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Colonel Lee's Mongolian Bar-B-Q - CLOSED
Category: Restaurants Mongolian Mongolian [Edit]
304 Castro StMountain View, CA 94041
(650) 968-0381
- Price Range:
-
$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- No
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Good For:
- Lunch, Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Beer & Wine Only
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
45 reviews for Colonel Lee's Mongolian Bar-B-Q
Review Highlights
"And you get soft serve for dessert."
(in 15 reviews)
"...highlight of this place is actually the ice cream - YUM."
(in 11 reviews)
"...tell you good combination of sauces and oils unlike other..."
(in 10 reviews)
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45 reviews in English
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Review from Dano G.
5/29/2009
You get what you pay for.
Okay- so when it was Colonel Lee's, its was dirty.
But you paid $7 for all you can eat.
All you can eat.
Colonel Lee himself, the old chinese guy with the F-ed up branch heating up your meat choice with noodles and veggies, was cooking your food.
He has a militayr rank.
That's enough for me to go "hey, I am gonna eat here for $7 and I am gonna like it."
So when you walk down Castro in Downtown Mountain View, whether you eat at Colonel Lee's or not, salute the Colonel.
Someone mentioned a kitchen in the reviews. WTF are you doing eating sh*t from the kitchen when you clearly have a military-ranked Colonel Lee at the helm in view of EVERYONE in the restaurant?
And you get soft serve for dessert, -
Review from Valerie H.
Mountain View, CA
2/8/2008
Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2008
Tonight my husband and I ate at Mongolian BBQ - and we usually sit at the table in the very left corner in the back.
So we are eating the meal, and I hear someone in the kitchen coughing up loogies of phlegm and spitting it out. I turned around and looked over my shoulder and I had a clear eyeshot into the kitchen.
The cook (the guy that walks the food around the BBQ) had a glass of water, was gargling, and spitting the water into the area where they place dishes. He then coughed deeply (like bronchitis) and coughed up more phlegm, spit in onto the kitchen sink counter, gargled, spit that out, and gargled, coughed, spit, spit, spit. So then I see all the employees/owners congregate just behind my table and they are all yukking it up.
So I get up from my table and tell them they are NOT supposed to do it and everyone just looked at me blankly, I don't think they understand English. I walk into the kitchen to see where he is spitting (mind you, NO ONE has rinsed the sink counter where all the phlegm and gargled water is) and I told them I was going to call the Health Department. Only one gal spoke English, and I am not sure she understood. There was all that phlegm, snot, and spit sitting there like jelly mounds on the counter ... un-rinsed, ready to smear all over everything.
DISGUSTING!
I walked out.
I am just ILL from the thought of all that phlegm all over the sink counter and all over the dishes.
YUUUUUUKKKKKKKK!!
Never again!
Update #1: The other day, one of my neighbors saw that cook at Colonel Lee's Mongolian Bar-B-Q cleaning the ceiling after hours ...and guess where the cook was standing? ON THE MONGOLIAN GRILL IN HIS GREASY BOOTS!
YUUUUUUUUUUUUUUKKKKKK
Update #2: I called the Santa Clara Health Department and Colonel Lee's Mongolian Bar-B-Q has been written up A LOT! -
Review from buttercup r.
Sunnyvale, CA
11/4/2006
This was quite possibly the worst food ever, in taste, texture, and the meat looked really weird.
Honestly, I don't know how anyone can eat this. The meat seems freeze dried, old, nasty, and no matter how much sauce you put on the craptastic noodles and meat, it still tastes like nothing at all. Don't get me started on the texture - ugh. -
Review from Lisha L.
San Francisco, CA
12/6/2005
The taste of the food here is nothing spectacular, but paying $7+tax (lunch) for all-you-can eat noodles (essentially chow mein) with your choice of toppings/sauce, and then getting to watch them cook it on the large circular griddle in front of you is a good bargain and pretty fun. The noodles are geewd with the curry sauce.
Not open for lunch on weekends, strangely enough.
(EDIT)
Ambience is terrible. (But who would come here expecting a restaurant environment?) Also, the ice-cream cone dispensers are taped with black electrical tape. Which, you know, happens to be carcinogenic. -
Review from Caryn K.
