Flat Top Grill

This place is gross. The food has no flavor and has a weird taste. Go to BD’s Mongolian grill across the street. Such better tasting food. Also my boyfriend and other people I know have gotten sick from here more than once, so that tells me either their cleanliness isn’t up to par or they cross contaminate food. Yuck.

Not a good experience. 1 star is too low 2 is too many…
We went in a group of 6 for a birthday dinner. None of us had been here before we had no idea what to expect.
The food is ok, the server tried hard but we had a lot of problems. The menu has the sauce descriptions and «recipes» to follow do I wanted to keep one. 3 times they asked me for it, when I left to pick veggies they took it.
I asked for some water since it was not automatic, it eventually came about 30 mins after we arrived.
The server would disappear for long periods, since we were new we had slots of questions, it was problematic.
Somehow our food got switched, if you haven’t been there, you fill your bowl, write your name on a stick, then drop it off to be cooked, the server brings it back. All of our orders were switched around…
They don’t do any birthday cake or desert.
None of these things are bad on their own, but add it up with mediocre food and I have no desire to return.
The sauces are good but I’ll probably go somewhere else.

I rolled in on a Sunday evening, expecting we might have to wait… and we did. But once we were seated, we could see the place was half empty. I guess they weren’t filling all the tables because they were short staffed. Which they were, because our waitress seemed to disappear when we needed her. (Maybe the staff is all college kids and it is Christmas/​Finals week… I would like to give them the benefit of the doubt.)
I always like the food at this place, and this was no exception. How do you mess-​up funky Asian fusion stir-​fry… custom made to order. And you can select healthy choices like whitefish and lots of veggies. They even have the vegan «veggie-​meats» as options if you are into that.
They did forget to bring the roti bread I requested on the side… and then the waitress didn’t come back for a while… and then when I told her, I watched them serve roti to 8 other people (who came in and ordered behind me) while I waited and my food got cold. They reheated my plate in a wok, but my family was done with their food when mine finally was ready.
Again, the food was fine once it was right, but a dissatisfying experience.

As this was my first time coming to this location, I must say that I had a pleasant experience. I like the fact that they no longer allow you to choose your own meat. It seems more sanitary in my opinion. I was there for a pre-​celebration for my birthday. Although the waiter was extremely nice and always checking on us, he was also a bit forgetful. I was greeted by a friendly staff, including the manager, and also exited with the same group telling us to have a nice day. My fav part was actually watching the artist paint the Naperville themed galley that’s all over the restaurant.
Overall, no complaints here… food was excellent as always… as long as you make it right!

Can’t say I was impressed. The staff were disorganized. The food was alright, except for the flat bread, which I received partially burned.

Flat Top’s quality has dropped off over the last year; it’s gone from a 4.5 star to a 3.5 star dining experience in my eyes. Still, the food is pretty good and it’s a solid place to go to with a group of friends in downtown Naperville.
Things that haven’t changed: This is a GREAT restaurant for groups that include people with dietary restrictions (vegetarian, vegan, etc). Everything is clearly labelled and you can have your food cooked separately from all the meat-​containing meals, which is a wonderful system that I which more places had. Also, the rotis are AWESOME and unlimited — you can order as many as you want, and they’ll bring them right to your table! :)
Things that have changed: I believe the price has increased, especially for the coveted «second trip» that always drew people to this location. It’s gone from an effectively all-​you-​can-​eat experience to a one-​trip wonder. A complaint that I constantly hear from my friends is that the servings of meat are now a lot less than they would get in the past (because the meat is no longer self-​serve). Also, the new system of poking your stick through a ticket is idiotic to me. I don’t get why they wouldn’t just have different kinds of sticks, or a special marker on the stick, to indicate different kinds of meat. in the current system, you just get paper in your food, and it’s kind of off-​putting.
Their desserts are quite good and so are their flavored lemonades.
I’ll probably be back here when I’m in Naperville, but I really hope they reverse the downward trend they’ve been on over the last year.

Not at all what I expected. This was not my first choice for lunch but I went along with the others. Had I not been with those others, I would have walked out. The system to get your food needs streamlining. It is the most convoluted, cockamamy system I have ever encountered. It involves ordering from your server AND paper and a lot of sticks in your food. I had no idea what to expect when my food actually arrived. Oh, and «Lois» became «Louis» and «Jim» became «J.M.» You write your name on a stick and stick the stick through the paper you get from your server. After you select the items you want in your bowl, it gets cooked and delivered to your table. Word of advise, skip the potatoes, they don’t get fully cooked. As you are about to release your bowl to the guy at the grill, there is another station with more sticks for the final add ins. I had never heard of Roti bread, but at that point, I figured «What the heck.» It was actually rather tasty. So, you could actually end up with about 10 sticks in your bowl. See what I mean about the system?
If you visit a second time, I am sure the system works better.

