Xan Mongolian Barbeque

Though just a little pricier than other non fine dining restaurants, I like it here. The food seems pretty fresh and the rice wraps and hoisin are good. .they have some tasty desserts too.

I like Xan but it’s not my go-​to place for a stir fry bar. It’s close to home which is about the only reason I returned recently and I was happy to see some changes.
The new and good:
— Tofu and chickpeas for veggie proteins (something that wasn’t available the other visits over the years. The tofu is the soft kind verse the defried kind at open sesame which is a bit more healthy too.
— I mentioned mine was vegetarian with no meat and got a 20% discount at the scale. Maybe this has always been the way, just no one told me.
— appies are not too expensive and the green onion cakes are delish.
What i dislike about Xan is that you pay by weight. I realize this isn’t an unusual strategy, but at $ ³⁄₁₀₀ g makes for some very expensive stir fries very quickly when I’m generally eating mostly veggies. Like I said I got 20% off this time which helped a bit. However, I left not-​hungry but a bit below satisfied and paid more than open sesame (pay by bowl) which I usually leave satisfied with a bit of left overs for the road. Open sesame also has a dedicated vegetarian wok which is not something Xan has. They also do not post about veggieness of sauces and simply list allergies. You can ask but I prefer it just be out in the open for my convenience. I like that modifications have been made to Xan for veggies such as myself but I still believe we were a major after thought especially having been there early in their history.
The advantage of Xan exists for meat eaters vs a vegetarian such as myself. Open sesame adds your protein to your stir fry in the kitchen. Which means they get a bit of meat in there but it’s very controlled as it’s expensive by volume. Xan has all the meat out on the bar and you can surf and turf it up if you want or even go very carnivorous and skimp on the veg. The value proposition of that is there for people that care (I’m sure that’s not what Xan wants me to be telling you is their competitive advantage.) For those of you that like a lot of carrots and other heavy root veggies it’s kind of a rip off and I feel open sesame’s model is more fair for most people.
Still, it is pretty good and I’m not really going to complain. I like the option of having that close to home but most of the time I’d rather get my fix while down south by open sesame.

The food was ok. I found the meat to have a funny taste. VERY EXPENSIVE!!!

Warning…
34 minutes to get our red plates so we could pick some frozen, yes frozen meat that some guy could bang tongs on some pseudo Mongolian grill and we had to pay for it.
I think not…
Please owners, feel free to try a real grill with fresh food, great service and clean tables.
Regards,
DK
Any response is appreciated by management.

When we first moved to Calgary, Xan quickly became one of our favourites… it’s close to home, the food is fresh and my kids get a kick out of choosing their own meals and watching them being cooked.
The vegetables are lovely & fresh. I find the same with the meat (except the salmon — it was really fishy the last time we were there). It’s great to make our own flavours and it’s nice that they have suggested combinations from their staff.
We still love it, but the price /​100gr noticeably went up sometime in the past few months. It won’t stop us from going back as we still feel it’s good value for fresh food, but it was quite a surprise the first time.

I love Xan — most of the time!
I go here a lot because my roommate has some serious food allergies that really limit what she can have to eat.
Xan has always been really accommodating; when we first went there, and mentioned the allergies, one of the managers came out to talk with us about what S could and couldn’t have, and they even checked the contents of all the sauces for her (as well as finding a soy-​free soy sauce she can have!).
It’s a «Mongolian BBQ» restaurant, so as you compile your own meal/​choose your ingredients, it makes it quite a safe option for just about everyone. Run by the same people as Mongoli Grill downtown, but Xan is a bit more contemporary/​smarter looking. Bit heavy on the mood lighting at times (and the bathroom is ridiculously small/​awkward), but otherwise nice.
The ingredients are fresh and plentiful (and affordable) and they bring it out quickly. A really nice touch is the 20% discount if you only pick vegetarian items.
I had my friend’s birthday here on Friday, and the staff were (mostly) really great about organizing the cake & our group — they combined several tables for us in advance, and hid the cake we’d brought in until I signalled for it. They also supplied a knife & cake slicer so we could serve/​eat it easily. Super-​helpful!
I was a little annoyed, however, with our waitress; I don’t know if it was because they were rushed/​busy or because we were behind the divider, (or if she was just as dumb as she acted) but we got our rice and wraps long after our dishes were included, and never got a refill on drinks, or asked how our meal was. and all requests were met with a ««ohhh, oooops!». Not too impressive, especially for somewhere I’ve come to expect excellent service!
That said, I’ll happily be back, many, many more times, I’m sure.

