Genghis Grill — Restaurant in Albuquerque

Very disappointing.

First time here. The place wasn't busy, but it took a while for a waitress to get to my table. I was given a tiny "regular" bowl to choose my proteins, veggies, sauces, and spices. I set the bowl down with the chef line and noticed other toppings (sesame seeds, siracha, etc.) at the end of the line but wasn't allowed to wait and add them. My food was the next in line, but by the time I received it, it was lukewarm. The rice was added in under the stir fry instead of offered on the side like most Mongolian BBQ. I've been to Mongolian BBQ places in Germany, Italy, Japan, and dozens of US states, but this is the worst yet.

Attempt 2: My wife wanted to try it again. I hadn't been back for almost 3 years. Nothing changed. It's still ridiculously slow. It's still an unnecessarily confusing process. First, you sit down and wait for a server (5+ minutes). Next, they tell you to pick a bowl size (not a thing at Mongolian bbq). Then he leaves, and you have to wait for him to go get your meat bowl (another pointless wait of over 5 minutes instead of just having it on the line). Then you have to go to the line and fit everything into a tiny bowl that's not the bowl size you originally picked. You then fill this tiny bowl with everything you want in your meal. You have to put on gloves at the line like you're about to go into surgery while people are impatiently waiting behind you. And if you forget to grab something in the line, there's a $5 charge if you go back to get it. You drop off your bowl to the grill dudes and then have to wait for the slow waiters to bring it to you instead of just waiting to pick it up yourself like any normal Mongolian grill. It took another 10 minutes to wait for the waiter to bring us each bowl individually while they also walked around to other tables, our food sitting there, getting cold the whole time. Also, it was over $20 per person with drinks, and you can't go to the line more than once (again, unlike every other Mongolian grill anywhere). We won't return. A complete rip-off...

I used to love going here with friends and Er would have a great time building bowls and it was a good meal for under $10

Now I fully understand the price increase because of inflation of course. Now what I used to pay $8.99 for is $16.99 and the portions are much smaller and the bowls haven’t had the extra lip on them for years.

However, this was the first time I went and wasn’t greeted at the door. Stood there for a few minutes and had to go find someone to help me. Asked to see the portion sizes and the waitress pulled one bowl and said this is the regular and the small is smaller…. Ummm duh 🙄 then she asked if I wanted to see the small…. Yes, I believe that’s what I just said….

Then I actually like that they have a premade bowl option now in case you don’t want to go make your own.

They also have gloves that people wear to make the bowls which is much more sanitary.

The thing that I was most upset about was that the cook never even acknowledged my existence when she took my bowl and sauce. She used the same cooking spatulas for every one of the 5 meals on the cooktop and they were dirty. The next couple people that she took and started cooking had seafood in their protein, and I am allergic to shellfish. Thankfully, I’m not deathly allergic but if I was, I wouldn’t be able to eat the food. The quality of this place has really gone downhill. I am very disappointed and sad to see how far it’s fallen.

I also had to put my order in a to go box myself because they put it in a bowl, but that wasn’t too bad.

Overall, the food is still about the same quality except for the vegetables which looked like they had been sitting and had frozen, and then thawed out things like the onions and the water chestnuts, which I love. I will probably go back eventually because every once in a while, I get a craving for a bowl, but just sad to see how much everything...

If you have been to other Mongolian BBQ stir fry places this is not the same type of food. It's good to have that understanding. The food doesn't end up with the stir fried flavor because the sauces are too thick. Other Mongolian places tend to have very liquid sauces which allows the noodles to get the fried yummy exterior. For example, most places will tell you to add at least a couple of ladles of oil to fry the noodles. Additionally they usually use thin sliced meat that picks up a bit more flavor. The food picks up the flavor directly with minimal liquid or sauces at the end of the process. This type relies on the sauce to carry the flavor.

So really I just don't like this Mongolian Stir Fry that well because it is so different from traditional Mongolian BBQ. If you do like the thicker saucy kind, ignore my food review.

Other thoughts. The sign saying you will be charged $5 for messing up the order of your food is ridiculous. It definitely seems like the priority is to just herd people through the food line as fast as possible, so going back is unacceptable because it would slow them down.

Due to this being quite different from other Mongolian BBQ places, staff should ask every customer if they have been there before.

To be fair, I understand that this is a franchise so they don't have full control of how things are done. But we didn't have good service because the staff didn't establish we were new customers quickly enough and other staff members weren't that friendly.

Bathrooms are pretty bad. For the price range of this restaurant bad bathrooms are unacceptable. Example is that the faucet will spray you if you turn it on all the way. And they weren't...