Let’s start this column by clearing up a major misconception. Mongolia was, and still is, a cold, barren region where the main food sources are herd animals and a very few hardy root vegetables (potato, turnip, onions). Gengis Khan (my favourite of the Khans) is more likely to have barbecued a goat over a stone pit than to have tossed a few vegetables on his shield for an impromptu stir-fry, as Mongolie Grill would have you believe.
Fact-stretching aside, the Mongolie Grill (a chain, but not to be confused with the short-lived and truly horrid KT’s Mongolian Grill, formerly of Bayer’s Road Shopping Centre) has an interesting premise. Customers are presented with a small stainless-steel bowl, which they move along a salad bar set up with about a gazillion ingredients and sauces. You pass the bowl to the cook, who weighs it ($2.59/100g), tosses it around on a giant circular flattop and brings it to your table. If you prefer, you can hang around the grill and watch the food being prepared.
The Grill has set up in the old home of the Sports Hall of Fame, not quite the nomadic people’s yurt-like decor, but spacious with plenty of room for your tribe.
After our enthusiastic server explains how things work, we head to the ingredient bar to make our selections. All sorts of vegetables are fresh and crisp in spotless little bins. After the vegetables comes a protein bar of beef, shrimp, chicken and nuts. Suggestions for combinations and amounts are helpfully posted along the way.
Crushed garlic and ginger lead the way to the 18 different sauces available. The sauces are flavourful (we sample a few before settling on two: teriyaki and coconut) and with the abundance of fresh ingredients, hopes are high for a great meal. Both our bowls, almost full, ring in under nine bucks (one gets the 20 percent vegetarian discount).
With the meal comes a choice of soup (there are two), steamed rice and the thin delicate crepe-like wrappers that usually accompany Chinese moo shu pork. We have one of each soup: a corn chowder and a hot-and-sour soup. The corn chowder tastes like cream of mushroom and the corn is largely AWOL. The hot and sour is hot. It’s so hot that I, even with a high heat threshold, can’t take more than two spoonfuls. It stays uneaten.
Out comes a thermos jar of the sticky rice and that helps cool the fiery soup. Shortly after, the cook arrives with our plates looking askance to see which of us ordered what. We look aghast—our bright, colourful, crisp vegetables are cooked to a soggy, dark-brown mess. Both plates look identical, although we chose different ingredients and sauces—unappealing.
We dig in anyway. The flavours we anticipated have been lost in the overcooking process. My garlic has an unpleasant, burnt taste, tainting my dish. All of the lovely vegetables in the second plate are unidentifiable mush. Our Chinese crepes resemble two napkins and were obviously factory made and frozen at one time. They’re left uneaten.
A return visit is in order, but alas—the cooks we encounter are trained the same way—a second trip through Mongolie Grill yields the same overdone results.
It’s truly a shame because it’s a great concept. So many beautiful ingredients means you could eat here cheaply and quite often and never get bored—if the cooks used a bit of a lighter hand in the cooking.
This article appears in Feb 21-27, 2008.
Ouch.
Ouch is right. I have dined at Mongolie Grill several times since it opened, and have enjoyed excellent food and service on each occasion. It is my feeling that the restaurant review entitled “Mongolie Grill’d” is heavy handed and rather glib. I wish this new business continued success!
Everytime I come into Halifax from New Brunswick I make sure that I eat at the Mongolie Grill. I personally am not one for spicy food but found the Hot and Sour soup to be flavourful and I was able to finish the full bowl. I would be shocked to learn that the recipe has changed since the last time I was there (January). All meals that I have eaten there have been grilled to perfection. Interestingly this is my 6 year old daughter’s favourite restaurant in the city. They must be doing something right to make a 6 year old enjoy the veggies! I have eaten at several “Mongolian” restaurants, all with a similar theme and Mongolie Grill has been by far the best so far.
Does this place have an online menu somewhere? Thanks!
Let me start by saying that I have eaten at the Mongolie grill on almost a weekly basis since its has been open… on Every ocassion I have enjoyed my meal thoroughly. It has been well cooked and not over done.. firm tendercrisp vegetables and seasoned well just the way I made it. Im very sorry to see such a review as this one in print and wish that everyone would try the Mongolie Grill anyway despite this review. I have held or attended at least 3 group functions at the Grill , including my own 30th birthday party and that of another friend of mine. On the night of my friends birthday EVERYONE at the table RAVED about their meals (there were 7 women of ages 30 through 60). All were impressed by the choice, flavours and preparation of the meals. In my experience Ive NEVER been out with a group of women where everyone made such a fuss about how delicious their meals were. Im sorry that what you may have experienced on your visits did not meet with your standards of a good meal…but I just wish to inform your readers that myself and everyone I have brought to the Mongolie Grill has thoroughly enjoyed their meals and experience. I too have a 1 year old who enjoys the corn chowder, rice and wraps. He’s not ready for my spicy meals yet but soon he will be big enough for his own stirfry. Think of this.. how many places exist where you can choose all your own ingredients just the way you like it, quantities and seasonings that you enjoy and still have it brought to your table and someone else to clean up after you. I for one LOVE THE MONGOLIE GRILL and will continue to support this DELICIOUS new restaurant offering for Halifax.
