Genghis Grill

Genghis Grill Invades California with First Restaurant
First ever in California. Food was great but the service was awful.
They closed down last year in 2015.

Never refilled water
Never asked if my child need a booster seat
Lots of wait staff who sat around.
Kitchen staff were on it.
Kinda empty
Bill arrived before food
Did not enjoy.

Hmm this place is okay. Service is whatever bit I keep coming back when I crave Mongolian bbq.
I like how they let you cram as much food as you want in your bowl. Beware though most of the sauce are EXTREMELY SWEET which can be kinda gross.
Great choice of ingredients and sauces. Imo pork is the best meat to get. And the marinated beef. The rest can be dry.
Expect a long ass wait though for then to cook your food.
We usually have to wait 20 min every time we come which is pretty ridiculous.
It is pretty pricey too and again the service van be pretty mehhhhhhhhhhhh sometimes although everyone is friendly.
I would say try this place and decide for yourself of you think the food is worth the price, the wait and mediocre service.

I don’t get all the hate for this place. We went on a Saturday night and got quick service and seating. The build your own bowl option was reasonably priced and included so many protein/​veggie options. Everything tasted delicious and fresh. I loved my spicy sriracha chicken, and the beef my boyfriend got was so perfectly spiced and cooked, we were both huge fans and I don’t even care for beef too much.
Drinks were really good, too. $ 9 for a craft beer and large call drink. It cost $ 32 for two peoples’ drinks and dinner plus leftovers (which tasted pretty good the next day).
Will definitely be coming back for happy hour, and to try some of the menu items.

As first-​timers with a coupon as an incentive to try this out, my sister and I weren’t sure what to expect. As soon as we walked in a server made sure we were seated. She asked if this was our first visit, to which we replied «yes». She explained the gist saying that we can order premade bowls on the menu or go make our own. I didn’t think much about it til she finished – where were we supposed to make our bowls? The menu was confusing in that it didn’t list ingredients we could’ve used and the instructions to «go to the bar» to make it was like fine print.
Eventually we wandered over where the guy on meat gave us a really friendly explanation of how it worked. **let me just say, our waitress and meat station person were REALLY nice and was one of the things I was thankful for… But I digress. We stocked up on meat, veggies, and seasoning, chose our sauce, and let the wok station handle everything else.
The price was definitely up there and I felt like it wasn’t worth it, just because of the blandness. Granted, I didn’t ask if we could add more sauce or seasoning, but I would have felt bad for asking. We ordered a large and I think we could have used another half-​cup of sauce (we only used one). The organization of the store to make it more clear for first timers and maybe an update on the menu would be nice. Two stars for the two star workers who made it slightly worth something.

I love the Halloween décor they have going on! My girlfriends and I came here for dinner yesterday, mainly to try the «Infamous Cocktails.» There is a bar in the restaurant with a variety of drinks on the menu. Their cocktails come in sizes as large as a fishbowl! I got the ‘schooner’ size of the Raspberry Battle Breeze, which I really enjoyed. It taste like candy.
For our meals, we all decided on building our own bowl. The sizes of the bowls can be deceiving because at a glance the small looks too small but it’s a good amount to have! It’s big enough to pile on a lot of things. I don’t remember the sauces I tried, but the guy behind the food bar was really helpful and let me try his own mix of sauces that he recommended. It was good and I got my meal with brown rice.
The fact that you have the option of making your own dish is always fun and a great concept but I do believe the food is average. Service was really great. Our server/​bartender was Eric. Very cool guy and made our experience at the restaurant memorable. I would go back for the cocktails. They are not included in the Happy Hour menu, but they’re a decent price and worth going back for!

