Ottawa Foodies

Daughter took "The Man" and I here for Father’s Day Dinner. We had a 6:00 PM reservation, but were running late due to weather (another thunderstorm). So although we arrived a tad late, we still got a nice greeting and were shown to our "Reserved" Table by the windows. Our waiter was friendly, but not overly so… he did tell us it was a good thing we had chosen to come for dinner vs. lunch, they had had a major power outage in Bell’s Corners over the lunch hour, and that had been a real hassle for the restaurant. He took our soup orders, and came back with our water, and the wrap & utensil basket. While waiting for our soup, Daughter & Father spent time doing the "gift thing", I happily filled in as the photographer.

Soup arrived, hot and tasty, all bowls were scooped clean. Then it was up to the "ingredients bar" to choose our mains. Daughter is a vegetarian so Mongolian Village is always a good choice for her, plus there is a discount for Vegetarian Dishes. After dropping off our plates at the grill, we returned to our seats, and chatted about the various food items available, the question of how to choose / concoct a sauce, and who had the most expensive meal (and therefore the most by weight – afraid I won that one, I’m not a vegetarian, so I filled up on steak & seafood).

"The Man" chose a wine to accompany dinner, a Pinot Noir from Cono Sur of Chile (a family favourite). Not long after the waiter returned with the wine, and our mains arrived almost at the same time. Sesame seeds were offered, and other sauces were selected from the trays on the table. Rice was shared from the warming canister that the waiter had delivered while we were up at the grill area. Everyone enjoyed their "creation". The waiter offered coffee and dessert, but all decided they were too full for dessert (although the list of today’s features looked enticing). All in all a good time out, and good value for the money.

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As an aside, we like Mongolian Village due to the fact that everyone can choose what they want to eat (ie. Vegetarian) and how much (the Dieters). And yes it may be just a stirfry, but there is an incredible selection of ingredients, that I couldn't replicate at home for what it costs to feed 2 people, without a lot of leftovers, or things that would otherwise go bad before they are used up. So for us, we see it as a good value.

This place is quite a bore, although I suppose it would be good for someone who wants to control exactly what they're eating, since you select the ingredients and have a staffer fry it all up for you. However, there's something about a buffet of raw meat that I find off-putting. They have all kinds of sauces that you can choose as well, but I never seem to be able to choose the magic combination. Whenever I've eaten there I end up with a bland, run-of-the-mill stirfry that I could have cooked at home for a fraction of the price.

There, I changed it to "Mongolian Village" now that the Location lookup works for this name. I believe "West Mongolian" was the old phone book entry. Happy now? ;-)

What the heck? Another name change? Is this the same place that is at the end of Fitzgerald Rd on Robertson, and used to be called both "Mongoli Grill" and "Mongolian Village"? If so, what's up with that?

I have nothing to say other than that this is what $32 of meat looks like here.

Surprisingly Mongolian Village (Bell's Corners) has a decent wine list at a reasonable price. Oftentimes we find little gems or surprises on it (like Momomoto's recent experience). Wish more restaurants could follow suit.

Don't laugh! I was just there last night and noticed that they were having a sort of "clear out the single-bottle remnants" sale. Twenty bucks a bottle. I noticed that there was a bottle there I recognized: a Vaucluse from Domaine de l'Ameillaud that Billy Munnelly (bless his Irish soul) calls his "long-time, best-in-the-world red."

Then I noticed that this was a 1998 bottle, and not the 2004 that's currently in the stores.

A nine-year-old bottle of wine.

Twenty bucks.

Of course, your mileage may vary.