Mongolian Grill and Pizza

Sign says open, door is open and it is just before 2:00 (they close at 2:30). So I should have some food right? NOPE. Everything has been taken down and cleaned — clearly they started awhile ago. The guy in the back shrugged and said Closed.

I have been here several times for lunch and have been very satisfied every time. I enjoy the self serve format and the hardest part is to not over indulging. The food is great and the value is excellent. The atmosphere is good and the service has been pleasant. If you work out in the RTP, this is a place worth going for lunch.

Took about 10 minutes to even have someone acknowledge my presence. The cook was in the back cleaning the oven and looked over at me several times. Finally he came over and said «she is coming» and went over to the other (sister) side of the restaurant and got someone. A few more minutes later, a man finally appeared to ask what I wanted. I mentioned that i wanted to use a groupon from a few years ago, and the server looked annoyed but went and informed the guy in the grill of my order.
I ordered a 14 inch chicken teka masala pizza because I am a **HUGE** fan of pizza! Unfortunately, this pizza was not that great. I thought pizza? Chicken teka masala? How could this fail? Well I don’t know either but all I can say is way over sauced and way under cheesed and not enough chicken. The chicken that was there was dry as the day is long. Like another reviewer said, the crust was fantastic but the shit ton of sauce killed it in the middle part of the pizza.
The service wasn’t very good at all, the meats for the Mongolian grill looked like they’d been there awhile, and there were only two other tables and I was there at lunch. That in and of itself makes the freshness even more questionable if you ask me. I’m glad I had an old groupon to use. I definitely wont be back here again.

It kills me to update this and dock it a star, and it seems like they’re starting to do better, but I have to. Don’t get me wrong, its still amazing food. I mean, it’s Mongolian and it’s in RTP… that should be a recipe for success. But I get the feeling that the parent restaurant (Tandoor, next door) just doesn’t care. Most of the time, the servers are actually next door serving at Tandoor. Want a drink refill? Good luck. Want to pay? Good luck. Some days they’re better than others. That said, the cook (always the same guy) is on the ball. He’s also the only one that sticks around the joint.
There is still only 1 or 2 other groups in there whenever I go. That’s sad. I say dump the pizza and spend some extra money on a dedicated wait staff and some MARKETING. Get people into the place. Then maybe they’ll stick around.

INCORRECT HOURS listed on Unilocal.They are not open for dinner on weeknights

Did not find the vegetables or meat to appear very fresh

Go before noon and receive almost a $ 3.00 discount. I did not know that and gladly paid the $ 8 – something price but who doesn’t like a good deal! They have almost anything you want in stir fry as well any sauce or seasoning as well.
Details are not necessary because you make your own food so if you do not like what comes out… start over again or deal.
Definitely a place I like to check out on my lunch break in RTP

I haven’t found a really good honest-​to-​goodness Mongolian restaurant since I moved from Virginia Beach– and this place beats those hands down.
Lots of veggies to pick from, quality meat cut into reasonable chunks, and a good, reasonably priced wine selection! And spices! Good quality sauces and spices to customize however you want! I’m in heaven!
I definitely recommend this place to people who like customizing their dishes or just want to try a proper Mongolian BBQ.

no one eating dinner at 7 p.m. should have been enough to make us keep going, but it didn’t. the food was mediocre at best. wait staff was slow, ice tea was nasty. not going back.

Oh man. Oh man.
Bought a Groupon Now for this place, so my partner and I thought we’d try it out. I’m a huge lover of the all-​you-​can-​eat buffet (as my waistline will attest!), so i was pretty jazzed to try this place out.
Never again.
We walked in, and there was no staff to be seen. Not anywhere. So we thought about turning around and leaving, but since we’d already driven all that way, we decided to stick it out. We took a seat and a server who didn’t speak any English at all came and got our drink orders after about five or eight minutes.
The vegetables on the buffet were lackluster and most were not fresh. The variety wasn’t great – I think there are more veggies to choose from at the hibachi on Garrett Road. The meats looked fresh enough, and they cooked pretty well, though I found the presence of cut up sausage a little bewildering.
The sauces were unmarked and unhelpful. The spices were plentiful, but unmarked, and thus almost unusable. Only thing in the «dessert» area was some cut up oranges.
I didn’t even want a second plate. Seriously, that’s saying something. Took forever to get a bill, and a long time to pay the bill.
And apparently, they’ve raised their prices. It was $ 12.50/person for dinner. A bunch of other places in the area give a better value for the money.
Didn’t help that the only other customers (at 7 on a Saturday night!) were loudly spewing racist epithets. Had I owned the place, I would’ve kicked them out for their language.
Anyway. Save your money and go somewhere else.

