HuHot Mongolian Grill in Columbia

I eat a lot of places that please me, and I don't usually try to tell people about them, but we had such a good experience here last night that I want to get something up. This place is a national chain, and has been open in Columbia since October. However, this week and weekend have been their official "Grand Opening," with half-price appetizers and desserts, so Tracy and I decided to go after a Friday night movie.

I generally like Mongolian Barbercue (essentially, you pick what you want of meats, veg and sauces from a buffet line, and workers grill it up for you). I think Genghis Khan in Westport is terrific, although Tracy finds it a bit dark (from age, wood, and lack of windows) for her taste. The few times (twice?) I've been to bd's (another national chain), I've been really disappointed. I feel like its overpriced, and (much like Joe's Crab Shack), they act like you should be really honored and excited to be there, without really having the good food or service to back it up. Tracy says they act like they were the ones who discovered this concept, and aren't you feeling lucky that they brought it to you. Anyhow, I found them annoying enough that I was a bit hesitant about what we would find at Huhot.

I shouldn't have been. We went in about 9:15 (we had looked on the web, and the only hours listed were 4p-close, and it has a bar, so we figured we'd be fine on a Friday night of their grand opening. The place was nice and bright, but not annying. There were signs around explaining what to do, but not so many that you couldn't find a place to rest your eyes. We had some appetizers that were fine, although not great, but certainly worth what they charged. We had dollar frozen drinks, and each got the buffet. Because of the format, we didn't hustle to the buffet, but waited for and slowly ate our appetizers. We had a great server named Mandy. She kept checking on us and seemed genuinely nice and engaging. We finally got to the buffet area about 9:45, and got seated again a little before 10. Then, just a few minutes after 10, they started to break down the food and put it into storage and start cleaning up the grill. Then, we overheard someone say that they closed at 10.

As I'm sure you know, I like eating. Normally at a place like this, I'll go through twice -- a light bowl with chicken and seafood, followed by a dark bowl with beef. I probably would have done that last night, too, although I certainly didn't go hungry with just one bowl. I wasn't extremely bothered by them starting to tear down. "Perhaps," I thought, "the hours were on the door, and we didn't see them." I was a little annoyed, but I could deal with it.

Tracy, however, with her background in customer service, seemed genuinely disturbed. She asked me if it would be okay with me if she asked for the manager (she knows conflict makes me nervous) and I acquiesced. She did so, making sure than Mandy knew we weren't displeased at all with her service. The manager was on the phone, but after a few minutes came up and asked how he could help.

I wish I had picked up his name, but I didn't. Tracy explained the issue and her disappointment, and he immediately took personal responsibility. He didn't blame corporate policy, or something that had happened out of the ordinary, he just immediately apologized, saying it was his fault. Apparently, they normally do a "last call" to each table, and he had missed ours. Because it was their grand opening weekend, and they had been through such a long night, they were eager to close. I was impressed that he took the blame on himself, and, frankly, I would have been satisfied with that. But he immediately comped our entire meal. Wow. I was really startled, and impressed with that act. We left pretty quickly, and left a generous tip for Mandy, promising we would tell our friends and be back. And we will. The place is actually very near where I work, and I will not hesitate to give them as much good word-of-mouth as I can next week. As we left, a server behind the bar greeted us cheerily, and said to come back and REALLY get all we wanted. Word, apparently, had moved quickly.

Everyone, and every business, makes mistakes. True colors shine through in how you deal with those mistakes. Huhot Mongolian Grill totally compensated us for a minor inconvenience. And, every person we encountered was super-friendly without being fake about it. I often say that I don't care if a server is being fake friendly for a tip, as long as I can't tell if it's fake.

Right as we were leaving, Mandy mentioned that this location is owned and managed by the group that owns and manages the Flat Branch in Columbia. That explained a lot. The Flat Branch has a great reputation for good food and service. We went there for Valentine's Day and had a really lovely time. So, go to those place when you are in Columbia. And, as Megan M. and the college kids say, don't forget a trip to Trops.