HuHot Mongolian Grill — Restaurant in Lawrence

Just opened next to Planet Fitness on Iowa, Lawrence finally has a Mongolian barbecue, but HuHot Is HoHum With Nary A "Crab" In Sight!

About $10 for lunch and $15 for dinner, it's "all you can eat" which should go over well with KU students or anybody else for that matter. The place is big, but the bowls you put your meat, noodles, veggies and sauce in are very small and my main complaint. My recommendation, take two bowls, one for meat and one for noodles and veggies, that way you get a full plate of food rather than a half.

We tried A Taste of the Bounty appetizer ($9.99), with three each crispy egg rolls, Asian potstickers and krab rangoons, whatever the hell they are, accompanied by a rather boring sweet and sour dipping sauce. The egg rolls and potstickers were rather flavorless. The "krab" (note the spelling folks because there ain't a microgram of "crab" in these puppies) rangoons taste only of Philadelphia cream cheese in the center, again boring, bland and blah. Do not waste your money on any of the appetizers.

They have a nice variety of traditional meats (beef, chicken, pork) for the Mongolian Barbecue, adding some novelty with meatballs and sliced sausage, mild and hot. The veggie selection is somewhat inadequate with the basics that I like (mushrooms, onion, cabbage, and bell peppers), but not much else other than carrots and a few others. You get white rice, soup or salad for the extra $5 at dinner, but do not get your hopes up. Go for lunch and save your $5.

The food is decent, but not anywhere near the best Mongolian barbecue I have had and I have had it many times for less than $15. However, as Bob Barker would say, "The Price is Right", so sachet your little behind over to HuHot and try some of their mediocre Mongolian, then to Planet Fitness to work off some of them Krab Rangoons.

CombatCritic Gives HuHot An Initial 5 Bombs Out Of 10 ... More Bombs Are Better!

Five Bombs Equates To: Charlie-Mike =...

Been here many times since moving to Lawrence, used to be one of my favorite places, now it’s pretty hit or miss. Multiple times in the last year I’ve gone in the evening and gotten the same waitress that usually sits on her phone in the corner. When she’s not on her phone or eating, she usually has a shady boyfriend that comes in to talk to her or argue. Always fun to listen to. Never seen a manager here in the evening.

Most recent visit was around lunch time, the dining room was a little over half full and they were pretty busy. We were fairly low maintenance, just needed water and the check really. Our server seemed nice enough but she put straws in all of our drinks without asking, later saw her in the kitchen putting food in her mouth with her fingers. Could also see employees drinks sitting on prep surfaces as well as a bag of chicken left out, presumably to thaw at room temperature for who knows how long.

There were no gloves available at the line and some of the plates were sticky and/or oily. Cooks didn’t have their usual sense of urgency, they were letting multiple guest’s dishes burn onto the grill and then pouring water on them to compensate. They were also sloshing the char water onto the other grill food when cleaning. The manager came out a few times to wipe some tables down but mostly just watched the dining room with his hands in his pockets.

It’s been about 36 hours since my visit, I’ve spent the past few hours running to...

Well, bff suggested this place and I agreed. First, bff gave me the wrong directions 🙄 but after she said "wrong directions" all was good! So I arrive and walk in. The place is kind of dark and I'm not sure what these murals are about (please clue me in and see photo). The server/host points you to a table and off you go! We're there for the lunch buffet. Your server will bring you a drink and explain how to fetch your own lunch. Arrive at the buffet and man, it's intimidating. Loads and loads of options (and quite frankly I'm not a fan of buffets because I'm a germaphobic) but I move on with a grimace. Mushrooms, bean sprouts, carrots, chicken, pork, Asian meatballs, spinach, zucchini, Tomatoes, lots of noodle choices too. Too many to mention but all the choices were fresh and I saw they were replenished with an employee who had gloves (yay). I load my bowl and set it on the Circular grill. Chef picks it up and tosses it on with a sizzle. Seriously, this guy moves so many dishes around on the wheel it's amazing! When yours is done, it's plated and off you go! There are many, many sauces to choose from. I chose a "burn the village" which apparently would make me want a fire extinguisher. I'm a hot-n-heimer so bring on the burn. It was fantastic. The buffet has a detailed menu as well as a helpful list of what sauces are mild to hot. Service is attentive so please, while it's buffet, tip well. Bathroom was a bit grotty. I'll...