Crazy Fire Mongolian Grill

Dirty table
Dirty kitchen
Poor service
Poor selection of ingredients
Food NOT fresh
All and all not recommended

Crazy fire OHHHH crazy fire… what to say about you. This is the type of place where you have to have a concept of flavor and good taste or everything you make will come out tasting like garbage. It will be as good or as cruddy as you decide to make it. Several groupon offers in the last month have made this place a go to even though for us it’s off the beaten path. The place is clean, has a good selection of meats, and unlike the crazy fire in raleigh/​cary has baby corn. In my book that makes it a win.

Decent food for an all you can eat raw buffet that’s cooked in front of a person. The cooks do their job well to make sure the meal is to one’s liking, but ultimately it’s up to the consumer to choose what they want. The cooks are LOUD with their banging on the grill and tossing the empty bowls into the bus pans.
The AC at this location seems to have crapped out. While I was seated, eating, sweat just poured off of me, and not because the food was (spicy) hot, but because the interior of the restaurant was that hot — the AC just could not keep up.

My wife and I stop in for sushi regularly. We LOVE it, and the sushi chef is a card. We always sit at the sushi bar and chat with him as he is making our sushi.
The sushi is wonderful, the chef entertaining, and the prices are in line with the quality of the fare.

Great place for a quick bite. Simply grab all you want into your plate and they will fire it up on the hibachi within two minutes right there in front of you.

Holy Smokes, This is the First Crazy Fire in Raleigh and it remains my favorite. Never had a bad meal, never crowded and the service has always been top notch. It is showing some age but perhaps that adds to some of the charm. I like the fact they take their time on the cooking stone so you do not end up with under cooked food. Lost a star due to a very limited bar selection. They have a long time Sushi Chef with personality but can’t vouch for the quality as I am a cucumber roll kinda guy. For those nights when only self made stir-​fry will do !

My son LOVES this place! I noticed they have lowered prices on our last visit here. They changed up the way the food bar is, Veggies first then meats last sauces. Fast and friendly and a fun concept. We always enjoy it here.

Fresh food is always out. Our waiter is always fast and courteous. The bar here is amazing. This crazy fire is bigger than others and looks nicer too. Fair amount of seating and kid friendly. It’s all you can eat.

Hands down the best sushi in Raleigh. Let the sushi chef choose for you or mix and match on your own. Its all wonderful. We never miss a chance to visit when we are back in town.

I’ve been a regular at Crazy Fire for many years. I just love the stirfry, create your own dish type of place. It’s never incredibly busy but enough people there that you don’t feel like it’s empty. The staff is nice and can sometimes feel like they’ve disappeared for like 20 minutes at a time. You kind of can lose them as they don’t have a uniform and just are in ordinary clothes. Everything is always pretty clean and done right. The only thing I’ve ever had an issue is often I get take out — it’s cheap and a good meal and after one visit of take-​out, after checking my account a few days later, I saw that they double charged me for my meal. Easy mistake. I went back in the next day after realizing it, and the man at the sushi bar that doesn’t speak much english just said I needed to speak to the Manager who was no there that day. (everything was in choppy English so it wasn’t easy to understand.) I wasn’t really getting anywhere and I felt like i was doing MORE work just to get back $ 9 than it was to consistently try to find this mysterious manager and continue to repeat my story. So I cut my losses and just gave up. You’d be surprised but I’ve actually been back since and it’s been pleasant visits every time. I always speak to the Hispanic man who actually cooks your food and he’s incredibly sweet.

I really like going here — it’s kind of like interactive dining. All of the ingredients are laid out buffet-​style ready for you to pick and choose which ones will go into your bowl and the cooks use long metal blades that represent the swords that ancient Mongolian warriors used to stir-​fry your dish! My favorite combo is beef, onions, broccoli, mushrooms, water chestnuts, teriyaki sauce, lemon ginger sauce, garlic oil, chopped peanuts, and a dash of lemon pepper. Yum!

Good food great drinks every one is supper nice and it is clean. The service is quick and great, every one is really nice.
Good selection of food and the sushi is put together well. Every time I come hear I have a good experience.
Great place to bring the family and friends.

If you like to experiment on your food than this is the place to go. You can create 100’s of different dishes on your own and than take it up to this awesome round grill where a chef cooks it up for you. You cant complain about the taste since you season everything on your own! There are lots of great recipe suggestions posted about their food prep area so you can follow those to make many different plates with veggies, meats, sauces and seasonings.
It is not the best atmosphere but its a buffet and if you are feeling creative for dinner, this is the place. I definitely agree with previous reviews put the seasonings/​sauces on your meat directly and than add your veggies on top of that.
For the price of the buffet, I dont think you can go wrong.
We love doing the dinner buffet so you can make multiple trips and make a variety of tasty dishes. They also have a full drink and sushi bar if you are interested in Sushi and Drinks

After reading the reviews, I had mixed feelings, but I’m an adventurous lad so i figured, what the hell right? The place is a bit small and my initial reaction was that the buffet line was really small. But they’ve cleverly crammed a lot in a little space. I suggest using two bowls, one for meats and the other for veggies. Combined, it’s a lot of food. The quality of food was above above average, but not joygasmic. For $ 11 a person, you could really do much worse for dinner. Out the door including tip for $ 30 and myself nor my fiancé left hungry. I followed Tamara’s advice and washed my hands religiously — and I didn’t get sick. So, that’s a plus. 4 stars.

