The best thing I can say about this place is I tolerate it.
The service is horrible, consistently the worst service from any place I've ever been to. The staff is always rude and never attentive. You can often find them clumped together talking and hanging out. Since they do so little, I'm always amazed and at how dirty their uniforms always are, all they do is clear tables and bring drinks and empty plates, how do they get so dirty?
The cooks are always sweaty and disgusting looking. Who wants the guy making your food to look like that? Always rude, never friendly, ordering you around where to stand, either put some signs up so people no where to go or stop being dicks about it.
The food bar is hit or miss, sometimes it's clean, other times it appears it hasn't been cleaned or stocked for days. Some ingredients just look disgusting, like the shrimp that hasn't been deveined and appears to sorely need it.
All that said, I love the food, and my kids love going there so they can make their own plates. So I tolerate the staff every few months and go there. If they would shape up the staff, I would be there every week.
Went last Saturday after a weightlifting contest so I was ready to put down massive amounts of food. A party of 25 that was late had the entire restaurant shut down. We were told a party of 3 would wait 35 to 45 minutes no problem. An hour later the party section is still empty and nobody in the waiting area had been seated. I asked the employee how much longer we would wait and he said there were 2 tables in front of us and he wasn't sure. There were several tables open that were not in the party section and he said he couldn't seat anyone there because he is only allowed to have so many customers in the dining room at one time. We left and wont be back.
Review Source:The nastiest chain restaurant that wasn't fast food I've ever been to. Unfortunately for me I didn't realize that until after I sat down & started eating. The good thing is the food is cooked to order in front of you. You also get to pick different vegetables, sauces, & seasonings. Â I'm far from a neat freak, but I wanted to let this place soak in bleach & clean it. You have two options...one bowl for about $10 or unlimited bowls for an additional $3. I'm not sure if it's always like this, but we had to flag our waitress down for additional bowls. At one point we put a piece of broccoli that we didn't want in one of the clean bowls & rather than swapping bowls she just removed the broccoli, & left the clean bowl as if we were going to use it.
Review Source:This place has seen better days. Â This place used to be one of my favorite places. Â It's fun and seemed fairly good value. Â
I took my son there for his birthday this June and I was disappointed. Â
The cooking just wasn't the same and in fact overcooked. Â The "meat" bar was sloppy. Â
I was also shocked that my bill was $60.
A better indicator than me was that my sons, 12 & 15, said they wouldn't go back. Â -G
I love stir fry but I do not recommend this place. I think the food is terribly overpriced for the portion size and the food isn't anything to write home about. Also, I waited for about 5-10 minutes for a water refill, there were only a few people in the restaurant at the time, service was slow.
Review Source:First of all, lets start of saying... I LOVE mongolian bbq. Now BD's Mongolian BBQ was awful. Walked in at 6, and it was kind of empty. There was only a few tables, sure it was during the week, but still. I had red flags go up right away. I have been to other mongolian bbq places and have loves their prices and selection of food. The price was very expensive, $13 for one small bowl. It is not unlimited and you can not get a salad. Seriously, how cheap are you that I can not get a salad with my $13 bowl? If you get unlimited, it costs another $3, and a doggie bag costs another $3. So you are talking about $19 for unlimited with a doggie bag. I asked why they are so expensive, and the waiter said "people get a weeks worth of meat for $13." I was interested in getting a meal, not a weeks worth of meat. Sure they have steak, shrimp, chicken, etc. You may get a heaping pile of meat if you want. I wanted meat and veggies, a normal meal. I go up to cook my selection, and they cook it so long that it had charred pieces of burnt crap. GROSS. Â I was displeased. I wont ever be back. If you are interested in getting your meat cooked (overcooked) for your entire week, come to BD's. There are other mongolian bbq places that are much better.
Review Source:Good selection and the quality of the food is very good. An easy test is the shrimp - does the shrimp almost have the texture of chicken breast or is it firm and almost crispy? The shrimp here is the latter. Lots of different oils, sauces, and spices to choose from and experiment with.
There is only one problem with this place and it's consistent one at almost all the Mongolian BBQs. The problem is that when it's busy and/or there's a long queue at the grill, the grillers overcook the food. This is not an insignificant, anal problem on my part - the marquee ingredients - ribeye, shrimp, etc. - are all materially damaegd when over-cooked. The way I deal with this is to tell the grillers that I want mine "medium rare". That sometimes works and sometimes doesn't.
