By far the best of the Mongolian style restaurants that I am aware of, Golden Palace allows the customer to fill a bowl with his or her choice of several kinds of meat and vegetables, including bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, and, although not strictly speaking a vegetable, pineapple chunks.

    He or she can add a custom combination of sauces, and then see the work of art stir-fried to perfection in a few minutes in plain sight. Meanwhile, fresh steamed rice and sesame pocket bread that complement any meal are brought to the table.

    Before this main course, each customer is served rice flour chips and egg soup that is very good as is, but can be improved with a little soy sauce, which included in the table setting, next to the salt and pepper.

    At dinnertime, prices are higher, but the customer may fill as many bowls at the grill as he or she wishes, and is also served an egg roll and a pot sticker with sweet and sour sauce as appetizers. Green tea is available at any time of day as well as soft drinks, but since it has been made with teabags instead of tealeaves as it once was, it has ceased to be worth much mention.

    For before the meal, after, or both, there is a small salad and dessert bar with fruit, greens, and several flavors of Jello. The strawberry, orange, lemon, lime, and even almond varieties are each at least par, but the grass Jello is even less appetizing than it sounds.

    One drawback to the procedure of cooking everything on the same grill is that there can be minimal mingling of flavors, which can be an issue for militant vegetarians and parties with varying spice level preferences. In most cases, however, its simplicity is perfection, and I give it four and a half stars out of five.

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