LITTLE ROCK — The armies of Genghis Khan conquered much of Asia by using superior weaponry, speed and discipline. Now, it seems the famed Mongolian warrior has set out to conquer much of America by using ... food.
According to the marketing efforts of the Genghis Grill chain, Khan's warriors thrived in battle because they ate such tasty and healthful fare. They grilled their meat and veggies on their shields over an open flame. The chain doesn't specify when the warriors added seasonings and a sweet Island Teriyaki Sauce, but we'll play along anyway.
The concept for this Mongolian stir fry establishment is simple, though it can be complicated to explain.
You'll get a silver bowl when you walk into the restaurant. You're expected to take that bowl to the buffet area and fill it with your choice of raw meats like chicken, sliced beef, marinated steak, sausage, fish, shrimp, pork and tofu, just to name a few.
Next add seasonings. Then add veggies to your bowl, the options are too many to list, but just about any vegetable you can think of, and a small selection of fruits, will be available.
Pack as much of that stuff as possible into your silver bowl. It doesn't seem to affect the price as far as we can tell.
Pick one of about 15 sauces to be added to your meal. You choose the amount by adding it to a separate ramekin.
Hand all of this to the guy manning the grill and tell him whether you want tortillas, rice (brown, steamed or fried), spiral pasta or udon noodles. Then return to your seat and wait for your meal to arrive.
They'll take everything in your bowl, cook it on the giant iron grill and then bring it to you when it's done.
If you don't like it, well, you have no one to blame but yourself. Having said that, the whole thing seems pretty foolproof.
The only place where you could go wrong might be in the sauce department. Most of them are fairly self-explanatory, and there's even little bowls for tasting each sauce beforehand, but if you second guess every little decision, you could easily spend 30 minutes of your lunch hour just crafting your bowl.
Though a lunch here has the potential to be very quick, if you're in a hurry, don't invite your overly indecisive friends.
Genghis Grill offers helpful suggestions for Genghis Bowls like Citrus Beef, Mongo BBQ and Bowl of Seoul, but with roughly 15 options to read through and confusion starting to set in, this reviewer decided to wing it instead.
After the pressure of ordering the perfect lunch bowl was over, we had time to relax and survey the dining area.
The decor didn't seem particularly tailored to suit the food; the place could just as easily have been a Pizza Hut ... with a full bar. Speaking of Italian, we're pretty sure this place used to be a Fazoli’s.
Lunch had just started during our visit and maybe because he was bored, the server was overly attentive, asking at least three times if we were enjoying our bowl. But, given the choice, we'll take overly attentive over absent any day.
Overall the trip to Genghis Grill was a fun one, and now that we've tried it once, we're anxious to go again and see if we can create something even better.
The Dish:
Shrimp bowl: For this lunch, I choose shrimp for my protein, salt and lemon pepper for my seasoning, the Mongo mix (onions, green and red bell peppers), more onions, snap peas, water chestnuts and broccoli for my vegetables, an egg for fun and honey soy for my sauce. Lastly, fried rice was selected (from a choice of rice, pastas and noodles) because what is stir-fry without this staple? The shrimp and most of the vegetables were cooked perfectly and the sweetness of the honey soy sauce was a good choice. I only have two complaints. One is my broccoli was not cooked as well as the rest of the meal was, making those bites not so pleasant. And two, it needed more shrimp and less onion. When you are your own chef, you are bound to make mistakes, and adding the extra helping of onions was mine. Next time I might follow the recipe card they offered. (tc)
Steak bowl: The creation of this bowl was a little haphazard. I was like a magpie drawn to different objects with no real rhyme or reason. I chose marinated steak and seasoned it with salt, garlic and what I thought was a conservative amount of red pepper flakes. Next to go in were marinated veggies, pineapple, green beans, spinach and an egg, topped it Island Teriyaki. I discovered it’s easy to go overboard on the spicy, and that the pineapple didn’t come out chargrilled and caramelized like I’d expected. Despite that, I’d say lunch was a success. (mt)
Genghis Grill
12318 Chenal Parkway, Little Rock
(501) 223-2695
Hours: Sunday-Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday-Saturday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.