The Mongolie Grill is Calgary's premier Mongolian BBQ restaurant, featuring some excellent varities of fresh create-your-own stir-fries grilled hot on a huge Mongolian grill.
The restaurant is part of an Alberta chain, with locations in Calgary, Red Deer, Edmonton, and Lethbridge. The somewhat fancy restaurant caters mostly to the dating crowd, with some families and businesspeople intermingled in the mix.
Walking into the restaurant, you will be greeted by some very elegantly dressed servers, who will lead you through the cherry-colored interior of the restautant to your table. Everything is wooden here, and the decor really adds to the ambiance. Maps of Mongolia and other Asian art grace the walls. The lighting is somewhat dim but not too formal, making it excellent for first dates.
The waitresses are happy to explain how the restaurant works. First, you are to take a bowl (large or small) and fill it with vegetable choices. Then, noodles and meats. You top the bowl off with sauces of your choice, and the meal is weighed at the somewhat hefty rate of $2.39 per 100 grams (around $10 per pound).
Complimentary soup is provided with each meal (hot and sour or corn chowder). My personal favorite is the hot and sour, with just the right balance of sweetness and the sour taste of vinegar, offset with the lovely taste of soya sauce, finely chopped carrots, eggs, tofu, and chopped shiitake mushrooms. The very small bowl will leave you begging for more. Additional bowls are available for around $3.
I walked up to the grill to fill my metal bowl, taking my vegetables of choice—snow peas and sliced shiitake mushrooms. The vegetable choices are endless, with pretty much everything you could think of.
Next, I headed to the meats, taking some finely chopped chicken, a few slivers of steak, and some salmon filet pieces. I topped the bowl off with fresh calamari and tiger prawns. Knowing full well that meat is weighed at the same rate as vegetables, I had no problem being meat-crazy on this night out.
I garnished my bowl with some fresh pineapple, followed by some coconut cream sauce and honey garlic. The sauce choices are endless, featuring everything from thai peanut to coconut curry to spicy Mongolian. Fresh garlic and ginger are readily available, too.
My modestly filled bowl was priced at $17.50, but I did not walk away very full. Luckily, rice and "Mongolian wraps" (uncooked spring roll wrappers) were served alongside the meal at no charge, along with some very delicious, licoricey Hoisin sauce.
My meal was quite tasty, but I wished that it would have been a buffet style. So, don't come here expecting to be full if you don't want to spend over $25. The excellent selection though makes the restaurant totally worth it—there is definitely something for everyone.
Minimum charge on bowls is $5 (which is very easy to hit—mostly a rule for children). There is a 20% discount to vegetarians.