San Francisco, CA
9/22/2006
When I worked in Mountain View, some colleagues invited me to lunch with them at this spot.
I responded by ranting about how yucky this particular Mongolian BBQ place was for a good minute or two until my friend finally said, "Caryn! They're going to this restaurant because they like it! Stop talking about how gross it is!"
That was embarassing. But hey... the restaurant sucked. -
Review from Amy C.
2/13/2006
It's cheap and it's buffet. And you put as much or as little beef or chicken or pork or lamb or sauce or oil or whatever your heart's desire.
One of the guys who cooks the food for you is really sweet. Actually, they all are. Little shy sometimes.
A little bit of a hole in the wall. Maybe not a hole. Maybe just a pinprick. -
Review from Matthew C.
Campbell, CA
6/22/2010
Colonel Lee's has been CLOSED since May of 08 - please stop posting reviews for it.
There is a new mongolian BBQ, with new owners, in the same spot. It is called "New Mongolian BBQ" (what a shock ;) and its yelp page can be found at :
http://www.yelp.com/bi...
Thank you! -
Review from Ken K.
12/5/2006
Worse than hole in a wall, but superb value for food, all you can eat, and best of all custom design your sauces/flavoring with the condiments they have. Add all the garlic and lobster sauce you want, and be your own Emeril "Genghis" Lagasse (BAM!!! WHACK! RAPE! PLUNDER! whoops you don't do the last two...it's illegal) to kick some asses up a few notches via all the spices they have available.
For some reason during lunch they almost never have lamb. Haven't been during dinner yet, but after eating two or three rounds of helpings during lunch, I expect a severe drop in my performance at work (expecting that payroll deduction soon....) and reduced general alertness for the rest of the day until I hit the gym next time.
Colonel Lee's is also hazardous to your health, but what the heck, you gotta pig out here once in a while! -
Review from Don H.
2/9/2006
If you like picking out your ingredients, dousing them in oil, and having someone fry it up for ya, this is the place to go. Back in the day, the challenge used to be to put the right amount of oil & flavors on the noodles to have the chef approve, which was astoundingly rare. Then he left, and the new one is less picky.
Not great food by any stretch, but fun and tasty. But then, with that much oil, what wouldn't be? -
Review from Bee O O.
Ashland, OR
5/14/2009
You know what, I absolutely don't see what you could NOT like about this place. Lack of ambiance? Psh, doesn't even matter when you have unlimited amounts of noodles, sauces, meats, eggrolls, egg drop soup, rice, and soft-serve ice cream.
I haven't been here in a long, long time, but out of the blue I got a craving for it. Yes, Colonel Lee can and will fulfill my wildest fantasies.Listed in: Top Restaurants
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Review from Caroline L.
Sunnyvale, CA
1/12/2007
I don't know why more people don't eat here. I think all you can eat dinner for $9.95 is an amazing deal. On top of that you get rice, biscuits, and soup. The staff is very attentive and friendly. The man cooking is always full of smiles and seems so kind! I feel bad for him always slaving away cooking. This place is for sure a hole-in-the-wall, but I think for the price, the food and service is great. Great for hungry college students. You'll definitely leave REALLY full!
edit: lowered one star. i think i rated it too high at first ...they're still good, but not a five star... -
Review from Atish M.
San Francisco, CA
12/11/2007
It's very simple. All you can eat. Mongolian. B. B. Q. Comes with tea, soft serve, and break. It's by no means a fancy establishment, but it's still worth every penny for the lunch buffet ($5.50!).
Just don't come here for dinner. -
Review from Monica W.
Mountain View, CA
3/17/2009
$10 for tasty, cheap, all-you-can-eat Mongolian BBQ?? I'm in!
I always assumed this place was an expensive sit-down restaurant because of the decor I see when I walk past, but turns out it's fast food cheap and fast food fast.
Within 5 minutes we were in, seated, with a big ol' plate of BBQ in front of us as well as complimentary servings of egg drop soup, sesame breadsticks, and a big bowl of rice. They also have all you can eat spring rolls and soft serve.
