Restaurant Name: HuHot Mongolian Grill
Location: 100 S. Creasy Lane, Lafayette, IN 47905 (map it)
Phone: (765) 447-8903
Hours: Lunch: 11AM-4PM, Dinner: 4PM-close
Cuisine: Mongolian, Asian
Restaurant was okay, but not great.
When we were ready to eat, the waitress started to walk us through the process like we were all 2 years old at which point I attempted to preempt any further explanation and said “so, it’s just like BD’s Mongolian Grill”. Her response: “No, not at all”, and she proceeded with her painful step by step demonstration. Make no mistake, it’s just like BD’s.
differences compared to BD’s Mongolian Grill:
- No one-trip pricing. It appeared you could only get all-you-can-eat: $8 or $9 for weekday lunch; $11 or so for weekday dinner, $13 or so for weekend dinner. According to the menu, they have expanded food selections for dinner and even more for weekends to go along with higher prices for both; not sure what that entails.
- The bowls at the buffet were larger than BD’s, which was nice. Didn’t feel like I had to cram every last ounce into the bowl.
- The selection of meats/veggies/etc on the main buffet was comparable to BD’s. Most of the selections appeared fresher than I recall at BD’s. Probably helped that it was early on day 1 and food had not been sitting out for hours.
- No dry herbs and spices to choose from. I guess their selection of sauces and oils is supposed to replace this.
- Since there were no dry herbs and spices, the choice of sauce and oil is very important, but this is where I felt they fall short. They have a nice variety of 20+ sauces/oils, of which they advise to put in 5-7 ladles (compared to 2 at BD’s). But, I found the sauces to be very weak. I combined 5 ladles of teriyaki and soy and another ladle of something more spicy (I don’t recall what) for my first trip and the outcome was B-L-A-N-D! Adding salt afterward barely helped. My second helping was much better when I did 50% soy/teriyaki and 50% spicy kung pow/hot chili. I’m not big on hot foods, but even with that mixture it barely qualified as hot or spicy (and it still needed salt). Others said the same about the sauces being weak. I’d suggest bringing along a salt shaker to add some before the food is cooked.
- A nice touch after your meal is cooked is a small station with nuts, coconut, chow mein noodles, wasabi, and maybe another item or two to garnish/top off your dish.
- Each person received their own dish of rice or tortillas, which I liked, so you don’t have to watch the community rice bowl quickly empty as it goes around the table leaving the last person with scraps. Not sure if it was limited today or just at lunch or what, but you could get either rice or tortillas, but not both. We didn’t ask for seconds on that.
- No salad bar. It might be one of those “expanded” dinner/weekend selections. More likely that there is no salad bar and you’d order one off the menu at additional cost.
- They do have a full-service bar. But, I didn’t see any stools or chairs to sit around to enjoy a drink which would be nice if it were busy and you were waiting for a table.
Overall, the food itself was fresh and looked good, it just needed some extra kick that I didn’t find in my selection of sauces.
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