Restaurant Review: BD’s Mongolian Grill, Naperville

Balancing meats, vegetables and spices in a small bowl like an Eiffel Tower is just one part of the fun at bd’s Mongolian Grill in Naperville. The restaurant has a great tasting selection of meats and vegetables and a fantastic menu to satisfy your hunger and enjoyment

By Ray Hanania

First, no matter where you eat in Naperville, the city’s ambiance and family-driven environment is going t make it a great experience.

It’s not quite like walking around in a European city like Paris, but the friendly cafes, restaurants and many top name retailers make anything you do there fun.

So, when you do find a great restaurant, Naperville just has a way of making it even better. And one of those restaurants I love is bd’s Mongolian Grill, one of the region’s original stir fry restaurants.

I’ve been to a lot of stir fry grills where you pick the vegetables, sauce and spices and order the meat. The bowls are usually all small, but if you line up the carrots and the bean sprouts like little fences, you can extend the bowl to great heights.

bd’s Mongolian Grill in Naperville. Photo courtesy of Ray Hanania

Watching customers balance an Eiffel Tower of food ingredient selections in a tiny little bowl that is handed to the restaurant chef is always fun to watch. I’ve never seen any topple.

Don’t be embarrassed. None of the great stir fry grills care how much you pack on top of the pile when you hand it to the chef to grill. They slap it all together on a frying pan or grill and it just tastes great.

But bd’s Mongolian Grill, a national chain with grills in Ann Arbor, Bolingbrook, Cleveland, Dearborn, Denver, Lexington, Pittsburg and more, takes it one step farther.

I like the fact that bd’s Mongolian Grill not only has the sauce, nuts, spices and vegetable assortment that you expect at a stir fry in a long self-serve buffet table, but they also lay out the meats. At bd’s Mongolian Grill, they have the meats.

The meats range from steak and filet to fish, chicken and small meat balls. (They also offer menu options so you don’t have to do the work, other than skimming through a selection of meat dishes, tacos, salads and even rice bowls.

A hefty meat selection before adding the friend rice at bd’s Mongolian Grill in Naperville. Photo courtesy of Ray Hanania

You don’t have to balance the food like a Nepalese sherpa trailing through Mt. Everest’s Hillary Step to satisfy your hunger at bd’s Mongolian Grill. They offer one bowl at $9.99 and unlimited bowls (repeat trips to the meat and veggie buffet bar and the grill) for $13.29, which isn’t bad.

The food is cooked in front of you, as it is everywhere, but this one is on a flat and circular 7-foot, “500 degree” grill. The chefs take your bowls and sauce and skillfully prepare your food and it doesn’t take long. They “stir it up your way” slogan is exactly what happens. And the enthusiasm of the chefs reminds me of what you often find at a hibachi grill with the chef tosses, signing and entertaining as he — or she — prepare the food.

bd’s Mongolian Grill’s circular grill. Photo courtesy of Ray Hanania bd’s Mongolian Grill’s Naperville dining room. Photo courtesy of Ray Hanania

bd’s Mongolian Grill
221 South Washington St.
Naperville IL 60540
Phone: 630-428-0300

Click here to Visit their website.

This place is top notch!

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Ray Hanania

Ray Hanania is an award-winning opinion columnist, author & former Chicago City Hall reporter (1977-1992). A veteran who served during the Vietnam War and the recipient of four SPJ Peter Lisagor Awards for column writing, Hanania writes weekly opinion columns on mainstream American & Chicagoland topics for the Southwest News-Herald, Des Plaines Valley News, the Regional News, The Reporter Newspapers, and Suburban Chicagoland.

His award winning columns can be found at www.HANANIA.COM Subscribe FREE today

Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.

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