Foods from Mongolian Village
Comments
2010 Nov 6
The service was pleasant, water was refilled as needed, bathrooms were clean, and the atmosphere was warm and cozy on a cold autumn evening.
I tend to have decent meals here, mostly because I like to cook and enjoy the high-level culinary act of mixing various sauces and flavourings. However, once I turn my bowl over to the kitchen staff, the meal is out of my hands and its success is completely at their mercy. As you can see in the attached photo, they did not treat it well tonight. This was my son's plate (which I had prepared for him); much of the mini corn and some of the noodles were burnt to blackness. The weird blob at the bottom left of the picture is a thin flake of pure char -- likely some sooty remnant of a previous meal that was chipped off the cooking surface along with my son's food. He's a good sport about this kind of thing, but he complained to me that he didn't like the burnt taste.
Now, with such a failure of quality in a regular restaurant, one would call over the server and expect a replacement plate to be quickly prepared. However, since the customer manually selects all the ingredients at Mongolian Village, this would have required me to go up to the self-serve ingredient bar and fill a new bowl of food for my son while my plate of food got cold. He wasn't super hungry, so I helped him eat around the burnt bits and then pointed out the quality issue to the server at a later time. She said, "Yeah, that sometimes happens if the cooks leave the food too long before turning it." I replied, with some cynicism, "So the diners normally just eat around the burnt parts?" This idea didn't seem at all outlandish to our server, but she promised to tell her manager about the occurrence.
In the end, they saw fit to credit my bill for $1.90 as compensation for spoiling my son's food. His vegetarian plate was $6-something before tax. Mine was $12. You can get a superior plate of food for that money at pretty much any Chinese or Vietnamese restaurant in the area. The really stunning thing is that there was an actual line-up at the door of people waiting to eat here! Considering the good quality and value of some of Bells Corners' other offerings, my foodie heart weeps a little at the injustice of it all. :-)
I tend to have decent meals here, mostly because I like to cook and enjoy the high-level culinary act of mixing various sauces and flavourings. However, once I turn my bowl over to the kitchen staff, the meal is out of my hands and its success is completely at their mercy. As you can see in the attached photo, they did not treat it well tonight. This was my son's plate (which I had prepared for him); much of the mini corn and some of the noodles were burnt to blackness. The weird blob at the bottom left of the picture is a thin flake of pure char -- likely some sooty remnant of a previous meal that was chipped off the cooking surface along with my son's food. He's a good sport about this kind of thing, but he complained to me that he didn't like the burnt taste.
Now, with such a failure of quality in a regular restaurant, one would call over the server and expect a replacement plate to be quickly prepared. However, since the customer manually selects all the ingredients at Mongolian Village, this would have required me to go up to the self-serve ingredient bar and fill a new bowl of food for my son while my plate of food got cold. He wasn't super hungry, so I helped him eat around the burnt bits and then pointed out the quality issue to the server at a later time. She said, "Yeah, that sometimes happens if the cooks leave the food too long before turning it." I replied, with some cynicism, "So the diners normally just eat around the burnt parts?" This idea didn't seem at all outlandish to our server, but she promised to tell her manager about the occurrence.
In the end, they saw fit to credit my bill for $1.90 as compensation for spoiling my son's food. His vegetarian plate was $6-something before tax. Mine was $12. You can get a superior plate of food for that money at pretty much any Chinese or Vietnamese restaurant in the area. The really stunning thing is that there was an actual line-up at the door of people waiting to eat here! Considering the good quality and value of some of Bells Corners' other offerings, my foodie heart weeps a little at the injustice of it all. :-)
2008 Jun 21
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.
--- --- ---
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.
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.
--- --- ---
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.
2008 Mar 24
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.
2007 Oct 18
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.
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.
lovealwayserica
I think the service is a little odd, as your original waiter who brings the soup and drinks is rarely the one who brings you refills and/or the cheque, making tipping a difficult task (which server are you designating the tip to?) However, I do appreciate how the people at the grill are often the ones who bring the food.
I love the vegetable options, there is a wide array of whatever you're in the mood for - and then some! I think there should be a label on which sauces are vegan and/or vegetarian, not just which ones are gluten free. But besides that, no complaints, always good food!