When you walk in, a host will seat you. Then you will walk over to the build-​your-​bowl station. I had a birthday coupon for a free regular bowl. You can have all kinds of meat in your bowl but a worker will put them in the bowl for you. The vegetable and sauce sections are self-​serve. When you’re done, you give it to a person who will cook your food. You will go back to your seat and a server will bring your food out to you.
The meats I chose for my bowl were chicken, tofu, calamari, bacon, and scallops. I put all kinds of vegetables such as spinach, mushrooms and bell peppers. For sauce, I only chose the «3G» sauce. Seasonings I chose were salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, garlic, and lemon pepper (i scoop each). For starch, I chose fried rice.
My food turned out pretty darn good. I was reading some past Unilocal reviews and some people complained about their bowl of food being overseasoned, underseasoned, bland or salty. I’ll tell you this… they have tasters for sauces. As for seasonings, the customers do it themselves not workers. So don’t blame anyone else but yourself! Try not to go too crazy with spices and sauces.
The employees were very friendly to me from start to end. The girl (w/​long brown hair, skinny and tall) in the front guided me on what to do. And the asian guy behind the meat section was also helpful! So thank you guys for helping me out. Sorry I didn’t get your names.

I’m a big fan of Genghis Grill. I lived in Phoenix for two years and ate there frequently. I got really excited when I saw they were building one in Mira Mesa.
I finally went today and was not disappointed! When I walked in, I was greeted immediately and seated very quickly. Our server, Xavier, was very helpful. I lied and said I’d never been here before and he walked us through the entire process and explained everything very thoroughly. The food was delivered quickly and was excellent.
A large is A LOT of food for one person, FYI. I ordered a large and when it came, quickly realized how wrong I was… took the rest home and ate it soon after lol. It’s so good!

Went today for lunch with my man, since he was craving it. He got the build your own & I ordered a chicken ginger skewer yumm! Also I ordered the blue dragon for the first time. It had vodka, and pineapple and coconut rum. to die for! The waitress was really nice and always checked up on us. Definitely our go to date spot.

I want to like this place more than I actually do. I have been here twice now and each time I am underwhelmed.
The seating is confusing here. Do you seat yourself? Wait for a server? Do they seat you? Do you do through the line first? Whats up with the in seat ordering that doesn’t work? It seems to change every time I’ve been.
On my first visit here, it was the grand opening. I did the create your own bowl thing, and I was happy with my choices. Use caution or you can easily over salt/​season your dish. I also decided to get crazy, and I ordered one of their fishbowl sized drinks. It was terrible, and expensive.
The second time I came I had a coupon from their email list. The server sat us, and I told her we had a deal $ 22 for two drinks, two make your own medium bowls, and two ice creams. She explained that I needed to print it out, (Who does that anymore?) but she was happy to print one out for us from the back office.
Each time, the steak has been terrible tasting. It’s hard, overcooked, and has an old taste to it. Stick with the chicken. I wish they had a shrimp option here.

Been to ones better than this but this place does an OK job. I don’t really get the whole waiter concept though for this Mongolian grill. We can create our own creations from the selection of meats, vegetables, and sauces and then we give it to the chefs working on the huge grill. What I found odd about this place was they take your food but then we are asked to be seated back at our table and the waiters will bring out your food. I was little surprised… why would I want to do that? Aren’t you supposed to be showing off your huge grill and cooking it in some fancy way. Minded it doesn’t take that long to cook the food, I was expecting them to just hand the bowl over and watch them cook your food and seconds later, I was supposed to be presented my dish and go from there. Aside from that odd experience. They even have options to pay directly at each table with their mobile payment tablets.
I probably won’t proactively crave to come here as there’s nothing too spectacular about this place.

