Genghis Grill, first established in Texas, is a fun, interactive Mongolian Stir Fry restaurant chain. It is perfect for a fun, casual evening with your friends and loved ones.
Today, Genghis Grill is spread over 23 states and has more than 100 outlets. The numbers are only increasing every day. The customers can’t get enough of the restaurant’s fantastic stir fry bowls.
However, is the restaurant as popular among vegans? Are there any good, delicious vegan options to try out at Genghis Grill? Luckily, the answer is yes! Vegans, rest assured you can find excellent albeit limited options if you decide to eat at Genghis Grill.
This article will take a good look at all the vegan options you can grab at this popular chain. Sit tight and get ready to become hungry after reading about all the delectable options!
Table of Contents
What Is Genghis Grill?
Founded in 1998 in Texas, Genghis Grill is a place where you get to build your customized bowl for eating. The topics are decided based on your order size.
You get to choose from over 80 ingredients and numerous vegetables, sauces, spices, proteins, and side options from the restaurant’s Fresh Bar.
Jeff Sinelli, a Dallas-based entrepreneur, founded Genghis Grill. Genghis Grill has been felicitated and recognized multiple times. The restaurant finished at #3 in ‘Fast Casual: Top 100 Movers and Shakers.
To add to that, Genghis Grill bagged the fifth position in ‘Restaurant Business’s Future 50’ and was a part of Entrepreneur Magazine’s 5000. These are not the only achievements of this popular food chain. The list is too long for us to include everything.
What Are the Vegan Options at Genghis Grill?
You can find certain impressive vegan options at Genghis Grill. They include noodles with stir-fried veggies, a wide variety of sauces, and a few vegan protein options such as tofu to sprinkle on.
The restaurant revamped its menu and made significant revisions in its menu in 2014. In the same year, Vegetarian Resource Group asked the restaurant’s Culinary Research & Development department about vegan and vegetarian options at Genghis Grill.
The culinary director responded by saying that the staff would gladly provide alternatives in their signature bowls and stir fry dishes if requested. All they need to do is ask.
You can find all the ingredient lists on the restaurant’s nutrition brochures or menus online or offline. The director also reiterated that the restaurant doesn’t claim any food items to be vegan or vegetarian.
Why? Because though some items are all-vegetable, poultry, fish, and other non-vegetarian items are still prepared and served on their restaurant premises.
How to Order Food at Genghis Grill?
Well, the process is pretty simple. Customers at all (except the 11 sit-down restaurants) get to build their food bowls.
First, you decide what ingredients and food you want. Moreover, there are also various sauces from Fresh Market Bar to choose from. Once this procedure is complete, all the ingredients get cooked by the Grill Master on the circular grill.
How to Order Vegan Food at Genghis Grill?
Good news for vegetarians and vegans! There is a separate tofu section at the Fresh Market Bar. The customers can grill masters to thoroughly sanitize and disinfect the area where the tofu will be cooked and prepared. The tofu gets cooked under a lid.
The restaurant has a collection of 15 yummy sauces for the bowls. There are only some sauces that are not vegan-friendly:
- Khan Pao Sauce: This sauce includes milk, chicken broth, oyster, and chicken fat.
- Red Curry Peanut Sauce: There is shrimp paste in red curry peanut sauce.
- Honey Soy Sauce: This sauce contains honey.
- Szechuan Sauce: This sauce has oysters present.
All the remaining sauces (barring a few served with chef-made dishes or signature bowls) are all-vegetable. These sauces contain high fructose corn syrup extracted from beet sugar or/and corn. The restaurant clarified that the sugar it uses is free from bone char and is 100% beet sugar.
According to the culinary director, Worcestershire sauce, for instance, has no animal flavors or animal ingredients. The sauce is present in a number of the restaurant’s sauces and the natural flavors in the Mongo BBQ sauce.
Vegan Food Options
Let us finally talk about some delectable vegan options out here at Genghis Grill.
They have a build-your-own feature that allows you to choose all the ingredients for your main course. Everything is customizable, and thus, you can substitute and alter most things to fit your needs.
