Scene Setter: Getting saucy at Gobi Mongolian BBQ House in Silver Lake

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Saucing is a science at Silver Lake’s new Gobi Mongolian BBQ House. Modeled after a restaurant that co-owner Mike Buch went to as a child in Hollywood, Gobi has taken the low-rent, MSG-addled Americanized Mongolian barbecue concept and given it a sunny, Facebook-generation makeover. A big part of that is a selection of 11 house-made sauces, including several that certainly weren’t found in your parents’ friendly neighborhood Mongolian BBQ hut, including lemon-mint, Asian pesto and smoked oyster.

The concept of Mongolian barbecue is simple: Grab a bowl, add vegetables, meat, noodles or rice, throw some sauce over it all and hand it to the man behind the giant flat grill and watch him cook it up with flair. Sounds easy, but at Gobi, the trick to creating what is essentially a perfect bowl of glorified stir fry is in the execution of your sauce selection.

‘Most people just jump right in there,’ Buch says. ‘They’ll progress nicely through the buffet and then they’ll get to the sauces and they’ll stand there for two or three minutes doing nothing.’ That’s when Buch will intervene and make a suggestion. With 11 choices, the combinations are many, and there are a few handy guides posted that lay out mixtures that the owners like.

To read more about Gobi Mongolian BBQ House, click here for the article that ran in today’s Calendar section.

-- Jessica Gelt