I’ve been wanting to try this place out for the longest time now! my boyfriend and I finally tried it out today and we were pretty satisfied.
I was able to get the build-​your-​own bowl with scallops and calamari. My boyfriend had the honey walnut chicken bowl. Together, we shared Korean BBQ tacos. My build-​your-​own bowl tasted alright, the worker assisting us with the sauces and meats suggested the 3G sauce which made the whole bowl pretty tasty! My bowl was pretty filling, I tried to stack as much as I can before it was cooked, and they barely put any noodles. My boyfriend’s honey walnut bowl was okay, it was a little too sweet for me. It had plenty of chicken and vegetables, on pretty big bed of rice. The Korean BBQ tacos were delicious though!
Customer service was amazing! We had two people checking up on us constantly. They were very helpful with suggestions/​recommendations. Taylor, our server, was super sweet, he definitely took the time to help us out with figuring out how the menu works.
There was a nice little bar. There was a pretty decent variety of enticing, alcoholic beverages to choose from. The place was roomy and very clean too.

I was looking forward to trying Genghis Grill out when it opened a few months ago in the former Blockbuster location, so when I had a coupon for one of their bowls, I decided to stop by this past Memorial Day weekend.
THE GOOD: The ambiance was actually quite chill; I liked the overhead music mix (especially as they played a rather eclectic mix of current and throwback songs — I’ve even heard Backstreet Boys playing as I’ve passed by). The booths are quiet and comfy, and the décor is rather striking. There’s plenty of flatscreen TVs on the walls; on my visit, they were showing the movie 2012.
In terms of the food, while they only have two types of appetizers (garlic citrus edamame and potstickers), these are half off during happy hour (4 – 6 pm — there’s also drink specials during that time). I went with the garlic citrus edamame ($ 1.49); not too bad, though I wish it came out sooner rather than a minute before my bowl was brought to me. And my order for my Thai Street Noodles ($ 8.99) was huge and filling. However…
THE BAD: While my coupon for the Thai Street Noodles was for $ 6.99, two bucks was tacked on because I had ordered steak… which I wasn’t informed of until I had seen my bill. Seeing how the steak cubes, while big, weren’t that plentiful, I felt a bit ripped off that I wasn’t told that there would be an extra charge for it when ordering. Plus, while the noodles definitely were filling, it needed a little more kick (nothing a bottle of Sriracha couldn’t fix).
Plus, while there’s a Coca-​Cola Freestyle machine on premises (the soda machines that let you customize your drink flavors), and while the menu says you could make your own drinks… the wait staff gave me the impression that they would be the one refilling your drink, not you. (In fact, I had to sneak up on the machine at one point to refill my drink when it took a while to get someone to come to my booth.) What’s the point of having a Coca-​Cola Freestyle machine if you can’t even make your own drink, much less refill it on your own time? Sheesh!
THE UGLY: As a few of the reviews have noticed, the service is hit or miss. While my server (Karl — who I believe is the manager) was friendly on initial approach, I felt a bit creeped out as he kept repeatedly passing my table and asking me if I needed anything.
I love Mongolian BBQ, but there’s quite a bit that needs to be worked on. I’ll come back again to try making my own bowl (and for the mascarpone cheesecake — that sounded good when I saw it on the menu), though I’ll be a bit more wary of the service.

I am currently typing inside the building while my boyfriend eats my food because I think it was disgusting. I was very skeptical and doubtful about eating here which I should have stick to my gut.
I did the pick your own because nothing on the menu looked good. I was craving noodles though so I got some items with udon noodles which seemed so weird to me because I usually eat my udon with soup. SUCH A BAD IDEA. Don’t get me wrong the service was great. The food not so great.
My boyfriend pointed out to me that there were cheerleaders on the tv and one of the workers from the bar was standing directly in front of the tv as close as you can get just watching the half naked girls. Awkward much?
He was a nice guy though. He refilled my boyfriends water and spilled all over his phone as if we didn’t notice but not a big deal to me too much.
Upon leaving I heard him say to a customer who is his friend «if you take a shot I will too». Nice!
I won’t be back unfortunately

