BD's Mongolian Barbeque - Kublai Con
Written: Jan 02 '07 (Updated Jan 02 '07)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Interesting concept, nice selection of entree ingredients.
Cons: Execution of the concept leaves much to be desired.
The Bottom Line: If you aren't very picky about what you eat BD's offers an interesting gimmick on chain restaurant food.
|
|
|
| mongkut's Full Review: BD's Mongolian Barbeque |
BD’s has received a huge number of positive reviews, several by Epinions members I respect and whose reviews I enjoy reading. Well, here I am to be the voice of dissent. I know I probably should don a hard hat as I might take a verbal beating for my views but, after three tries at the BD’s experience, I’m far from sold.
I guess I’m a little un-American in that I’m one of the few who loathes chain restaurants. Yes, there are some better chains, Roy’s and Ruth’s Chris come to mind, but overall 'chain restaurant' to me equals mediocrity. With chains everything is about marketability across the broadest spectrum of tastes, which usually means appealing to the lowest common denominator. Culinary excellence isn’t part of the equation in most cases. The goal is to create a ‘concept’ that can be packaged so that the franchisee just opens up the box and adds employees. Often the franchisee is more entrepreneur than restaurateur or chef. And just as often the chefs are laborers rather than artists. Yeah, some very good chefs have done their ‘time’ at chain restaurants while waiting for an opportunity to let their creative juices flow in a real fine dining restaurant. For the most part cooking for a chain is a job and the food produced is made using a corporate formula to ensure food costs are maintained rather than inspired by a passion for culinary excellence. When decisions in a restaurant kitchen are made long distance from a corporate headquarters the end result may be consistent across a number of restaurant locations but will always fall short of the food produced by a chef owned mom & pop where the food comes not from fulfillment of a job description but from fulfillment of the chef’s passion.
OK, so maybe I’m a little fanatical about food, but to me creative, interesting food is one of the joys of life. As the slogan at the somewhat forgettable Serendipity 3 restaurant said back in the 80’s “life is too short to eat boring food.”
About two months ago I started seeing ads for a new restaurant to our area, BD’s Mongolian Grill. Hmmm, Mongolian food? It had been well over 10 years since my last experience in a Mongolian restaurant in the Boston area and the food had been quite good, so this sounded interesting. What I found was about as Mongolian as Sizzler or Ponderosa and about the same quality level.
The Restaurant
The Oldsmar location of BD’s Mongolian Barbeque is located at 3130 Tampa Road in the Woodlands Square Plaza. The restaurant is brand new and looks it. It is located right next to the Curlew entrance to the plaza and has a large sign, outdoor seating area, and attractive facade to catch your eye as you pull into the parking lot. Inside the space is very open with a buffet-like set up consisting of the soup/salad bar, the ingredient stations, and the large ‘Mongolian grill.’ The seating surrounds this area with both tables and booths. The feel to me is more desert Southwest than Mongolian yurt (a Mongolian house) but given the food isn’t exactly Mongolian the atmosphere needn’t be either.
The concept is basically one where you create your own entrees by selecting meats and vegetables and place them in one bowl and then choose your sauces or seasonings and place them in another bowl. You take your creation to the ‘Mongolian’ grill and the grillers grill it for you. It’s a cool concept in theory, but I’m really unsure as to its Mongolian origins. I found a few very vague references to the style originating in the UK back before 1992 when BD’s founder brought the UK originator over to the US to start the chain. Further investigation shows there are several chains using the same basic concept. Here in Tampa Bay there is a two restaurant chain called Dish that has been using a similar concept for several years now without the Mongolian theme. Years ago in Boston, late 80’s maybe, I had a very good meal at a Mongolian restaurant where food was grilled to order but the recipes were, well, if not totally Mongolian at least from that general region. BD’s choices seem confusing to say the least.
The Food
The food at BD’s consists of a few appetizers, a soup/salad bar, and build your own entree as well as a few desserts. Of the appetizers we have only tried the Mongolian Barbequed Ribs ($5.99) which were actually pretty tasty. They are not ribs in the Chinese restaurant spare rib fashion but more like miniature lollipop pork chops. The sweet barbeque sauce has enough tang to avoid being cloying and has a slight Asian hint from ginger and sesame. The other apps are less appealing to me as two involve edamame, Japanese soy beans, which I like if prepared properly in a Japanese restaurant. Too often they are bland beyond belief and I’m not willing to take a chance in this type of chain. The fourth app is Peanut Chicken Satay ($4.99) which I’m unlikely to ever try in any place other than a better Thai restaurant. I’ve had so many bad satays over the past twenty plus years that I’m skittish about being served yet another let down. It probably doesn’t help that, having lived in southeast Asia for several years, I’ve had some incredibly good ones cooked for a native audience.
