Mongolian Grill

this restaurant really need more servers but food quality has increased and it’s a fun unique experience. I strongly recommend going to this place at least once to try it

Was alright. Did the buffet thing where you pick your ingredients and the chef (teenager) cooks it for you, get as many bowls as you want. Everything was just ok, nothing great, but I didn’t expect greatness from this style of dining. All my food bowls had bits of burnt food in it. I worried a lot about getting shellfish in my food, because I’m allergic and they were cooking it on the same surface with minimal amounts of cleaning/​scrubbing in between customers, but didn’t have any issues with that. It was a unique experience, I guess, but I wouldn’t dish out a lot of money for it. Comparable to mall food.

$ 30 PER PERSON for lunch to eat 2 bowls of burnt noodles? No thanks.

Horrible. Don’t ever go here for dinner. And if you don’t like burnt food. Don’t go here

The basics of this place is that you pay $ 20 to make your own stir-​fry. And there’s only so many combinations you can do. I usually get a lot out of buffets, but this one, I got two bowls and didn’t want to go back to make another. Extremely disappointing. And the food wasn’t amazing. And some of the stuff in the buffet area looked kind of dirty, especially the salad/​soup bar, so I didn’t even grab anything from there. I wouldn’t recommend going here. I thought it was worth a try since I’ve been eating in the plaza for a while now and never came here, but it wasn’t.

My boyfriend and I just went to The Mongolian Grill on a date night and I had a fantastic time. It was my first time at this establishment and I think they really did a great job. The restaurant was clean and spacious, it definitely catered to the younger university crowd and/​or families. They don’t really have a fantastic menu, including the drinks because I ordered a glass of rose and a Cinderella martini, both tasted terribly cheap. The rose tasted like pure sugar and I am almost 100% sure it was the $ 6.00 bottle of Girls Night Out. The martini was orange and I had no idea what was in it, it wasn’t listed in the drink menu I saw it on the board by the bar but I am assuming it was peach? Perhaps?
Other than the drinks we had a great and yummy time, the cooks were really quick and great, they were polite and seemed to enjoy what they were doing. All of the ingredients were frozen and organized, I didn’t feel that gross apprehension that I do at some of these AYCE places. I really enjoyed the fact that they had meal suggestions above the ingredients, which is great for someone new to this like myself.
All in all, I would definitely come back and recommend you trying this place for yourself.

I went here with a few of my friends. The cooks were young and inexperienced. My sausage was very chewy and hard to eat because it was not cooked enough. I asked the server for rice twice and they never brought it over. I also noticed the top of the sriracha bottle inside had a brown layer of rotten something. How am I supposed to eat my stuff with the disgusting sriracha? I complained about both to the manager and they refused to compensate me in any way. I went to the washroom briefly after and left without paying. Terrible management and cooks don’t deserve my money.

Writing an update since their renovation and my changed taste buds.
Their prices are fairly high like before, though they’ve added a few options if you want to pay less by limiting the amount of times you can grab food. It’s definitely more clean and modern-​looking with the renovation, I remember the sauce table would be all dirty and messy from usage because the staff wouldn’t clean up the area until the major dining periods were over.
I feel like the crowds have died down over the years due to better options in the area. It used to be bustling and packed during weekends. They could benefit from throwing in more food items on the side, like some of the Mongolian grills & buffets in Markham.
Students rarely come here unless it’s for a special occasion. I’ve been here after the renovation for company hosted events, which are usually decent since they are good with seating large groups.

Seems to cater to a university crowd, hoping they are not picky at what they eat. Cooks appeared to be very young and lack experience. Food was over done imo.

This place has a cool vibe and a great concept, but I don’t know if you can ever make a stir fry better than professional chefs themselves. My mom’s mixtures always turn out so good but I’ve never had a ton of success. Maybe now that I’m older and have more cooking experience, I could throw something exciting together at Mongolian Grill.

If you like a quick stir fry, and lots of food, the Mongolian is the place to go. Basically an all you can eat, done on an open inverted hearth, for a set price, you can go up as many times as you please. You are allowed to select the raw ingredients, that are medium quality at best, but a wide and mostly varied lot. You put on an assortment of oils and sauces, of which there is a good selection, then take it to the cook in the centre of the hearth. 5 minutes later — food. Satisfying, not grand cuisine. Mostly a university hangout, but a good time.

Had a horrible experience there last night. When we arrived at 6:30, we were told they were running out of beef, chicken, and sausage. Since we only planned to have a bowl each, it was fine for us. We had never been there for dinner so didn’t know that you had to do the all you can eat option for dinner since our waitress took our menus away within a minute of sitting down, not even asking if we were going to order off the menu. When we got to the ingredient area, we noticed there was no seafood either. The sauces we wanted to use were all gone. Then near the end, after finding out it was all you can only, our waitress started clearing our table and took our bowls away and the tortillas without asking if we were finished. When I mentioned we weren’t done, she apologized along with an excuse for why she did it, assuming we were done. After about 5 minutes, she told us tortillas were out so plan accordingly. When I wanted to speak to a manager he was not available (out buying tortillas). Basically we paid $ 40 for 3 bowls of crap. Waitress did apologize that they didn’t have anything that night and offered another excuse of why that was the case. Tip — never apologize and follow it up with an excuse. Used to love going here in my university days but will never return again.

I thought they way you get your ingredients, especially at the meat section was messy and unorganized. I liked how they had a lot of selections of sauces that you can try. I also thought it was a little overpriced for only getting main course food with no dessert section.

Some of the items are hit and miss but overall not bad. I didn’t really like the sausage but its all you can it, so if you get a miss just try again. I like all the varieties of sauces and herbs so you can make your dish unique and just the way you like it. It’s a bit tricky knowing what herbs go with what but there are a few recipes you can follow if you want some guidance.

I love Mongolian barbeque restaurants in general, but I don’t like the Mongolian Grill. The meat at the buffet should be sliced very thin and kept frozen to avoid the sloppy mess /​biohazard.
BTW, you can find the Region of Waterloo health inspector’s report of this business at

The idea behind this grill is awesome but the quality of food is bad. The food was cooked on a super hot ‘grill’ which caused the noodles to burn. And there was a baseline aftertaste which was very unpleasant. The ingredients themselves looked relatively fresh but not necessarily super appetizing. The staff was super helpful and provided good service.

The best part about this place is the fact that it can accomodate groups and that I have had some great times here with great friends.
If you’re looking for good food with flavour, skip this place. It is way overpriced. They are closing in on $ 20 for the all-​you-​can-​eat stir fry. It lacks flavour, despite the fact that they offer a large selection of sauces to season your dish.
The patio here is nice and the beer is pretty cheap. It certainly caters to the university crowd. I‘ll likely be back, against my better judgement, only for great times with friends though, and I just might skip the food.

I agree with Nokolaos. The food here is sub par. Good for customization if you have a group of people with some fussy eaters, but overall, lacking in pizzaz. In addition to freshness issues, I find the Mongolian lacking in flavor. The sauces for example don’t really add much to the stirfry and unless i drown my food in them, I can barely taste them.

What Waterloo needs most is decent restaurants. Mongolian Grill is not helping this issue. The premise behind Mongolian grill is that you pick out your ingredients/​sauces and pass then to a «chef» who operates a teppanyaki of some sorts. There is a large selection of ingredients and sauces to choose from. However, most of the ingredients are lacking in freshness.
Going to Mongolian Grill is usually hit or miss depending on the freshness of the ingredients of that day and the chef’s competence at the grill. Overall I would avoid Mongolian Grill.