I had THREE PLATES, yes three, of barbeque, each time with different sauce combos. Theirs is pretty watered down so you have to use a lot. And I didn't feel guilty at all, since Colonel Lee is flash-cooked my food in water instead of oil.
Anyway, I stuffed my face, paid only $10, and the food was tasty and reasonably healthy. Awesome.
PS. They have really cheap chocolate and cheese fondue too (according to the sign on the table), but I'm too much of a cheese snob to try it. And $3 beer. -
Review from Jennifer K.
CA
5/15/2007
Shrug. It's kind of whatever and is dependent on your sauce making skills. The guy at the grill is nice and friendly.
The best part of Colonel Lee's is the ice cream - it's exactly the same as the soft serve at McDonald's! -
Review from Nancy M.
San Jose, CA
3/29/2009
I actually like this place a lot. If you don't expect a lot (meaning services, etc) then go. Its cheap, all you can eat and the soft serve at the end it great!
Plus I like it also because they tell you good combination of sauces and oils unlike other places where you have to guess what you want.
Plus its on a great street with a few shops that I like, bars and a book store. Makes for a stress free date night. -
Review from Josh K.
Palo Alto, CA
4/28/2008
Okay, 4 stars is a little generous, here's why. Colonel Lee's is great, if you look like you have money, and/or speak Mandarin. I however do not, and so am usually battered with funny looks and hurried checks as I attempt to get bowl after bowl out of my all-you-can-eat deal. It's on the cheaper side of Mongolian BBQ buffets, but you get what you pay for, which I don't mind considering they pretty much have everything I want.
What makes it good?
-Colonel Lee, (man at grill) is a badass, he's always nice and always says thank you before when he takes your bowls, he's the kind of guy where you wouldn't be surprised if he was the formal world martial art's champ or something.
-Colonel Lee 2? (the old guy who reads newspapers and falls asleep o the job) is also a badass, like I said, he falls asleep standing up in the restraunt. He's the kind of guy where you wouldn't be surprised if he was at one point in his life an actual colonel.
-The food, in theory is great, incredibly simple, frozen, but I don't mind, and is also "theoretically" all you can eat, which means loading up on just meat, as it is the most expensive, and eating till you feel sick, plus a soft serve ice cream machine means endless cones of fun.
What makes it bad?
-The waitresses, some of them are nice, but some of them are, well... not so nice, as they have on more than one occasion given me flack for getting more than one ice cream cone and for staying for more than about 20 minutes.
-It's small, there's nowhere to hide, so they pretty much try and make you feel as uncomfortable as possible
-It has odd, inconvenient hours, if I recall it closes before 8 PM, and is closed for some period of time after lunch
-Soda doesn't have free refills, yeah, c'mon colonel, you'd be making more money by having free refills on soda, at least from most people
But yeah, like everyone else says, go for lunch, but I wouldn't recommend dinner. -
Review from Sofi P.
San Jose, CA
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Review from kim n.
8/3/2006
I'm not acutally sure how this place keeps chugging along. Sure there's not that many Mongolian BBQ places in the area but I can't justify to myself to return. I think for the same experience but better quality hit Su's in Santa Clara.
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Review from Sheena L.
New York, NY
8/20/2007
I don't think I've EVER seen another girl eating here. Frozen meat + big grill + all-you-can-eat clearly encourages a sausage fest, and it's a popular lunch option with my beloved Mtn View friends (yup, all guys). Inside, it kind of feels like you're in the bowels of Shenzhen, but I have to admit that I've been known to enjoy my stir-fry (probably 60% pineapple chunks) and of course, that soft serve.
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Review from Jimmy C.
Palo Alto, CA
12/29/2005
Food is pretty good, just make sure to follow the printed guidelines posted by the chef on how much sauce to use otherwise your noodles will turn out to be super salty or super bland or just plain nasty. A friend of mine used sweet and sour sauce on his egg noodles... yeah, you get the idea.
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Review from Morena T.
Olympia, WA
2/13/2006
The place looks a bit run down but I still give it 4 stars! It holds a special place in my tummy. Can't really complain about how the food tastes since I'm the one putting all the ingredients together. I love this place! Cheap, fast, satisfying. Every now and then I find myself craving mongolian bbq, wish there was one closer.
