Go Mongo Restaurant

by Zeyda Üstün

When a friend of us pronounced her desire to celebrate her birthday at Go Mongo I caught the chance to visit this restaurant. We arrived Go Mongo at 19:30; all tables were full except the one we had reserved beforehand. The restaurant is somewhat dim and one of the entrance walls was covered with felt. After passing by an enormous open-buffet and the kitchen fitted with glass, we reached our table.

The Mongolian hunters on the mountains are know to chop the meat of the animals they hunted with their swords and after mixing it with the vegetables they found on the terrain they were cooking it at the inner part of their shields over the fire. This practice has created today's Mongolian Barbecue concept.

After examining the menu composed of variations from Indonesian, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Thai, Singaporean and Japanese cuisines, we decided to try Mongolian BBQ. Upon this they offered us midsize bowls and flags with our names written on. However the restaurant was very crowded. We were told that they would inform us the time to visit the open-buffet. While, we ordered our wine. When we finally had the chance to approach the open-buffet, our friend advised us to press the food a bit while filling our bowls and we crammed frozen and filmy-cut veal, lamb, chicken, turkey or frozen shrimps and white fish. We added some vegetables chosen from the buffet of mushroom, onion, garlic, carrot, squash, tomatoes, red cabbage, leak, Chinese leaf, tofu, cabbage, soybean bud, Mexican bean, green pepper, string beans, corn, broccoli, pea, cauliflower, spinach, bamboo shoot, jalepeno pepper. The spice selection was also very rich, including pepper, sumac, mint, thyme, curry powder, white pepper, cumin, cinnamon, rosemary, garlic powder, basil, pimento, ginger, and pine nut. We added our spice choices and handed our flagged plates to the waiter.

Then, it was time to prepare our noodles. We put noodles in deep bowls and covered with sauce chosen from sauce buffet of cream, sour&sweet, garlic oil, sesame oil, sunflower oil, lemon, wine, bbq sauce, paprika, soy bean oil, tomatoes, mustard, curry, oyster, and hoisin. The waitress offered excellent assistance about the sauces. She advised us which sauce is bitter or spicy. My personal advice: I suggest put more cream if you don't use oil!.

When your noodle bowl is ready you place it, behind your flagged plate on the stand in front of the kitchen. Don't neglect to follow the chef beyond the glass. A group of chefs with slanted eyes are gathered around a gigantic circular cooking stand and stirring the chosen ingredients with big wooden spatulas. As cooked food is transferred to plates, raw ingredients readily replace the space opened -up in the skewer. I must add that despite all the smoke there is was unpleasant odor in the restaurant.

Our food arrived shortly in rectangular flagged plates with a piece of pita-like bread.

The meat, vegetables, spices and sauced noodles were cooked together. Although it was the first visit for most of us, we were pleased with the food we had prepared. Those who could not manage to control the amount of hot spice simply had to eat more bread.

Mongolian BBQ buffet have two different prices on the menu. You either pay for one visit, like we did, and stuff your plate or choose 'the unlimited' option, which allows you visit the buffet several times or you can also order one serving pilaf and/or salad for sharing since the menu is prepared accordingly.

We ordered two different kinds of dessert to share. The portions were very sufficient. We left Go Mongo after tasting the delicious coffee.

Go Mongo is located on the ground floor, it is likely to be very lively in the summer when all the windows are open. It has a well-kept garden and has wonderful view of Princes' Islands. We strongly recommend making prior reservations.

Go Mongo Suadiye
Plaj Yolu Sokak, Suadiye Park
Tel: (216) 410 3223

Latest comments about this article

 By twinkienyc  13.2.2009

Where i am from (US) the writer´s description of the chefs as ”chefs with slanted eyes” is considered offensive. Also what are soybean buds? and leek is spelled incorrectly. after reading some of the other reviews, the English often does not make sense. Why don´t you have critics who can write in English properly or have someone proofread the reviews?

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