Adventures in Phoenix Food, 8/1/04 and (the week of) 8/15/04

Yes, you thought it was never going to happen, but here you have it.  These reviews should have been Hubby-head's, but I decided to get them over with and give him the one from 8/8/04 to do instead, which I know he really wanted to do in the first place.

A few months back, I had my first exposure to a Mongolian grill when the hubby took me to YC's, a chain with three locations in Tempe and Scottsdale, AZ.  One of their locations is right up the street from his office, and he was going there for lunch at least once a week.  His office, however, is supposed to be moving soon, and not wanting to drive to Tempe every time we want good Mongolian grill, we decided to try to find an acceptable substitute for YC's on the northwest side of town.

So on Sunday, August 1st, the hubby and I tried out Stir Fry Paradise Mongolian Grill (no link available), a new restaurant located where the Round Table Pizza used to be at 67th Avenue and Bell.  I'll tell you about that in a minute here...

The following Sunday, when we were looking in the phone book to find the correct address for another restaurant we had decided to try, we ran across the yellow pages listing for YC's Mongolian Grill, and were shocked and thrilled to see a fourth address listed in the little boxed yellow pages listing, which was in the Metrocenter area.  This location was not shown on their website, and so we figured maybe it's a brand new one, right?

This past Sunday, Hubby was not feeling well, so we didn't go out for something new.  Last night, we ventured to the Metrocenter YC's location, and discovered that there's a reason this location isn't on the YC's Mongolian Grill website - it's not a YC's Mongolian Grill.  It's a wanna-be called YC's Mongolian BBQ.  I don't know if the proprietors of the YC's chain are aware of this west-side pretender, but if they weren't already I'm sure Hubby-head will tell them about it.  A web search for YC's Mongolian BBQ yields a lot of sites mentioning the other 3 YC's locations, but I'd be very surprised if this location was truly a part of the chain.  Strangely, though, there is a newspaper article from 1998 linked from the "reviews" page on the site that mentions the Metro Parkway location, so maybe it is part of the chain.  Or it used to be but no longer is.  I don't get it.  Nevertheless, henceforth I shall refer to them as the "original" and the "wanna-be".

And now, a comparative review.

Unfortunately, Hubby and I are spoiled by having had the real YC's first.  Given that as a comparison, neither of the Mongolian grill places we've tried have been quite up to par.  Neither of them has quite as wide a selection of vegetables and sauces, nor as good of decor as the two we've been to if you want to be snobbish about it. 

The wanna-be YC's has a somewhat larger selection of veggies and sauces, with vegetables that seem to be slightly fresher... however, their sauces are less flavorful than either the original YC's or Stir Fry Paradise.  Like the YC's chain, the wanna-be has soup, but it looked kinda scary and not nearly up-to-par with the chain's spicy beef soup.  They also didn't have won ton strips or chow mein noodles for added crunch.  Another small complaint about the wanna-be, their soft drink fountains had caffeine-free Diet Coke, but no regular Diet.

Stir Fry Paradise's meats were partially thawed when we went through the line, which worried me a bit (and later in the afternoon when my digestive system kicked up a small protest, I attributed it to that fact, but it didn't get bad enough for me to complain about really).  The veggies were not quite as varied, but were still enough for me.  They only had about 4 or 5 different sauces as compared to the wanna-be's 8 or 10, and the original YC's 12 sauces.  What they did have had a good flavor, though.  Stir Fry Paradise also has a little mini-buffet area, which includes some crab puffs and egg rolls, fried rice and chicken.

The prices at all three are about comparable, and all three have all-you-can-eat for dinner, but their policies for taking home leftovers are different.  The original YC's will give you a "doggie bag" for 50 cents.  The wanna-be has prominently posted "no doggie bags at dinner", which we didn't challenge.  Stir Fry Paradise will let you take home however much you want, but they will charge the same prices as their take-out, which is determined by weight, with a minimum charge.

The original YC's and the wanna-be both include frozen yogurt/soft serve ice cream in their dinner price.  Stir Fry Paradise does not as far as I'm aware, but they did have desserts on their menu.  Along with the usual soft drinks, the original YC's offers beer, which the wanna-be does not.  Stir Fry Paradise offers sake and plum wine, along with other beers and wines if I recall correctly.  It's been a couple of weeks.

In any event, the Hubby-head and I have decided that - until we get a real YC's on this side of town, we're probably going to alternate between Stir Fry Paradise and the wanna-be YC's, since they both have pretty good food, and they each have something the other doesn't.  What they're both missing is the quality and the variety of the Tempe and Scottsdale YC's locations.

Comments

[Dan]

Not that this comment will ever make it anywhere...but the Metro YC's IS the original, and the others are knock-offs.. The one at Metro has great food and has been around much longer than the other locations... and yes i t is called YC'S Mongolian BBQ, not Grill. Go fig. But who cares.

[jeff hornbrown]

the workers at Metro are very rude and make you feel like a theif when you go back esp the girl at the register she definetly has a attitude like she is so great.. will not ever return or would not recommend because of this girl(acts like she owns the place) not friendly at all.....

[Laurie]

Actually, the Scottsdale and Tempe (McClintock) locations opened along with Metro but the original owners (husband/wife) divorced and he got one and she got two. Since then the one (Metro) has gone downhill. Unfortunately the name is so similar it often gets confused with the other two. So the owner has changed it to Grill instead of BBQ. Hope that clears it up. I know this is an older article but what the hey.

[Adam Wright]

the YC at the metrocenter isnt even there any more. it closed down. I've been there a couple times and it was ... alright. not the friendliest, but the food was good.

Id rather have stirfry anyway, the fat noodles are bomb... and i merk those crab puffs.