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Review from Steve S.
San Francisco, CA
2/12/2006
this place gets an extra star from being one of the few mongolian bbq places left in the bay area. that fact alone sure makes me pine for the 90s.
the food selection is only ok, and the appetizers are kinda stale, but they have that soft serve ice cream machine with which you can have all sorts of fun withListed in: Work Lunch Spots
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Review from Leslie M.
CA
5/3/2007
What has the world come to?! Since when do we only require that our food be cheap, hot and available in big portions?! GRRRR What happened to flavor and ambiance? The people are nice, but I don't go out to eat to chat with the wait staff. The food was tasteless, at best.
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Review from Jonathon J.
Foster City, CA
7/10/2006
I've been coming to Col. Lee's for about 15 years now. We'd go to Printer's Inc. after we wre done eating lunch. I absolutely enjoy the excitement and nostalgia of coming here and yes, the food is pretty good too. I always enjoy adding fresh pineapple to cook with my dish. And the soft serve is good too! Enjoy this restaurant if you have the chance to visit.
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Review from Kiki B.
Cambridge, MA
10/5/2006
Yummmyyy. The day my boyfriend and I moved down to Mountain View from the City, we were too busy to eat. It was only at 6 PM, after a day of heavy lifting and continually empty stomachs, that we finally made our way down Castro to our favorite hole-in-the-wall. It's been a favorite since early on in the relationship (though he thinks taking a girl to an all-you-can-eat BBQ place with poorly painted scenery on the wall is not a good idea too early). Nothing like $9 unlimited bowls of bbq as spicy or not-spicy as you like, plus $1.50 beer and ice cream to top it all off. So satisfying.
Listed in: Bay Area Standbys, Where I get my chow on: San…
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Review from Christina F.
Belmont, CA
1/1/2007
Decent mongolian bbq with few options for sides (hopefully you like egg rolls and soup, cause that's all you can get!). It hits the spot if you have a mongolian bbq craving (which I get usually once a week). Su's is much better overall but this is a shorter drive for me. The biggest highlight of this place is actually the ice cream - YUM! I'm not a soft serve kind of person, but at this place I can down three cones like nothing.
Listed in: Northern CA Mongolian BBQ…
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Review from Alex L.
Santa Clara, CA
12/6/2005
It's not much, but hey *I* like it. The food's good and with the right combo of sauces, it's darned near better than good! Fairly inexpensive and it IS all you can eat after all! Great little divey place for mongolian all you can eat on the cheap.
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Review from Mark J.
San Francisco, CA
12/12/2006
I don't believe that even a college student would give this place any more than 2 stars. Possibly the worst Mongolian BBQ in the galaxy, Colonel Lee's will never let you down. Be prepared for sketchy looking meat, wilted vegetables, foul chunks of a dense dough-like substance, filthy tables and floors, and of course, the grill that they expect will clear the E. Coli off your food. Colonel Lee's can maintain its low prices soley by guaranteeing that most customers won't brave another round of the "all you can eat" meals. This is brilliant business: the less they spend on food, the less people will want it. How this place has remained for all of these years with far better options on Castro is a shocker of its own. Visit this Mountain View institution but once, armed with Alka Selzer and some tequilla.
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Review from Jack S.
San Francisco, CA
12/9/2007
I used to come here for takeout when I worked on Castro Street. It's extremely fast (5 minutes max) and cheap -- takeout is cheaper than eating in since you only get one round to fill yourself. The guy who works the grill is pretty friendly, and for some reason I found tipping him more enjoyable; I think it's because I regularly forgot to add sauce to the BBQ but he somehow didn't make me feel like an idiot. It's pretty standard Mongolian BBQ fair, nothing particularly special about it. Definitely load up on the meat, because as it condenses on the grill its relative (to noodles) proportions will shrink by an order of magnitude. Also, they give you rice, so you'll need even less noodles than you think you do.
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Review from Brett M.
Los Gatos, CA
1/14/2007
Oh Man! I have been coming to this place for years and it is a little wedge of heaven! A greasy, slightly neglected heaven with sticky tables and a lot of gesturing.
