Great Khan’s Mongolian Festival

I like pretty simple things, and here, I only like the noodles.
The price is still the same ($ 8 something) and I was very disappointed to see that the guy added more meat to my bowl because «I didn’t have enough» and then I barely got any noodles :(
BUT, the few noodles I did have were pretty good.

This WAS my spot…
Sadly, this restaurant, along with about 5 others have VANISHED from the UTC food court. I was dismayed when I walked in with a hunger only a bowl packed with meat and veggies could fill.
I’m not sure what happened but the place is a ghost town and nobody at the surrounding restaurants seem to know what happened.

Great Khan’s has been on my radar for quite some time — every time I go to the UTC food court, I’ve always wanted to give this place a go. Yesterday, I finally gave in to my curiosity, and was pleasantly surprised.
For under $ 10, you can order a bowl that can be filled with whichever meat and vegetables you want, as well as a drink. You then go around the counter, filling your bowl until you get to the grill. The cooks take your bowl and cook the contents in front of you, adding noodles or rice (though I didn’t see rice offered at the counter).
While my dish was cooked just right, I wish that the bowls offered were bigger. I would have liked to have added more vegetables to my bowl, but when they’re that shallow, you really can’t add as much as you like. Plus, a bowl is at least $ 6… although this is Mongolian-​style cooking, so it should be expected.
Still, seeing a Mongolian grill at a food court is a change of pace, and the food is pretty tasty. So, if you want to go for something different, you know the name to yell at the top of your lungs — «KHAAAAAN!» (Yes, I know I just made a Star Trek II reference in a Unilocal review.)

For mall food, this would have easily gotten 4 stars. If im ever at the mall, i always end up eating here. Unfortunately, THEY NO LONGER SERVE LAMB! That was one of the best toppings you could get…
Besides that, its still a great option for a lot of food. Im a master structural engineer. The trick is to pack in the meat as flat as possible and then use the flat slabs to extend the sides of the bowl :)

Since it’s mall food, I can’t really complain that much and I honestly can’t give this place more than three stars for that same exact reason. With that said, this is a great place to head to when you want a hot meal with meat, veggies, and noodles. Choose rice if you’re interested — I never have but let me know what you think.
Like most folks, I’m used to stuffing my bowl with a mountain of veggies and meats but lately, the owner has been pretty strict. He’ll «shoo» you if you hold up the line and the «press your food down with a napkin» trick doesn’t fly any more either. Apparently, someone from the food safety department cracked down on this location and told the owner that he should tell his customers not to do that because it may contaminate their food. Really? hmmm.
Other than that, the freshness of the veggies and the meats are questionable. So please, do eat at your own risk but seriously… the food is good.

I suck at packing the bowl… I add too much meat and have no room for a good variety of veggies by the time I make my way through the ingredients. I had the recommended combination of sauces which was a mixture of everything. When everything was finally cooked and prepared, I didn’t think it was that great.
Not as flavorful as I expected since they added just about every sauce. Very oily, greasy, and if you’re gonna pay $ 10 for mongolian barbecue, get it at a sit-​in restaurant maybe they’ll get it right.

Just like any other food court place, food is reasonable and is really fast. However, I feel the amount given for the cost is definitely a little bit on the pricey side. Also, when they’re making the food, they tend to drop a lot of it on the side so by the end of it, it’s like ¹⁄₃ of your food is gone to waste, and the bowls that you use to fill it up is already small enough. But it is cool how you can choose what kind of food you want in your dish and it tastes pretty good as well.

Not only is this place quick but the food is pretty damn good.
I usually pack my bowl with hella beef, mushrooms, onions, green onions, zucchinis, and all the sauces. Extra spicy. Not very big on the veggies because I feel it ruins the taste. ha. Also, I prefer getting noodles instead of rice. Anyway, pretty simple review.. . just how I like my food.