Xan!
Finally got to try this place out… it is so close to home and we had no idea what type of place this was.
We walked in and were met by a manager who was a really nice guy, he brought us to our table and explained the restaurant system, chatted with us for a bit.
The décor here is wonderful, modern, dark wood, clean and comfortable. I was grateful that the restaurant was not very busy. (Sun evening, 7pm)
Our empty bowls were brought to us and we went to the food station where everything — veggies, meats sauces were plentiful and fresh. The seafood (scallops, shrimp) were on ice and these were my meats of choice. YUMMY!
So, you hand your bowl to the friendly cook who stands around the huge wok, takes your table number and then he measures your bowl for pricing. We were advised by the manager early on that ¾ of the bowl is plenty — which it was. Our bowls were $ 20 each. At first I thought that was a bit pricey but at the table you get unlimited flour wraps, thin and delicious as well as beautiful jasmine rice, perfectly cooked. A large black plate is brought for you by the cook himself with your stunning stir fry on it in just a few minutes. We were lovin’ on the HOT food on such a cold night!
We got a couple of drinks too. They have beer, wine, special coffees, liquor, etc.
The service was fantastic and we were well taken care of.
We both ate all of our meals and felt full, but a healthy full. My plate was ¾ veggies and the sauces are sooo good and there are many to choose from, sweet, hot, satay, oyster, you name it, they seem to have it.
I would eat here everyday if I could.
Doggie bags are allowed as you are paying for everything by weight.
Cool concept for a restaurant — I had been to a different Mongolian Company eatery before in another city and Xan blew that one out of the water based on quality of the food, service, everything. We loved it!
The restaurant does take reservations and will do take out orders.

This is one of our favorite places to go with my wife for date night. We love the food, the atmosphere and the groupon coupons that they frequently promote with. We find that we spend a little more than we want some time by overfilling our bowls. It isn’t the cheapest place to eat but it’s a nice night out and good, healthy dining!

X the Xan — How much for a 100 grams of sprouts and lettuce? I needed a Xanax for my financial anxiety after dining here. Unless you have a pink bill busting out of your wallet, you’re going to leave dissatisfied.

I’m giving this a low rating because it’s so overpriced. The food was fresh, and it was tough trying to guess how much the meal would cost. We ended up paying over what our coupon entitled us to, and couldn’t finish our meals because our eyes were bigger than our stomachs.
I didn’t think the sauce was that flavourful, and was sub-​par for what we paid.

We also tried this with a groupon coupon. $ 15 for $ 30 worth of food. We filled up our bowls with meat and veggies only (no noodles) and they weighed in at $ 15-​$ 18 each. Pretty pricey I agree but my boyfriend was uncomfortably stuffed and I had enough to take home with me for another meal. So if you think of it as $ 30 for 3 meals, it’s pretty good. Our server Linda was helpful, peppy, and made the experience great. Xantastic!

We tried this place with a 15 $ for 30 $ voucher. It was a fun and exciting experience as we chose everything we wanted and their chef grilled it for us.
With 30 $ two of us ate enough. The food was priced based on the weight of raw materials we chose (2.75 $/​100g).
We might try this place once in a while that we are tired of the burgers :)

Xan is definitely an interesting and different place to have dinner. It’s exciting and fresh, which makes the experience a memorable one.
It’s a new restaurant to the large shops of Beacon Hill, which means it might be a little hard to find. It’s right up there by Swiss Chalet and Montana’s. If you think you’re lost and can’t find it, just keep driving around, you’ll probably get there eventually.
The atmosphere in the place is great and somewhat modern. It’s got tall ceilings and nice furniture, not to mention the colours of the dishes are bright and eye-​catching. I love the set-​up in this place and especially love the ‘create-​your-​own-​meal’ aspect of the restaurant. Much like Mongolie Grill you can choose from an assortment of meats, veggies and sauces and watch the chefs prepare it for you. If you’ve got allergies to anything, they’ll make your meal in a separate area to avoid contamination.
The food can get a little pricey, since you pay by weight and I often have eyes bigger than my stomach. I’ll have to be more careful next time I go because I really tend to load up on veggies and don’t realize I’m racking up quite a bill. The good thing about that is I get to take leftovers home. Besides, it was delicious food so I don’t mind the leftovers!