that food if I had the time and nothing else to eat that day.
(Plus, for dessert they have do-it-yourself s’mores. You get graham crackers, marshmallows, Hershey’s bars, toothpicks, and a small sterno cooker, all brought to your table. Marshmallows roasting over sterno smells like a mixture of summertime and… victory.)
Interestingly, the HuHot I went to was originally called Mongo’s. I got an inordinate amount of amusement from that name.
Wesley Clark, for what it’s worth, the place you went to didn’t do much for me either the few times I went. If the soda fountain mix was off, it was off ALL THE TIME in my case. Maybe things have improved, but going from what you said in your post, I doubt it. Sounds like when I gave up going there a couple years ago, I haven’t missed much since.
Unless weak cola is also part of the Mongolian BBQ experience and every other Mongolian place I’m acquainted with is horribly in the wrong…
Yeah, the two Chinese places by K-Mart are really good. Pretty much any dinner special from the one in the plaza is awesome, and bodypoet’s already told you about how much we like the Mandarin. Now THAT is a helluva good value for what you pay. I don’t know how they keep the quality so up for such a low price, especially since I’ve never seen it busy.
Also, if you’re looking for a good once-in-a-blue-moon awesome steak place, go to Little Zagreb. It’s just off the square on West 6th. It’s not cheap, but it’s not all that expensive (compared to high-end steakhouses) either. A good place to celebrate a birthday with a couple pals. The steaks are seasoned so well that you won’t want A1 or any other touch-up (which is good, because they won’t offer it and don’t have it). Dinner for three with plenty of leftovers will set you back around $50, so it’s very much a special occasion place, but it’s worth it.
Cool, I assume you are bodypoets husband? If one or both of you want to sometime maybe we can go to mandarin buffet and you can show me how to make some good recipes as I’ve never done this before. I could pay for the 3 of us.
Yeah, I’m bodypoet’s fiancee…I’ll call her attention to this thread again when I see her today, as she’s better at the nuts-and-bolts of this than I am. I always go to Mandarin because I like their seafood stuff and egg rolls and other buffet goodies, so I never really make it over to the Mongolian BBQ side of it.
We first went there when we were looking for a house in February, and it rapidly became one of our favorite places to go. The three-year-old has become a huge fan of crab legs there, thanks to me, apparently…nobody else cares for them but the two of us.
For me, that whole cola mix thing is a staple of the best Mexican and Chinese places. If they get that right, it’s REALLY right, and everything else should be pretty good.*
Glad to have you in town…you’re a man after my own heart, with the value-for-money thing.
*Quick aside for our more schooled friends in the fountain drink industry - I notice that a few of places in town have lower carbonation so the beverages are nauseatingly flat, some have too much with too little syrup, which I get. A couple of them have an almost bubble-gummy flavor to their beverages, though, regardless of whether you get diet or lemon-lime or a regular cola flavor. It’s pretty dis-GUST-ing, and puts those vendors pretty high on my list of places to avoid. Any idea why this would happen?
My pet theory has to do with some weird intermix with the root beer or something, but I don’t completely trust that theory…
It really depends on who is maintaining the machine - both within the store, and in terms of the cola representative assigned to the area. You’re absolutely right, if the calibration is off the flavor suffers dramatically. And there’s a filter that needs to be changed regularly. Plus the nozzles need to be cleaned daily - and if the root beer nozzle hasn’t been rinsed well & ends up being put on the coke instead, then you will taste it.
Don’t know about the bubble gum flavor. Maybe the effect of not being cleaned? Personally, there’s an Arby’s that I frequent specifically because they do such a great job keeping their Pepsi machine clean and calibrated.
I read the OP and the first few replies waiting to see the ‘whooosh’. You go to a Mongolian BBQ and are disappointed at the lack of buffet choices when you have the makings for the best meal ever in front of you?
You grab some raw meat, some veggies you like, some sauce or oil that appeals to you (who the hell uses A-1 in a restaurant, or ever for that matter?!), they cook it up nice and hot and serve it to you all fresh and stuff, AND you can go back as many times as possible to try different combos and this is a bad thing?!?!
I cannot speak for the cola, it could have been a flaw in the lines, rather than anything intentional. As for the Tso’s being off tasting, cannot vouch for that either, but when you go for Mongolian BBQ, you don’t go for the anything but that (and maybe an egg roll or two)!
Dammit, now you have me craving some BBQ and double dammit if there are no more of these places in my part of the city :mad:
As for you Wesley, I hereby sentence you to eating buffets only at Golden Corral for the next 10 years.
I should’ve been clearer from the outset: The Mongolian BBQ in question isn’t a GREAT Mongolian BBQ. It’s okay, if you know what you’re doing. If you don’t, you’re stuck–there are no recipes on the wall, there aren’t a lot of helpful employees to guide you, there’s just a bar of raw meat and veggies and some oils. And the buffet is very sparse, and not overwhelmingly good. So I know, from experience, that Wesley’s take on this place was not as far off the mark as some might expect.
Now, here’s what we do. Everyone seems to be friendlier now, so let’s all get together here in Bloomington. We’ll go to the Mandarin Buffet and we’ll get a whole hell of a lot of BBQ and the good stuff they have on the buffet (they usually have crab legs and salmon in addition great variety, of course, of Chinese dishes) and we’ll just eat like crazy and be buds.
They have a decent Coke mix, too. And they adore kids, so bring the littles along!
Wesley, drop me or Todd an email anytime you want to go. You don’t have to buy, of course–you just have to wait until we have some cash in our pockets. (It happens every now and then!)
If I had a yellow pages around here, I’d look to see what ours is listed under - I have a slight suspicion there may not be a “Mongolian BBQ” listing. Maybe until another Doper comes along with confirmation (one way or the other) you could check to see if there’s mention of a “genghis” or “khan” under the asian restaurant listings. Even “mandarin” might be a keyword to scan for.
Best of luck. In my experience, people don’t have a very good experience their first time at such a locale (just as Wesley Clark did), and seldom return. Thus, restaurants are hard to find.
Plus, the little cartoon of the legend of the Mongolian BBQ grill, featuring panels 1, 2, 5, 6, 9 and 10 of a (what I guess to be) 12 panel set. I can’t stand the suspense!
A local.google.com search shows at least three places to get Mongolian BBQ(or at least advertised as such) near you. The already mentioned “Dragon Buffet” but also the “Golden Phoenix” and “Capital Buffet”.
Wesley Clark, if you’re ever down near Dallas let me know. I’ve found a couple good places to get mongolian BBQ down here(although the cooks tend to be hispanic, go figure) and I can show you the ropes at these shops. I’d recommend drinking water rather than soda, but that’s my personal preference.
Me dumb, me no understand internet, me no search good.
Seriously, I can’t blame myself for missing a restaurant in Niskayuna, but how in hell did I overlook all the other places? I’m going to have to try this.
The one I went to in Addison, Texas did. Damn, that was good food.
Wesley, you must have the worst luck in the world picking out restaurants; when I lived in Bloomington it was hard to find a bad place to eat, out of all the good places there were. That place is crawling with great food at reasonable prices (and some not so reasonable, like Janko’s Little Zagreb). The Snow Lion is especially good, if you ask me. If Joe’s is still there (up on North Walnut), they’re good too.
And they adore kids, so bring the littles along!