Expect a wait on a Friday or Saturday night... but the wait is usually worth it. Good price and you really can't beat all-you-can-eat-create-your-own Asian cuisine.

We live south of Naperville in Orland Park, so we only make it to this restaurant a few times a year with our teenage children. My wife out of curiosity went to Trip Advisor the evening before we were going to go again to check out the reviews. There was only one review, and the content surprised her. We thought should we go? Had something changed with the restaurant since the last time we were there? Our kids begged us to go, so we decided to go.

Yet we weren't going to let this review slide by, so when we went there we talked to the head manager named Chris. We told him about the review, and he dropped everything to check it out on his office computer. This we took as a positive as most managers would brush it off. He came back about fifteen minutes later to our table with his jaw hanging down. He said two things. First he said that what happened in the review could have possibly happened, and his honesty surprised us. Secondly, he said that he and his staff always strive to run a hygenic restaurant. He said that on Monday he was going to advise corporate headquarters about the negative review.

What is our take? Could bad things happen? The answer is definitely yes. The Mongolian Barbeque has an atmosphere that caters to a lot of families. On Saturday night there are throngs at the food line, and the cooking wheel is jammed. Food could get mixed together.

Yet, after eating there about a dozen times over the years, we have always been more than satisfied. Even though a restaurant should always be 100% each hour of the day, this is not always attainable, so we always dine out at off times. Being popular though, sometimes this restaurant has no true off-time, and can be somewhat busy. Even during these busier times, the staff always tries to keep the place clean. In fact, we saw Chris running around cleaning the buffet table, which is interesting considering that today it seems that most managers never want to get their hands dirty. In addition, we have never personally seen where people get their food mixed up together on the big wheel, although you have to make sure sometimes that you don't get someone else's bowl. The service is always their strongpoint, and is a solid 100%

We do not wish to denigrate anything that the previous reviewer has stated, but strongly feel that this place is definitely worth going to. Just remember that whether a cruise ship, Sunday brunch, buffet, or the Mongolian Barbeque, it is best and safest to get there early and beat the crowd.

First visit today:

I took my wife to BD's tonight to celebrate our life together. We had many choices to choose from in downtown Naperville, but chose BD's on word of mouth from other friends who had gone to other locations. We were greeted at the host stand as an interruption in the phone call, and eventually a girl came by and waved for us to follow her to a table. Our hostess briefly described the process and after our waitress took her drink order we left for our bowls. The meat and vegetables were nicely laid out, but lack of refills on the vegetables, left slim pickings. We followed others to the drum and a cook was happy to grab our bowls by putting his thumb in the bowl and piled it up on the other side of the bar where a group of people stood over our food whiles waiting for theirs. A particular tall cook, apparently not able to watch the food as it cooked, kept busy by sloppily hitting the food, managing to mix others food, like my beef dish with someone else's shrimp only dish. I wonder how they liked my lamb mixed with their shrimp ? Most of my vegetables were slapped to the floor because he could watch what he did and was more interested in trying to oddly hum a tune that no one else could tell what it was. Dropping his wok blade on the floor after trying to kick it off the grill with his foot did not seem to matter as he mixed the next patron's food with the dirty blade. My wife was able to watch her food burn as the inexperienced cooks tended to not pay attention to how long each item cooked. Later I watched them fail to stir my food as my salmon and scallops were still raw. One of the cooks brought out more blades from the kitchen to replace some of the ones used later on, but they were also dirty like our silverware with dried on food and lack of soap.

Overall, I would rate this location a 1 out of ten, no need to return, but would put it high on the recommended Food Inspectors route to check out next. The entire time I could not locate a manager or anyone who cared what quality of food was or preparation.

A complete waste of $30 in my book, next time I will choose elsewhere and advise my work and personal friend to do the same.

I do appreciate the chop sticks, at least I know those are clean!
I guess most of the employees had previous jobs at McDonalds and failed the health inspector test there, but qualify at your establishment with lack of management.