BD’s Mongolian Grill – The SAFE Restaurant

I had the pleasure of talking to Ken Leetch, the General Manager, at BD’s Mongolian Grill in Bolingbrook.  He was nice enough to take the time out of his busy schedule to discuss their safety practices with me.  This restaurant can be allergen free, gluten-free,  Paleo, or Vegan.  You pick, and they will try to accommodate.  First off, BD’s Mongolian Grill is one of my favorite buffet type restaurant.  Most buffet type restaurants are not very safe for Bean with her peanut allergy, due to cross contamination issues.  I was comfortable taking her to BD’s before, but now that I know more about their safety practices I am confident that BD’s would be a safe place for her to eat.

If you have never been to BD’s Mongolian Grill, it is essentially a place where you pick the ingredients and then take it up to the grill.  It’s amazing stir fry.  You can purchase one bowl or unlimited bowls.  With your bowl, you also get their soup and salad bar.  Their soups recently changed to being 100% home-made in-house by BD’s.  After you start off with the soup and salad, then you take your bowl and go up to the buffet and choose your ingredients.  You have several choices of meat, vegetables, noodles, sauces, and spices.  Once you have all your ingredients picked out, you can take your food up to a grill to be cooked.

Some of the safety practices they follow are:

• Temperatures are checked on the food lines every few hours to make sure everything stays cold and fresh
• The tongs are constantly changed to avoid any cross contamination
• If you are concerned about possible cross contamination due to a food restriction or allergy, they will make your bowl from fresh ingredients in the back that are kept segregated
• Also, they have an Allergy Friendly cooking station.  It is a separate place to have your food cooked to avoid allergens in your food.  The pans are used one time before being washed, and then they are heated up to 200 degrees to burn off any remaining allergens
• There is a MAC or MAM (Market Area Manager or Market Area Coordinator) walking around the food area, in a black chef coat.  They can help create meals, give ideas, and also can provide you with a nutritional brochure.

They also have a .pdf file on their website that lists every single ingredient used in all of their items.  If you are on the go, there is an Android and Iphone app called BD’s Go Mongo.  The app lets you create-a-bowl, choose all your ingredients, and view all the ingredients in the bowl you made!

Disclaimer: I did this review, because this is one of my favorite restaurants.  I was not given anything and did not receive any compensation in any way,  in order to do this review.  All opinions are my own and not influenced in any way.

 

Awesome Website!! Allergy Eats!

Allergy Eats is a fantastic website!  It is an online guide to allergy friendly restaurants.  You click on your specific allergies, type in your zip code and it gives you allergen friendly restaurants around you!  When you click on a restaurant that comes up in your search, it will give you real reviews from people who have dined there too!  You can also rate and review restaurants.  It allows you choose from these specific allergens (or you can suggest one):

Select your food allergy or intolerance:
Peanuts	Dairy	Wheat	Fish	Sesame
Tree Nuts	Eggs	Gluten	Shellfish	Soy

They have a free android and Iphone app so you can find locations while you are on the go!

They even have a special Walt Disney World one that allows you to choose your hotel, or one of these popular locations…

Magic KingdomEPCOTHollywood Studios Animal Kingdom Downtown Disney

Blizzard BeachTyphoon LagoonBoardwalk ESPN Wide World of Sports

What a great resource!  Definitely need to check it out!  I am loving this site!