Riverview Mongolian Grill

I’ll be honest, I’m fairly young but very close to becoming an adult. Over my lifespan of 17 years, I have tried a variety of different foods and have gone to high quality restaurants.
For starters, I had never eaten at this restaurant before until today. My first impression was that the atmosphere was very boring. It looked like a typical soup kitchen, that of itself would suffice as an accurate description. After following my friends in, I proceeded to make my own meal. This is where the scam begins.
The options available to begin with were an assortment of vegetables drowned in water which were put into separate dishes that didn’t appear to be entirely fresh. Remember how I said they were in separate dishes, that was a joke. Group after group of people proceed through that line daily and the vegetables get mixed into different dishes. All in all, the vegetables alone looked like a jumbled Green Giant frozen vegetable pack that was found in the back of a Grocery Food Outlet freezer. Never once did I see someone monitoring the food options or rearranging the mingled vegetables.
One word to describe the available options of raw meat is white. Most people would assume that the uncooked meat would look red or at least pink. No, it looked like their meat was fed a Crisco only diet when it was alive. There was an immense amount of fat on each individual piece. I could have legitimately made a necklace out of the chicken connected by the spongy white lipid. If you thought that was all then you’re sorely mistaken. All the available meat options were not marinated. That’s not as big of a deal as the other issues because well. I guess it can be expected from a «restaurant» with a meat buffet.
After selecting my meat and vegetables, I was provided with a decent selection of sauces to pour on before my meal was cooked. Just when I thought I was going to be impressed, I was disgusted by the filthy dish bowls where the sauces are contained in. There were droplets all around and the stainless steel lids were also encrusted with dried sauce. I decided to overlook that and followed the suggested recipe mix to make the «best» sauce.
I proceeded to hand my food over to the emotionless chef. Don’t get me wrong, he prepares food just fine, but man, it wouldn’t hurt to crack a smile at a customer or say something other than the words «Do you want teriyaki?» Following that serious and silent wait for my food, I moved to my table. I began to consume the meal and soon reached the epitome of dissatisfied. The food was so bland and boring. I decided I might as well eat it all since I was going to have to pay $ 15.25 for the food. Yes you read correctly, a little over 15 dollars for a buffet with low quality food. I forgot to mention this did not include drinks nor did it include dessert.
To finish this review, I’m going to have to say the overall quality is comparable to food made by my friends and I in my Foods & Nutrition class from freshman year of high school. There is not much else to be said other than don’t go here unless you enjoy eating flavorless plates of «Mongolian» food. If the scale could go to 10, I’d still give it a 1, maybe a 2 for effort and a kind waitress but $ 15.25 is a JOKE.

I love Mongolian grill in Salem! This is incomparable… Meat was not fresh and sloppy. Vegetables and choice of sauces were mostly combined with water. No teriyaki sauce out, jalapeños were not fresh. No red chiles. Water based sauces with no ginger or garlic. It was water… And to Sum It all up, IT IS ONE PLATE PRICE
OR WAY MORE EXPENSIVE FOR BUFFET. It’s like comparing McDonald’s to an actually burger joint. It was that bad. To use Mongolian grills name was a waste. No body was there either… It was just overall bad food and quality and sauces. :(very sad. True four food but was bad. Didn’t even eat our food, we left ! Not happy with quality at all.

The food is WAY too overpriced for how much you get. $ 12 for one small bowl is ridiculous. They didn’t have any white sauce and the food selection was meager. I’ll never go again.

I will not be going back to this place. It’s dingy, dirty interior, ugly décor, high prices and straight up unhygienic feel makes it a thumbs down.
Pros:
–Fresh looking veggies
–nice staff
Cons:
–Dirty dishware! I was handed a bowl with specks of something still in it and it was wet! Eek!
–Unclean dining area. Table looked like it had about a weeks worth of grim, cheap plastic chairs outside, and don’t dare to look at the floor under the meat/​veggie bar! Über gross!
–Way over-​priced. $ 13.50 for lunch? Really?