I’ve been here twice. I’m glad I gave it a second try. The first time they had the meat sitting on the bar with all of the other ingredients and people were double dipping all over the place and scattering raw meat all over the bar. The second time the meat was kept behind the counter by the grill. It’s not great quality food but it’s fairly cheap, allergy friendly, and has lots of veggies.

Well I gave it two tries, and I think that’s it for the flat top grill. It just isn’t that good. I never came here before the change to being unable to choose your own meat, but I can say they currently aren’t exactly generous with the meat. They say it’s a half pound, but it sure doesn’t seem like that. Both times I’ve been there’s been veggies I didn’t put in my bowl in the food I’ve been served, so there’s definitely some cross-​contamination going on.
Plus, the experience is just… awkward. The servers seem to be so used to getting beat up by the customers over the changes that they don’t seem to know what to say other than «have you been here recently?» The restaurant isn’t really crowded, unlike the other Mongolian place across the street.

Flattop used to be good, now it’s gone cheap. Whatever consulting group they hired to implement these changes should be fired. The server brings you a small portion of meat, and mooshu wraps are a thing of the past. Even worse they pass it off as trying to save you from cross contamination, I would believe them, except that everything is cooked on the same grill.
For less money and an experience of what flat top used to be before they instituted all of the cost cutting measure just head across the street to their competition. There I was able to load up on all the meat I wanted, with a giant stack of flour wraps to make mooshu to my hearts content!

I quite used to like Flat top grill till recently when I saw there was a change in the Menu. Most of the spices and sauces have been removed. The prices have been increased and the Quality of the Food decreased a lot. Now I prefer to visit other Mexican or Mongolian Grill places.

Though it is a chain and yet another version of Mongolian BBQ that’s not really Mongolian BBQ, Flat Top Grill is my favorite out of the bunch. I can’t say that I don’t even like the rest and will not eat there. However, Flat Top? I get excited coming here.
This location in particular has a special sentimental value to me. My «adoptive» dad who was like my own father to me loved this place. We used to come here for Father’s Day and we had fun stuffing ourselves with endless bowls of stir fry. We tried to come up with stupid names to be put on the stick to identify our bowls as well as coming up with weird concoction of sauce for the stir fry. We have used names like Wakamatsu, Mimi, Chuck, and Fern among others and got our server confused as Chuck didn’t look like a Chuck (me. Or maybe I did look like a Chuck?).
He since has passed and we missed him dearly and this last visit we reminisced about good times when we had him around. I think he would be pissed with some of the changes that we just learned on this visit. Now, we have to order our proteins with the server for each bowl. We would not be able to put how much meat we wanted for the stir fry. I myself did not mind it, as it was kinda gross holding on to the tongs that had raw meat germs all over it. However, it was a pain in the ass as well to have to wait for the server each time. They also use pour bottles now for the sauce instead of the ladle. That was a good change I thought.
The food has always tasted good to me because I know what I’m doing! LOL but no. It’s a testament that their sauces are great and it’s hard to screw it up. They also added some extra forms of how you can turn your stir fry into. They added tacos and burritos and some other stuff I couldn’t remember. The roti prata is still great and I could eat ten of them.
It is always a fun family meal here for us. We would overindulge, then try to walk it off in downtown Naperville and ended up at Le Chocolat for desserts.
The service has always been good and I do enjoy their brownie a la mode. Too bad dad wasn’t with us but I think he was watching and calling my brother a wimp for not going for second bowl.

Until our recent dinner at Flat Top Grill, it was the restaurant which we patronized most often.
Our visit was after a break from going out, to start our family. When we were able to get away for a meal, we chose our favorite restaurant. The experience was deeply disappointing.
Immediately, we noticed that proteins were no longer on the open bar. This may have been a decision to ensure small portions. The meat served with dinner was not only scarce, but it seemed to be low quality and tasted like it was unseasoned and boiled.
The most disturbing part of the evening was the blatant disregard for sanitation standards.
I observed an associate who was filling the bar. He picked up a dirty rag to wipe the bar down, still wearing the glove he was wearing to replenish vegetables. After replacing the rag under the bar, he immediately continued to refill the bar, still wearing the same glove. He then swept the floor and picked up the garbage from the floor. Incredibly, he then got containers of vegetables from the refrigerator, grabbed handfuls of vegetables and filled the bar, still wearing the same glove.
The management seemed merely annoyed when I brought this episode to their attention. Our friends are as shocked as we were.

Pros: A+ customer service, beautiful interior design, reasonable pricing, big portions of food
Cons: the pork and chicken are both a bit dry
I liked the restaurant itself however the food was so-​so in my opinion.