Let me start by saying that I have eaten at the Mongolie grill on almost a weekly basis since its has been open… on Every ocassion I have enjoyed my meal thoroughly. It has been well cooked and not over done.. firm tendercrisp vegetables and seasoned well just the way I made it. Im very sorry to see such a review as this one in print and wish that everyone would try the Mongolie Grill anyway despite this review. I have held or attended at least 3 group functions at the Grill , including my own 30th birthday party and that of another friend of mine. On the night of my friends birthday EVERYONE at the table RAVED about their meals (there were 7 women of ages 30 through 60). All were impressed by the choice, flavours and preparation of the meals. In my experience Ive NEVER been out with a group of women where everyone made such a fuss about how delicious their meals were. Im sorry that what you may have experienced on your visits did not meet with your standards of a good meal…but I just wish to inform your readers that myself and everyone I have brought to the Mongolie Grill has thoroughly enjoyed their meals and experience. I too have a 1 year old who enjoys the corn chowder, rice and wraps. He’s not ready for my spicy meals yet but soon he will be big enough for his own stirfry. Think of this.. how many places exist where you can choose all your own ingredients just the way you like it, quantities and seasonings that you enjoy and still have it brought to your table and someone else to clean up after you. I for one LOVE THE MONGOLIE GRILL and will continue to support this DELICIOUS new restaurant offering for Halifax.
I was surprised to read the review on the New Mongolie Grill in Halifax. It read to me like Liz likes the sound of her own thoughts and got carried away with her bad review. I consider it very harsh and inaccurate. I have been to the restaurant 3 times since it opened and have brought people with me the 2nd and 3rd time. Each time that I went I thoroughly enjoyed my meal, as did my guests. I know that one of them has taken a friend there since and another one has asked me to go with him again. I recommend that the review be ignored – Just try it yourself instead.
This review has to be one of Liz’s harshest reviews I have ever read. I am starting to think she may have had a chop stick stuck up her ass when writing such nonsense. I make a point to go to the grill everytime I am in Halifax which is a few times a month and enjoy it each and everytime. I have brought new people and have never heard a negative comment. I say to all who read this, use your own judgement and try out the Mongolie Grill for yourself!
First off I would like to apologize to Liz for her food being over cooked, I work at The Mongolie Grill and am very proud to be part of this team. I was so excited to work there because I thought the concept was really a great idea, “CREATE YOUR OWN”. The food is always fresh, and the sauces are made from scratch, no msg or trans fat! Try going to McDonalds or even one of the many pizza places around, you wont find that anywhere. All of the customers that I have been in contact with have been nothing but thrilled with their dining experiences. We also encourage feed back from everyone who visits. If your stir fry wasn’t what you thought it was going to be, let your server know, we can suggest other combinations for next time. ( By the way coconut and teryiaki are not a great combination) You should also keep in mind that certain sauces don’t go with everything, ask your server we can try to help out as best we can. If you come to our establishment with your nose in the air expecting the worse, then you bring it on yourself. To Liz, next time you visit us, maybe ask more questions, get one of us to help with your sauce choices I would be more than happy to help you!! To everyone else, we at The Mongolie Grill appreciate your patronage, and look forward to seeing you all again! Thank you for your support!!
I’d like to point out that they are not crepes but rather moo shoo wraps and they are supposed to be like this. I reccomend folding in half, put some rice and some of your stir fry inside and wrap away. Bite and Chew!!!!! I really like them, and due to their visual resemblance to kleenex they really confuse my one year old :0
Let me tell you about my visit to Mongolie Grill.I still have the receipt and every time I look at it I shake my head. Our server was AdamP. We had a chicken stir fry and a veggie stirfry.The chicken was normal size in the silver bowl and cost $14.76. The veggie was a heaping bowl of vegetables (probably about $4.00 worth at Sobeys) and this came to $24.35!!!! We had a 20% vegetarian discount of $4.87 but that still equalled almost $20 for vegetables.There was only 1 other table in the place and when we left we noticed they had rice and wraps and thought we must have missed that somewhere, only to now find out it was supposed to be included. $50 for 2 stirfries and a water and pop and green onion cake, it is not a place I could ever recommend. This was in December and maybe they lowered their prices since then but I wish them the best, in what will be a struggle to survive.
