Mongolian Village Grill - All you can load bowl, all you can eat salad, soup, rice and wraps — Restaurant in Ottawa

Maybe this style of restaurant is certain people's cup of tea, but unfortunately it wasn't for me. I mostly have concerns with presentation and cleanliness.

Here are a few concerning things from my experience (in order of appearance): (1) When we entered, no staff were present. Normally you'd see signs of activity, being busy with other customers, etc., but the server was just MIA. So we waited a minute, eventually she came and told us to sit where ever. A few minutes after that she brought the menus and without giving us time to look began asking what we wanted. She should have just seated us, gave us the menus and said she'll be right back to place drink orders if she was too busy at the moment. These missteps could have been forgiven if her general tone was more friendly, but overall it felt like an odd interaction and not very welcoming.

(2) The floors were unusually slippery in the bathroom and at the stir fry bar and there were no wet floor signs. I'd suggest trying a new cleaning solution as people could slip and hurt themselves.

(3) We were told that salads and soup were included, but when we went to the salad/soup bar, it was pretty messy and unappetizing. There were drips and pieces of food on the surface of the bar, and lids and utensils weren't all in place. My group really didn't enjoy the items either: the hot & sour soup couldn't be finished, the french onion soup was shredded and bland, the bread was cold and hard, the noodles were bland.

(4) When we served ourselves at the stir fry bar, I found this experience a mix of emotions. The vegetables looked great and fresh, but moving to the meat and sauces was less appetizing: The calamari absolutely reeked. It smelt like expired chicken. Fresh calamari should smell mild; if it smells like rotting chicken, that's probably a sign that something is wrong. Customers should not be trusted with handling raw meat. All of the surfaces and utensils are shared at the stir fry bar and it was unappetizing to see. In another review, the owner responded saying the utensils are only switched out twice per day. This doesn't give me much faith in the cleanliness of the bar, I feel like these surfaces and utensils should be cleaned every half hour at least, especially in a buffet style setting where the public is handling things.

(5) The stir fry itself was okay, but I probably misproportioned the sauce to it. I ended up not eating any of the meat in the dish because it was not only a bit bland, but after seeing other red flags I started to get paranoid about whether it was fresh and cooked properly.

Generally, I am left with the impression that the staff didn't put the cleanliness and food safety of the restaurant as a number one priority, and that the overall concept of self-serving stir fry should be modified: I would have found it more appetizing if customers were only allowed to fill their bowls with vegetables, and then they had to request how many servings of meat and which type of sauce they wanted and the chef would handle that end of things. Nobody truly needs to see, smell and pick their raw meat. This would also help in other ways too: (1) it would allow the chef to properly sear, season and cook the meat separately from the vegetables if necessary (especially for chicken), and (2) ensure the chef can properly portion the sauce to the amount of food.

The restaurant has potential but it needs to focus more on presentation and safety in order for me to...

As you can see from the comment, it is clear that this business is not interested in customer satisfaction. He actually called me a liar! With this much detail, i assure you i am not exaggerating. This restaurant is not worth the visit.

There used to be a time when you went out for dinner that they did everything to satisfy you. Now, you get your plates slammed down without even a smile and a quick exit before you can ask for more.

Even if they offered me a free meal, there is no way I'd go back to this restaurant.

We love going out to this place, and eating out is a real treat usually, but my experience tonight was awful enough to make me question ever going back...

We arrived around 530, and the restaurant was about half full, and many people were eating. Our server greeted us and offered us soup - i accepted, and my companion declined. A few minutes later, she came back with two soups, and before we had a chance to protest, she was gone. Once we straightened out which soup was mine, we were brought a steamer of rice and two sets of wraps, almost an hour before our food arrived. My companion asked right away for more wraps because we both use several packages (#1). This was around 545. I ate my soup, and we went and selected our food to be stir-fried. While waiting, we noticed that there were 7 or 8 dishes ahead of us, but we were ok. The wait would be worth it. So we waited and waited and waited. There was no way 8 dishes were taking this much time. At 642, i asked our server about the dishes and the length of the wait. I also reminded her that we needed extra wraps (#2), and she went away to see about the delay. She came back and explained they were very busy (half the tables were full at this point), and our food would be another 15 minutes. At this point, we began to get annoyed, and we were discussing whether to stay and wait. Shortly thereafter, a different server arrived with 2 plates. My companion immediately identified that her plate was wrong. It was covered in noodles, and she had not put ANY on her dish.

This is when we get up and prepare to leave. Yet another server, later identified as the manager, brushes by us and places two plates on our table. Who knew what happened to the plate she had been previously offered, but they had found her dish. Not wanting to waste the food or create a scene, we decided to accept the food, despite its presentation, and eat what we had ordered. No surprise, we ran out of wraps, and my food got cold as we waited for our server to bring something we had been asking for all night.

My spicy dinner was hot enough to finish the water i had been given over an hour and a half ago, and despite my efforts to attract our server's attention, my glass went unfilled. As a matter of fact, our server abandoned us completely. We had to go to the bar to pay and when i asked to speak to the manager. I was told our issue was resolved, and he was completely unappologetic.

Did i mention the two other tables that arrived after us, ordered the same service, and were gone before we were even served.

Now clearly our food was forgotten or somehow the order for cooking was mixed up... and all we wanted was to have the situation acknowledged and perhaps an appology from the manager. Instead, we left even more upset by the behavior of the manager.

Mongolian Village, you lost more than a tip tonight. You lost a...

We've always gone and done the typical build your own stir fry that you pay by weight which had never been an issue until today. My wife and daughter grabbed a bowl and filled it up with their choices and brought it to the scales as normal. Unexplained to them they had chosen "the wrong type of bowl" and were charged a flat rate of 27$ each. To be clear my daughter had 11.69$ worth of food on the scale and my wife was just short of 15$. Never was it indicated to them that they had chosen this alternate bowl option. Had we known they would have obviously loaded them up to the max to take advantage of the flat rate. Instead my daughter was charged over twice the amount she should have been and my wife was charged almost 10 dollars more than what her bowl weighed... I apparently chose the right type of bowl and paid 19$ for more food than the two of them combined. When I called back after I realized what happened they kept saying they had explained it to us which they certainly hadn't. At what point does common sense kick in and someone realize why am I charging this ten year old 27$ for 12$ worth of food. Management was of very little help when I called and wouldn't even have a conversation about and kept bouncing me around between employees. They wound up offering a ten dollar store credit which hardly makes up for the deceitful practices. Be carefull what bowl you pick up because it may cost you way more than it should...

As a reply to your comments, I am fully aware of the fact restaurants are trying to recover from COVID it's well known. I have no problem with the concept of the "One Bowl" or the fact that once someone chooses that route they can't go back. What I have a problem with is the fact that your offered it to members of my family without explaining what it was. When you ask a ten year old "are you having one bowl?" what do you think she is going to say? Backing up deceitful practices by saying you're recovering from covid is just poor business practice. I work in the service industry myself and transparency and making sure what your customers know what they are paying for is key. Clearly they aren't values for you or your staff. I'm also supposed to be receiving a call from corporate but have you to...