Mongolie Grill

Ever since Mongolie Grill switched to flat rate prices, I’ve started to like it a whole lot better. No more surprise $ 45 weigh in! However, the bowl sizes are tiiiiiiiiny. You really need to load that thing up as high as humanely possible in order to really get your money’s worth. I personally enjoy the challenge of Tetris-​style stacking my food into my bowl!
Mongolie Grill offers a starter soup with the price of their meals — hot and sour or wonton. Both are good. Nothing stellar, but still solidly yum.
The premise of the restaurant is custom made stir fry served on rice– you grab a bowl and load it up with the food you want, then hand it over to a chef for cooking. The buffet-​style bowl loading zone has a variety of meat, veggie, and noodle options. All of it was fresh and well stocked. There’s also a variety of sauces, ranging from teriyaki to honey garlic, to add into your bowl.
I find the quality of the food to be quite good, although occasionally over cooked. This place is usually pretty empty, so it makes for quick seating and quick eating.
One thing to be aware of is cross contamination. People can very easily mix up and drop things into other containers in the buffet area, beware. If you have serious food allergies, you may want to give this place a skip!

One star off for only having one waitress. One star off for there being a mostly empty food station. There was no beef at all and in the hour we were there it was never refilled. Sad veggie choices, as most of the «good stuff» was empty. And it was $ 22! The bowl is tiny! If you overfilled the thing with meat I still dont think it would be $ 22 worth. That’s a star off for lack of value. Another star off for poor service. We only got checked on once our meal was nearly eaten. For the price and the experience and the fact that I had to go straight next door and buy a sandwich because despite filling my tiny bowl to overflowing I was still hungry, I will not be going back here.

Yesterday, in our search for a place to eat, the bf and I headed to Mongolie Grill. That was after we noticed how busy our first 2 choices were.
I remember the days when the Mongolie Grill was so busy that there was a wait to get in. And you used to have a choice between green onion cakes or soup. Also, you were able to choose rice or wraps. Mongolie Grill used to be the place to eat. Not so much any more.
There is only one price now: $ 15.95 for lunch and $ 22.95 for dinner. This was our first time going since this change. I feel like they have cut down on the variety of sauces and the variety of meat (no turkey, a couple of containers of just chicken). There were some empty spots where things could have been– such as more veggies and more sauces.
What I do like is that they offer coconut rice, which I love. But that is about the extent of my like for this place.

Absolutely dreadful experience here tonight.
This was my second time at a Mongolie Grill. My first was last week at the downtown location and I had no real issues then.
Tonight started off ok, as we were greeted and waited a bit to get seats. After quite some time had passed, our server arrived and took our drink and appetizer order.
The concept of filling up your bowl to the max for one price is very enticing and the DT location had a healthy platter of food choices. Tonight for dinner, the vegetables appeared very old and there were many bins that had nothing in them. The meats were in the case of marinated beef non existent and the ground beef looked disgustingly outdated. All I could stomach was the chicken breast which was overly frozen.
On Fridays you get to try to guess the weight of your bowl and if you are within 5 g you get it for free. I didn’t … Although I should have had a free meal given the flavour of the food and the service.
Our stir fry food itself took nearly 25 minutes to finish (the green onion cake came out faster and was edible). The wonton soup was a smaller portion than DT, despite paying more money for dinner, and had no flavour whatsoever, watery and tasteless.
When the food finally came out, it was devoid of flavour and tasted stale, with many of the parts being undercooked and all of it underwhelming. The rice was tough and bland as well.
I couldn’t stomach finishing my food and packed it up (I ultimately decided to throw it out).
The server eventually came to check on us and said she would be back with water when what we really wanted was the bill.
She did not come back for over 15 minutes and without any water (which we didn’t want in the first place). She then asked if we wanted the bill and I said yes. She never ultimately came back to us for more than 12 minutes, and someone else came with the bill … But without a machine. She then went to grab one and that took another 10 minutes. I can’t recall in recent memory being this infuriated at a food establishment.
I’ll never be back to any Mongolie Grill.

The Mongoli grill is a different kind of experience in dining. The main part of their menu is a stir fry that you customize yourself. I only gave it a ³⁄₅ stars because I’m not quite sure how I feel about making my own food and then having someone else cook it.
It is super easy to make a stir fry that is way too big for you and would probably be better for 2 people. I also found that any sauce I put on the stirfry well evaporator while it’s being cooked. You can however ask for extra sauce after it’s been cooked. I often will do this.
One thing that is really great here is to get the rice wraps to put your stir fry in. They are super good
Also be sure to start with the wonton soup. Tasty and delicious.