Good Mongo BBQ is more on you than the restaurant. You finely craft the raw ingredients into your perfect balance of meats & veggies...meat around the edges, veggies in the middle...higher...higher...tamp them down with a mass of noodles and step up to the sauces. A little soy, a little chili, a little sweet & sour, some of that one you can't identify, but tempts you for some reason. Don't skimp, what you don't put in there in the way of flavorful sauces the cook supplements with water. So load 'er up! Step up to the cooking bar and add a few chives, desperately look for real estate in your bowl for some pineapple and you are almost home! The final capper, snag some of the pineapple juice and add it in there (I am sure that *not* doing this last step easily explains 90% of the ify reviews below). Oh ya...that's the stuff. Hand it off to the cook. Once around the super hot disk by the unwaveringly smiley guy, a dollar tip in the box, and then that last necessary step of putting some garlic power on it.
Ditch the now molten-hot bowl off at your table where your rice and soup await, and back to the buffet area to grab a plate of oil-saturated egg rolls, sweet & sour sauce, and that hot mustard that you can never buy anywhere but is in over 1,000,000 Asian restaurants around the country. Back to the table where you scarf down the rolls and soup while your mixture cools to non-lethal temperatures. Key to enjoying the soup: add soy sauce to it. Seriously...I mean it...
Finally, after you enjoy the fruits of your alchemistic undertakings, and make the troubling decision that you will not go back for seconds despite the place being all-you-can eat, you begin to eye the soft serve vanilla ice cream dispenser coyly taunting you from next to the egg roll bin. Go up, grab a cone from behind it, put a little too much ice cream in it (returning the crank to the "off" position releases a last unexpected surge), and head back to your table to contemplate what just happened. You won't be proud of what you just did, but who needs to know? By the time you walk back to your car the last of that ice cream cone will be gone and the only evidence remaining will be a hint of garlic on your breath and an unnatural warmth in your stomach. Muhahhahaahaaaa! -
Review from Max K.
Sunnyvale, CA
5/12/2009
All-you-can-eat Mongolian BBQ: just pick the ingredients that appeal to you, ladle on the sauces you think you'll like (they have a set of recommended combinations so you have an idea as to where to start), hand over the bowl to the gentleman at the barbecue, and your food is ready very quickly. My wife has food allergies, and likes that they will wash off the grill on request to make sure that she doesn't get any cross-contamination from anyone else's. There's even soft-serve ice cream for dessert. Excellent value for the money.
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Review from T. C.
Dallas, TX
9/14/2007
Liked it. A bit pricey dinner for 2 very poor 20-somethings just starting out (came to just above $20 with tip and tax), but the food was tasty and we enjoyed the accompanying rice, sesame seed rolls, and hot tea. The staff really made us feel at home, so we'll probably return again. I wish that the pineapple plate felt less guarded up at the grill, because I would probably use an additional cup per bowl. I love that stuff.
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Review from David L.
Palo Alto, CA
5/23/2007
best
soft
serve
ice
cream
ever -
Review from Jenny C.
San Jose, CA
4/23/2008
We were going to Maruichi yesterday but they weren't open and my fiance was starving so he picked this place next door. $8 for AYCE mongolian bbq seemed fairly decent, so I didn't really fight it. But afterwards, I didn't feel like it was worth the money. First of all, they charge $1 per person for hot tea. I don't know, I can't stand places that charge for tea, especially not even good tea just crappy house tea, it's just stupid. Their food was nothing spectacular either. Not much selection, not great quality. My first plate was fine, since we were there very early, only the second table. However, the second plate was pretty gross. The cook had just finished scraping all the charred stuff off the grill right before he did mine. All my food ended up being covered in black charred bits from the grill. I was not too happy about that. I looked at my fiance's plate and his was like that too. That pretty much made me lose my appetite and I definitely didn't want to go back for more. Also, their ice cream machine wasn't even working.
I feel kinda bad leaving a bad review since the cook guy seemed really nice. But I really can't justify more than two stars for this place considering the price and the food. I won't be coming back. -
Review from Gena U.
