Basic ground rules for finding food:
- “Зоог” = mongolian food = cheap.
- “Food” = western food = expensive.
- Follow the people. Locals are a far better guide than the guidebook. Failing that, follow your nose.
- Opening hours are guidelines only. In Mongolia, places are open unless they’re closed.
- Locations given in guidebooks/online are accurate to the nearest kilometre. Good luck.
- If you’re paying more than £3 per person for 2 courses plus drinks you’re being massively ripped off!
- Don’t be surprised if the highly recommend trip advisor/lonely planet restaurant has mysteriously vanished/been demolished/is actually a strip club… These things happen…
- There are no knives in Mongolia. Would advise practising chopping things with a spoon before venturing into a restaurant where other people might see you…!
Adventures in зоог (aka “zoog”)
Cheap зоог
Location: no idea. Followed the locals. Somehow managed to get home.
Price: £0.60-£1.50 for a huge main. Amazing.
Tastiness: 4/5
Bonus features: picture menus
Entertainment value: 2/5
Fast зоог
Location: big orange building on peace avenue. Go west at the state department store. If you’ve arrived at Peace Mall you’ve gone too far.
Price: £1-£1.20. Food is less expensive than a bottle of water. Crazy
Tastiness: 4/5
Bonus points: insanely complicated ordering system. Go to till. Point at photo of food. Pay. Receive receipt. Give receipt to other till. Wait awkwardly for 10 mins. (Announcement system announces your order is ready repeatedly in Mongolian) wait for lady on till to take pity on you and find you your food for you. Eat delicious zooog. Mission complete.
Entertainment value: 5/5 (mainly for the hilarity caused by trying to order/obtain food)
Posh зоог
Location: again on peace avenue. Just before the fast зоог place.
Price: £5 per main
Tastiness: 4/5
Bonus points: each meal comes with a set of fortune telling knuckle bones. 100% accurate future telling guaranteed.
Entertainment value: 3/5
Legit зоог
Location: our host’s ger in Terelj national park. GPS coordinates available on request. Good luck finding it otherwise!
Price: ?!? £11 for breakfast, dinner and a bed for the night. Ridiculously cheap at any rate.
Tastiness: 5/5
Bonus points: very legit! Huge portions. Complete absence of English language skills only made the experience better!
Entertainment value: 5/5. Best yet!
Namaste – the local Indian
Location: Walk roughly 3 blocks north on the baga-toru street by the French embassy, then follow your nose. Seriously.
Price: Roughly £6pp for drinks and a maaasssiiiivvveee meal. More expensive than standard Mongolian fair, but way cheaper and way better than in England. 100% worth the expense. (You can see that since we now think £6 for a main is expensive, food is pretty cheap round here!!)
Tastiness: 5/5. Arguably the best Indian I’ve had. Ever.
Bonus points: English menus. Amazingly welcoming staff. Delicious.
Entertainment value: 5/5 – slightly creepy Bollywood music videos playing in background constantly! Brilliant.
Round Pizza
Location: somehow we got lost finding this place the fact that it’s opposite the state department store, one of the most recognisable places in the entire city. Oops.
Price: £6ish pp. would advise going extra large and sharing for best value
Tastiness: 3/5. Good, but nothing special.
Bonus points: menu in English.
Entertainment value: 3/5 most of the restaurant was taken over by a massive children’s birthday party when we went. Many, many renditions of “happy birthday to you” with questionable backing music starts off hilarious, quickly becomes slightly torturous…
#Hashtag Cheese and Beer
Location: due south from the state department store. Follow the neon signs, banging western tunes and the cool kids.
Price: ~£6-7pp for drinks and mains. Huuuuggge portions though
Tastiness: 5/5
Bonus points: the name. Seriously. “#Hashtag Cheese and Beer”. Worth a visit just for the name. (Actually a really nice place to eat too) young, cool (but not too cool) vibe. Huuugge portions, massive cocktails. Overall good value.
Entertainment value: 5/5.
-Emily-
The Mongolia Ambulance Project 