**REVIEW IS ONLY ON DRINKS/​HAPPY HOUR**
I haven’t had a chance to eat here yet, so this review is only on their happy hour (4 – 6 pm, and 8−10pm). I actually really was excited to finally check this place out. I usually give places the benefit of the doubt when it comes to service sometimes, for example, if they are busy. But this time it was a different story.
A group of three of us sat ourselves at the bar around 8pm and was greeted promptly by the bartender who was working, Nathan. He knew the specials well and did a good job of recommending various drinks to us, and I also noticed that he made good recommendations to other customers as well, depending on what they told him they preferred to drink.
Three drinks later, a bit past 10pm, the manager (some Asian dude wearing a red shirt) came to start cleaning the bar and immediately the vibe changed. He seemed so pissed, flustered and bothered that we had not left. If he had just gave us a (polite) little heads up that they were trying to get everyone out, then we would have had no problem getting out as quick as we could. But the prickish attitude this manager had and that nasty scowl on his face… really left a sour impression on me and my group.
Upon leaving, I made it a point to ask OUT LOUD the name of the bartender. Once he told me, I praised him in front of his manager about what great and friendly service he showed us. Employees here don’t seem to be appreciated as much as they should be, is my guess. Eeeek.
The two stars go to Nathan for being nice, and it was probably the only redeeming value I could give to this review. I’ll be back for the happy hour probably, but as for the service/​restaurant/​food, I’m not sure if I’m honestly as motivated as I once was to try it due to the rude manager.
I recommend any one who wants a REAL make-​your-​own bowl to go to East Village Asian Diner (best in my opinion). Great service, happy people working and AWESOME food!

This is a place where you’re thinking of «I need to find something Asian that’s decent to eat and fills me up. «
The select yourself what food to get is in the back right corner.
Dont know what sauce to get? Try the:
(1) garlic water
(2) teriyaki
(3) honey soy
Mixed together
Oh, they have a bar which is something innovative. Food comes out in about 15 minutes.

As a woman I love 3 things; starch, protein and chocolate. Genghis grill was able to please me with that starch and protein.
The process is simple, choose to create your own bowl or one of the menu. I chose to create my own bowl of course.
The first stop was the protein. The protein is fresh, not the frozen thin sliced meat but fresh cut variety of different «land» meat (chicken, cow, pig… Or should I saw chicken, beef and pork) but also some scallops and calamari. I told the guy behind the counter to load it up I gotta have that protein.
Then to the vegetables and loaded some onions, green onions and carrots. Right after that station, I decided to get real saucy with the sauces. We were able to taste the sauces before deciding if you liked it or not. I chose 3G, Dragon Sauce, and Chili garlic (1 oz total) Then after paying for the food I just wait for it to be brought to me!
Yes it is pricey, and if you build your own bowl wrong it won’t be good, mine came out great so I was satisfied. But you get what you pay for, quality and fresh ingredients and great service. One thing they can change are the noodles, it was hard and small (that’s what she said).
Overall, great addition to the Mira Mesa mall, check it out.

Great service and they pack in as much as you want them to and piling mountains is encouraged! However, it does seem a bit pricey ($ 14 for the large bowl). They have a build your own or they have pre-​made selections and different lines for them. You can pick your meat and feel free to mix and match! Then you get to put in your own spices and veggies and you get to select your own sauce!
The workers are all very friendly and help you out in trying to decide what’s good and what you would like or not. You get to pick your own seat and make sure to enter your order number (they give you a number when you pay) into the portable little machine (looks like a credit card machine at the table) and they will come and find you.
There is also a different section with a full bar with beer and alcohol! They also have happy hour which I haven’t checked out seems like a good deal!

