Great Wall Mongolian BBQ
717 Denman Street
Vancouver, BC
I have bashed at times the all-you-can-eat concept a little bit too much at times. You have to admit it: How much “quality” you can provide when you charge a fix price and there is almost no limit as to how much a diner can eat? OK, sure, hotel buffets charge an arm and a leg and the food can be quite good. But, then, they have mastered it to a certain extent. For the rest, it is a matter of balance things out: calculate based on the average case scenario (though leaning towards the worst case scenario) and hoping most of the customers won’t consume as much.
With that in mind, PO and I went one day to Great Wall Mongolian BBQ (name of the restaurant) for Mongolian BBQ (type of cuisine). The twist in this case is that you fill up a bowl with different meats, vegetables and noodles. Add some sauce and it is then cooked for you on a large griddle. What’s so funny about this? Because Mongolian BBQ (the cuisine), despite the pamphlet they provide explaining their cuisine, is neither Mongolian nor it is “BBQ”! Anyway, we were up for it…
As for the $$$, it is quite straight forward: $8 lunch if you are setting yourself up for a single bowl or $10 for all-you-can-eat (lunch) or $12 (dinner). At the $8 price point, it is not that far from, say, a plateful of pad thai in Khunnai Chang ($9) so it isn’t necessarily expensive, just average. The question is whether the $8 is worth it. As for the how things are done, how about some pictures to illustrate things (and rather than using my dSLR, these pictures were taken with my iPhone).
Select your meats: there is the option of beef, chicken, pork and lamb (!). They are thinly sliced but rolled up to take more volume, I guess…
Add some vegetables and noodles (the later which I will regret later…)
Some sauces of your choice
Have it ready to cook on the griddle.
Some stirring around and done!
The cooking process can take around 2 to 3 minutes; however, if the line is long (like what happened to us on our visit, after we sat down, a party of almost 20 tourists walked in), it make take forever. As for me “regretting” what I picked, here is the reason why…
In addition to what you can fill up in the bowl, you are also served a mini-spring roll, a small cup of (egg drop) soup and fried rice. None of these were good but at least it served its purpose of filler. As a result, I shouldn’t have filled up my bowl with noodles! I mean, what is the point of more carbs?! (On that note, on the table, there is a note asking customers not to waste food and pick only what they believe you can eat). But, back to what was ordered.
In my bowl, I filled the bottom 1/3 with lamb, as I saw absolutely no reason to choose either beef or chicken and then added some slices of pork. After the noodles, I forced the bowl down by adding some vegetables and tofu. I will admit the vegetables didn’t look that bad (i.e., wilted, brownish) but then again, it could have been an illusion due to the lightning conditions. Finally, they have 12 sauces which you can combine. Me being Chinese, I went for garlic oil, some chili sauce and soy sauce. Once it was cooked, I sprinkled some toasted sesame on top.
I will have to admit, for $8, this isn’t that bad. Granted, the meat wasn’t that lean to begin with so don’t set high expectations. However, one thing that actually worked in their favour was that the lamb was extremely gamey and, if you like it, it spread its flavour quite well around. The noodles, since it was partially cooked before it went to the griddle, kept its texture. But, alas, the one component that should have worked better but didn’t was that wok hei feeling. I guess, since they don’t want to be scrubbing that griddle every time something is being cooked plus avoid using a lot of oil, they would try to prevent that wok hei effect to begin with by dousing it with some water. It worked in both ways as the resulting sauce was actually quite strong. But, given the choice between wok hei or sauce, I would say gimme some balance.
Now, we didn’t end up going back for seconds (for an additional $2) because of the huge lineup created by that party, not to mention I had to go back to the office for a conference call (unfortunately, given I work with customers all over, there are times I can’t avoid calls at 12:30 p.m.). As for me going back to this restaurant, I have the bad habit of finishing everything that is on the plate and, given I am serving myself, that can prove to be extremely dangerous. As a result, I might instead go for pad thai on another restaurant or something on those lines instead. However, for the novelty, it is not bad.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I always find these Mongolian-style restaurants to be a challenge – How to get the most out of my money. I suppose in a case like this, where the price is set, it can be a little easier. But I’ve only ever been when they weigh everything and give you a price; soon I find my ‘cheap in theory’ meal actually ends up being a big investement.
Chris, I think you are referring those teppanyaki places where you have to weight the food before it is cooked. Yes, I have had issues with those where I end up ordering almost $11 for what was supposed to be a “cheap” lunch! >_<
i like this concept because you get what you want and nothing else. i’m forever eating around unwanted items (raw onions, bleh) because i feel bad asking for “no onions please” when ordering. you can also see exactly what’s happening to your food. no sneaking pork fat into the food here… LOL