In a dark nook by UofL's campus is a mongolian-style grill that has long caught my attention. But not due to its trendy facebook page advertising the widest hookah selection under the sun, due to the friends and students of all things asian who love the place. Beer is cheap! Food is cheap! And good.. what more could I want?
Having been back to BD's Mongolian BBQ in college and truly loved it, I thought falling for a cheaper, local version of it would be easy. But what I took away from my BD's experience was that good beef is hard to come by and when you find it, savor it. Mongolian BBQ was disappointing in that respect.
This Tuesday I went there for lunch and found the place dormant around 12 noon. Soon after a few interesting fellows showed up - one wearing dreds and a kilt. But the friendly server took my order - one of the bulgolgi bowls with a korean sauce and then one of the beef szechuan-style bowls. It was only 5-6 dollars a pop! I opted for beef in my asian bowl because, hey, that's what I loved about the experience so much before.
Before having my meal cooked on their circular grill by a grillmaster, I recognized something that looked like frozen beef sitting out on the bbq toppings bar - I prayed it wasn't for my dish. Couldn't be that stuff. It was.
The beef in my dish was definitely some of the worst, most flavorless beef I've ever tasted in my years. The sauce, other toppings - such as onions, bean sprouts and mushrooms - were all exquisite though. The sauce had fresh dried chilis in it, which gave it a spicy zing that wasn't overbearring, but was still tear-worthy! I thoroughly enjoyed the flavor sensations going on in my mouth over the bulgolgi and the szechuan meat dishes!
However, upon leaving the place and telling my raving friend of my dismantling review, he told me that he always orders vegetarian there. "Yeah, just get the tofu." I, a consummate fan of tofu, would definitely be on board with that. It could absorb all those wonderful flavors that come from their homemade sauces that they make on the spot for you!
The decor of the place was nothing to write home about. My relaxing lunch was transformed by this dark, dance-club establishment full of contract workers milling around. The staff taking our order were very nice in their smiles and offer of free water, but they screwed up our order and didn't really seem to have an effective system of marking down "who's who." Later on they called out our number, which was 19, although we had no idea how we were supposed to know it was 19. It took all three of the wait staff to look at us from behind the counter and grab our attention before we finally came and got our dish.
I would definitely go back to Shah's, but for a crab rangoon, vegetarian entree, maybe some guitar playing of that old guitar sitting in the corner, and some 1-dollar domestic beers (magic hat and sam adams are included). Until then, I might double down and go to BD's for some real beef... it's been too long!
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