For protein, sadly, you don’t get any options. All you need to do is inform the chef that you are a vegan. Thus, the chef will substitute the protein toppings with more veggies.
Vegan Sauces
Let us mention some of the vegan sauces that you get at Genghis Grill:
- Roasted Tomato Sauce – has tomato, garlic, and basil
- Island Teriyaki Sauce – an exciting blend of pineapple and teriyaki
- Sweet And Sour Sauce – the traditional sauce
- Pan Asian Sauce – has a variety of Asian flavors
- Sesame Soy Sauce
- Ginger Water – is typically water with minced ginger
- 3G Sauce – tastes sweet and savory
- Roasted Garlic
- Thai Peanut Sauce
- Dragon Sauce – hot and sweet
- Kung Pao Sauce
- Asian Chili Sauce – rich and spicy
- Garlic Water – is typically water with minced garlic
Certain other sauces include honey. Since honey is not entirely vegan, we thought it was best to leave them out.
Drunken Noodles (Chef-Made Noodles)
The noodles are basically ‘eggless udon noodles.’ The noodles contain absolutely no animal byproducts. The sauce that comes with the drunken noodles is vegan-friendly. Try this yummy dish and thank us later.
Spicy Thai Tofu
The spicy Thai tofu is a delightful tofu dish and one of the signature bowls at Genghis Grill. This bowl is served with red curry peanut sauce. This sauce contains shrimp. Thus, you can get an alternative to this sauce to veganize your spicy Thai tofu bowl.
Buddha Bowl
One of the newer options, the buddha bowl, consists of tofu. The one thing you need to change with this order is the honey soy sauce. You can substitute this sauce with any other vegan sauce.
Vegan Seasonings/Spices
Let us down the numerous vegan-friendly seasonings you get at Genghis Grill:
- Citrus Garlic Herbs
- ‘Dragon’ Salt
- Ginger Powder
- Salt
- Pepper
- Steak House Blend
- Yellow Curry
- Sweet-Ginger Garlic Powder
- Regular Salt
- Lemon Pepper
- Cayenne Pepper
- Crushed Red Pepper
Vegan Sides Available at Genghis Grill
The restaurant’s fried rice is sans rice. The director informed us that it only uses Kikkoman Soy Sauce. This sauce has no extra ingredients or animal flavor. Thus, it is pretty vegan-friendly.
The customers should note that there is a difference between fried rice and gourmet fried rice. The gourmet fried rice contains scrambled eggs and usually accompanies a stir-fried dish or is used up in a bowl.
Also, gourmet fried rice can be ordered and made without the egg if requested.
Apart from this, you can order udon noodles, tortillas, spiral pasta, or plain white/brown rice too.
Garlic Citrus Edamame Appetizer
What an excellent appetizer for the vegan clientele! The restaurant claims that the appetizer does not contain any animal ingredients or flavors. Thus, it is a good option if you are craving a vegan appetizer.
Plain Edamame Appetizer
Another good option when it comes to appetizers, plain edamame, won’t disappoint you!
Free Vegan Extras
You get sesame seeds and peanuts. Sometimes, if you are lucky, you might get a special that’s only available in your area. This is, however, quite rare.
What to Look Out For
The restaurant’s main menu has all dairy-free options except for fried rice and desserts. You may be shocked regarding the fried rice.
However, they use butter while making it, which is not vegan-friendly. You can ask them to use vegan butter instead.
Unfortunately, there are no vegan dessert options at Genghis Grill.
Wrapping Up
Now, if you’ve read the complete article, we are pretty sure you’re experts at finding vegan options at Genghis Grill! There are only a few options available on the menu. However, they are all quite a feast.
You can customize all your bowls to your wants and needs. That is the beauty of Genghis Grill.
Genghis Grill is today one of the trendy Mongolian food joints. It has spread over most of the states, and you can find more than 100 joints.
So, our dear vegan soul, if today you are in the mood for some stir-fry, we’d say go out and head toward Genghis Grill!
Their sauces are a piece of art, and you will leave the place satisfied. Give it a try and thank us later. We hope this article helped you to decide on Genghis Grill!
