Bang Bang Mongolian Grill

Yikes, I am really far behind on these. I’ve been sitting on the memories of two restaurants and haven’t had a chance to write the reviews! Sorry for the delay.

Let’s start with Bang Bang Mongolian Grill in Canton.  This new restaurant took half the space of the old Austin Grill in the Can Company, and I personally think is a very welcome addition. The food is completely customizable and affordable, especially when you bought the LivingSocial coupon for two bowls and two glasses of wine (or beer) for $15! We also added one bowl for the kids to share, which comes with a child sized drink, and two children’s frozen yogurts. AND kids eat free on Tuesdays, so that’s pretty awesome. Less awesome is that we weren’t there on a Tuesday.

We went with a couple friends who had the same coupon, which made it easier to navigate the line with kids. The décor is nice, clean, and casual, which is always nice to see when you're dining out with your small fries. When you enter, there are directions on how the restaurant works as you walk to the cash register. You pay for your bowl, a drink, and your dessert (if you’re so inclined) and proceed along the raw buffet line, filling your dinner bowl with whatever catches your fancy. They have an assortment of proteins like beef, chicken, shellfish, fish fish, tofu, etc. and you can choose whatever combination  you have a hankering for on that particular day. Then you come to the vegetables. They have mixed vegetables of different styles – stir fry, teriyaki, pad thai – to make it easy, or the individual vegetables for your own customization. You can also taste the different sauces before committing and you also add your own spices. After you select everything, you bring it to the grill, choose your starch (or salad for those watching carbs) and they stir fry everything right before your eyes. 

Piece of advice here – if you think filling to the top of your bowl is a good deal, think again. Once it’s cooked down, it’s less than you expect. Everyone at the table (but me) had their contents balancing precariously over the tops of their bowls before cooking and were more satisified than I was.

Mine is the bowl on the left. They gave me an extra bowl so the kids could split L's creation

A huge plus of this was letting L pick out what was going in her (and her brother’s) bowl. I found she was more adventurous with her food when she had more control. She was happy to eat pink fish without balking when it was her idea!

The yogurt bar was a definite win!! The yogurt itself was very good in the regular chocolate, vanilla, twist variety and I love adding my own toppings. Pieces of Hershey bars, mini chocolate chip cookies, Reese’s, and the rest of the standards were there and were fresh and delicious!

Overall, the food was really pretty good and reasonably priced. The added bonus of having a kid not say “Yuck, I don’t like blah blah” before it’s even at the table was worth the price of admission alone!  Even though it was self-serve, I found the employees to be very helpful even after we were seated.

The only drawback is if you’re there with two kids by yourself, it would be really quite difficult juggling them and filling your bowls. This is definitely a multiple adult venture if you have more than one child with you. It’s also easier to drink booze when there are more adults than children. Luckily this restaurant is in walking distance.

Mr. B cares nothing for chop sticks.

And for those who care and might be doing something crazy like, say, P90X* (hence the lack of reviews), it was one of the healthier options around since you have complete control over your quantities and every single thing that goes in the bowl. If I could eat there once a week, I would.

L trying out her chop sticks.

One thing I had heard, but can’t vouch for since we were there pretty early so I have no idea if this is true or not – The later you go, the spicier your food might end up because of all the different food cooked on the grill. Though they do wipe it down, so take that with a grain of salt.

And yet again I forgot to check for changing tables! They did have high chairs, though.

Kid Friendliness :  3.5/5 (only because it would be hard if you were outnumbered by kids here!)

Service : 3/5 (since it’s mostly help yourself)

Prices: 4/5

Taste: 4/5

* And Yes, I’m aware I’m not technically supposed to have things like wine or frozen yogurt with yummy toppings.

Next up: Langermanns for lunch during Restaurant Week. YUM!

Sticky Rice

As noted previously, my daughter loves sushi. Today, after a playdate with her best friend Mr. President, we all headed over to Sticky Rice in Fell’s Point. Now, I happen to be a big fan of this place, even if it costs a little more than other sushi restaurants I frequent, and I know some people are over it but I'm happy to keep coming back for the time being.

Looking at the restaurant, one wouldn’t necessarily think of it as a kid friendly establishment. The main room contains a bar and today they were playing some awesome classic rock. However, there are two main draws for me here. 

One is the sweet potato tots. 

Sweet Mary, these things are delicious and I am in no way a big tater tot fan (though I did out myself as a sweet potato addict a couple posts ago). I actually make fun of my husband for his love of something called a Tater Tot Casserole. To me, tater tots were always part of the ‘bad’ lunch day at school. But these sweet potato tots have won me over and when I win the lottery, I will have a constant fresh supply in my house, delivered by little hipsters vying for my attention.  My daughter, who somehow takes after her father with his disdain for sweet potatoes, will actually eat them too, so big bonus there. I know how to keep my kids fed on healthy foods!

The other draw is what I call (and maybe other people do too?) the Jesus Room. 