Pat – it’s $2.59 for every 100 grams so if your bowl is quite heavy – then the price is going to be quite a bit more. Next time get less veggies and more rice (they offer more) and maybe the server was new – and that’s why you didn’t get your moo shoo wraps.Now Liz – you’re a wimp.I tried Mongolie Grill for my first time and for my 1 year anniversary with my husband on Feb. 23rd at about 8pm – and the service was fantastic and the food was delicious.The only issue I had with the restaurant – which I left on the comment card – was that it was incredibly cold by the windows – but the owner/manager explained this was due to the natural gas not being installed yet.My snow peas were nice and crisp, along with the rest of my veggies and the server was excellent.As far as the hot and sour soup goes – you need to go to Great Wall Restaurant and try out their hot and sour soup – which is 50x hotter than what’s served at Mongolie Grill.It’s a stir fry – so it’s not supposed to look like a crafty plated dish like you would receive from Stone Haven for example.Keep in mind – Mongolians when they had to cook their food – they used their helmets to heat up their food….
Herb:There is no online menu – it’s simple – you choose what meats/seafood/veggies you want, pour the sauces you want made with it and give it to the cook – who will weight it – and then they bring it to you when they’re done cooking it. You get a thermos with rice and moo shoo wraps – and voila – you have your meal.It’s $2.59/100 grams of stirfry
After reading Liz’s tag line and looking at the picture of the stir-fry at the Mongolie Grill, I do not see what she describes as food that is overcooked into a soggy, unpalatabled mess. Instead I see a stir-fry that looks delicious and resembles the meals I have had at the grill on five different occassions. The staff have always been helpful in making suggestions and I have never been disappointed in any of my meals. Starting a new restaurant cannot be easy and it is unfortunate that, with a stroke of a non-sensitive pen, this could have an impact on the success or failure of this business. I wish the new owners of the Mongolie Grill much success and suggest that people try this new experience for themselves. I am sure they will not be disappointed. A
I have been to Mongolie Grill three times in the last couple months and thoroughly enjoy everything about the place. The food is amazing and leaves you feeling great due to the lack of MSG. It’s refreshing to be able to make any combo you want, and it’s fast! Liz seems like she was expecting something else, or felt she was due for a follow up to her “Gatsby’s” review. I’m just glad I tried this restaurant out before reading this bull, otherwise I would have missed out big time.The food is NOT overcooked.The hot and sour soup is NOT too spicy, in the least. It’s actually quite tame.Flavours ARE abundant.I must thank Liz for making it clear that I can no longer trust her opinions.
That review might have been a tad harsh. The staff seems to try hard working as wait staff in a cafeteria atmosphere. The food though does indeed arrive as a jumbled mass of ingredients cooked to varying degrees of done-ness. The sauces are pointless, in my experience anyway. The flavours were lost and they should offer the option of adding sauces after the stuff is cooked. Also the wraps are too few and too thin and too cold etc. The hot and sour soup is DELICIOUS! I love it very much. It was perfectly spiced. The place seems a bit of a fad and maybe won’t make it. I hope they do though… I hope they iron out the problems and make a big success of it.
My wife and I ate there once and when I read the review in The Coast, it was like I wrote the damn thing, word for word. Everything was overcooked and overpriced. I’m guessing the only ones who are upset with this review of truth are friends of the owners. Liz only wrote what she thought, of her TWO visits. Take the criticism and make the restaurant better, don’t whine and complain.And hire new cooks.
Hello I have eaten at the Grill a number of times and have enjoyed it every time. I have eaten at a large number of restaurants in the city and frequently order some type of stir fry. If people think the Mongolie Grill is over cooked, I suggest there compare it to more expensive stir fries (which are actually overcooked) which are all over the city. The freshness of the Mongolie Grill is also something to be rivaled. But my favorite part of the Grill is the protein choices. I love squid. The grill is the only place in the city I have been able to have a squid based stir fry that does not taste like rubber.If people are unhappy about the quality of the food they received let the restaurant know while you are there so they can fix things as soon as possible don’t be a coward and wait for a bad review to voice your concerns. The Coast restaurant review has no credibilty with me anymore.I hope people will make their own opinions by actually eating there. Oh and by the way the nature of Hot and Sour Soup is to be Hot. So if you you don’t have a palette for hot food you probably shouldn’t order it.
Liz,what in the hell are you talking about?!can we get a food critic who knows what shes talking about please?mongolie grill is great. little expensive to start, but great. geez.
ps – the secret is in the sauce mixing. soy, garlic and ginger is a fine pairing.
