HuHot Mongolian Grill — Restaurant in St. Cloud

Mongo is dead, and we have killed him.

We entered in the last hour of the night. Getting a table took a few minutes, even though there was plenty of unused space. Getting drinks ordered took more minutes, because no one came to the table to get our order for another few minutes. We made quickly through our selection of things and spent quite a little bit of time watching the two cooks do their thing...slowly and painfully, swatting all sorts of ingredients around the cooktop and struggling to clean the food off as the leftovers smoked and burned. I received three baby corns and a tomato in my mix, but none of them were part of my bowl.

I went in a group of three adults. One of them compared the experience to "a real-life Kitchen Nightmares". As former Mongo's customers, we can count just exactly how much is missing—an entire ingredient bar was removed, over half the ingredients are no longer available (HuHot uses mirrored self-service ingredient bars, but Mongo's had different sets of ingredients on both sides), and there are no dry spices at the end for that extra kick. It was not very exciting.

The plentiful staff that chanted and performed feats of dexterity has seemingly been replaced by people who must still be learning the routines and are almost completely silent. This is acceptable for a new business, but pretty ridiculous for a franchise that absolutely has that knowledge on-hand; it feels like they hung their employees out to dry by not giving them time to learn and practice before dealing with customer traffic.

I thought it was notable that the cooks' use of the water bottles was different from Mongo's: the bottles have no pointed tips to extend range—leading to awkward splashing and reaching—and the cooks didn't shoot water onto dry customer bowls during cooking to aid in cooking and to prevent sticking.

If no major changes are made to this situation, I don't only not recommend going to HuHot, but I am additionally confused what would draw anyone in at all. This was our group giving the new place the one try. It would take news of a revamp to bring us back. There are simply a lot of options for...

As a disclaimer this restaurant used to be called Mongo's. Mongo's was amazing. The wait staff, The cooks and just about anybody else that worked there seemed very friendly. So yes I am judging them by comparing. They have removed so many options now. For example, you used to have the option of shrimp, adding spices, way more ingredients such as veggies and meats and sauces. You used to have the option of adding additional spices. You also used to have the option of adding an egg or two as well as having a wrap. These options are all gone. Used to have an option of having fried rice mixed right in your meal now if you want you can get a pasty sticky white rice with zero flavoring added as a bowl brought to your table.

The hostess barely spoke a word to us and seemed upset about even having to be there maybe just having a bad day? The servers seemed very nervous and unsure of himself spoke in low voice and was difficult to understand and hear. The cooks I don't believe said one word they took my food threw it on the grill worked in silence and handed it back. This is something you would have never experienced in Mongo's. The cook staff in Mongo's would talk to you ask you what you wanted thank you hand it to you with a smile not in HuHot. There were no smiles to be had anywhere from the staff. Overall I'm not sure I will ever visit this location again. Such a disappointment. I gave them three stars for food simply because you do have the option of going back for more if you didn't get enough and the ability to spice it kind of how you would like it with some sauces so the flavor is up to you. I will say this My food was on that grill for less than 30 seconds. I had these Mongolian meatballs added to my meal and they were lukewarm at best in the center.

Somebody please bring back Mongo's. It is definitely light years ahead of HuHot. Perhaps it's simply because this particular store is newer,...

Yesterday I, among a group of 4 (with my fiancée, one of our close friends & her mom who came to see us), went to the St. Cloud HuHot location to celebrate my birthday as I love HuHot. This was the first time my fiancée & I had been to the STC location, previously we've gone to the Rochester location.

The HuHot experience itself and taste was still the same but I was not left with a good impression of the STC restaurant.

To a lesser degree, I didn't really like the interior layout as placement of stations/areas felt awkward compared to Rochester. Our waiter was friendly but a little too "engaging"/talkative and made our group feel a little off-put.

What the big issue for me is that this morning I got violently sick throwing up 3 times back to back before it stopped. Given that I picked a wide variety of ingredients/mix-ins for my plate since I love veggies, and that I also was the only one to pick seafood for my plate (Pollock), I can't think of any other factor from yesterday that might've contributed towards getting sick today other than HuHot. To note, I have never gotten sick following any of our times at the Rochester HuHot.

Based on my experience I would not choose to come here again and from now on will only go to the Rochester location. To other restaurant patrons, please remember for your own reference and safety food does not always have to look/smell/taste "off" to indicate it might not have been handled properly, sometimes what's become tainted doesn't yet show easily detectible "red flags".

1 Star for Food (since I got sick even though it tasted good), 3 Stars for service (our waiter wasn't mean or bad at all, just a little too talkative), 2 Stars for Atmosphere, and 2 Stars overall.

If we ever do happen to decide trying STC again in the future I would update my review based on...