Mongolian Barbecue Is Deliciously Unique

Walking through the buffet, the raw ingredients look unappetizing. Each soupy white noodle, frozen shrimp and spoonful of sauce makes my bowl look less and less appealing.

However, there I go, piling on the ingredients, often more than just one spoonful.

Genghis Khan is unique, not in the fact that it is a hippy, downtown, indie restaurant, but in the fact that it’s a Mongolian buffet. You grab your white vegetarian bowl or blue meat bowl and pick what noodles you want: rice, lo mein or wonton. Then go through and decide what vegetables or additives you want.

After that, my favorite: the meat. I load on shrimp until the blue bowl is overflowing (but they do have most others types of meat). Next, to the sauce. They have metal bowls full of different ingredients — spicy, hot, medium or regular. I choose regular and proceed to scoop a ladle full of each ingredient.

With a plateful of noodles, shrimp and regular sauce I hand my plate over to the cook. He stands over a massive Japanese steak house style stove top. With his wooden paddles he pours my bowl in an open spot on the oven, making sure it doesn’t intermix with other people’s noodles.

The aroma is overwhelming. Mine is almost ready.

The cook majestically uses the paddles to put my mixture on a plate. I’m nearly drooling.

Genghis Khan Mongolian Grill is my favorite restaurant in Kansas City. It is located in Westport right off Stateline on 39th street. With a choice of buffet or menu items, it can either be a quick in and out or a long, date meal. The prices are more than reasonable for delicious Asian food.