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Mongolian Barbecue RestaurantNAME: Mongolian Barbecue Restaurant TYPE: Mongolian (alternative cuisine available) HOURS: Lunches and dinners LOCATION: This restaurant is located just across the street to the east from the big bust of Lenin's head in the Lenin Museum. Lenin could well be uneasy with this example of private enterprise and capitalism staring at him from across the street. But what a sweet irony for free-market diners. And if you have commerce and industry to carry out, you're in the same building (first floor). Do a little business and have lunch or dinner in the process. This restaurant was founded by Mr. Gundalai, also the owner of El Toro Restaurant. He is now a Member of Parliament. More noteworthy as one of the four opposition members in the 76 seat Mongolian Ikh Hural. This is not exactly "obscure", being right on Freedom Square and cuddling up to Lenin, but we suspect that not many ex-pats go there.
FACILITIES AND AMENITIES: This is a place for dining and imbibing at wooden tables, not dancing or karaoke. Good place to take friends----or a partner but not to pick one up. More of a family restaurant. Or a place to demonstrate (safely) Mongolian food to friends./associates/family visiting Mongolia, when you haven't time to get out into the countryside and kill a sheep yourself. The toilets were in the vestibule just outside the restaurant and had to be opened by a waiter with a key. They were clean and functional with toilet paper and a handdryer. There was an ad for Pilsner beer in the ladies' room. We wonder why. ATTENDANCE: When we visited there on a Tuesday evening, there was a young couple with their child. They left soon, and we were left alone. We suspect there may be larger crowds at noon with all the bustle of commerce and industry going on in the building. STAFF: Attentive, professional, polite and solicitous, but nothing beyond that to attract any special notice. SERVICE: Efficient. The food takes a little time - but make allowances, as Mongolian food generally doesn't lend itself to pre-preparation and micro-waving. MENU: The first menu a westerner will get when seated is (of course) the western menu with American, Mexican, Italian, continental and other dishes. Management probably thinks that westerners are not looking for Mongolian food, which is probably right most of the time. So, you have to ask for the Mongolian menu, and that's where you'll find all the mutton mutations. All the menus are attractively designed and done in vinyl. There are two versions - English & Mongolian. Great for those of you learning Mongolian (or English). If you are alone, you could spend the whole meal brushing up your language skills.
Then Buuz and Khuushuur. The most traditional Mongolian dishes of all. They were big serves, and we can recommend that if you are eating there alone, order one of something and you will be more than happy with your lot. The Buuz got a thumbs up from Doug (Shel has spent so many Tsagaan Sar's in Mongolia that he is thoroughly Buuzed out). The Khuushuur (the Mongolian equivalent to pasties or pies) were more than passable, both in the traditional and edible sense. We could not resist ordering "Sheep's Spine with Marrow". It turned out to be the best surprise of the night. It was a sheep's shank. The meat on the bone was tender, tasty and not "muttony" in the least. Doug is pictured here looking every bit the satisfied Mongolian nomad after wolfing down his sheep. Khorkhog, the famous Mongolian pressure-cooked sheep (in a pot with stones, onions and a smattering of vegies) was not on the menu. But the Sheep's Spine was a more than passable substitute. HYGIENE: First rate from everything we saw. And we had no after-effects. COST: 12,000 Tugriks each - including a couple of beers. Plus we ordered far too much. Not being gluttonous, muttonous gourmets - just doing our usual thorough job for you readers. RECOMMENDATION: If resident ex-pats have first-time visitors from abroad (including bosses, consultants, friends or relatives) who are just "dying to try Mongolian food", take them here. If you want to have a pleasant change of pace and place for yourselves from the usual well-known watering holes, try this place as well. RATING: 3.5 on a scale of 5 (and that is saying something).
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APPEARANCE AND AMBIANCE: The decor is as tastefully done as that in El Toro but with a Mongolian ger motif. A large, open skeletal likeness of a ger arches over the main dining hall with wooden tables located in the circular interior. Other tables are found outside the ger. At two corners of the restaurant are two quarter-size felt-covered gers which house private dining rooms for special occasions. At the inner end of the restaurant is a stand-up bar. Appropriately, the whole restaurant faces south (inside the building). For those of you who are not familiar with things Mongolian, all ger entrances face south in Mongolia. A very handy compass indeed. Subdued and attractive lighting. Quiet.
FOOD: For folks who are not addicted to Mongolian food, this will be a delightful surprise. We ordered two starter soups. Shel's was a Dark Clear Soup with a mutton stock. The broth was tasty and didn't taste (or rather smell) like mutton at all. Doug went completely Mongolian and ordered Bansh. To his knowledge, this was not the sort of Bansh that mother used to make (small dumplings in milk soup). The soup was, in reality, Shel's mutton stock. But the dumplings were traditional and tasty, and he agreed with Shel's verdict on the soup.