Bd’s Mongolian Grill

Holy poop their prices are ridiculous. Almost $ 40 for 2 people to eat a bowl of food. Not worth it. Service kinda sucked too

PRICES are way too high. $ 2.99 for a simple Coka-​Cola. Spend $ 40.00 each time my family of (3) goes into eat dinner. Insane prices seeing that the minimum wage hasn’t really gone up.
The food is EXCELLENT and the cooks are the ONLY ones that have it right here !

The last time I was there will probably be the last time I will go. We used to enjoy this place. The choices were good and the prices fair. But they have raised the prices and taken a number of things that I liked off the Meat/​Veg/​etc bar. They even took the egg away! The service/​waitress was nice but she had most of the room by herself — they were severely understaffed — so service was very slow. I was very disappointed.

The food here is impeccable but way overpriced. It’s a place to go more for the experience and environment than the food itself. They do have great drink specials though and the food is quite good. The staff are the most friendly staff in town. I love this place and I go here quite often

The salad/​soup bar was sparse and the options were bizarrely limited. The lettuce was gross and the selection of salad options are basically the veggies you’d find on a Whopper at Burger King. For 10 dollars the salad/​soup selection is a HUGE ripoff.
The shrimp fried rice was overcooked to the point of being melty as well as being completely saturated in garlic.
The grillers make small talk with the customers and it is awkward and unnecessary to bare witness to. We weren’t there for long (got our food, found it disgusting and then we left after paying our bill) but we heard numerous people admit they were working or doing nothing this coming weekend after being loudly asked what they’d be up to. Small talk is an unfortunate ritual simple people seem to torture each other with and when they’re hungry it is certainly not the time to subject customers to more of it.

Looking to travel abroad in your own town? Then BD’s Mongolian Barbeque is the place for you. I decided to escape the American landscape, and boy, once you open that front door, you feel yourself being transported into some exotic faraway land. I was blown away by the sheer authenticity of the experience. Having never been to Mongolia before, I was intrigued to be met at the door by a woman wearing traditional Mongolian garb — blue jeans and a colored t-​shirt with a phrase with sexual innuendo on the back. It seems that in Mongolia, they are fond of puns and often wear shirts expressing their favorites, dyed in the color of whatever the local dyesmith happens to have on hand that day. The young lady seated us as I drank in the ambience. All the sights, smells, and sounds whisked me away to where I felt I was traveling with a nomadic tribe, amongst the brethren in my ger. While I had always associated the shamanic sounds of throat singing or the mystic melodies of the stringed morin khuur, I was flabbergasted to find that traditional Mongolian music was actually American Top 40 radio hits. Now I will know how to join the in-​group should I ever find myself circumambulating the Uvs Lake with a roving band of Mongolian musicians.
Now, on to the food! In Mongolia, apparently, when it is time for the communal meal, a large buffet is set up where you are given the choice of many different meats such as frozen chicken, pieces of sirloin, pork slices, or shrimp… hunted by only the most skillful hunters of the Gobi desert. After that, you choose your sauces, spices, and stand next to your nomadic neighbors as you wait for the college-​aged men of your tribe to take your bowl, slop it on the grill, sing rock songs, and send the food flying. It is truly a communal experience as you share both your personal space and the contents of your bowl with the person next to you. In Mongolia, as people stand around watching their food get grilled, they show their appreciation by putting dollar bills in a fish bowl and ringing a bell. As I am not sure whether these items are available at all places in Mongolia, I will make a mental note to bring my own when fate sends me to this most enchanted land. The proper response to receiving such a symbol of gratitude is to yell something unintelligible and take a swig of Mongolia’s national drink, the Arnold Palmer (wasn’t even aware of his Mongolian heritage!)
Upon bringing the food back to your table, you are given the option of eating your meal with rice or another staple of Mongolian cuisine, the tortilla. And how is the food? It depends on what you put in your bowl, what the person next to you put in his bowl, and if those entrusted with the food’s grilling felt it was in need of bits of char. I can only assume this trusting of a food’s quality to the Gods is some sort of divination ceremony that foretells the fortunes of the upcoming day. The fact that you can change your fortune until you have busted your gut is a strength of this restaurant. And it is due to this fact that I was planning on forgoing dessert, only to give in to the Mongolian custom of offering one’s guests desserts numerous times throughout the meal. Looking at the menu, we discovered that in Mongolia, dessert entails a large goblet full of ice cream, various sweet sauces and either a brownie or apple pie. You know that phrase, ‘As American as apple pie’? Well, apparently it’s really ‘As Mongolian as apple pie.’ The dessert was exquisite and we promptly left the restaurant with our digestive systems overloaded with authentic Mongolian fare and our minds overloaded with cultural knowledge of a charming land we’ve never visited but now feel like we’ve been citizens of for years.

