Mongolian Restaurant

Never ever ever ever go in here

We went here for my friend's birthday and it was absolutely ruined by the rude waitress that served us

The food was dry and chewy

But the main thing was that the service was terrible, the waitress slammed down the milk we wanted and because the writing on the stick was smudged she could not read the name properly. Therefore reading out the wrong name and none of knew who's order it was. She huffily told us she did not know who's it was and slammed down that dish as well.

We refused to pay the service charge and wrote down on the receipt this was because we found the service awful. The waitress actually confronted us and started sticking her finger into my face having a go at me. When we told the manager he did not nothing to make us feel better, instead his response to our complaints were "What do you want me to do about it?"

I wrote to head office and all I got was an apology and vouchers to come back and eat and that they had dealt with the waitress. Yes like I would go back after that even if the food is free. I just chucked away the vouchers.
Comment on this reader review

Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Sunday, January 06, 2008

a friend of mine was keen to give this place a try... i relented because she's one of my dearsest freinds. after this meals we bonded more than before: we both agreed it was AWFUL!

the idea is to give customers the raw ingredients - including spices, then it is thrown onto a barbecue.

(1) it presumes that all customers have the skillls to cook well.

(2) the whole premise of going to a restaraunt is that customers have no wish to be thinking about quantities & blends, when they eat out - otherwise we'd stay at home with a cook book for a fraction of the price.

the waiting staff were rude & disinterested. my recomendation: walk on by - it's an hour of your life, you'll never get back.
Comment on this reader review

Mr. CiCi Romain
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 1
Thursday, December 27, 2007

I wanted to eat here for a while, having passed by and seen the attractive entrance terrace, and because I had heard of the style of restaurant, which itself is quite fun! You choose your own ingredients from a range of meat, fish, vegetables, spices and sauces, and present them to the chef who cooks them on a wide flat hotplate. You then have the option to return for another go. Good for a relaxed meal with friends, something for all different tastes and preferences, and not expensive!

The food did not disappoint, but the service sadly did.

We did arrive in late evening, but not unreasonably so, and when booking our table I had checked there would be no problem with the timing. Nor was the restaurant empty when we arrived. So I was surprised on arrival to be told they were about to close, we would have to be quick! This was the limit of the service we received! I had to go myself to find a waiter to order drinks and side orders not available for self service, which finally arrived as we were finishing the main dishes!

I did enjoy the food, but the attitude of the staff was very off-putting, and somewhat spoilt the atmosphere. Possibly earlier in the day it might be worth another try.
Comment on this reader review

Ellie - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 5
Friday, July 27, 2007

I had heard a lot of Mongolian Barbecues prior to visiting this eaterie in Covent Garden. Having had the self-serve set-up expalined to me by an incomprehensible idiot, I was apprehensive to say the least.

However, all became clear when our party entered. You effectively have meat and fish in one section, vegetables in another and herbs/spices/sauces in the last. The idea is you take ONE type of meat/fish, add your desired vegetables and (the fun part) mix your own sauces from such staples as Black Bean, Barbecue, Chilli, Garlic and Sweet and Sour, together with herbs and other condiments. Hand the raw ingredients in at the hot plate, sure to insert your name-bearing woodstick in the dish, and 10-15 minutes later you get a fried version of your concoction.

The idea is both entertaining and for me, quite exciting. My first 2-3 attempts were as delicious as I hoped - later dishes were a bit rich though. And herein lies the beauty - if you know what you're doing, you can make some wonderful bowls of food.

The downside is that the sauces tend to dominate, and as with any all you can eat affair food is not quite premium quality. However, with a nice layout and seemingly friendly service staff I would definitely go there again. It also represents good value, with unlimited starters, main and a few dinks coming to aroung £18.50 per head.
Comment on this reader review

Garlic Head - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 7
Friday, July 27, 2007

I think I could agree with most of the reviews given here, although by the sounds of it I had a more enjoyable experience than most. I went there last night as a party of 9 and upon finding our seats they took our drinks orders and then left us to our own devices. It wasn't until quarter of an hour later, after we questioned them about how you actually get food in this place, that they sent over a waitress who could just about muster together enough pidgeon english to tell us loosely how the process works and that we all have to pay £14 for our food (whether we wanted more than one serving/buffet or not it seems...). Service was pretty average - we were never left waiting for anything for too long (it was only really us and a couple other groups of people on a monday night); food was mixed - I loved the starter soups (satay chicken, beef and vegetable) , they were really tasty; for main course I tried my own version of black bean beef which was tasty, although nothing spectacular. I also tried the salmon, but gave up on it after a couple of bites as it lacked taste and texture. The chicken dishes however were pretty good. Pudding was really tasty - I had the chocolate bomb which was a sizeable serving given how rich it was; all that was washed down with numerous pints and a couple of tasty tia mias.

