bd's Mongolian Grill

bd's Mongolian Grill used to be a favorite place for Brian and me to go to eat before I became vegetarian.  Even after, it wasn't so bad because they have tofu and they would cook my food on a separate part of the grill, away from the meat.  I wasn't too concerned about cross-contamination so that was fine with me.  Since becoming vegan, however, simply moving over on the grill wasn't going to cut it for me so I've steered clear of bd's for almost 4 years.

A couple of weeks ago my friend Jen and I got together for her long-overdue birthday dinner.  I said she could pick the place and she wanted to go to bd's, saying she thought they had a separate grill for people with allergies, so it would be perfect for me.  We went to the one in Canton.  I don't know if they all have this but sure enough, there it was . . . The Allergy Zone!

It's a totally separate grill from the main grill.  I made up my bowl of veggies and tofu, added the sauce (after thoroughly checking the ingredients which are listed on the wall), and took it over to the Allergy Zone.  A very friendly Mongolian griller asked me what I am allergic to and when I told him I'm vegan and started to explain, he knew exactly what it meant and got right to work cleaning off his grilling utensils.  I was highly impressed!

The food was pretty good but in the end, it was a stir-fry.  To me a stir-fry is always something that I can make at home so to be really impressive in a restaurant, it has to be pretty darn amazing.  Some of the veggies were clearly either canned or frozen, so that's unfortunate.  For what you pay it should all be fresh!  I had the mandarin orange sauce, which I liked, but next time would spice it up a little bit with some red pepper flakes, ginger, and garlic.

Veggies w/tofu and mandarin orange sauce

What's great about discovering the Allergy Zone at bd's is that now there's another place I can go to eat with non-vegans.  (Brian was especially excited to hear the news!)  I don't know if all bd's have it but I assume they would.  I hear the Dearborn one has it!  

I might not recommend bd's Mongolian Grill to people with serious allergies because of all the opportunities for cross-contamination in the salad bar approach to creating your bowl, but for vegans looking for another dining option in this crazy meat-filled world, this one isn't half bad.

Have you been to bd's Mongolian Grill?  What do you think?