Ring the bell it’s nice that you can choose all that you want and they’ll do it rite there for you with the little sticks and everything they got a good salad bar too but you can eat way too much

It was a pretty busy lunch time visit. Nothing I haven’t seen other Mongos handle with ease.
The raw bar was a mess. Ingredients mixed to the point of not being able to separate what I wanted from what I didn’t. I made due with some «extras» added to my bowl.
The grillers seemed to have a «system» of sorts. Not a particularly good system… Who am I kidding? It was confusing and didn’t work at all. They were doubling their work load and had multiple customers’ bowls all on the bar at once. It just didn’t work.
Some people’s food sat charring on the grill for 10 minutes or more without being touched at all. I was one of those people. So was my buddy. You could have used his egg on the ice at a Red Wings game. The grillers tried to cut it up, but the egg won that battle. My noodles turned crunchy and most of my food was charred.
The manager said that he would only charge us for one bowl. On this trip, due to the grillers’ inept system, I was skipped twice when they put fresh food on the grill. Splendid.
When I was finally able to receive my non-​charred food, I sat back at my table just in time for a server to walk by and drop a silverware set up on the floor. These silverware rolls leave the tops of the utensils exposed, and the cling on the metal hitting the floor was obvious. The server still placed the utensils on a table for someone to eat from. I gave him the stink-​eye as he walked by, but he sheepishly avoided eye contact. Glad I use chopsticks!
I used to love Mongo, but there’s two now that I will never return to. This is one of them.

You are your own chef here, so the experience is what you make of it. Hubs and I are fans of Mongolian bbq because of the large selection of items you can mix and Bd’s has a surprisingly large variety of protein and veggies. We opted for the AYCE bowls, which is reasonably priced if you can actually eat more than a couple plates.
This is my first experience with the chain and we went before a rush of people, so everything was still neat and clean with little wait for the cooks. Stand out items were duck, fish, and kale. I need to try the duck next time, but the fish was my absolute favorite. I also really liked that they had bok choy and kale not just «cheap» veggies. I only use ½−2/3 cup for sauce, so it’s not too salty, which was a mistake my husband made the first time. I also don’t use much noodles so it’s really a healthy filling meal for me.
We didn’t realize until the end that soup and salad were included with the AYCE bowls, so just be aware if you’re interested. We tasted the sausage and kale soup, which was good. I can see this place being a mess when it’s flush with college kids and families, so it’s probably best to go at an off time.

I love bd’s and am sad to write a less than positive review for this location. It took a long time for us to be seated, and then it took a long time for our server to take our drink order. The restaurant seemed less clean than other bd’s I’ve frequented. The food was overcooked, was dry and had a metallic, chemical taste. We had to ask for tortillas (we were only offered rice.) it took forever for us to receive our check. I really don’t know if we’ll return to this location.

If I could give my visit no stars I would. My girlfriend and I walked in during normal dinner hours, and noticed they were «busier» than normal (this place is always dead though so busier really means nothing). We stood at the hostess desk looking around for the hostess, and after 10 minutes a waiter seats us in the corner behind the bar (which actually turned out to be a good thing). Our waitress was slow and it seemed like she was more interested with whatever was going on in the back. Eventually we get our bowls and run up to the food bar. As I approach the bar I stop breathing because there is the most disgusting smell coming from the bar. My appetite was suddenly gone and I paid $ 11 for my decent food. The bar wasn’t stocked properly and the choices were limited. Needless to say, we won’t return.

Horrible experience. My husband I feel sick due to the lack of sanitation. Meat looked like it had been sitting out too long and food slop was everywhere. Ingredient containers were mixed together to the point where you could hardly tell what each container was actually supposed to be holding. On top of everything else, they had one person on the grill the whole time when it was quite busy so food was waay over cooked. Very disappointed. This place used to be decent.

We love the great variety of options at Mongolian BBQ! The atmosphere is fun, and the chefs are always having a good time, singing and chatting with all the vustomers waiting for their food. Always have had a great experience when we are here.

VERY Dissapointed. $ 16/​a person for dinner, food was lightly burned, salmon tasted fishy, meat was not fully cooked, had to wait for server to bring out bowls. For this price the quality of food was absolutely terrible. I’ve been to HuHot Mongolian Grill before and thought that was ok, but I left this place with a gut-​ache. I’m not making this up, I will never go back.

Mongolian BBQ is one of my favorite places to go. This is not the nicest or worst spot in the chain that I have been to. The food bar items are pretty diverse and occassionally they have some unique trial items here. The cooks and staff have been pretty good when I have been there, but not spectacular. It is located close to MSU and the Meridian Mall.