Overall it was good fun going there as it's certainly something new and a clever idea, although as others have already said it could have been pulled off much better.

Main criticisms? pot luck with the food; almost certainly overpriced for what you're getting (service charge?!?!??! - if I had fetched the bill I would have refused to pay); sitting near the grill is a bit noisy because of the constant humming from the extraction device; would never ever consider going there in a small group - you'll need to bring your own atmosphere & talking points as the restaurant provides none; it's about as Mongolian as MJ's innocent...

Pros: Good fun, the Sun Lik beer tastes good and has the desired effect...
Comment on this reader review

endy
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 2
Wednesday, July 04, 2007

All in all a pretty poor operation. Got the buffet option and was disapointed as they only served us noodles and rice once despite multiple orders. There were clearly not enough staff on and struggled to get water from a waiter and ended up asking the bar, extremely hot inside due to the grill running and no a/c. Food was poorly stored with raw chicken, fish and red meat mixed in the same bowls (due to people dropping there food in there but still poorly set up). Then they tried to charge 12.5% service charge which they removed when I explained the service we had recieved.
Comment on this reader review

Tony - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 2
Thursday, February 22, 2007

Went to the restaurant last night with a group of friends and I have to say it was one of the pricest and worst food experience I have in London and I have to agree with everyone here. First of, there was a 'Christmas Special Menu' which was all you can eat starters/mains/dessert for 22.95. The starters (pea soup? Leek and potato soup?) were all in these soup pots (even the 'prawn' pasta salad!) and did not look remotely appetizing at all. Second, the meat selection… you can tell they were using the cheapest cuts of meat… the beef was dry and tasteless (and smelled oddly like fish) and the fish (salmon that night) smelled like it’s been sitting there for a while. Third, the service was definitely not fabulous enough to deserve the mandatory 12.5% service charge as it is a self-service restaurant and the servers were unfriendly and it took a long time to get the servers attention even though the restaurant’s half full. Forth, the food cooked by the ‘chefs’ were tasteless and just plain bad… I’m sure a five year old can make a stir fry better than these guys. The sauces they offered were unexciting and really really really salty (mostly likely so that they can get you to drink enough water to get filled up that way). And because they cook everything on the same ‘wok’, if the person before you had fish/seafood and they cooked it on the same place, your meal will basically end up tasting like fish (even the vegetable which is actually quite gross). The eating area was clean but if you go to the bathroom, it looks like those dingy restaurants you see in back alleyways (peeling paint, really dark and dirty toilets) The five of us plus four pints came around to 143 pounds and I wish I spent my money at McD’s instead.

The only thing positive I can think of is that at least (so far) I did not get food poisoning.
Comment on this reader review

Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Tuesday, December 19, 2006

I know of very few famous Mongolians other than of course Genghis Khan, but I think even he would distance himself from associating himself with this place

In one word the Mongolian Barbecue was: awful. To expand on it would be: very awful. I was recommended this place by a friend at work and wished I had read the reviews here first. I’ve eaten in many restaurants, as both my weight and bank balance will testify, but I’ve never had the misery of eating at such a dismal place.

First impressions as they say are always the most important. We had to wait several moments before someone came over and asked if we had a booking, so “exclusive” was this place the impression was you couldn’t eat without one.

We were shown to our table but given no introduction. Okay it’s food so what needs to be said right? But there was none of the “have you been here before?, do you know how it works?” ice breaker between host and guests. Normally I would find that annoying but in this instance, having never eaten there before it would have been nice.

The place lacked any real atmosphere, no music in the background, no real rapport with staff and guests. The seating area is like a pit with tables, whilst the food is a few steps up above you so all the “excitement” of having the food cooked in front of you is somewhat misleading.

Over our table hung a framed picture of an old man (presumably Mongolian) who had a facial impression some might describe as humble, others cynical as I would say disappointed at what this place had to offer, almost apologetic that you came and didn’t know better.

The starters that were ordered were cheap. By that I don’t mean it was cheap for us, I mean it was made on the cheap. Deep fried wonton, spring roll, prawn in a crispy pastry, small handful of prawn crackers and half a bite size somosa and something deep fried that tasted like oyster, but I don’t want to think about, £5.45. All tasting blatantly from frozen and costing probably just over £1.

