Inside the World’s First Mongolian BBQ Restaurant
Fun fact: Mongolian barbecue has absolutely no connection to Mongolia, and very little connection to barbecue. Believe it or not, the dish — now recognized across the globe — actually originated in Taiwan. It was developed in 1951 by Wu Zhaonan, who fled Beijing during the Chinese Civil War and opened a food stall in Taipei. He wanted to call his stir-fry creation “Beijing Barbecue,” but due to political sensitivities with the mainland, decided to name it after the neighbouring country instead.
Genghis Khan Mongolian Barbecue, located a 10 minute walk from Zhongshan MRT, is allegedly the first restaurant to ever serve the dish. It opened its doors in 1963 and it’s been churning out customized stir-fries ever since. We visited on a weekday evening in October to see if the restaurant lives up to its name and legacy.
The restaurant is big, with lots of seating spread across 2 floors. It caters to groups — although there weren’t many people dining at the same time as us, a massive crew of hundreds of Japanese students arrived to fill the entire restaurant as we were leaving.
If you’ve never had Mongolian Barbecue before, the process is simple. You fill up a bowl with meat, vegetables, and sauces of your choosing, then bring it over to the chefs to fry it up. There are recommended steps to follow for making your own sauce, but you are free to experiment!
They dump the contents onto a huge circular griddle with a satisfying sizzle. The iron is superheated to temperatures around 300 degrees Celsius, so the chefs work quickly to dash the food across the surface for a quick stir-fry, then expertly swipe it back into your bowl and serve it steaming hot.
In addition to the bowls of stir-fry, there are plenty of other sides, sauces, and drinks included in the price of the buffet (NT$459 for lunch, NT$559 for dinner, and NT$290 for children).
We also ordered hot pot, and there was some complimentary thick, flaky bread to accompany our Mongolian barbecue. Multiple rounds later, after trying different combinations of ingredients and sauces, we were stuffed to the brim.
But of course, we left room for dessert! There’s a fridge with a variety of cakes (none of which were particularly good), tubs of ice cream in the back freezer, and even a sweet fruit soup for dessert.
Of course, you can’t expect the highest quality food with all-you-can-eat buffet deals and some of what we ate was pretty bland. Yet we enjoyed the meal overall and felt like we got a pretty good deal for the NT$559 dinner price.
What’s the vibe?
Big restaurant with plenty of buffet selection including made-to-order Mongolian barbecue rapid-fried in front of you.
Worth it?
Sure! NT$559 isn’t a bad price to pay for all-you-can-eat. Your food is totally customizable, it’s prepared in less than a minute, and there are plenty of options to suit all tastes.
Would you go back?
Probably not. We’re glad to have tried the “original” Mongolian barbecue, but there are endless other all-you-can-eat places in Taipei we need to check out.
Visited: October 2018
| Genghis Khan Mongolian BBQ |
| Hours: 11:30am - 3:30pm 5:30pm - 10:30p |
| Phone: 02 2537 3655 |
| English Address: No. 120, Section 1, Nanjing East Road, Zhongshan District |
| Chinese Address: 中山區南京東路一段120號 |