The best word to describe this place is inconsistent. Most of the time, it’s empty and the food is ok. Occasionally it’s packed. When it is, it’s clear the staff has no idea what to do. Be especially wary of coming with larger groups.
Our last visit was a total disaster. We waited almost twice as long as the hostess predicted for seating, even when empty tables were visible (and no one bothered to check back in with us and let us know what was up!). Once finally seated, the crowd at the grill was so large it took nearly 30 minutes to get food. The ingredient bar was understocked. Worst of all the poultry in my dish was undercooked (still pink) and when it was brought to a manager’s attention I was given a new bowl without even an apology.
The guys who work at the actual BBQ are mostly friendly, but when the place is packed I’d rather you skip the gimmicks and chatter and try to process the line as quickly as possible.
As other reviews have noted, you pay the price for the novelty of the grill, not the quality of the food — there are tons of more reasonable & tasty options in the area.
I won’t be back.

Average food at an above-​average price. The only thing that keeps me coming back is the fact that I seem to be really good at assembling a mustard-​based steak bowl.
Some of the reviews argue that if you’ve already developed the culinary acumen to know which ingredients to combine, then you needn’t pay 11 bucks to have them grill it for you. That’s mostly true, but resturant’s are more than just food. It’s the overall experience that they sell, along with convenience and accessability.
It’s also worth noting that obese people are dissuaded from attendence by virtue of the fact that you have to stand up to get your food. Large people typically eschew movement. If you’re looking for a fattie-​free dining experience, this might be your destination.

From reading the rest of the reviews it’s easy to see that this place is either loved or hated, not much in between. I can see both sides of the argument but since they have been great with my food allergies and have never had a problem making my meal on the grill in the back, I’d definitely continue to eat there.
You can’t blame them if the food doesn’t taste great, you are choosing the meat, veggies, and sauces. I normally do my own thing and don’t do their recipe cards. I agree that too often the veggies are frozen.
I would suggest going on College Night to save some cash because it is expensive for what you are getting but you can definitely fill up if you make your meals right.
So yes, I will go again, but probably on College Night or during lunch to save some money.

I have a very hard time nailing down what I want to say about Bd’s Mongolian Barbeque. There is a certain degree of love-​hate here that makes assigning a number of stars very difficult. Reading the reviews (which are themselves quite polarized) I find myself agreeing with points on both sides of different arguments.
Bd’s Mongolian Barbeque is a novelty restaurant. You’re going there to pile food in a bowl which a guy throws on a hot stone and then gives to you. Frankly, it’s very similar in ideology to Cold Stone Creamery.
The pricing is a disaster, whether it is intentionally obfuscated or not. If you walk in the door and just want one plate of food, there’s your base price. If you want soup or salad you get both, and also get bumped up into another price range which I think includes unlimited plates. If you only want unlimited plates but not soup and salad that’s a little less. Basically, though, getting soup and salad (which is in itself good) is self defeating as then you want to get more food to justify the price but are already more full on soup and salad.
The whole point of this place is glutonistic hedonism. Once you get two plates of food you might as well get 6. The price for each then keeps going down — even if the food you’re piling in keeps getting worse (think of the experimentation by even your third plate). If you only get one plate the only way to really justify the price is by packing it full of meat.
The meat is decent, and there’s usually good selection. The vegetables are often still frozen while on the bar, so it’s clear you’re not getting much fresh stuff. The sauces and spices are really quite nice, and there is a good selection, though they are a small part of the whole process.
I have to say, I generally enjoy the food while I’m eating there. The price points make it so that I’m always trying to figure out how to get the most for my money, though, which takes away from it.
A meal at dinner with soup and salad is going to set you back the same amount of money as a good steak at a good (greater Lansing) steakhouse. For what you’re getting (a pile of meat and some frozen vegetables) it just doesn’t seem cost effective. You’re paying for the novelty, and unfortunately that wears off.
You should certainly go there once, but aim for lunch (it’s cheaper for the exact same thing). Decide from there on out if you think it’s worth the money. I think it’s more a personal preference than anything.

There’s no other Mongolian BBQ like BD’s Mongolian BBQ. I’ve been going to this restaurant ever since I discovered it back in the mid 90’s in Ann Arbor. There have been some changes throughout the years (now uniforms are required, not as upbeat as it used to be) but the food is always great. They used to cook w/​huge wooden sticks on the grill, but have changed to metal ones since they were having issues w/​wood splinters showing up in food. They also now add oil to the grill just before they put your bowl onto it to help the cooking process.
They say don’t mix the meats, but I say WGAF? I always go for the lamb and add in some shrimp into the mix. You can pile on the veggies and there’s plenty of sauces and oils to choose from. My favs include: chili garlic and black bean. Chopped cilantro and garlic is great to add as well. You can’t go wrong w/​whatever combination you choose here at the Mongolian BBQ. It’s quite unique and also entertaining as well!