BD's Mongolian Grill — Restaurant in Independence

I'm sending this to you guys doing to the bad customer service experience my mother & I had last night at this restaurant. We have both ate here plenty of times and never had a problem until last night. I had called a month ago to reserve a spot for a surprise 70th birthday dinner for my grandmother. When I had spoke with management several times, it was known that this was a surprise, so guest would show up before I arrived with my grandmother. Well before I could even pull into the parking lot, my guest were calling me asking where i was at, saying the waitress was being extremely hateful to them, they felt rushed & not welcomed. So when I walk in, I immediately asked for management. The waitress wearing a black shirt with black hair immediately started questioning me on why I wanted management. I explained to her it was not up for her to question & that I just wanted to speak with someone above her. She proceeded with tell me that there was no problem & I don't need a manager when nothing was happening. After repeating myself several times, I became upset on the one request I had within the first 3 minutes of being in there & how I was being spoken to. When I had finally spoken with management, I told him that the pervious times I've been there I enjoy my time. But that if I knew this was going to be an issue since I did this a month early, I could of taken my business somewhere where it wasnt a problem & the restaurant actually wanted the business. He proceeded with telling me that “it's not my fault you & your party showed up 45 minutes” which was not true at all but continued into “I'm trying to run a business and because your party cant arrive on time does not mean it has to mess with the business I have happening in my establishment.” I told him clearly there was some confusion or miscommunication, because it's been known the many phone calls I made there it was a surprise party, but I'm definitely shocked with how my guest, my family, and I was treated. My mother, who helped me with this, refused to even eat in this establishment after they treatment we received. With a company who writes on their website “our guests are our number one priority here at bd’s” all of my guest were in shock while people eating around us felt horrified by how we were being treated & spoken to. My grandmother enjoyed seeing the people we invited, but told me after leaving she well not be returning & that will be the first and last time in this restaurant. I wish this situation was better. I wish that for the amount of money we spent on this meal, my guests & I wasn't forced to box up our meals before eating it and asked to leave. I wish that the employees here were better trained on the meaning of customer service, because as someone that has worked in it for years, I have never disrespected anyone like they did us. This will be something I never have to deal with again, because I dont see me coming back...

I've been here so many times, but I'm not sure what happened yesterday it just didn't taste the same. I thought maybe it was the sauce. But I always get the same thing my sister was even asking me if I had "this and that" in my bowl, and I pointed to everything. Either it tasted different, they were burning people food, or it wasn't cooked. I bit into a piece of meat that couldn't be chewed or tore apart. My niece noticed our waitress had an attitude rolling her eyes and shaking her head when she walked away but giving the table next to us excellent customer service. I really couldn't understand what the problem was so I asked her if we did something to make her roll her eyes and shake her hand and if she had a issue with serving us, she gave some excuses about if she was doing it that it was not intentional (I really just caught her off guard by asking). Definitely wasn't my best experience here. It was my nephew 1st time here I saw him eat only some of his food but like I said people food tasted burned my niece heard the guy from the next table telling someone else his food tasted burned too when she went up to remake her and her daughter bowl . I'm not sure if it was staff or not that he talked to.

Edit May 8th, 2024 Out lr food was better this time, wasn't many people in there either this review is mostly on the waitress stop leaning and talking over people food and drinks her arm and clothes kept touching my drinking straw i didnt want it anymore. She kept talking over my sister water and leaning over all the food to reach over just ask for whatever you need or set the drink,food or whatever down or a simple excuse me...

Our group of 4 went there for my wife's birthday. We had been there and another location.

The restaurant's premise is set up for the patrons to "gather" their own raw food at smorgasbord type stations; then take whatever you want to be cooked to a centralized fry to be cooked in front of you adding whatever sauce and seasoning you may have gathered. Then the food is scraped onto 'clean furnished' plates and you get to wander back to your table.

Everyone at our table had to revisit the restrooms so as to wash off our fingers; the tongs and ladles were either quite sticky or just filthy from so many people's hands. I felt I was wise enough to leave my food to get cooked and dashed to the restroom to get the grime off my hands before handling my 'clean furnished' plate. Otherwise I was taking other's stickiness and/or filth left on my fingers back to my table as I touched my 'furnished' plate.

Ultimately, the food was good though a bit pungent with the spiciness of my picked seasonings and sauces. I decided the food was cooked hot enough to kill any bacteria etc I may have "gathered".

I considered taking pictures of the ladles and tongs but didn't want to ruin the experience for the others. The restaurant could use a thorough dusting around the table we sat at (we were seated in a booth attached to a low wall where the dust was visible) and especially the food stations (also as dirty but please clean the area around the lighting and sneeze guards before putting food out for gathering- especially with as much sickness that's going around).

The lemonade was good. They furnished...