Yes Groupons do (now at least) say that you cannot use them the day of purchase, that cannot be held against the restaurant. They were great with our Groupon. It is tough to get a good vibrant stirfry meal with a ton of flavour as it all depends on what you add in. It is a learning process for sure. I would have preferred tortilla wraps instead of egg roll wraps with the meal but that is their choice I guess. It is expensive but the bowls are large and if you use restraint, you will save some money! Food was fresh and service was great.

*NOTE– Please read all reviews before making the decision to come here… Unilocalers are not lying about their experience here.
For a Sunday I decided to scroll down Groupon for something to try out and found Mongolie Grill has a deal for $ 30 but you pay $ 17 one visit. I have been here 2x before, 12 years ago at the downtown location and 7 years ago at this location. Both times were just «meh».
I thought to myself why not? I purchased the groupon and met my sister there in 20 mins. The place was almost empty on Sunday around 6pm, which is understandable because its Sunday. We were greeted by a young girl who looks like she was dressed for a night club (that could be the look now a days). While walking down I noticed the crowd, one guy was in a torn tank top? (my goodness). We got sat at the edge of the back, when there was lots of room by the windows or some place that would be a lot more open and more pleasant to have a meal. I should have said something but decided not to, it didn’t matter.
Our server came to take our drink order, I had a pineapple juice and my sister had a glass of white wine.
Ok if you have not been here before the process starts with the server handing you a bowl and you have to go up and put whatever you want in it to be cooked on a huge stir fry.
We walked up to the veggies portion and half of the veggies containers were empty or close to it, plus it was all scattered around. For example there was pineapple in the tofu, broccoli in all containers and that was least of my worries because I saw peanuts right in front of it all (I have severe allergy to peanuts). I took the veggies far away from the peanuts and that is in plain view of not being contaminated.
Now to the protein, the beef looked off. The top of the beef was dark and the rest on the bottom was frozen and thick with frozen water. I just put in a few pieces of chicken and pork I think? The labels were a bit confusing because where it had octopus it looked like meat so I’m not so sure.
The Noodles looked scary and that is all I can say.
The sauce area was a nightmare for me because there was peanut sauce and it looked like a mess. I had to put the ginger, coconut, and teriyaki sauce which is so far away from the peanut sauce. For each I put 3 scoops, I wanted to be sure I had enough flavor but I was afraid of the weight it was getting pretty heavy. The total came to around $ 24 and I asked for coconut rice.
I had to make sure that the chef knew of my allergy which he was very nice and understanding.
Our food came out and with my epi pen on my lap I dug in. My meal look dull and what I mean by dull is that the color looked almost grey brown. My sisters meal looked decent, it had vibrant colors. I took a bite of my sad looking dish and it tasted how it looked, the flavors I was hoping for was not there. It was almost as if they had watered down the sauces??? I was not alone in this thought because my sister was having the same feelings with her meal.
The manager came and asked us how was our meal and I hesitated thinking should I tell her the truth and make a scene or should I just say fine and never come back. I choose the non-​confrontational way out and said it was ok while I put on a plastic smile (my sister did the same).
O to make it even more difficult for us to swallow… they started putting newer vegetables out.
We wanted to have some kind of redemption so we wanted to try their desserts. We ordered a banana type wrap (I took pictures because I forgot the name) and my sister had a coffee while I just stayed with my water. Our server came with one side plate, 1 napkin, 2 forks and 1 knife.
Our dessert came out and it looked pretty good! We looked down and found some problems with having only 1 side plate and 1 knife. My sister took the plate while I took the napkin and she had to cut up the pieces for bite size for me and her. This was very inconvenient and our server had not check on us so I can ask for more side utensils so we made do. My side of the dessert was great but my sister bit into a really cold banana lol.
It was time for the bill, she came out with bill and I mentioned my groupon I just bought today and she told me I cannot use it because it will not process if bought on the same day. She also said it states that on the fine print but I checked and it does not. Talk about being Choked!
So I paid about $ 80 for an unsatisfied meal that I cannot take back.
I drove home asap so I can get a refund on that Groupon because My goodness will I Never step foot in that restaurant again!
I do not recommend coming to this restaurant, save your money and go to a nicer place.
I got burned for being cheap and using a groupon, don’t make the same mistake like I did.

We went to Mongolie Grill last night for dinner and had a beyond lacklustre experience. We got a table right away. Guess cause it wasn’t busy on a Friday night. The table wasn’t properly set so when we got our wonton soup we had to request spoons. The wonton soup tasted old and gross. The bowl itself was very small too. When we went to fill our bowls the ingredients didn’t seem very fresh. There were a couple of seafood ingredients that were sitting there frozen. Made me wonder what else was previously frozen rather than fresh. It looked as if the buffet could have really used a cleaning as well. We then waited over a half an hour for our food, which smelt burnt when it arrived. The meat tastes old. It was disgusting. We won’t be going back ever again. This place has gone way down hill!

