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Gluttony goes foodie at Gobi Mongolian BBQ House
March 16, 2010
LOS ANGELES, USA – On my first real date ever at age 15, my date took me out for my first taste of Mongolian BBQ (he was a year older and could actually drive). It was one of those create-your-own-stir-fry kinds of places, and I was waaaaay too excited and nervous for such an endeavor. I fretted that I was either not assembling my bowl of meat and veggies correctly or taking too much food and looking like a pig.
That partly explains why I avoided Mongolian BBQ for years afterwards; the other reason is it never seems to have caught on in Los Angeles, where I’ve been for the past decade. But now, the cuisine has made an entrance squarely into hipster territory with the arrival of Gobi Mongolian BBQ House in Silver Lake.
Gobi caught my attention because it’s got a foodie pedigree, run as it is by the owner of Pazzo Gelato, the handcrafted gelato house in the same ‘hood. The meats on the menu are all natural, the veggies are seasonal and (when possible) local, and the sauces — from Asian pesto to lemongrass to smoked oyster — are inventive.
I called ahead for a reservation, unsure of how crowded the place would be on a Friday night at 8:30pm. Glad I did, because from the host stand I could see there was only one two-top left when I got there. The place buzzed with couples and groups of friends — a casual, multi-culti vibe. Curiously, though, the host said he’d have to go check to see if he had a table. When he came back, he said, “Yes, we do!” as if this were merely a lucky coincidence, not an act of will they’d taken in honoring our reservation.
In any case, once seated we were informed by our (bordering on overly) enthusiastic server about how it all worked. It’s all you can eat — in one pass, that is. You get one trip to the food bar and are allowed to take as much as can fit in your bowl, all for $13.95 (or $9.95 at lunch).
We were a little surprised to discover that the sliced meats (chicken, pork, lamb, ribeye) were kept frozen, I guess to ensure freshness, but there’s something a little fast-food-like about it. Veggies, on the other hand, were bright and looked just-cut, with unusual choices like eggplant and banana squash. Sauce time is the most fun. I heaped on spoonfuls of ginger and garlic paste and lemongrass sauce.
Others in line had bowl assembly down to a science, breaking apart the frozen meat to create more room in the bowl for mountains of noodles. It truly is an exercise in gluttony. But when they dump all that goodness onto the searing hot Mongolian grill, everything shrinks down a bit, and you don’t feel quite so piggy. The result is just plain delicious: fresh tasting, flavorful, and of course full of only the stuff you like.
Gobi Mongolian BBQ
2827 West Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA
(1) 213-989-0711
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