I don’t know what all the hate in reviews for Genghis Grill are about. I had a fantastic time when I visited this place with my friend. It sounds like many people are upset that they can’t take advantage of the restaurant and pile a Leaning Tower of Pisa for them to cook up. I had a fantastic meal with a tasty cocktail for $ 15. That’s a bargain in my opinion! I don’t mind paying $ 10 for a big bowl of tasty food.
I came here on Sat night and it wasn’t overcrowded so we didn’t have to wait in line. I saw right off the bat that the quality of ingredients to this place are better than the MonGrill in UTC. I asked the counter help to add raw (not frozen) marinated chicken, beef, scallops, and calamari to a regular bowl and I took it from there, adding spices and veggies. Then the counter help mixed two sauces on my request and I let them cook it up with noodles while we went to the bar and ordered some cocktails. We sat down and waited around five minutes (total of around ten minutes) for our food, and it was served in a cool porcelain bowl with my choice of silverware or chopsticks.
I savored the flavor of every single bite of this food! It was delicious! Apparently I’m a whiz at sauce blending because that’s what made it so sublime. The only thing I didn’t like was the overcooked calamari, so I won’t get that the next time. And there will definitely be a next time! Like most people, I played it safe by using my favorite ingredients, but next time I’ll be more adventurous. It would be nice if they added shrimp as an ingredient in the future.
The atmosphere of this place is very casual, and we both enjoyed listening to the old-​school music (Joan Jett, Bow Wow Wow, Haircut 100) that was playing.

I have mixed feelings about this place. I don’t hate it, but I don’t like it. Here is what to expect about this place.
1. It’s NOT all-​you-​can-​eat. They have 3 different sizes of bowls (of course, 3 different prices). You can add as many things as you can in that bowl. If you’re not at food stacking game, don’t pick «Build Your Own Bowl» option. It’s not worth it. Order from the chef’s menu (or whatever it’s called). It will be cheaper. To me, I love challenge. So I picked the small bowl ($ 8.49). I’m not gonna lie. I’m pretty proud of myself that I got a lot of food!
2. You actually build your own bowl. They have different kinds of spices and seasoning on spice station and different types of sauces at the sauce station. So technically, if it tastes terrible or bland, I personally think it’s your fault. Like No.1, if you’re not culinarily creative, pick the chef’s menu. Build Your Own Bowl option is not for you.
3. This is not like «authentic Asian food». It’s a chained Americanized/​fusion Asian food. C’mon, they have pepperoni and sausage on the meat section, Cajun spice on spice section and pasta on starch section. To me, it’s interesting. But if you’re expecting traditional Mongolian BBQ, you will be disappointed.
4. How to eat here: You order what size of bowl you want (small/​regular/​large), pick your meat, spice/​seasoning, vegetables, sauce and starch, and then pay at the cashier. The cashier will give you a little table-​tracking thing. Then, you pick your seat and you can sit wherever it is unoccupied. If you order soft drinks, go get your drink. They will find you and serve your food at your table
5. Soda machine is awesome! A lot of choices of soda in 1 machine (it’s like the soda machine at Five Guys burger). I like to mix different drinks together. It’s pretty cool.
6. They have good alcoholic beverage options. Decent choices of beers. Not so many options for wine (who expects good selection of wines at this type of place anyway). Ooh, nice selection of cocktails! Fishbowl is the big cocktail size for 2 – 4 people.
7. It is a trendy looking place. Hipster’s stuff.
8. The line is ridiculously long and cramped. They should design better waiting line.
9. I love the tracker and the little machine on the table that you can play game, order more food, pay, and check out «Free Bowl» while you’re waiting for your food. However, you have to pay for the game.
10. According to my friends who went to this restaurant in TX, it is little different here. Here, you don’t really pick your own meat. There is a staff asking you what size of bowl you want and then filling up the meat in the bowl for you. You can still pick any kind of meat you want, and as many as you want. Just tell him more. I have no shame so I keep saying «more». However, it’s back to normal on spice, vegetables and sauce sections. Just stack them yourself. Use any strategy you have.
**Tip: I put flat vegetables first (e.g., Bok Choy, bean sprouts, scallions) and press them with my fingers. Then, add thicker vegetables, like carrots, celery, and bell pepper. Enjoy!
Personal opinion: I give this place 3.5 stars because it’s little pricey and the waiting line is not well-​organized.