Lots of Standing Around

Reviewer: Chris

Original Review Date: 09/27/2006

Rating: +1/+3(Not bad)

This place is mildly interesting, but the sideshow aspect of it just kind of got in the way for me. We went with a large work group, and fortunately we went early (11:30), because the line was probably 20 people long shortly after we arrived (one of our group arrived a few minutes later than the main bunch, and the line was so long by then that it was hopeless for him--he just skipped the whole grill and came to the table and sat down grubless).

The way it works is you grab a bowl and make your way through a buffet line of raw stir-fry ingredients--all manner of vegetables first, noodles and such, then at the end there are raw sliced meats. The strategy is to stack as much as possible in your bowl to maximize value (there's one price for the buffet). Before you get to the "grille" at Center Stage, you ladle on your sauces from a sauce bar featuring a large variety of sauces.

Then comes the featured attraction of the restaurant, I suppose, where you gather 'round the circular grille and watch the "grill masters" (according to the website)--likely minimum-wage-earning workers--prepare your food. The "grille" is a giant circular affair with a convex top, large enough to accomodate stir-frying several servings at once. This is where the concept kind of breaks down for me. We had to stand at the Grille Circle for a good 10 minutes with our plates of raw food in front of us watching other peoples' food get cooked. There were two "grill masters" working at once, and they were cooking maybe four plates of food at a time. This serves as a very effective bottleneck. And cross your fingers that the grill masters don't have to take a break to clean the grill before they get to your dish. We had to wait several minutes as they went through the cleansing process before getting our plates cooking. Then of course you get to stand there and watch as your food cooks (and resist the urge to reach over to catch the scraps that fall off the edge of ye mongolian grille).

They need some hot-swappable grilles in my opinion, so that one can be going at all times. There was quite a bit of standing in line and waiting around in my Mongolian Grille experience. This also tends to break up larger groups, as three or four people from your group get released from the grille every 5 minutes or so. By the time the last people sit down to eat, the first ones to make it through are done.

When we finally got to sit down there was some rice and some bread there to accompany the meal, and the food was not bad (my homemade mix of stuff and sauces came out pretty tasty). But the whole sideshow feel to the place, and the potential of having to stand around for 15 minutes before you get to sit down and eat, just makes it too much of a whip to risk another trip for me. And really, is it that interesting to watch someone stir frying your food?