Well it’s over. I really did love this place. It was great, you came in sat down and the put your food into bowls and they cooked it, you ate it. Simple. Now that has all changed. They put the chicken or any other meet you order on for you. Sounds like no big deal.
When I went in they told me the rules have changed and explained that you now tell the server what meat you want and the cook adds it. That is a terrible idea. The cook got my order wrong and it was terrible. I forsee this issue coming up time and time again. I will avoid this frustration and eating across the street. The thing that made flat top good was that you do everything but cook the food. You picked all the ingredients your self. Now you dont. Just like that, the rules have changed. The place I ate 5 to 6 times a month is no more.

I have been here a few times and have had a few different experiences. The food is always great but the last few times I have began to notice something. Depending on where you are sat in the restaurant you have different experiences when it comes to ambiance. If you are seated at the front of the restaurant to about half way back you smell the stir fry and the smells at to the experience and get you excited to create your stir fry. From the middle of the restaurant to the back is a different experience.\
From this point on the smell of cleaning supplies starts to take over. I don’t know if there is a cleaning closet near the seating area or if it the smell coming from the bathroom but it definitely hinders the experience. Your experience goes from the smell of great stir fry to the smell of lemon fresh pinesol. On the plus side the service has maintained a great level of service
The hostesses are always friendly and the waitstaff is helpful. If you have not been their before the waiter/​waitress will take the time to explain the process and give you suggestions as to what to create.
The last thing I will say is I highly suggest adding the bread to your stir fry. It is a great addition to your meal and gives you many dining options.
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Came here today with some suburban relatives. It was actually a good choice because there really is a little something for everyone. I was thrilled that they had so many veggie options. They also had quinoa and tempeh? Really? That was an awesome surprise. So I filled my little black bowl sky high with veggies, quinoa and the infamous tempeh and added the garlic black bean sauce to glue it all together. Someone in my party highly recommend this little piece of flat bread. Was it naan? I’m not sure but it was tasty. I, along with everyone else, enjoyed the individualized stir fry bowls. The service was quite attentive, if not overly attentive, but our server was super nice. I think if you’re with people who have diverse tastes and diet preferences Flat Top is a good choice.

This place is amazing! I first came here roughly around 2011. I am not a fan of Asian food, but this place makes me think otherwise.
Kristie was a server and she did a fantastic job. She even remembers my name every time I come in, mind you that my name isn’t the easiest to pronounce or to remember!
The food is delicious and the break is simply amazing. I like my food nice and simple. White rice, white and yellow noodles, corn, broccoli, a lot of Garlic water, smashed garlic, chicken and beef. It’s simple and amazing.
Kristie did get promoted to store manager and then general manager. She did leave not too long ago, which is pretty sad. I never had someone serve me as good as her. However, the stuff is amazing and will get you everything you ask. If you go on a weekend, expect to wait longer as they are always packed!

I’ve been to this Flat Top twice now and neither time was a great experience. The first time I came at night and the bar area was a MESS! So many ingredients were mixed or even empty, it was nasty.
This time I came during the afternoon so the place wasn’t nearly as busy. The bar was clean and well stocked. It’s obvious that during their busy times, like at night, they should have more people working to refill and clean the bar.
Our food took a while and even when we got it the veggies were a little undercooked. Our waiter was extremely friendly but neglected us after we got our food.
Flat Top is one of my favorite places to go but this location is just ehh.

It’s FlatTop, you know the food is going to be delicious and if not you really only have yourself to blame. If you’ve never been to a FlatTop, you have to go, take all the veggies, rice, meat and sauces you want, throw them in a bowl and they’ll stir fry it up for you. It’s delicious, and FlatTop’s Roti bread is top notch.
Also, FlatTop is infinitely better than Mongolian Grill which is basically across the street.
But I’ve had better experiences at other FlatTops hence the 3 star rating. The first time I went to this FlatTop was late last year and when I went with my girlfriend we were seated right under an air conditioning vent which was blowing way too strongly. I don’t mind the chill but she did and I overheard the people around us mention it was chilly as well. We asked to be reseated (FlatTop always has open seats, there’s a line because the grill can only handle so much) but the waitress said she’d have to check with her manager. The manager then argued with us saying she refused to lower the air conditioning because she was warm by the front door and wanted the AC on and also initially refused to let us change tables making up dumb excuses. The waitress was rather apologetic, but the manager was way out of line.
More recently, I went back and while the experience/​service was good, I found the food options much more limiting than most FlatTops. They were missing a couple of my favorite sauces (no plum sauce, out of peanut sauce) and their veggie selection was smaller (no baby corn, no mixed cut up peppers). I still made a tasty dish, but was disappointed by the options.