HuHot Mongolian Grill — Restaurant in Ames

I've been to a few hu hots before. Pros: the layout of the bar was better than average at this location. I didn't feel like I needed to shuffle around a lot to get through the different bars (meat, noodle, toppings, sauce). The bar area was cleaner than average.

Cons: The waitress at the beginning asked if we would like rice and/or soup. We said yes to the rice, we never got rice.

The dining area was very dirty, our table was sticky.

When we were done eating we were waiting for our check but the waitress spent 15 minutes talking to a table of customers across the room (I don't remember what they were talking about, but it was to the point that I thought she was just going to pull up a chair next to them)

Instead of taking dirty dishes into the kitchen, the staff kept piling all the dishes up on a big table in the center of the dining area.

One of the people I ate with got sick afterwards (not food poisoning but definitely upset stomach)

The biggest thing that bothered me here was that the 'chefs' did not put any effort into their job AT ALL. My first trip through the line it was very busy, so I understand why my dish didn't get much attention. But then I specifically waited until there was nobody else getting food and then went to get mine. I handed my bowl the the chef, he dumped it on the grill, moved it around (to cook the meat). Then he walked away. Then he stared at my food for awhile watching it burn to the grill top, (keep in mind he hasn't yet moved it since the original placement). He continues to watch my noodles sear to the top of the grill, didn't bother flipping any of the meat over, just waiting.... Finally he decides it's been long enough and scapes my now partially burnt meal onto a plate and hands it to me... Sure enough when I get back to my table and inspect the food, it cooked horribly uneven! I didn't even want to eat it at this point.... But I ate some of it and then gave up.

TLDR; Not a good representation of what HuHot is supposed to be. I had been so excited to go (I haven't been to one in over a year) but then to experience this...I doubt I'll be going to another hu hot anytime in the...

I wanna start by saying the waitress was wonderful. She is the only reason this post doesn't have 1 star. Last night we came in with a large party of 15 people, we called ahead to make sure they could accommodate to us. Everything was amazing until we went to the grill. The cooks kept giving us raw food back. Our first time through our food had ice cold spots through out it. Our noodles were still raw and if you got potatos they were hard as rocks. I went through a second time and tried to ask them to cook it longer when handing my bowl and the guy grabbed my bowl and ignored me. The person infront of me tried to do the same but had the same response. Once the person infront of me got his food he tried it and it was still undercooked. The potatos raw, hard noddles, and the meat was still pink. I had to stand there and wave my hands to get their attention, we stood there for about 30 seconds going "excuse me, sir" and they didnt even look at us. Mind you at the grill it was only us two standing up there, so no one else was waiting to get their food cooked. I got my food and tried it and it seemed fine but at the table the tofu was still cold in the middle and my meat wasn't fully cooked. Me and my husband has been going to the ankney and Clive location for 10+ years and love it so I don't understand why there was such a huge difference between the locations. We spent about $240 ish there not including the tip and to get that service is very agitating. Again the waitress was amazing she was a super star at getting us drinks and refills and answering any questions we had. To do that for 15 people...

Liked this place. Good place for Mongolian BBQ. Nice clean, lots of choices for veggies and meats and sauces. Make sure to get 5-6 ladles of sauces to make it nice and spicy. You can mix it up with noodles too. Unlike most other Mongolian BBQ places, this is buffet which means you can go multiple times - so really good value for money. Only thing I would like to request this place is to allow either rice or noodles while cooking the stuff. Mixing rice latwr on just does not cut it. The other thing is - if the chefs can use different cooking utensils for vegetarian folks or folks with allergies that will be nice. That way you can protect the Guests' personal choices and preferences better. But will definitely go again the next time I am in Ames.

Update: got an update from the restaurant that they do support allergies etc - I guess I should have been bit more specific and explicit about it when I handed the bowl. Thank you for the clarification...