Boyfriend loves these Mongolian grill type places so we went here for dinner tonight. I’ve been to a lot of these in the Triangle area and this one was seriously disappointing. I completely agree with Paco — I’m really confused at all the 4 – 5 star reviews of this place. Most of the veggies were not fresh — the green beans and snow peas seemed to have come from either the canned or frozen variety and the beef definitely turned super tough after cooking. But the biggest issue I had with this place was their sauces. First off, many of these are unlabeled which just makes it a guessing game as to what it actually is. Second, there was definitely a jar labeled sesame oil that was most definitely NOT sesame oil — it was oil of some sort with a couple of sesames floating in it. The sauce selection is also very limited and can’t begin to compare to Crazy Fire, however there are a wide variety of Indian spices if you know the right combination to make something tasty. Price was average (8.50 for lunch and 10.50 for dinner) and so was service.

We stopped at Mongolian grill for lunch today and after reading all of the reviews I was pretty pumped. As soon as we walked in I was a little disappointed by the way it looked. It’s super sparse and as I walked by the troughs full of raw meat, I felt myself getting nervous but I was already there so I plunged ahead.
I agree with the other reviewers that recipe cards would have been nice. I did appreciate the number of veggies to choose from and spices (even though I had no idea how to use them). The food was overall pretty good but I just felt a little lost and the site of raw meat sitting out was a little off putting for me. I think I would like to go back and try the pizza.

Easily 5 stars because of the value. This place is cheap and you have nearly unlimited possibilities for your lunch or dinner. Note: the sign outside says «Iron Grill & Pizza.»
The meat quality isn’t quite as good as some of the other Mongolian BBQ chains I’ve visited around the country, but the cost of the meal is almost half as much. I can live with a little lower quality meat.
We visited on a Saturday afternoon and it was not busy. Our empty plates were cleared quickly and the crowd at the grill was minimal to none.
Be careful with cross-​contamination when you are at the ingredients station, especially if you bring your kids. If you load up with too much meat before your veggies and you have raw chicken juice slopping around, that’s uncool. Take a bowl and a plate, if you must.
It would be helpful, as Christina G. mentions, to have recipes for newbies. For a sauce, try a cup of the teriyaki with a scoop of chili garlic in it, with another half cup of sesame oil.
I didn’t try the pizza or even really understand what was going on with that, but I wasn’t worried about it.

Went here on the 4+ star reviews on Unilocal and left scratching my head. Everyone’s entitled to their own opinions, but I’m not sure if I can concur that this was some of the best I’ve ever experienced.
There are certainly times where customization and experimentation can be fun with food and this place puts it a lot in your hands by offering an array of veggies, meats, and sauces to mix and match at your discretion. It’s AYCE, which is handy as it usually takes me 2 – 10 trips to figure out the right balance of sauce (s)/seasonings with these places … those first couple of plates are usually just doused in sambal to compensate/​mask. This place adds some additional layers of complexity by adding what seemed to me as Indian components.
My issue with the Mongolian was that the meats did not appear especially fresh. The veggies were fine but the shrimp in particular was a bit slimy looking as did the pork (to a lesser degree). I stuck to the beef on the 1^st plate, which turned out tough after cooking. This drove my 2^nd plate to be vegetarian. At first I thought the soft tofu wouldn’t be able to hold up to this cooking method, but it turned out fine. This was a better dish … possibly as the seasoning/​sauce balance was better.
To add to the cross-​border-​ness of this place, they offer pizza. They’re made to order and priced a la carte. So if you want both the Mongolian and pizza, you pay for both? I nibbled on a piece of crust from someone in the party and honestly this was the highlight of the meal. The crust had almost a naan-​like flavor and texture. I’m intrigued. If I make it back here, it will be for the pizza … I think they had some interesting sounding Indian toppings.

