Flat Top Grill

This location is closed. This was a convenient quick meal for my boyfriend and I since he lives in the same building. So last night we walk over to see signs up saying this location is closed permanently. Hope a better restaurant goes in.

Use to love this place until they made changes that ruined the experience. Now this location closed, the 2^nd one in Chicago to close. I wonder which one is next but I don’t know that I’ll bother finding out.

I’m reading other reviews about how the store has gone downhill recently, and I couldn’t agree more. This had always been a nice dinner spot, but our most recent trip was very frustrating. Primarily: 1) No more unlimited bowl– so if you like making small bowls to be able to sample different things you have to pay the full $ 12.99 each time! Only the second bowl is discounted. Wish I had known that beforehand… quite a surprise when the bill came. 2) Since they took away the meat from the self-​serve area, the portions are noticeably smaller, and yet the prices are higher. 3) Some of the vegetables (plus the quinoa) came out of the grill flat-​out burnt. Maybe they weren’t paying attention? Come on guys, you can’t serve burnt vegetables.
I really am disappointed at how much the prices have gone up over the years and still every couple of months they seem to find a way to charge more and lower the quality of the product. It’s been fun Flat Top, but we won’t be returning.

I used to love this place, but it has been declining tremendously in the past 1 year or so. I do not go there to eat anymore.
You used to be able to choose your meats and entire dish to be cooked for you. Now, you have to let the waitress know what types of meats you would like in your dish. They seem to think that you won’t notice when they put in a couple dry pieces of chicken and rubbery sausage hidden beneath the rest of the ingredients. It has not become less of an Asian stir fry dish and more along the lines of a salad/​noodle dish considering there is no protein whatsoever.
Unfortunately, I doubt that the issue is this one restaurant location’s responsibility — more of corporate trying to squeeze every last profit out of a very competitive industry.
You will never get as much protein as their picture suggests! False advertising in that regard.

I have been to this location a few times. I really like the food but today the service was so poor that i had to Unilocal them. It started off by me coming in with my friend who is 78 years old around 330pm. The hostess said that it would be about a 10 min wait before we get seated. We said ok but looking around we noticed that there were many empty tables. We then asked if we could just sit at one of the empty tables. her reply was that they are short staffed and that if they sat us the waiters would not get a break. she was implying that they were currently all on a break and hence my friend and i have to stand… Lady, come up with something else please! Not only is it inappropriate to tell me that as a customer but you could have simply said please sit down and that the waiter is backed up and it may take a few minutes before we get to your table. I would have been fine with waiting.
Fast forward to now I am at the line making my bowl. I put two sticks in for roti and i was immediately told that today due to them being busy its one roti per person! not even per bowl! You already charge a pretty penny for your buffet style food so the least you could do is allow me my roti’s.
bottom line, if this place is what they call busy be prepared a very poor customer experience!

Enjoyed a meal on a date with nice and relaxing atmosphere. Waiter Lilian Cervantes ensures customer satisfaction by explaining the new ordering process and ensuring the cooks flavorful entrées!
Cook Guillermo prepared an excellent meal.
I will return!

I love this place; So friendly, good vibes, and great food! Can’t wait to go back. Always feel so peaceful here.

This place has really gone downhill in past years.
I used to eat at Flat Top fairly regularly. It had good, fresh food, and was always busy.
I went in last week, and probably won’t be going back. Not only was it a bit shabbier/​dirtier, but since the last time I’d been there, they’d changed the buffet– you used to pick out your own meat. Now you tell your waitress, and the meat just gets added to your bowl.
It’s also not the same meat. It used to be thin and take on a nice grilled flavor. Now it’s big chunks of rubbery meat– sort of like the kind you get in canned soup. My boyfriend and I (who are both usually carnivores) picked out the meat, and chose to go the second round without any meat all. And our food tasted way better without it.