The wife is a big fan of this place. I wasn't crazy about it at first but it has grown on me. The whole family agrees that the rice sucks! We enjoy coming up with new mixes every visit. Fun atmosphere and the wait staff is very helpful. They made sure to help me when we stopped there the day after my surgery. They were great!
Review Source:I'm a huge runner, which means I need as many calories as possible. This place definitely fits the bill and blows any China Buffets out of the water.
If you have a sense of humor, the guys working the grill will goof around with you and give your meal a little extra treatment.
Sure, the floor is a little sticky sometimes, but I don't eat off the floor... So that seems invalid.
Phenomenal food if you do it right. If you do it wrong, quit whining and try again. They even have little recipe cards if you aren't feeling adventurous.
(Oh and if you have food allergies, just tell them. It's not a big deal for them to put up blocks between your food and someone else's. I've heard complaints about that, but only from people without allergies. Interesting.)
I visited this place last night. Â I wish I had a time machine so that I would make a different decision. Â I have been to many Mongolian BBQ places and this was the by far the worst food I have had.
First off to start with the good. Â The wait staff was excellent and we could not have asked for better. Â That was all that was good.
The seasoning/sauce station here is weird. Â At all other Mongolian BBQ places that I have been the sauces are more basic (garlic oil, sesame oil, wine, ginger, etc.) with a couple of complex sauces there. Â This allows folks like me to season like I want and not with someone elses complex sauce. Â That was mostly what Bd's had - complex sauces. Â Made for a rather poor choice and there were no oils with which to season the food and make it where it would not stick to the grill.
Also, at every Mongolian BBQ place I have been in the past you put the seasoning on the food but at Bd's they want it in a side dish. Â This combined with the fact that there are no oils on the seasoning bar means that the food sticks to the grill when they cook it and gets charred..... Â Because I was used to seasoning the food I did it that way. Â They looked at me like I was an idiot and put it on the grill. Â When cooked this way you have to stir the food as it goes down so that the seasoning don't go to the bottom and just cook away leaving a burnt mess under the food. Â The cooks were idiots and did not know this. Â Actually they were just teenagers with no experience cooking to speak of so they were ignorant of how to cook. Â My 13 year old daughter cooks better than they did.
Well my food just sat there until the spices I had put on it cooked away and burnt. Â When they came around to stir it there was a black dirty mess under the food. Â I should have just thrown it away and started again - or left the joint. Â However they moved it aside and cleaned the grill and kept trying. I got a dish of sauce for them to add to try and salvage the food. Â They continued to cook and cook and cook and cook and cook and cook my food. Â I pointed out that it was done and to sauce it and get it off. Â The guy took my sauce and poured it an and then moved to another pile of food. Â I had to call him out and say get it off the grill.
It was so overcooked the shrimp had turned into little hard rocks shaped like shrimp. Â The bean sprouts had cooked away to nothing and you could not tell they were there. Â The food was stained black from the burnt sauce. Â In other words it was terrible!
If you like overcooked food this would be the place to go. Â In which case you would rate this place a 5 star. Â I however wish there was a ZERO star rating.
I will never eat at another Bd's Mongolian BBQ and would suggest the same for you. Â Get a nice burger or something instead.
I have to admit this place is just fun. It's fun creating your own dishes, it's fun watching the griller guys, who are often very funny, and it's fun conversation with your dining partners. (If you get boring grillers it's not nearly so fun). Â
So what you do is choose your meat or protein cafeteria style and start filling your bowl. If you go there during busy hours you can see them sell through the meat and replacing it. Even the duck! Â But I wonder how long the ny strip or shrimp sits out during the day. Then you can add pasta if you wish. Next is all the veggies! I can't think of one time that I've been there and been unhappy with the quality of the veggies. Still in the cafeteria line, your next stop is the sauces. There's plenty of them to choose from, almost too many. Â Here's where my problem is. Only 2 of the sauces are gluten free. :( They're good about listing what's gluten free, vegan, contains soy, vegetarian, etc. The 2 sauces that are gluten free I don't care for, Lemon & Buffalo.
The mini-deserts are 100% processed food but for $2 who cares? Just a enough sweetness to calm your palette and not make you feel overstuffed. Their regular deserts are so huge it's hard to believe anyone could eat one. But they do, I've seen it.
I certainly would recommend this place for a large group that wants some fun added to their dining experience. It's also good if you're looking to control precisely what you're eating.