hmm, i never had real Mongolian bbq. However, this place is amazing. I was introduced to GK by my younger brother. After paying first at the front, my brother gave me a tutorial how to get the «best for the buck.»
Actually, before he even demonstrated, I saw two guys in front of us making a fist and compressing the frozen meat with paper napkins. Being a typical asian, i had the «ah hah. ahhhh~» moment with a light bulb blinking on my head, thinking «why the hell not since I’m paying $ 8 for this?»
There is 4 selection of meats; Chicken, pork, beef & Lamb. My brother told me that chicken isn’t worth $h!t, and told me to get predominantly lamb. Since I never have lamb, I agreed. After the shameless «fisting» (except the cashier doesn’t really care. it must be either
1. The energy spent on b! tching at customers to stop fisting the meat is not worth the amount of meat we actually believe we are getting more out of.
2. They don’t give a _​_​_​_​_​.
There is a wide variety of vegetables, about 7 sauces. My bro also told me that adding the garlic sauce is crucial in making the meal complete, so i did get GK sauce & garlic only for simplicity. Then there is the option of noodle or rice, and I chose noodles since I’m sick of rice from eating it everyday, being a silly korean i am.
The way the cook handles food is interesting. He dumps the meat & veggie and circles it around on a huge teppan (steel pan). After a minute or two, he adds noodle & 20 secs later, it’s done.
The final product is amazingggg. I couldn’t believe how hot, juicy & tasty it was. I’m writing too much. My advice — try it out. It’s definitely worth it for me to walk 10~15 minutes from my place to have it occasionally.

So what do you expect from an eatery in a mall food court?
If you’re like me, you want something filling, you want something that is a good value, and you’re probably tired of Panda Express and other generic food court businesses. For me, Great Khan meets these criteria.
With different meats and different sauces you can make unique combinations with interesting flavors each time. I find myself eating here about once or twice a month; I am still experimenting with different combinations.
Once when I had a cold, I went there and asked for a BUNCH of garlic sauce in my meal. It cleared my sinuses and made me feel a whole lot better. Take THAT Advil Cold and Sinus!
A big plus with this place is the water and cups that are set up and refilled on the customer side so that you can help yourself. All other businesses make you approach the register and have them refill your water, meaning you have to wait for someone else to be rung up each time you need a refill.
To you ‘omg, this isn’t really ethnic’ snobs, this place is not a ‘true ethnic Mongolian’. But then again, it may be hard to recreate cooking on rocks, and I doubt a typical San Diegan would even be interested in trying mutton filled buuz and washing it down with Aimag or yak milk distilled vodka.
As far as mall food court places go, I can’t think of a single reason to deduct a star.

How to pack your bowl asian style!
First the MEAT has to be flattened.
–There are many different techniques for this. You can use the hand flatten technique. Take the napkin they give you put it on the meat and proceed to push down with the palm on your hand.
–The tong technique is also good if you don’t want to touch the meat. Pound the meat with the tongs STILL in the meat tray before putting into the bowl.
–Curl technique: have the curled part of the meat hang over the bowl. This does require some strategic placement of the meat thou.
Veggies: broccoli — there are 2 ways to do this
— You can create a ring of broccoli around the bowl. Gently lay the broccoli down with the stem side pointing towards the center of the bowl. Create a ring so that the flower heads go over the side of the bowl. This increases the surface area for other veggies.
— Stick the stems of the broccoli directly into the bowl in between the other ingredients. This maximizes space for the stems.
–Always put the lightest veggies on the bottom. ex: cilantro, sprouts, water chestnuts work well because they can be flattened.
— baby corn: you have to use your hands for this one. Stick the corn directly into the bowl wherever there is space.
Always smile nicely at the guy giving you the noodles and try to make conversation. He tends to give you more this way.
Lastly, try to go on off hours so that the people in the back don’t get frustrated with you. If you can see they are starting to get impatient, let them go ahead.
My friend is probably the king of this since everytime he is able to fill 2 boxes… NO JOKE!
If you pile it correctly, it cost $ 9.00 for 2 people to eat. I will be coming back!

Where else can I pack as much meat as I can into a bowl without feeling like a fatass?
Well, not here. I still feel like a fatass.
Anyways! This location is MUCH MUCH better than the one in Mission Valley, they have more selection, and the guys cooking seem to know what they’re doing more.
Always ask for extra napkins and use all of your might to pack that meat. I always add tons of mushrooms and onions, then all of the sauces except for the spicy ones.
For mall food this place is deliciously amazing.

I’d say more like 3.5 stars.
As far as mall food goes, this is definitely one of the better choices. I usually make a beeline to this place when I’m at UTC.
I’ve tried the one at Mission Valley, but that places always just tastes kind of off. I definitely prefer the UTC location.
I always manage to stuff my bowl with family-​size portions of noms. It comes with the experience. You wanna know a trick of the trade? Ask for extra napkins and use the napkins to SQUISHHHH everything down into the bowl. That way, you can shove more meat into your meal. Yay!
Really though, I think it’s pretty great for mall food. I will (obviously) be back :)

When at the UTC mall, I usually eat here. It’s fun to create your own dish… and see how big of a pile of food I can create! The food is good quality and fresh, and I’m a big fan of mongolian!
Here’s the key to creating a huge dish:
1) Start with the frozen meat of your choice and arrange each piece of meat vertically around your bowl.
2) Once the meat has been arranged around the bowl, you now have a barrier that makes your walls higher, which allows you to add more veggies in the middle.
3) Pile your veggies in the center of your bowl and you are good to go!
A friend showed me this method, so I thought I’d pass it on to you!