I probably wouldn’t issue a 3 star review, if I hadn’t become so accustomed to Jung’s, in Eugene. I did enjoy the flavor of my dish… but the rest of the experience wasn’t worth the price.
The good:
–meat tasted great!
–veggies seemed reasonably fresh
–service was good
–the cook didn’t burn any of the food
–quickly prepared (I was in & out before 30 mins had passed) – single bowl
The not so good/​cool:
-$ 13 for an all you can eat lunch?!
–not a whole lot of veggies
–tiny bowls
-$ 13 for all you can eat lunch
-$ 13 for all you can eat lunch
-$ 13 for all you can eat lunch
So I’m clearly emphasizing a single item here. Jung’s will give every bit as good a meal, more selection, and far bigger bowls… for dollars less. Jung’s doesn’t even hammer you that hard for their A.Y.C.E. dinner.
Just my 2 cents

This place is absolute garbage. Flies buzzing around raw meat. Serving tongs are covered in grease and bacteria. Even if you can get past the dirty food prep, the actual taste of the food is dull and far below other near by establishments.

2.5…

This particular place is in a very nice area of town on the waterfront. It’s in close proximity to a number of nice restaurants. Unfortunately, the interior of this restaurant has a very run-​down look. The floors were sticky, the walls are painted-​over brick and cement, and the tables are bare and wooden. It’s simply not a comfortable, relaxing dining experience.
It’s also very expensive for Mongolian Grill — one bowl being almost $ 10. Two bowls is a decent deal at $ 13, but the food, frankly, isn’t good enough to justify having more than one bowl. Considering the décor of the place, this price is high.
The food itself was sufficient for a Mongolian Grill but the sauces did not seem potent enough. Despite drowning my food in sauces though, I did not get a very flavorful plate.
I suspect that if they were close to campus and slightly less expensive, this place would have been a hit with me, since my expectations would have been lowered. Alternatively, they should really put this place up for a renovation to make it more comfortable and inviting. At the current price, I really can’t recommend it. It’s simply not clean and nice enough to be a fun experience, nor is it cheap and convenient enough to justify the environment.

I love this place. I can never eat enough for sit in dining so we get our food to go. We fill our bowls then have to stuff it into the togo containers. But I take it home and have at least 2 delicious meals from it. Favorite place to go.

We love Mongolian grills and have quite a few favorite restaurants we frequently go to.
This time around, driving through Corvallis from Newport, we stopped to eat and looking up the restaurants around came around this one so we decided to give it a try.
Bad decision!
The food is quite expensive compared to our other Mongolian restaurants we go to, especially for such a dirty looking place (dirty stinky tables, disgusting menu, flies flying everywhere)! It’s poorly managed, lacks waiters (one girl doing all the work in the entire restaurant) during busy dinner hours, it’s not family oriented (no changing table in the restroom) and the sauces are terrible and watered down.
A very poor excuse for a Mongolian Grill Restaurant!
We won’t be coming back for sure!

Love love love this place. It’s awesome make your own from a variety of fresh veggies meats sauces and spices, then watch your creation being cooked. Handed direct to you from grill.
The whole family loves it. Also served with steamed rice and wraps.

In general my feeling about Riverview is «meh», but as I will probably eat here again I can’t be a hypocrite and write a poor review. A meal here is expensive for what it is, and I find the décor depressing (the framed posters appear leftover from an Italian deli or something). For optimum enjoyment of this place, sit outside on a sunny day.
When I can’t be troubled to chop up tons of vegetables myself, and crave a massive stir-​fry, I’ll come here. The selection of veggies, meats and sauces is good. Be sure and tip the fry guys, they work hard! I’ve seen many people come through the line and refuse to tip, I don’t know why.

This place is good but a little pricey for what it is, plus it is dirty and run down. It feels like they built it and haven’t updated it since it opened. Everything is sticky

Came here for lunch. It’s expensive. 9 or 10 bucks I forgot. The bowl you can fill up all the meat/​ingredients in isn’t very large. Have had much better Mongolian and I would tell others to just pass on this place.