I’ve been here couple times in the past. The most recent time was this past Sunday when my friend had her baby shower. There was around 50 people and they were able to seat us altogether in the back section by the bathroom. Good space and area to celebrate. Service was good. The difference I saw this time at Flat Top vs the past is that you’ll have to pre-​order your protein with the waitress. Back then we would go up to the buffet area where you select your ingredients and there were different types of protein (meat) options for you to pick. but now you have to order it with the server. You have a choice of up to 3 types of meat, and shrimp is an extra cost. I had mine with chicken and beef. Went to the buffet line to pick out my ingredients, and had it with veggie broth and the roti bread. Food was decent. My friends had the place til 130pm but they were nice enough to let us stay as long as we want.

This was always a place that had horrible service but the ability to choose your own ingredients and ratios made up for it.
Now they’ve gotten rid of the ability to select your meat at the counter, instead you tell the server what you want and they meet you in line mid flow. It’s awkward at best as the server rarely can meet you at the exact point in line when you are ready to give your bowl to the cook.
The changes they’ve made were clearly all for cost cutting, but this was also combined with a healthy increase in menu prices.
When I asked to speak with the manager of the store she gave the table a wonderful scowl as she approached, immediately blamed corporate, and stated there was nothing she could do. I suggested that she look for another employer as I doubt hers would stay in business much longer. After reading other reviews on this place post changes, I’m not alone.
I was always willing to go to flat top when I wanted to load up on yummies in a mooshoo wrap (also removed from the menu). Now it’s a weird angry vibe, probably from giving hungry customers an attitude.
This meal wasn’t even my last as I was so disgusted we just left the restaurant before eating. Instead I would rather remember this place for what it was.
R.I.P. Flattop, you will be missed.

After not having been to flat top since last summer I was surprised by the changes this past weekend.
The carafes with the sauces make it difficult to know how much sauce to use in your bowl. Before it was by ladles. They no longer had the plum sauce
They also used to let you choose and season your own meat. Now, you choose up to 3 meats prior to going up to make your bowl. Also, you have to remind them to season your meat, if you don’t your meat will be very bland even with the sauces. I used to add lemon pepper seasoning to my beef and chicken. We weren’t told they don’t season the meat if you don’t tell them when you order.
You can feel the vibe of the restaurant has changed from the new cost cutting moves.
Unfortunately, I will not be returning to flat top

wtf flat top… just wtf!!! just came here recently and was very disappointed .
you no longer get to go up and grab your meat and the amount of meat you want anymore!
right now the waiter or waitress will come up to your table and ask what kind of meat you want and then they tell chef.
everything else is the same. you walk up there and choose whatever you want …
but for ppl like me … i love to have more meat then what they give now. and that sucks because they dont give a lot of meat anymore.
also i think the prices went up. sigh.
thanks flat top for doing this. i will no longer go to a flat top ever again unless i become a vegetarian and that will be never!

While I do love the create your own/​centered around cooked veggies and sauces, and this used to be my favorite place and agree the new sauce containers and meat ordered seperately make good sense, this is the first time I’ve ever felt Flat Top should be renamed «canned veggie grill» :(
Least enjoyable experience here ever, is it me or is the quality of the freshness plummeting?
Quality Food can only come from quality ingredients… Get it right, charge a little more or you won’t survive guys…

Very disappointed in the changes no longer unlimited and the service has not been as good at this location. I understand no longer having the meat out but the unlimited trips were the thing that brought you in. I’m paying same price for unlimited trips but now you get two. Well time for a change and I guess what they say is true all good things come to an end.
Flat top it’s been real and it’s been fun but lately hasn’t been really fun…

My favorite mongolian style grill in chicago. Tasty food. All you can eat style (if you’ve ever been to a Mongolian grill you know what I’m talking about). The food ranges from vegetables to seafood to meat and you make your own bowl. Great service as well.