Wow… they’ve made a lot of changes in the last year. Great changes! Now, instead of just chooses white or brown rice, you also have a choice of noodles and coconut rice. That’s right… I said COCONUT RICE! That’s one of my biggest weaknesses.
There is also some new additions to the meat choices. There’s a delicious marinated beef, as well as spicy sausage and turkey. I never go for the seafood choices, so it’s hard to say what was new there… but I don’t remember there being basa before.
The Wonton Soup is as delicious as ever. But the bowl is smaller, and you get a regular soup spoon now… I miss the charm of the old wonton soup spoon.
The service has never been great… it’s almost impossible to get a drink refill. So they lose a star for that. But the coconut rice and new marinated beef will get me back in the door more often.

If I was only allowed one sentence to describe the experience at Mongolie Grill I would have to go with «A slightly more upscale and more expensive Panda Hut Express». The interior of the restaurant is fairly nice although I find it a bit noisy when I go on a busier night.
The food is good but it can get somewhat pricey. I have gone up to the buffet to pick out my meat and veggies making a conscious effort to eat light (I take transit and hate bringing home leftovers on the bus) but have never gotten out with paying less than twenty dollars for the plate. I always get the hot and sour soup before my meal and I have to give them alot of credit because I have yet to find a more delicious bowl of soup in this city. It’s a tough place to get to using transit so it’s not my first choice when dining on the south side but every once in awhile when I don’t mind spending a little extra it’s a nice place to dine with my south side friends.

We visited the Mongolie Grill a few months ago with a Groupon and won’t be back. In fact, this restaurant has since become a bit of a joke between my husband and me, because it was just that bad.
While we purchased a Groupon, we still spent nearly $ 60.00 between the two of us! We were asked to wait for a table, even though the restaurant was nearly empty, and then were seated at a table which needed cleaning.
The buffet could have also used a cleaning/​refill. Service was somewhat slow and the the food was mediocre at best. While you can perhaps blame me for my choices, the idea could be improved by offering «menu options». Ultimately, Mongolie Grill wins by letting you pile your bowl full — and even though it was the day when you can guess your price to the cent and get your meal free, my guess was well below what I was then required to pay.
All in all — the value was missing from the food, and the experience didn’t make up for it. As noted, I can’t imagine going back — not even with a Groupon!

Initial impression: very poor. When the two of us came in, we were informed that it would be a 10-​minute wait for a table — despite there being ten empty tables and two completely empty bars visible (in fact, there were no diners visible!). It was explained that they were «short-​staffed» and didn’t have enough servers.
We chose to wait it out, and were seated at a table that seemed to have been cleaned, but had both a sauce-​bowl ring and a dead fly (see photos).
After what seemed like a long wait for the server to come to drop off the pre-​grill bowls, the server came and took our soup /​drink order, then we proceeded to the buffet. The «full bowl» was supposedly $ 19 – 30. After dishing up my bowl, I proceeded to the scale and it weighed out at $ 44.62 — I didn’t think I had even filled it that full, with noodles on the bottom and a mixture of veggies and some steak.
That said, it did take some time to pick… the choices are endless — perhaps TOO endless! One could easily be paralyzed by decisions here.
It was placed on the grill, and we returned to our table.
We had chosen the hot & sour soup, and the wonton soup. Both were delicious.
After a few more minutes, our meals were delivered to our table. The rice we had chosen was served underneath the grilled food. While the taste was exceptionally good, it didn’t have the value, from what we felt.
Will we be back? perhaps. But it will be a while… and we will have to have something specific in mind.

Went there recently and enjoyed the experience. Very good service and a neat concept. Somewhat pricey, but really it is pretty well worth it!

used my first groupon to try these guys out and It was very decent. unfortunately there are so many choices you must make to have your dinner that im sure you are doomed to a mistake or two on your first visit
the program is interesting… you get a bowl… you go to the food area where there are many choices of veggies/​meats/​sauces. you load your bowl as you personally choose… then they weigh it and decide what to charge you by weight… then they cook it for you and let you eat it :)
I found I took too much broccoli… it didn’t really get soft for me when they cooked it. I didn’t take nearly enough baby corn or noodles as both were very yummy
my wife and I didn’t take remotely enough sauce either… the waitress did bring us extra sauce after and explained a lot of the sauce will get cooked off the food while its being prepared… so do take quite a lot of sauce.
all-​in-​all this is a ‘different’ type of place that is good for an ‘experience.’ the food is very decent but pretty expensive for what you get at normal prices. Even with my groupon I ended up paying 25 dollars for the wife and I and I didn’t have any drink {but I did leave a decent tip} Im thinking for 25 dollars you deserve to feel well fed when you walk away from a restraint but both my wife and I felt less then stuffed.
the complimentary soup was so blandish that neither of felt we could eat it either.
the uniqueness of the experience… the groupon coupon participation… the vast selection of veggies/​meats you can choose from… all earn these guys a 4 star from me but just barely. I definitely will do things much different if I go here again and I wouldn’t be returning unless I do take advantage of another groupon to do it with either

