Friday, January 29, 2010

Gobi Mongolian BBQ: How to build the best noodle stir-fry

Hand over your noodles, meat and veggies and the cook stir-fries them until they're just cooked through.

Here's a taste of my Gobi Mongolian BBQ review in the Los Feliz Ledger this month. Go to the neighborhood paper's revamped website to read the whole thing.

Basically Gobi is all about the build-it-yourself noodle bowl. Dinner is $13.95, including sesame bread; lunch is $9.95. Diners line up at the buffet, and choose from natural chicken, lamb or pork or choice beef. Meats are piled into thin frozen slices, so they remain fresh. Then pile a selection of fresh, varied vegetables in the good-sized bowl.The selection is miles ahead of a chain restaurant: take advantage of pricey shitake mushrooms, which add tons of flavor to the dish as well as brightly colored peppers, unusual green cauliflower and all the usual suspects. Now choose from sauces like lemongrass, Asian pesto or green curry and combine with flavorings like fresh cilantro and chopped garlic. Then add a pile of cooked noodles on top of the bowl.Hand over the bowl to the cook on duty at the large round griddle, and he’ll stir-fry the vegetables, noodles and meat just long enough for everything to cook through without getting soggy. Read more about Gobi's beer selection at the Ledger, and see how many forks it got.
Gobi Mongolian BBQ, 2827 W. Sunset Blvd., (213) 989-0711

Gobi on Urbanspoon

7 comments:

Catherine said...

This is our families favorite local restaurant. Healthy, reasonably priced, great service and fun for kids.

carter said...

A warm version of a Gelson's salad bar, for twice the price.
Don't need the noodles either as there is no food value in noodles.
think I'll pass.

rubiconvict said...

I love this kind of thing. It is far better than typical fast food. You can get something healthier and you can actually end up with something pretty tasty.

The only thing is, this particular place is giving the 1-2 sucker punch to the gullible citizens of Silverlake (as usual). Drive ten minutes to the Glendale Galleria and it's less than half the price for what sounds like virtually identical fare.
http://www.greatkhans.com/our_menu.htm

I'm all for it. Just don't rip me off. I'm not stupid. Right, Eating?

Max Zook said...

I have not been to Gobi (yet), but I have been to the Mongolian place in the Glendale Galleria, and it's not very good.

My major objection is that there's a guy who asks you what kind of meat you want and then builds the bowl for you. Obviously they do this to save on ingredients, but why even have a buffet if you're not going to let people choose the veggies or sauces?

They seem to be out of lamb every time I'm there, and imho you can't call it Mongolian BBQ without lamb. And I don't think the ingredients they have are very fresh.

mattatouille said...

Personally I never really understood the appeal of mongolian bbq. It's something I'm fine eating once in my life and moving on with. My school used to have a Mongolian bbq and I thought, I could be cooking this stuff at home, or getting a better version as yakisoba instead. Anyways, good to know this place exists in Los Feliz.

Peter said...

I've been looking for a good Mongolian BBQ in LA -- because every one I see is in a mall, run by stingy people who don't let you take all the goodies you want, and cursed with bright yellow noodles that recall Kix breakfast cereal... Hopefully this place is a little classier. I'm definitely curious.

Richard Gould-Saltman said...

Cam the Man, when younger, was a Mongolian BBQ fan; the only reasonably good one, and the only one with an AYCE price, we found was down towards the airport, and was called "Three Flames" or something like that.

The Glendale "Great Kahn's" at least USED to let you build your own bowl; Cam was adept at using sliced zucchini to build a sort of buttress extending above the bowl rim, thus increasing the structural integrity of a higher pile.

Silverlake Bodhisattva