Just couple blocks from my work in downtown, Portland Mongolian Grill & Hot Pot is my go to place for spicy oriental noodles exactly that way I want. It’s a oriental buffet place near the water park which is great for any meal for any casual occasions.
Portland Mongolian Grill and Hot Pot
From wide variety of fresh vegetables and proteins, the customers will fill up their bowls with items of their choices, pour all sorts of different flavors (like hot oil, garlic/ginger water, oyster sauce, sesame oil, and etc) on the ingredients and take it to the grilling area. The very friendly attendees will dump the whole bowl on the hot grill and cook it to perfection within few minutes. You can come back as many times as you want and fill your bowl and take it to the grilling station.
Fresh items to choose from in Portland Mongolian Grill & Hot Pot
If you are there for the first time, my suggestion is that don’t fill up your bowls with too much noodles or other stuff. Try and see which sauce or flavored liquid you like and how much of it you like on top of your food. Since the cook won’t add anything to your food, it kind of depends on you how you are flavoring your dish. It may taste very bland for the first time if you don’t add enough herbs and sauces.
My bowl of raw ingredients ready to be cooked in Portland Mongolian Grill & Hot Pot
There are also soup and plain rice that comes with the buffet price. I have never tried it but Portland Mongolian Grill & Hot Pot also has hot pot items where you can cook your own items on your table in hot broth.
And it’s cooked
I love this place for any quick lunch while I am at work (or get a take out box) or bring my kids for an informal dinner. If you have never tried a Mongolian grill place, this will be a very nice to start with.
My eight-grader finished this year with more than 3.5 GPA (yes, I’m a proud mama) and we were delighted to attend her “Honor Student and Family Breakfast” this week where she also received an award for outstanding community service. What better way to acknowledge her achievement other than taking her to her favorite restaurant?
Inside Urban Fondue on Glisan St. in Portland, OR
My daughter has been mentioning about Urban Fondue for more than a year now. When I asked her to pick a restaurant to celebrate finishing up her middle school successfully…her first choice was Urban Fondue.
Located very close to the downtown area on Glisan St, this is a nice neighborhood to explore few other restaurants and stores. Bad part is that you have to find a street parking but good part is that once you do, it’s all worth the headache.
Cheese fondue with bread in Urban Fondue in Portland, OR
We made a reservation for four people on a week-night. Although they have option of sitting outside, we sat inside which was simple with vibrant red walls and furniture. Before you try out this place, keep in mind that this is a fondue place…with cheese, chocolate, and different kinds of broth to cook your meat/seafood/veges. Basically, a dip and dine place.
Raw meat/fish/vegetable platters in Urban Fondue in Portland, OR
While you can order single entrees from the menu, we ordered a combo for 3 people ($37 per person) where we were able to choose 2 different kinds of cheese fondue, 1 side, 3 main entrees with beef, chicken, seafood, and vegetables, and 1 dessert.
All the dipping sauce with dinner in Urban Fondue in Portland, OR
Our 2 choices of cheese fondue came with small pieces of gourmet bread and a side of vege-roasted cauliflower. Then the main dishes with raw meat/seafood and vegetables came with 2 different kinds of broths that we chose – roasted beef and urban Yosenabe broth. We were given a cooking time card and few timers. Most of these ingredients take about 3 minutes to cook properly in the broth. The dinner platters also came with more than 10 dipping sauces…each being completely different from the others. After the dinner items, we moved onto the dessert part…chocolate fondue with raspberry puree (called Raspberry Swirl). And it came with combo platter with strawberries, banana slices, delicious cheesecake squares, and few other yum bites.
Cooking our dinner items in Urban Fondue in Portland, OR
Not to exaggerate, but from the appetizer cheese and bread to dinner items in broth to sweet morsels dipped in chocolate/raspberry fondue…everything tasted just PERFECT…exactly the way you would imagine and how you know you would feel when you dip your food in scrumptious cheese fondue or cook in the broth or having fresh fruit in melted chocolate. Everything here tasted fresh and sizes of the plates were very proportionate too.
Raspberry Swirls with combo platter for dessert in Urban Fondue in Portland, OR
Urban Fondue is a perfect place to celebrate any occasion for any ages or just to hang out and try a different kind of dining with your loved ones. My kids were thrilled to be there and we all absolutely loved their food. The customer service is very professional and speedy also. Overall, all of us had a very nice experience here. And now that I’m hooked to fondues, I will have to come back here again to try their other kinds of cheese and chocolate recipes.
Portland Culinary 