Sherman's Food Adventures: King Mongolian Grill

King Mongolian Grill

I'll have to admit it. I've never pay much attention to Mongolian restaurants. For some reason or another, I do not find them all that interesting. C'mon, it's merely a bunch of meat, veggies and noodles cooked up on a large grill. Sure, it's neat to look at; but isn't it a glorified form of U-Grill and the sort? However, if I look at it from a different perspective - as in that it is a generally inexpensive filling meal - then it gets a bit more attractive. I'm sure you've noticed that "fast food" joints are creeping up dangerously close to $10.00 for a complete meal. Hence, people who are a bit more health-conscious look towards food like soup noodles, sushi, teppanyaki and Mongolian-type grills. Hey, when I'm in a food court, I usually go straight for U-Grill or Koya. Although, the downside of U-Grill is that it can get pretty pricey if one wasn't paying attention.

Now where some places will charge you by the gram for the amount of food you choose, King Mongolian Grill in PoCo lets you put as much into a bowl without making a mess for only $6.50. Now that is easier said than done. Akin to the first Tuesday of every month at Chong Lee Market, the place was a madhouse with people all over the place grabbing things. The food station looked like an aftermath of a food fight while there was no real ordering system in place. Bubble Girl and I had to literally guess what we should do. We were really impressed that the cook remembered whose bowl was who's. At one point, there was a line of 10 bowls of raw ingredients waiting to be cooked. I actually went up for seconds and automatically triggered the All-U-Can-Eat option for $11.50. Again, I'm not sure how they keep track. I guess it would be the honour system. I'm sure Geighis Khan would not be impressed. LOL...

So the actual protocol is to grab a bowl, select your meats, veggies and noodles, then head over to the sauce station (although the sauces looked quite watered down). Once you have chosen your sauces, leave the bowl for the cook to grill it. Once grilled, they will bring it to you. If you do the AYCE, then just repeat as many times as you want. For me, I only went twice. There is only so much I can eat! Seriously! And what I got was something that is very similar to U-Grill, but cheaper and with many more sauce options. Since everything is essentially cooked all at once on the hot grill, some things will be more cooked than others. Hey, it ain't perfect; yet ultimately it is a filling and relatively healthy meal. Their lunch special for $6.50 allows one to fill their large bowl with whatever they want to the brim and then some. Hence there was stuff all over the place and floor. Seeing how there were so many teenagers in here, even they know that this is a pretty good deal. Nice to see that they are choosing this over McD's.

The Good:
- Cheap
- It has got the "choose your own adventure" kinda thing going on
- Stuff is fresh

The Bad:
- Lack of real sense of order... much like Richmond
- Food is pretty average, only to fill you up
- The included "salad bar" looks more like rabbit's leftovers

King Mongolian Grill Restaurant on Urbanspoon

5 comments:

KimHo said...

Looking at the third picture, the one with the meats, reminded me of my own visit at places like this in Downtown Vancouver: since it is all you can load in a bowl, almost in a balancing act, to avoing somebody overloading it with meats, they slice it and "curl" it to take up more space! But, in the end, this is quite a deal, compared to other offerings, including the ones you mentioned.

PH said...

the food may not be quality
but I agree it does fill you up,
I have enjoyed the great wall on Denman street and Georgia..

sometimes I prepare a cheap filling meal over an expensive one leaving me hungry


http://famishedstudent.blogspot.com

Sherman Chan said...

Yah, restaurants do stuff to benefit their bottom line... hehe... but yah, a good value nonetheless.

Anonymous said...

There's this new place down the street, Mongo Bongo. Same idea...one bowl for $7.50, AYCE $11.50. Young dude running the grill. Another similarity is that the kids seem to like it. Probably a good thing. Didn't want to bother with it based on the name alone..much like Mucho Burrito. Then I read this blogpost and figured I'll give it a shot.

http://thedelectable.wordpress.com/2011/01/15/mongobongo/#more-1

Sherman Chan said...

Mongo Bongo? Nice name. I need to try it on that alone.

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