One of my biggest disappointments with BD’s is their soup/salad bar. The soups are good enough in sort of a QSR (Quick Service Restaurant, aka Quiznos, Sweet Tomatoes, etc) kind of way. Not really homemade tasting but adequate. What surprised me were the choices: Chicken Noodle, Clam Chowder, Tomato Bisque, etc. Come on, couldn’t they at least get something close to a Mongolian stew or something? At least they advertise a Hot and Sour soup so there is one Asian soup choice. The salad bar is equally uninspired with iceberg, the most boring of the lettuce family, being the foundation on which to add a few equally uninteresting vegetable choices. This soup/salad bar has nothing in it that says ‘this is unique to BD’s.’ It’s more like ‘this salad bar is so forgettable it could fit into any American chain restaurant.’
The most interesting part of the whole ‘BD’s’ experience is the selection of ingredients. There is a wide choice of meats, seafood, vegetables, sauces, and spices with which to create your entree. I’ve tried the beef, chicken, and sausage which all seemed fresh. I notice in their handy nutritional guide that they also offer lamb but it wasn’t evident in the Oldsmar location, pity. The vegetable choices include over 18 items one of which is egg. Hmmm, last time I looked…….. Anyway, the sauces give you more than a dozen more choices and then there are a number of spices to create the exact flavor you’re looking for. They do have several recipe cards for those less comfortable making it up as they go along. I found that to be a pretty nice feature and even used one on my second visit just to see what they recommend. I’ve tried the Mongolian Ginger, Chili Garlic, and Shi-take (- added as Epi blocked the mushroom's name as banned, duoh!) Mushroom sauces, all of which were tasty. Some other choices like Mongo Marinara and Spicy Buffalo had me wondering if Genghis or Kublai had ever visited New York.
The downside I found with the ‘do-it-yourself’ approach is that it is only partly ‘do-it-yourself.’ Once you choose your ingredients you move to a spot on a counter surrounding the ‘Mongolian’ grill cooking station. The ‘grillers’ then take your ingredients and, well, grill them of course. Another reviewer made the comment that “if you don’t like your food you only have yourself to blame,” which is true in as much as ingredient choice is concerned. But what if my ingredients get ruined by over cooking? The ‘grillers’ are really not much more than the type of fry cook that ‘grills’ your burger at Mc’D’s. It the case of our three trips we had well grilled food once out of the three. As customers line up with their bowls the 'grillers' keep track of what sauce goes with which set of grilling ingredients by keeping everything in order. In one instance the ‘griller’ pulled a sauce out of order and poured it on our party member’s food in error. This not only upset the person who had actually created the sauce combo but also our party member who now had no idea what sauce ingredients were on their food. Unbelievably, the ‘griller’ made no apologies and didn’t seem to understand why our party member didn’t want the food with someone else’s sauce mixture. On another visit a ‘griller’ failed to flip the food on the grill quickly enough and the dish ended up burned on one side.
The bottom line is that it is great to be able to design your own entree but you have little control over how your dish is executed. The ‘grillers’ are far from chefs and so it is best to keep your expectations low. Possibly some of this is due to the newness of this location, but I’m not expecting much from this chain.
Price
Meals are priced based on the number of trips you make (one trip being one bowl) and the ingredients you choose as follows:
- One Bowl – Vegetarian: $6.99/lunch or $10.99/dinner
- One Bowl – Meats & Seafood: $7.99/lunch or $11.99/dinner
- One Bowl with Soup & Salad: $9.99/lunch or $12.99/dinner
- Unlimited Bowls (w/ soup & salad): $11.99/lunch or $13.99 dinner
They also have kids prices and soup & salad only prices. All meals come with a side of white rice and tortillas.
Service
The wait staff that takes care of beverage orders, appetizers, and desserts seem very friendly and attentive. The ‘grillers’ seem harried, just gutting it out like ditch diggers in the hot Florida sun. On two occasions the restaurant seemed to be short staffed which again might be due to the newness of this location.
Parking
Although the restaurant is in a plaza, it is a very busy plaza and I can see it being difficult to find a space close to the front door when busy. Being on the corner, most of the parking spaces are on a long strip at the side of the building.
Hours
The Oldsmar location is open Sunday from 11AM to 10PM, Monday – Thursday from 11AM to 10:30PM, and Friday & Saturday from 11AM to 11:30PM.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.