Cuisine Mongolian
Hours 10am-10pm (to 9pm in winter)
Location Just down the alleyway that runs along the north side of the Bayntala Hotel on Xilinguolu Bei Lu. It’s the 1st restaurant on your right, Around Town
Phone 0696/3344-6101
Prices Meal for 20-40 ($2.50-$5)
Credit Cards Not accepted


Frommer’s Review

There’s no better place to be introduced to Mongolian cooking than this clean, friendly, family-operated restaurant named after its female proprietor. Though no one speaks English, the staff will bring out ingredients from the kitchen to show you what goes into any particular dish. Their best Mongolian specialties include various types of guozai. This stew comes to the table in a pot with flame underneath. Unlike hot pot, the ingredients are already cooked when the dish is set in front of you. Just stir it a bit and remind your waiter to put the flame out when it gets too hot. A Mongolian favorite is guozai suancai (pickled vegetables and sheep organ stew) made of mutton, sheep heart, lung, liver, intestines, cilantro, hot pepper, green vegetable, and spices. A Mongolian friend says Yuan’s version of this is exactly right. If you’re not inclined to eat internal organs, the dish is also made with the same vegetables and spices combined with mutton, beef, or chicken. Chao mia are Mongolian-style fried wheat noodles that can be ordered with or without meat and include cilantro, sesame seeds, and garlic. Naicha the milk tea of Hohhot — made with cow’s milk — is absent the pungent mutton taste associated with milk tea of the outer steppe. Here, the tea is usually served salted with a dish of sugar on the side. Snacks such as guotibo (sticks of crisp fried dough) and pats of naipizi (”milk skin” which, in taste and texture, falls between cream and fresh butter) are eaten on their own or tossed into the tea along with chao fen, processed millet that looks like tiny yellow beads. Liangfen are thick translucent grain noodles served cold in a thin broth made of vinegar, soy sauce, sesame seeds, and hot pepper. If the slimy texture of the noodles isn’t an obstacle, you’ll find this a delicious dish. In addition to Mongolian specialties, the chef makes a variety of noodle dishes, vegetable and meat dumplings, and delicious jiachchangcai (Chinese home-style fare).

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