The main event was dull, yes there was a range of herbs and spices, chillies and garlic and probably more than a dozen various sauces but somewhere along the line it got messed up. Permission to only pick one choice of meat per visit to the assembly line, just seemed a little misleading for me at a unlimited buffet affair. I don’t know what happened between my selections of meat,veg,sauces and spices but the whole thing came back bland.

The only thing I enjoyed was the dessert, a combination of the fact it was sweet and yummy and that it signalled the end of this nightmare of a meal.

When the bill came, after our allotted 2 hours, the total had to be contested and the manager had to knock off £27,once.

And remind me again, why we were charged 12.5% service charge for what was, to a large extent self service and where there didn’t seem to be much service?

When a restaurant chain that wants to offer it’s business model as a franchise and yet only has 1 branch in London is that a sign of exclusivity or disappointing interest by investors?

I’ll finish on this note, Treat the Mongolian Barbecue like a museum visit; Look around, take in what atmosphere you can, don’t touch the displays or disturb the staff too much, don’t spend too much in the gift shop and leave.
Comment on this reader review

Jay Lo
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Sunday, November 26, 2006

There are no printable words available to describe the horrendous evening we experienced recently at this establishment. On arrival our table of 16 was greeted by the most unhelpful and dry lump of mutton I have ever encountered as a manager. After numerous sighs and eye rolling we managed to organise our pre-booked table only to be left unattended for the rest of the night. Eventually we managed to stop a waiter and ask about menus, prices and general set up. With this information we proceeded to the buffet styled layout to indulge in one starter and main course each (£9.95).

While the “extensive” choice of three starters (frozen stir fried strings of rubber, industrial tinned mushrooms in dishwater and a soup not worthy of touching) was as appealing as a 10 day old leaf of soggy lettuce avec le bacterie tasted even viler than its appearance. As for the décor, one pathetic photo of a Mongolian national, their attempt at creating an environment is as lame as its food repertoire. I hope the kitchens are maintained better than the disused warehouse styled toilets or again was this intentional?

After copious amounts of bottomless soft drinks my stomach allowed me to proceed with the main course – a variety of meat, fish and vegetables with herbs, spices and oils to be cooked on a circular hot plate situated within the dining area. At a distance all looked very tempting, until approaching the servery, it was noticed that most of the faded ingredients looked capable of walking out of the restaurant. The staff looked as frightened as the dried out fish complete with curly ends. Someone should tell the chefs that this isn’t a style of cooking. Neither is cooking on a hot plate with water. So it was no surprise that my tasteless mush of a meal arrived like a winter’s day in the west coast of Ireland – cold, wet and miserable. Through gritted teeth I ate enough to keep the hunger pains at bay. My plan was to exit ASAP and get something edible to eat but the best was to come – the pudding.

This course was the icing on the cake! The bill arrived whereby we were overcharged by approx. £70 and were almost forced to pay the “discretionary” £33 service charge. Imagine £33 service charge in a self serve restaurant! Once again, as per other reviews for this restaurant, we spent the next 1.5 hours arguing about the bill and trying to explain English terminology to the aggressive and belittling staff.
Comment on this reader review

bilbii
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Friday, September 22, 2006

A group of seven of us ended up here one Friday night. We all opted for the buffet menu (£6.95 pp), looking forward to the novelty of choosing our own ingredients and having them cooked right next to our table. When the waitress came to take our order, she told us that, as we were a party of more than 6 people we could get the special offer of all-you-can-eat, for just £7 pp. Bonus...we thought!

However, we were to be thoroughly disappointed. There was a large selection of raw ingredients on offer, but the quality was mediocre. The variety of about a dozen cooking sauces included garlic, green curry, chilli, etc...but nothing that seemed specifically Mongolian. Cooking time was inordinately long, and service was intermittent. But to top it all off, when the bill came, they had charged us £13.95 pp. We queried this first with our waitress and then with the restaurant manager, as we were expecting only £7pp. Essentially we had been charged double (£6.95 + £7) purely and simply because we were a table of more than 6 people. In addition they had the nerve to add a 12.5% service charge - to a meal which we had pretty much helped ourselves.

We all found this outrageous and I would strongly advise anyone thinking of going to this restaurant to avoid it. Sadly, as most of its clientele are probably tourists, this establishment will continue to undermine the reputation of London's eateries and continue to charge extortionate prices for substandard wares.
Comment on this reader review

zimboholly
Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 0
Friday, May 19, 2006