I gave it a star because there is no zero and unfortunately, I use to eat here often.
If you are obese or want to get there, the Mongolian side of the restaraunt offers an all-​you-​can-​possibly-​eat serve-​yourself bar where you pick-​out whatever you want and they cook it for you on a large flat Mongolian grille — thus the name. So really: if your eating habits are based on quantity v quality, you may consider this place. It’s about the same price as Golden Corral but without the selection.
However, I guess that that the novelty is supposed to be that they have a full bar and serve sushi. The caveat is that there is literally a «sushi nazi» who, while being as slow as absolutely possible (I mean its raw fish — its not like you have to cook it), tells you whether or not he will serve you and then what you will eat. I have actually eaten on the Mongolian side of the restaraunt with my kids where he refused to serve me sushi!
[SECRET: There is a Harris Teeter just doors away that serves fresh sushi by a amiable chef at better pricing but unfortunately, no seating or bar (LOL).]
So if you can throw back too many drinks to make the abuse palatable, I highly recommend this place.
On a side note, I believe that as they are now on the 3^rd owner in as many years and expect that they will survive much longer. I was in there last week on Friday dinner time and they were empty.
Hopefully, after they close, they will replace the sushi guy with the one from the Teet as the concept is not bad.
In the meantime, CHAI’S ASIAN BISTRO @ the corner of Creedmore and Strickland — a hole-​in-​the-​wall hugging Kroger — serves sushi as well as Thai, Chinese, and Vietnamese; is a value for your dollar; and importantly, gives great service. I’m not sure but believe that it is family owned — if not, terrific actors as they make you feel that way.
Else, if you are not stuck on Asian cuisine, Leesville Taproom is a few doors down and EXCELLENT as well as Las Palmas (GREAT Mexican).

Sure, it doesn’t have the most freshest of vegetables, but if that’s what you’re looking for then this isn’t your place to eat. The workers are all friendly and the owner is super nice. Most importantly, they have the best drink specials — go on Sundays when all the specials are in play! 1.99 beers anyone?

I love Mongollian grills. I love the premise of picking your own veggies and experimenting with flavors. But this is a crappy execution. The restaurant looks run-​down (the Capital Blvd location was definitely better). The veggies were ok, but the sauces were so mild in flavor, it took us 6 ladles of sauce before we could taste anything. At ten bucks a pop for dinner, I definitely would not recommend this place!

Tip 1) Start from the back and work forward then go back and add sauces. That way you get the spices and vegetables loaded first. The meats stack better on the vegetables.
Tip 2) If you are at lunch it is cheaper just to use one bowl so pile it high.
Tip 3) Don’t put a little bit of this sauce and a little of that sauce and more of a different one– stick with pretty much just one or two or what they recommend, otherwise it can taste like garbage because you mixed the wrong flavors together that try to over power each other.
Tip 4) Read Tamara S’s review– Wash your hands after you make your bowl, every time.
Tip 5) For a change up– fill a bowl with the meats and vegetables. Then one with noodles. Skip the rice.
Tip 6) You might have to go 2 – 3 times to figure out what you like and how to put it together.
Tip 7) Don’t add sauce AFTER your meal is cooked. You are just asking for trouble.
Positives–
Lots of food.
You decide the combinations you want
You can experiment
The food is hot when you get it
Good atmosphere
Price is good for the food you get
Negatives
Loud– a lot of banging in the cooking process
This is a buffet– can’t get anything off a menu
Difficult to diet here. You need a lot of will power
Overall this is a decent place to go. It is a good change up for normal asian food and you get to decide what you want and how much of it you want.

One piece of advice: WASH YOUR HANDS AFTER YOU MAKE YOUR BOWL! I know several co-​workers who have gotten sick after not following this basic rule of thumb. You are handling raw food… always wash you hands after taking your bowl to get cooked. I’ve gotten sick here once (even after washing my hands) but it was very crowded and I’m sure raw food was placed on the grill right next to mine when it was almost done cooking. I still frequent this place but will not eat there if it’s too crowded.

This place is a chance to try something new each time. All the meat is fresh (unlike some Mongolian grills who serve frozen meats), there are quite a few vegetable toppings from bean sprouts to broccoli and a large selection of sauce toppings (tried the Asian Ginger sauce and it was excellent!).
The one issue that may come from eating here is the fact that you WILL be full when you leave, it is not a place for those on a strict diet. Lunch is affordable and the staff is friendly, you can pile your bowl as high as you’d like and they will take care of you. I will be back for sure to try something new off the buffet.