12/14/2008
Went for dinner. Fairly crowded. All-you-can-eat is a great deal, especially when you're famished. Tables a bit close together, but the wait isn't long, and since you help yourself, you can never go hungry. The food isn't that bad either although it starts to taste the same with all the sauces. :D Good nonetheless, and no reason not to go when you're in the mood.
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Review from Jocelyn B.
San Mateo, CA
6/4/2007
4.15.08 They moved down the street a bit to new fancy digs! A yogurt shop ("Yaoberry"?) is going in the old location. New place is about a block down Castro closer to El Camino and looks all shiny and new! I saw the old soft-serve machine standing in the corner, and the same chef on what appeared to be the same grill. Now I just need to go in and confirm the prices are still reasonable. Saturday evening, the place was packed!!
4.1.08 Tried to eat there on Saturday night with BF and it was closed. BF said he saw a sign for a new yogurt place. I was driving, so cannot confirm. Another Yelper said there was a sign for "New Mongolian BBQ". I hope the service improves while the soft serve and the prices stay the same!
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Meh. I had done Mongolian BBQ once or twice before in Santa Clara. This place wasn't great. Next time I need to put more sauce over my raw ingredients. But for an $8.95 all you can eat dinner, I will definitely go back. It's also a great option for my BF who needs to be very carb conscious. You can to all veggie and meat and not do too bad for yourself. Also, the egg rolls weren't bad (but could have been hotter) and we went back for those until we had our fill.
One big problem for me was that not a soul on staff seems to speak English beyond the perfunctory greetings. This is a problem if you're new to Mongolian BBQ or to this place in particular. It wasn't clear to us that it was all you can eat, and BF left wanting more.
BF: "Sir, are we able to go back for more? I see here it's $6.95"
Man: "No - eight-nity-fi. Yes, go back"
Me: "Does that mean you can go back for another $8.95?"
BF: "I dunno"
Me: "Well, you don't *need* any more"
BF: "grumblegrumble Egg Rolls grumblegrumble"
Me: "Shit. I got soy sauce all over my new Ann Taylor Loft blouse"
BF: "You know - I had a mustard stain..." [ADD sets in]
Old Lady: hack hack *hok* hack hack
Me: "Lovely"
Next time, more spicy sauce and garlic sauce. And seconds!
Tip your chef!! (make sure he sees you) -
Review from Don B.
San Jose, CA
9/8/2008
Colonel Lee's was the love of my life. I wish I could have shaken the hand of the genius who thought of bringing together mongolian BBQ and soft serve. I'll miss the old guy at the register (he's been there for at least 20 years, and my theory claims him to be "The Colonel"), the mural on the wall with the alien sheep near the back, laid back atmosphere and the snot soup they provide when you sit down.
It truly is a travesty that this restaurant shut down. No new mongolian BBQ restaurant could ever replace the simple charm and wonderfully complex flavors that the Colonel consistantly provided throughout my childhood and young adult years. -
Review from Germaine B.
San Carlos, CA
3/31/2008
RIP Colonel Lee's 3/30/08
I went by to find the front boarded off and a sign for "New Mongolian BBQ" coming soon. I loved this place. I will really miss the hole in the wall charm. The staff knew me and were always very charming. I have little doubt the new place will look upscale, charge more and taste lousy. We shall see. -
Review from Daniel B.
San Jose, CA
5/12/2008
food was good, service was very bad. charges for a child even when they arent eating, my kid is 2 1/2. so he just had rice. They stated the 7.50 fee is for clean up after the child. so this is deffinatly not a kid freindly place., waitress rushes you out the door constanly checking to see if the bill has been paid. wouldnt recommend unless your really hard up for mongolian BBQ
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Review from Peggy A.
Mountain View, CA
7/29/2008
Mongolian BBQ can be a good choice for families or friends with different palates or dietary requirements-- ie, one who eats only noodles and one who eats no carb and one who is vegetarian.
The food is mediocre and the bowls are pretty small- you'd have to go back and wait in the line many times to get a good sized dinner portion.
The service is also indifferent and they do rush you your check. Not much hospitality here. I heard the waitress tell the table behind us that their child in a high chair was free, unless they made a big mess, then the child would be charged the normal amount.