This makes the third all-​you-​can eat mongolian grill I’ve been to in the Triangle area (Crazy Fire + GrEAT), and it seems they saved the best for last. Then again, if you’ve been to Crazy Fire, expect some deja vu. The places are strikingly alike, with comparable veggie and protein choices, plus a very similar display of sauces and seasonings, all at nearly the same price point ($ 8.50 lunch). So why the extra star? Here’s where Mongolian Grill gets a couple bonus points:
1. The veggies and proteins seemed fresher, especially the seafood (shrimp and bay scallops), which at least wasn’t still half frozen on display. They do a better job of cleaning the grill also, as I tended to find pieces of gristle at Crazy Fire. The fact that I didn’t encounter the same digestive issues I did after Crazy Fire is probably the biggest plus.
2. Choice of brown rice. I think Crazy Fire just lets you pick white or fried.
3. A small assortment of extra goodies to munch on while you waited for your food to be cooked (potato wedges and barbecue ribs). Two knocks though — as big of a brownie fan as I am, I was sad that they didn’t have any this time around. I was sorely missing dessert. And the ribs were overly chewy and fatty.
For proteins, you have your choice of white/​dark chicken, beef, aforementioned seafood, sausage, crab, and tofu. Veggie offerings are about twice as extensive and nicely varied. The sauce section was pretty expansive, my favorites being a hot curry with a yummy combo of flavor and spiciness, and the house sauce that had a bit of sweetness. You probably need to be a graduate of the culinary institute of America to take advantage of this place, as there is an entire kitchen’s worth of spices including curry powder, cumin, turmeric and minced garlic that left a cooking novice like me a bit confused and prone to skip that entire section of possibilities and stick to the pre-​made sauces.
All in all, it was a very solid take on the all-​you-​can-​eat Mongolian grill concept. No significant complaints here, but next time, I want me some brownies!

Imagine a time when you can be the chef, without all the raw meat on your countertop, sticky sweet chili sauce coating your pan, cumin spilled on your shirt. And no dishes to clean up! That’s what a Mongolian Grill is like. Be the mad scientist, turn your dish over to the cook who fires it up, then eat. Then repeat. Because this is a buffet.
My only point of comparison is Bali Hai. Which has about ¹⁄₅ the selection, is not all-​you-​can-​eat, and doesn’t allow you to create your own sauce or control how much sauce is incorporated. They even had a wide variety of oils (eg, sesame, garlic, chili), spices (eg, white pepper, ground mustard, turmeric) and sauces (eg, teriyaki, black bean ginger, mongolian, and the house sauce). So there’s no end to the variety of combos you can cook up. And it’s limitless for just eight bucks. Service was great; the cook whipped our orders up quickly (by the way, there’s an option of steamed or brown rice at his station… just tell him what you prefer). And our waitress kept our water glasses filled and our dirty plates cleared.
I do wish they’d maybe put a little instruction at the front, or some suggested recipes for newbies to follow. I saw a bunch of people walk in and back out because they were either intimidated or didn’t know how it works. They could also expand the «extras» a little bit. Maybe even offer a salad. Today, there were ribs, potato wedges, brownies, and orange slices.
Oh yeah, there’s a pizza component to this biz too — so you can also build your own pie and have it baked up fresh.

Worth a return trip — I tried this out today for lunch. It operates under the model of all you can eat — and you choose the components to the sauce. This means how good the dish is may depend greatly on your skill in creating a good flavor.
I haven’t tried pizza yet, but I am interested in checking it out next visit. The place was pretty quiet on my visit today — I hope they can get some more business as I think it is decent.
On my personal mongolian grill meter, they rank 2^nd right now — I can’t so easily betray Bali Hai — but they rank 1^st in terms of distance to my house/​work.
I like the slightly eclectic combinations in the shopping center where it resides: Benetis — Greek and Brunch. and now Iron (Or Mongolian) Grill & Pizza.
The service was good, and they were very helpful on guiding me through the process as it was my first time there.
4 stars is my rating for now, with good potential.

Tried for lunch, typical Mongolian, was very good, although the limiting factor has more to do with the diner’s selections than the restaurant. Has more stuff on the bar than Bali Hai, but not as much as Crazy Fire. Lunch was $ 7.50 (no drink) for all-​you-​can-​eat.
Next to and same owner as Tandoor Indian.
Open for dinner, but Unilocal’s crappy UI won’t let me add hours (or photos) with a new listing. And for some reason, it also won’t let me write «NC Hwy 55,» although that’s the correct address…