I have not been here in at least a year, but was not doing anything today and wanted to get out of the house. This seemed as good a place as any to spend a bit of time walking around downtown Corvallis and grab a decent bite. The Grill is right on the waterfront, as are a host of other restaurants, pubs, and coffee shops. One of these days I will have to stop by a few.
Since arrival time was shortly before 2pm, there was only one couple in the restaurant and seating was wide open. The waitress was all over helping the only two occupied tables in the restaurant. Getting additional bowls, napkins, and questions of «is everything alright?» was no problem. The outside patio was not open, as I’d guess it has not been since winter started. When the weather is nice, that is the place to be.
Even with the lunch rush over and the downtime before dinner well underway, the meat and vegetable area was well stocked. I grabbed my half bowl of noodles, tons of spinach, green and white onions, and a healthy heaping of beef. Then onto the sauces.
I love spicy. So spicy is what I aim for. There is an easy guide for a few standard recipes near the stations, of which there are two. I use the Hot blend as my base and vary it a bit from there. I’ve tried quite a few variations, but usually include the Oyster Sauce and Chili paste. This time I chose to add a drizzling of Rice Vinegar and some jalapenos. I think the jalapenos were a good choice, but honestly couldn’t tell any taste difference with the vinegar.
Because they have endless servings, come with a big appetite. I was nearly famished when I arrived, and wolfed down my first plate in about 3.9 seconds. When I was about half way through my second plate, my brain finally registered that I had eaten more than I should have and decided to shut down my stomach. I was very sad to have to leave most of my second plate unfinished. Next time I will try to take a deep breath and tell myself no one’s going to bust in and steal my delicious food, so I don’t need to eat like I’m just waiting for that to happen.

A co-​worker and I will usually get lunch here about once a month. It seems that the Mongolian Grill style of loading up a bowl with ingredients and sauce has created an informal competition to see how much food will possibly fit in the white bowls they provide. Let’s just say, I can get enough in one bowl now to totally fill me up, and probably a small village somewhere, and I there is no need to return for seconds.
As far as a review goes, the service is always very friendly and helpful. We usually are served drinks as soon as we sit down and the refills happen just as quick. The waitress/​hostess that is usually there is always very friendly and we appreciate it.
The food is standard Mongolian Grille fare with choices of meats, vegetables, and sauces that are cooked on a flat round grille. I have never been disappointed with the food.
The only concern I have is that it is a bit pricey. If the price included a soft drink it would be fair.
If you want to eat huge portions of Asian inspired foods and want to avoid the Chinese Buffet, this is your place.

I don’t know how I’ve lived here for 5 years and just recently tried this place.
Ingredients were great, huge sauce collection. The servers were very attentive, my only quip is their chef was a little overloaded with the number of people, and there was a pretty good line to get your food grilled.
I’ll definitely be going back.

Best service I’ve ever had. My favorite mongolian grill now.
Its hard to rate mongolian grills, since the taste of your food is largely dependent on what you put in it. They have a large variety of ingredients, pork beef cod chicken and tofu as protein choices, and pretty much any sauce you can think of. Looks like they also have shrimp and scallops for dinner.
The key factor to my 5 stars was the exceptional waitress. It was pretty empty at 1pm on a weekday, but even so she went above and beyond to make sure we had enough crepes, rice, and fresh bowls.
We didn’t try any, but it looks like they also have a nice variety of beers and desserts.
Overall, nice variety of Mongolian Grill ingredients, exceptionally attentive waitress, great lunch.

Great place if you’re looking for stir fry. They have a large selection, and you can go back as many times as you want. Lots of meats, vegetables, and seafood. and lots of different sauces to try it with.
The food is good, service is ok, and cleanliness has some work to do. If it cleaned up the place I would give it a 4 star on how much I like it.

The Mongolian Grill is one of the coolest dining places in Corvallis. Located right on the riverfront it’s in about as scenic of a location as Corvallis has to offer. They offer both inside and outside dining.
You come here and choose a pile of ingredients and spices and sauces and hand it off to the grillmaster, who proceeds to cook everything in front of you and hand it back when he’s finished. Such a simple idea — but it works great! Somehow, despite my culinary inadequacies, everything I’ve had from here has ended up tasty.
Go here for a fun, chill, interactive dining experience. Highly recommended.