#bloomingon

Lydia Loveless at the Bishop 2/17/12

JC Brooks and The Uptown Sound

How Hot?...the question indeed

Last night I had the chance to finally check out the new talk of the town here in Bloomington IN. HuHot Mongolian Grill replaced our Cheeseburger in Paradise here in town and everyone was pretty excited. It took me a while for me to get here, but I finally did.

HuHot has a very interesting concept that allows you to create your own stir-fry, with an array of proteins, veggies and sauces. The choices are pretty endless with the combinations, and you have an unlimited amount of servings.

Another great benefit about the restaurant is they give you recipe recommendations. I didn't use them at all, because I seem to call myself a "foodie" of sorts, so I knew the flavors that I enjoy.

I started with a quick appetizer, egg rolls with sweet chili sauce. These were wonderfully light, and the flavors were pretty bright. Surprisingly so because you tend to think of the heaviness of the grease in egg rolls. I was a tad upset that we only had 4 to share, and I paid more than a dollar per egg roll.

I tried about 3 different stir-fry recipes...

My first was chicken with egg noodles, several veggies such as bean sprouts, peas, and green peppers, with spicy chili sauce. It was incredibly hot, so I needed to add some sweet chili sauce to balance it out.

My second choice was my favorite so far. I used beef with wheat noodles, the same veggies, and a mix of sauces...a sweet garlic, sweet and sour, and teriyaki. The balance of the sweet and savory was phenomenal, and overall a great choice...YAY ME!

My last choice made me want to immediately leave the restaurant. My bloomington peeps, listen carefully. DO NOT GET THE CURRY! It smelled horrible and tasted worst than it smelled. I refuse to ever use that sauce again for anything EVER!

The ambiance was decent, it felt very updated and new, and a little out of touch with the menu. Me and my friend also had issues with the fact that there were a lot of families, until we realized kids eat free on Monday night. The constant bantering of "How hot? HuHot" got very obnoxious, and a little out of touch, but essentially this is a buffet in Bloomington, IN, not an upscale in Chelsea.