What’s not to love about Great Khan?
I really enjoy going to places where you can customize your own food — Great Khan, Chipotle, and yes, even Subway. And boy, can you customize your food here!
If I’m at UTC, I find myself always gravitating here if I’m hungry, and if I have the time. The workers are whatever, but what more can you expect from a food court. They don’t seem to mind when I’m taking my time smashing everything down in my bowl. And sometimes they’ll even put in some extra tofu and baby corns onto the grill for me, because they have fallen off my mountainous pile.
Good food. And they can make it extra spicy for you, too! Line can be long during lunch though.

When I told my friend I was gonna review this place and that I review it every single time I eat at a Great Khan’s, I got an eye roll and questions about what the difference between them were. Well, my answer was, sometimes, the meat selection is more than another location’s and the vegetables could be very fresh or looks like it’s kinda dead. Even with that explanation, I continued to receive eye rolls, but hey, do I care?
This particular Great Khan’s is located inside the Westfield UTC shopping mall in La Jolla. Their meat selection is pretty good because it includes lamb as well. The vegetables are ample although the green onions had a lot of bits which were going bad so that was kinda gross. Other than that, it was pretty decent and pretty healthy because they don’t use much oil in the cooking.
I hadn’t been to a Great Khan’s in a long time and it confirms why I like eating at one whenever I’m at a mall — because it’s fresh, it’s piping hot, and you get your fill of vegetables or meat — whichever you choose.

Great as always! Very fresh, very hot. Kinda expensive for lunch but it doesn’t seem that anyone minds. I think i have the largest pile! I am proud of my pile! :)
Dino…)’(

San Diego, I’m sorry to say it, but you do not know Mongolian Barbecue. Great Khan’s is pretty much the only option when it comes to Mongo here in SD, and it’s a goddamn chain. I much prefer the «mom ‘n pop» vibe when it comes to places like this.
Mongolian BBQ in Sac Town is ALWAYS all-​you-​can-​eat. You can also stack on as many toppings as you want, drench yo’ shit in sauce, and then double back for round 2. Plus, it typically includes a side of soup and fried wontons for dine-​in. That, my friends, is what this cuisine is all about. If I’m gonna spend $ 10 on a bowl o’ noodles, you best sauce mah ish up. Plus, they’re missing all the good toppings that I truly love about Mongo.
Great Khan’s just ain’t up to par. I have to try to attempt to look health conscious because some minimum-​wage-​making vulture is staring me down, giving me that look like, «You done yet? I don’t have all day to wait for your fat ass. I’ve got mall tweens to creep.» Pardon me, Sir Pan Fry. And then I have to come up with some estimate as to how many sauce scoops I want so HE can add it. I’m paying for it. Why the hell can’t I add it? Bitch, I wants mah sawwze!
Convoy needs to get on this. So-​Cal just ain’t doin’ it for me in the MB department.

My sister and I typically eat here when we visit the mall and need lunch. Would i make a special trip here just to have lunch/​dinner? Probably not. But for a work day lunch, yes, it’s pretty good.
For 2 lunch meals, no drinks, it costs about $ 15 or so. The bowl they give you to pack w/​meats and veggies is a pretty decent size.
I think it’s best when you go w/​a friend b/​c then you can use his/​her bowl to smash down the meats (to make more space for other stuff and/​or more meat). They freeze the meats on purpose so you can’t really cram all that much in there (unless you use the 2^nd bowl technique…) We use to go for mongolian back in the college days and you learn a few money saving tricks when you’re a student!
The sauces are pretty standard — i think the stir-​fries all tastes the same in the end b/​c the cook (guy) dumps a bunch of watered down soy sauce on the stuff during the cooking process. So unless you put a bunch of garlic or hot sauce on your stuff, things pretty much, in my opinion, tastes the same.
So if you’re in the UTC mall, for sure, try this place… Fun to have a piping hot meal while watching ppl ice skate !

It’s all about squishing the meat flat on the bottom of your bowl and performing a balancing act piling your veggies on top. Luckily the staff either helps you pile the noodles and sauce on top or put the noodles in an extra bowl for you.
Delicious, fast, and fresh tasting. And you can get it any way you want!