It’s a tiny little alcove of a room with light up pictures of Jesus and Mary and a TV. It makes me feel less guilty when my kids are having a loud day and if I have to resort to the TV so that we can finish our dinners in peace, it’s an option. Though honestly, the art and the sushi are enough of a distraction that I haven’t had to use it yet. But believe me, an L and Mr. President day will always be an extra loud day and, even in the Jesus Room, I was getting a little nervous and tempted to ask them to turn on Sprout or Nick Jr. !

The waiter was attentive and didn’t seem annoyed by our children despite being an indie hipster type guy, so yay. Side note: I know the owner is a father himself and actually has gone out of his way in the past to accommodate families. We immediately ordered a bucket of sweet potato tots for the table and then took a minute to look over the menu.  I settled on a South Roll, which was sweet potato tempura and got L a California Roll. What I failed to realize was that I had a huge bucket of sweet potato tots in front of me and I just ordered sweet potato sushi. Oh well, I just ended up  trading a couple of my pieces for L and felt less like a glutton. Except she wouldn’t eat the South Roll and wanted more sushi, so I ended up getting a second California Roll for us to split. I actually think the California Roll might have been tastier than my sweet sweet potato, so I’m glad we got a second roll. I brought B some baby food packs and he ate some sweet potato tots and everyone was happy. Except Mr. President who wanted pizza.  Sadly, there isn’t  a kids menu per se, but they do have plenty of tasty noodle and rice dishes that I’ve had in the past that many kids would enjoy if they don’t eat sushi.  L has enjoyed a delicious soba noodle dish in the past, and she is not what I would call an adventurous eater (except for the aforementioned sushi). 

The restaurant wasn't crowded, food was fantastic, service was fast, the kids enjoyed playing with the beaded curtain and getting to roam around the little alcove, the babies didn’t throw all their food on the ground, and it was a pretty swell time all around. Mr. President’s mom and I even got to have some adult conversation so I consider that fact alone to be the sign of a great lunch! My advice is go early in the day and not when it’s a crowded bar scene and try to get the Jesus Room. 

Kid Friendliness: 3.5/5 (because it's really best to only bring kids during certain times)

Service: 4/5

Prices: 3/5

Taste: 4/5

Chopstix

My 3.5 year old daughter loves sushi. She has even been known to demolish 2 rolls without blinking. So when we finished their dental exam at Chesapeake Pediatric Dental in White Marsh, I decided to head across the shopping center to Chopstix.

Not sure how to word this, but when we walked in, we were greeted with joy. They honestly seemed thrilled to see us, and not because they were dead in there since they had a decently full restaurant. They were super accommodating and even took care of my stroller and stowed it somewhere while I got the kids in the high chairs. Just a note : my 3.5 year old L is very capable of sitting in a chair, but she is really in a high chair phase right now, most likely because of her 14 month old brother, and I’m ok with just going with it.

Anyway.  The menu is pretty large and features both Chinese and Japanese foods. Since we were here for sushi, I got two sushi combos: Shrimp Tempura with a California Roll and Chicken Teriyaki with a California Roll. They both came with miso soup and a green salad. I figured that with two soups and two salads, I would get one of each and I’d give L the salad, since she is a fan of cucumbers and carrots and try to see if B would eat the miso soup. And I’d give L one Roll and the shrimp tempura and I’d eat the other roll and split the chicken teriyaki with B.

Service was very prompt, so there was not a lot of waiting with hungry kids. When the soups and salads came and chopsticks were presented, I tried to make L’s kid friendly by MacGyvering them with a rubber band and some folded paper.When I asked for said rubber band,  they brought me this cool contraption instead that you put on the top of the chopsticks to make them easier. Genius.

The salad was ok. Very fresh and crisp lettuce but the ginger dressing was definitely not one of the better ones I’ve had. That being said, I’m a HUGE fan of ginger dressing and can be very particular. The miso soup was average. To my surprise, B loved the lettuce from the salad and L was chowing down on the miso soup! Not at all what I expected.  

Then our boxes came and were very disappointing. Let me start with the good: the California rolls were actually quite good. L gobbled hers up pretty quickly and B actually enjoyed the crab filling out of mine. I would eat those again. Everything else in the boxes, however, was sub-par. First of all, the chicken teriyaki was awful. The chicken tasted like it had been cooked in the microwave and the sauce lacked flavor and was very watery. My 14 month old carnivore would not touch the chicken, if that says anything. The tempura seemed to have been battered in a breadcrumb mixture (that might not be true, but that’s what it tasted like) and was over fried. The only thing I really liked was the sweet potato, but, let’s be honest, I would probably eat sweet potato dipped in old baby food. L wouldn’t eat the shrimp so I was really glad she enjoyed the soup as much as she did because otherwise I would have had nothing for lunch if she wanted the second roll.

The hostess came over several times throughout the meal to coo at B and to see how we were doing. They definitely welcomed kids there and I didn’t feel out of place.  Despite their friendliness and openness to two lively kids, I would probably not go there again for a meal. While the California Roll was good, I could get something similar at most other places. Overall the food cost more than it was worth.

Kid Friendliness: 4/5

Service: 4/5

Prices: 3/5

Taste: 2/5