I stopped by this place just exploring the area and at first was pleasantly surprised to see that it was a flat top grill. Â I should have taken the hint to leave when there were only 8 or so other people in a room for over 50 at the peak lunch hour.
This place is not allergy friendly and seeing all the crossing of common allergenic foods was disturbing. Â (ie: Shellfish next to other meats on the bar and peanuts loosely on the salad bar) Â Â The server seated us next to a freezing window and a table of loud people even though there were plenty of other seats. Â We asked to be moved and after obliging us, the server launched into taking our menus. Â My friend stopped the server to tell her we had never been here before and we didn't understand what the process was. Â The server was most unhelpful and did not explain anything and did not even know if the rice was sticky or not. Â She simply said she would bring out rice. Â She was unable to make suggestions, answer questions, or be helpful. Â We stared around awkwardly until we figured out what to do.
The raw meat on the bar did not look appetizing at all and the vegetables were cut so big it prevented you from getting a reasonable portion. Â The grilling area was confusing and hard to tell where to stand. Â We came up to the bar and were asked to move to another spot. Â It was interesting to watch the person grill the food, but I was concerned when i noticed the slight mixing of each person's meal. Â (Food allergies!) Â When i got back to my seat I saw quite a few bits of food in my stir fry that I did not pick myself from the food bar.
The server came to check on us, awkwardly refilled my drink, and as an afterthought asked my friend if she wanted more tea her glass was full. Â She then dropped off the bill with a little electronic survey which asked the most asinine questions such as "Were you asked if you would like dessert?" and "Did a staff person talk to you at the food bar?" Â None of the questions were in depth enough to solve any of the service/experience problems this business is clearly experiencing.
I wish I would have followed my gut and left after I walked in and saw how filthy this place was.  Seriously, my feet stuck to the ground and every surface was sticky and covered  with sauce. The bar where you stand to watch your food being cooked was so dirty I held my plate the whole time in lieu of setting it down.  The worst part was that the manager was standing there talking to the cook the whole time (I would think that a manager could multi-task and clean while she chats, but hey what do I know). Â
I'm giving it 2 stars instead of just 1 because our server was very friendly and the food wasn't terrible. Â Unfortunately, those things don't make up for a dirty restaurant for which there can be no excuse. We won't be back.
My fiance and I have been here several times and always had a good experience but not this past week. The carmel location has just shut down and apparently a bunch of staff from there now works at the Indy location. On arrival, the hostesses looked really depressed and were not friendly at all. They didn't even say hi or ask how many. They've changed their menu to include appetizers that don't really fit with the theme of the place and have added burgers and brats to the buffet for dinner which to me just doesn't make sense at all. In return, they've reduced what they have on the buffet as far as fresh veggies and meats. The grillers are usually so full of life and fun. Granted it was a Sunday and slow, but the grillers we had were completely boring, socialized with eachother the entire time, and didn't really acknowledge the guests at all. Watching the grillers at this place is half the fun, but not anymore. The bathroom was also a pigsty and stunk. I was absolutely not impressed. Even another woman in front of my at the buffet line kept saying where's this and where is that. She clearly noticed too that things had changed and not for the better. Once man said there are no onions on the buffet and the grillers said they didn't have them anymore. I just don't get it. BD's what happend?
Review Source:Really great food, but pretty much everything else sucks. Â They bring you bowls instead of keeping them by the food, so you have to ask for another, and the waiter is never around. The floors are absolutely disgusting and i had to wash my shoes when i got home. I used to love this place, but i doubt I'll keep going.
Review Source:I would probably like this place more if I'd never been to Flat Top Grill, a similar style of restaurant that does it much better. Unfortunately there are none of those in Indy, so when my friends wanted to go here I thought I would give it a chance. But it was not as awesome.
The sauces were not labeled well and they did not have any mild sauces that would just bring out the flavor of the veggies. The selection of protein for vegetarians is a bit depressing (tofu, black beans, and eggs), since you pay the same price whether you add meat or not. My veggies were also undercooked and the sauce was not evenly distributed.
This place is better for meat eaters, since you could just get meat if you want to. My friends thought the veggie selection (which definitely could be bigger) would be great for me, but if they are not cooked well it doesn't matter what veggies you get.
One good thing: the service. Our waitress was very nice and attentive, which I really appreciated.
