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| - I recently took a weekend road trip to Boston, and on one of the evenings, I was invited to my partner's cousin's birthday party, which was where I experienced my first Mongolian Grille. I'd seen the low-rent Hibachi's at the local Asian Buffets, but this particular experience was totally new to me, and actually VERY cool and fun. The place had a HUGE buffet of 'parts' from noodles and meats, to veggies and sauces, that at first was quite intimidating if you had no idea what you were doing, but I soon got the hang of it, and found a concept I loved.
Upon returning to da burgh, I was telling a co-worker who lives on the South Side about the experience, and she told me that there was a place like that on the South Side. When I got excited, she stopped me and said 'Do NOT try to compare it to your experience in Boston (she knows me too well).
So, after a Sunday morning and early afternoon grocery run and thrift store hunt, after hitting the Goodwill on the South Side, a friend and I decided to give the place a try.
Annnnnnd...my co-worker was right. Boston did it right, Pittsburgh did its usual half-assed version.
Let me start by saying that Boston was staffed mostly by Asian people (Mongolian or not, I don't know, but a theme is a theme). The grill team was VERY engaging with the clientele, the options were mind boggling, and the price for all-you-can-eat was about the same as the price for a one-time trip in Pittsburgh.
The options in Pittsburgh were much more limited, the extent of the 'engagement' from the one-man grill team was 'Do you have any food allergies?', after which his eyes were partially glued to the Stiller game (along with the majority of the rest of the staff - those who weren't staring at their phones and clicking away at texting), and partially to the piles of food he was only half-heartedly mixing on the grill. And there was one single Asian waitress.
When I got to the table, the food was cooked...the pinch of cilantro I selected was all in one clump on that side, the sauce was barely there at all (most of it had been scraped into the waste hole in the middle of the grille) and I basically ended up with a slightly modified chicken pad thai for the usual price of a buffet.
Along with the single-serve comes unlimited soup and salad, but all of that was included in the all-you-could-eat in Boston, and the burgh version was MUCH smaller. The soups were some tomato something or other, and the chicken soup, which boasted of it's creaminess, looked like chicken noodle soup with some milk poured into it.
If you hit Boston at any point, I highly recommend trying FiRE & iCE! (no typos there, that's how they spell it) and see what the real deal is like. I especially suggest this for all of you Pittsburghers who just firmly believe that Pittsburgh IS 'all that'...experience first rate, and see how silly you really are for raving about mediocre.
My co-worker was absolutely right - do NOT try to compare offerings in da burgh with things you experience in other real cities. Pittsburgh MAY have 'everything'...but they only have ONE of everything that's outside of the beer guzzling, fries on a sandwich varieties. And since they only have 'one' of each, those 'ones' don't really have to try too hard...since most Pittsburghers never know the difference anyway.
And thus...mediocrity reigns supreme.
BD is an ok 'example' of a Mongolian Grill...but only a pricey example...not a full demonstration. I wouldn't say 'avoid it'...I would suggest experiencing it once...and then take a road trip and reach for the stars!
Oh...and seriously...if you're going to theme it...turn off the damned football games! Every bar full of drunks on the South Side already offers that.
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