Dave:No we’re just mere customers that enjoy good food.If you think it’s over priced – don’t put as much in the bowl.Simple as that.And if you think they should hire new cooks – that are merely cooking what you want – apply. I’m sure they’d look foward to seeing your resume.
Dave – I hear you know Beth/work with her and you have a problem with her from outside of Mongolie Grill – leave the personal issues out when rating food…and once again they give out comment cards – fess up and put it down so they can read it in front of you – as opposed to reading it online.
I went today with 2 girlfriends of mine that have wanted to try Mongolie Grill and once again – rave reviews.I had house blend, with spicy thai sauce, a bit of soy, ginger and garlic and extra chili sauce (the one in a bottle) and it was fantastic….Keep it up Mongolie!
Liz, no offence meant, but it would help to properly define something you’re eating with the proper words. after all, you’re a food critic. as for not liking the way they look, i usually have no problem sending the dish back whether it’s a pub or a classy restaurant. finally, it doesn’t hurt to ask the waitress to point out a few things to suit your palate.
Allan: the food in the photo still looks good because it’s not cooked. If you like your meats and vegetables totally raw, then I guess that photo would appeal to you.
My wife and I have been ecstatic over this restaurant ever since we heard about it. Finally, the one thing we were missing since our move to the east coast is now here!The selection is truly amazing, having been to similar styled restaurant in the rest of Canada, this one has the most variety of vegetables, a great selection of meat, and pre mixed sauces (as opposed to the having to pick sauce base and spices individually).We have been twice, (they finally have their Natural Gas heat hooked up) and we will go again, and we recommend this place to everyone we know.Note, this is stir fry, thus if you are expecting “Foie Gras, Pate, and Truffles” and if the look of how the parsley and bailey is arranged around the plate is more important then the taste of its content, this is not a restaurant for you.
I have to (mostly) agree with the reviewer. On my visit in January, I found the food overcooked and the sides (the soup, the rice, the moo-shoo wraps… all of it) to be overly processed and bland. No, it wasn’t completely horrible, but I feel there are better restaurants to cater to when I go out to eat. I can make a much better stir fry at home.On the other hand, while we were there, we overheard the family sitting next to us raving about how great the food was. Let it be known: reasonable people can come to different conclusions on the merits (or lack thereof) of a restaurant. If the concept appeals to you, go have a visit and decide for yourself.
I quite like the Mongolie Grill and have not experienced an overcooked meal in four visits. I always get the hot and sour soup, which to me is not all that hot and certainly not “fiery” in the least. However, I do agree with Liz that the mu shu wraps (crepes) are crappy.
I think some of you may need to reread her review! She does not mix the two sauces.. they were two people so two sauces.. Also, although I do not always agree with her reviews, I do read them weekly and I think after other reviews, it would be hard to say she can’t “handle” hot things. I’ve eaten here and the biggest problem is the overcooking – all the ingredients for the stirfries do not need equal amounts of cooking! There are some things that should even be stirfried first alone.. so they have to overcook the fast cooking items to make sure the slower ones are done. Also those wraps have no taste and I tried adding more sauce ( I used garlic and ginger) but alas, it was lost through the cooking process.
I have enjoyed my dining experiences at Mongolie Grill on a numerous occasions. The attentive staff, fresh crisp vegetables, seafood and meats along with the various choices of sauces all makes for a delicious meal. I have introduces many friends and family to this incredible dining experiences. All have had a great time and have returned to enjoy another excellent and pleasant dining experience. You have to taste their new dessert menu- particularly the “Cookies and Cream Cake”!
Well atleast the reviewer and the people commenting got to try the food. A group of four of us went there Saturday night, were seated promptly and that was it. Another couple came in got seated next to us. 20 minutes later both tables were still there waiting for our “bowls”, I mean after all how long does it take to look at that menu?
Meanwhile another group of four were seated on the other side of us about 10 minutes after us and got thier bowls within a couple minutes. Along with a that was a couple seated behind us 15 minutes after we were seated and they too got thier bowls within minutes
Needless to say my group of four and the couple beside us left. Clearly a disorganized restaurant and is in dire need of customer service lessons or at the very least a manager who knows to run a wait staff.
The Mongolian Grill Halifax NS
Service was TERRIBLE
did not bring full menu, we have to ask for the rice twice which he said they were out & its cooking now & when we got ………it was cold
Mu shu wraps never came. When ask for Mu shu wraps
server comments were
YOU WILL NOT LIKE IT, IT IS FOR CHILDREN TO PLAY WITH FOOD ETC.
then long wait for the bill processing
server did not know about the Pile High Club