Overfreakin'priced. VERY overpriced. I'd never been to BD's and every time I'm in the B&N next door BD's is PACKED. This afternoon I convinced my husband to finally go (he'd been before it had been awhile). My overall impression was that it was pretty "meh". The bowl for your food is on the small side and cost for that one fill up is waaaay overpriced. there are a couple other restaurants that do the same in Indy but at a better rate. Definitely will go there next time.
Review Source:If you like places where people use the restroom then the buffet with no stop in between to wash their hands, this place is perfect (I saw this happen). And if you enjoy subsidizing meals for people who eat twice as much as you, go to BD's.
I won't go again.
We had a very nice server who was fast. The place has an impressive variety of ingredients to choose from when creating your bowl.
The Top 40 rap was an interesting touch, though not surprising, considering most of the people eating there looked like they just got done filming their spot on the Jerry Springer Show. The guy with the sleeveless NASCAR shirt who didn't wash his hands probably wasn't a fan of the music.
Beyond the service, choices (duck with curry barbecue sauce, anyone?), and polite server, the other good thing was the dessert, which was presented to us in nice, small dishes and given to us as soon as we chose (though I hope no one coughed on them when they were refused before being presented to us.)
i don't want to compare this place to the great khans that you see at malls in cali, because this place is much, much better than a chain restaurant, but the same concept. pile a bunch of food-meats, veggies, sauces--into a bowl and watch the cooks flip and chop up (with ginormous chopsticks) your picks on a large round grill.
the salad bar looked great, but i started with the main course and was too full to eat anything else. there's a lot of meats, veggies sauces and spices to choose from. i don't eat meat (for now.. i kind of miss meat.. tasty, tasty meat... hehe) Â and they were very accommodating. they scrubbed clean a section of the grill and placed dividers so that other people's food wouldn't touch mine... or as my bf said "the evil meat juices."
i didn't get a chance to have dessert, we were all enjoying the great company, food and the drinks. oh yes, there's a full service bar in the back of the restaurant.
If you don't like it here, you either just have a problem with all the raw meat, or you did a bad job making your dinner. Â I love that you create your own meal. Â You can have 3 types of beef or go vegetarian.
I do think that its around $13-14 per person. Â A little expensive when you consider what it appears like on the outside.
My advice is to try as many combinations as possible. Â I never do the same thing here.
Great restaurant that allows you to make your own meal with meats, veggies, and spices. Â They cook it up for you and you shovel in the food. Â Very tasty! Â I always overeat here and never regret it. Â I get my money's worth every single time. Â
My husband and I love this place and try to go whenever we come back to visit Indy.
my supervisor took me here the night before a conference the next day
our server couldn't have been nicer, the place was spotless,
i'm not really a fan of raw food buffet, just too many risks
i've NEVER been sicker than that night & the next day
if you want to totally mess on yourself, spent hours in the toilet
have dinner here
I just have to review BD's--even if it is a chain. The biggest reason being it's one of the only places we can go as a family and actually have a good time.
It's difficult--if not impossible--to take three young boys out to dinner without fighting, someone under the table, someone spilling something, etc. But at BD's, the fun is in the making of your dinner. And the kids get a huge kick out of the entire experience.
It's fun to pick all your ingredients and stack them in the bowl, then get your sauces ready to head to the grill. There, you get to watch the sweaty grillmasters take over ... flipping and smoking your food till it's a perfect blend of yumminess. Boy, is it hot! Did I mention the grillmasters are SWEATY? Um, yeah. Best is when they crack an egg with their long, silver flippers. Quite impressive!
I moved to California a few years ago and I would sell my soul to have a Bd's Mongolian Barbeque in the greater Los Angeles area. Â Okay, maybe selling my soul is going a little too far but I do love this place.
It works like any other Mongolian restaurant out there. Â You get a bowl and pack it full of meat (if that's your thing), tofu (YUM!), and vegetables. Â You then get to pick what kind of sauce you want and it's cooked up on a 600 degree grill. Â The best part is that if it sucks you only have yourself to blame. Â And, if it's wonderful, that's all you, too.
I have never had anything bad here. Â I don't know if that's because I'm a fabulous cook or if it's because their sauce choices here are better than at most Mongolian BBQs. Â They also serve their BBQ with tortillas and white rice (which I'm not usually a fan of but it works in this case). Â It's an awesome combo.
Their lunch special is under $10 (or at least it used to be). Â It's a tad more for dinner which is all you can eat. Â I've never tried that option though because one big bowl from there is really all I can eat. Â
It's a chain so if you have one near you go and go often. Â
Just don't tell me about it, okay?