Build your own stir fry.
That’s what I think they should call it. I don’t really understand why everyone I talk to seems to really like this place. I find it rather expensive for the quality of food you get. Sure the novelty of choosing what exactly you want in your stir fry is kind of cool as well as picking your meats and sauce but in the end what comes out is just mediocre. The beef I had last time was so over cooked that it was all chewy and really tasteless. Also the sauce I had didn’t taste much like anything. I don’t think the price is worth the quality although it’s probably appropriate for the quantity.
If you just want a lot of food and are picky about what you eat, this might be a good place for you.

I ate at Mongolie Grill on a Saturday evening. It was dead inside…
My experience was pretty typical for a Mongolie Grill. I actually find it to be overpriced for what it is. My bowl came to $ 18 and I didn’t even have that much stuff in it… and I basically served myself. For that price, I’d rather go to a nicer restaurant where I’m waited on.
The food isn’t bad though. Well, you’d hope not, since you pretty much make your own dinner.

The décor of this restaurant is lovely, I prefer the privacy of the booths away from the grill but there are tables closer. They try to create some privacy between the tables by having a sheet divider which I’m not sure really works.
We arrived on a Saturday evening close to 7:30 to find the restaurant less than half full. Starting with the chicken wonton soup, I only consumed the wontons and didn’t drink the soup. They were ok, nothing special at all.
The best part of the experience is you can choose exactly what you want to eat. There are a variety of vegetables, including bok choy which I like. Next is the meat and seafood section. I picked a little of everything including the frozen shrimp, variety of fish, imitation crab, pork, beef, and chicken. I also loaded up my bowl with tofu. Next are all the sauces, they provide a guide with how large your bowl is and how many spoonfuls of sauce you should include. I choice the black bean sauce and teriyaki along with a spoonful of garlic.
The price of my meal was almost $ 19. They weigh your bowl and it works out to be about $ 30/​kg so not cheap. We waited about 15 – 20 minutes for the cooked food and serve it on a plate of rice.
I always want the food to taste better than it does. Maybe I’m not putting enough garlic and ginger but it’s missing some flavour that sometimes makes the food taste bland. My eyes were bigger than my stomach as I wasn’t able to finish my meal and took the rest of it home.
Considering the taste of the food, this isn’t a place I would frequent but the concept is great and the service was good.

How was the food… decent. The experience… horrible.
We went in on Tuedays which were explained as «all you can eat». Catch is, it’s all you can eat in 1 go. We hadn’t been before so we grabbed a small bowl in an attempt to see what we’d like. That’s when we were told we were done… we weren’t allowed back up. $ 19.95 a person for a taster. These portions would have normally cost $ 8 – 10 but that was it. We were handed the bill and we left… hungry. I will not be back. EVER.

I went to this location for lunch one day last week and I had mixed feelings as we left.
We came in on off peak hours (about 3:00) and the place was practically empty. There were about 5 other tables filled in the restaurant. Our server was sitting at the bar eating a big plate of stir fry when we walked in and she slowly waddled up to us and gave us a table. After showing us the table and letting us sit down, she returned to her stir fry for a couple bites.
We went up to the food area and started to pick our toppings. When I was done, I went and stood up at the grill and waited for the cook to notice me. He was staring out the window and was totally in trance. I picked up my bowl and put it down a little heavier than a normal person would and he turned around.
So he grabbed our bowls and put them on the counter and then walked over to the bar and ate some of our server’s stir fry for about 5 minutes. I stared at him, thinking he would get the hint that I was unimpressed that he hadn’t started our food, but he avoided eye contact.
When we did get our food, it was amazing. But I made it, didn’t I? Good for me. Yay me!
I wouldn’t go back to this location. Watching the servers and cooks eating while they should be working was super annoying and it pissed me off.

I’ve been to Mongolie Grill a couple times now. I like it, the food is good.
I like that you actually get to go up and pick out what you want in your stir-​fry. It’s kind of cool to be able to customize your food just the way you like it. However, be careful because the charge you on weight. And trust me, it gets expensive. I was shocked because I didn’t take a lot of food but it still cost me a lot of money! It actually made me quite mad the first time I went.
If you are a vegetarian, you get a small discount which is nice. But you still have to pay for all your veggies (which can be very heavy).
It’s got a nice atmosphere inside and I, personally, think it’s great for groups. It’s laid back but nice at the same time.