Pretty disappointed about the changes that’s occurred.
You are now limited to the meat you can have. They claim it’s to keep things cleaner, yet germs spread through the tongs and sauce bar regardless. They also don’t provide you with nearly enough meat, and charge $ 4 for extra.
Unlimited is no longer an option. I used to like getting smaller portions, but now I’m forced to stack my bowl as high as I can to get what I think would work for me.
Sauces don’t have ladles anymore, instead having to be poured out of pitchers. I’m used to using 4 – 5 ladles of sauces to satisfy my bowl, but since I had to eye-​ball it, my food ended up tasting bland due to lack of sauce I put.
I always use a white stick to have them cook my food in a separate wok, not for allergy concerns, but simply because I used to get bits of other people’s food in my bowl. We were sat in clear view of the grill, and noticed that they did not separate our food. If I had an allergy to anything, this place would be in serious trouble.
Lastly, although the price seems to be the same, it is no longer worth it. $ 17.66 for one bowl that I couldn’t enjoy if it was free? No thank you.
Flat Top has great food, if you could actually control what you get. The highlight of my bowls has always been the filipino sausage. Now I only get a few pieces lost in my mix of noodles. If you’ve been the type to create your ideal bowl in one trip, then by all means continue to go here. But if you’re like me who likes to spend my money to have smaller portions to experiment with, then you should stop going.
No more Flat-​Top Grill for me.

This was my first time coming to a Flat Top Grill ever, and I would say my experience was decent.
The ambience was very relaxing and casual. I enjoyed the atmosphere a lot. The food was delicious and the whole create your own bowl is such a clever idea. They have so many toppings and options to add to our personal bowl.
The service was average. He was very helpful to my friends and me since some of us were first timers where he others were veterans. Although he did lack on refilling our waters.
The reason why I gave this place a 3 star because the service was average, the food was decent (although it depends what you put in it), and the menu changed a lot according to my veteran friends and our server. We had a limit to our meat, we had a limited amount of roti bread, and there was no more unlimited bowl. Overall, this restaurant was really good and I would come back with a group of friends.

I hear all the other reviewer’s complaints — the stir-​fry bar does get messy, the price has gone up, and they no longer give you free bowls on your birthday. There are better locations than this one — I’d try the Wabash one.
With all that said, I’m still a fan of this spot. If you don’t go all out and put every type of sauce into your stir-​fry, it’ll probably come out pretty delicious. There’s a lot of variety to choose from and you can fill the bowls up quite a bit if you stuff it!
I always get a few meals out of it. Their roti bread is soo good! You can keep asking for more if you run out.
I come here for days when I don’t know what to cook for dinner and always love it.

Yummy. nothing like making your own meal, although some ingredients like the black beans and lima beans were undercooked.

Decided to come to this location on a Saturday night only because we were in the area. I really didn’t want to eat there but my boyfriends son was starving and it was convenient at the moment.
When we got there we got seated right away but our table was right by the bathroom entrance. I asked our hostess to move us but she was looking at me as if i was speaking another language. There were clearly other tables available but just looking at her she was too lazy to clean them.
It took at least 10minutes for our lazy server to show up. Slowly but surely I’m getting really pissed off! She didn’t bring us plates so we can go select our food and there were no plates at the counter for our food. When we got back to our tables our drinks were waiting for us. My boyfriend order on top of his iced tea, a mai tai which took forever to get to us. I WANT TO REMIND YOU THAT IT WASN’T BUSY. When our food finally came, I wanted to get up and leave. They didn’t even stir/​mix the sauces in our food.
To calm my nerves I ordered a mango margarita. Who serves margaritas in a martini glass? Seriously, so I take my drink to the bartender and ask her. She tried to tell me that it’s a special made bigger glass. At that point i lost my appetite and wanted to get out of there. Our server was just missing 99% of the time and not once did she refill our drinks. That’s her only job to refill drinks and keep table’s clean. We usually go to the location on Sheffield and Belmont (they always are great)
I WILL NEVER RETURN TO THIS LOCATION… WORST EXPERIENCE EVER