Bali Hai

Good for a quick bite and you pay by the pound. Service is ok and the ambiance is a little dreary. You do get to watch the food be cooked kind of like hibachi. The sauces are tasty. I got the combo with the curry added and it was sliced well. One of those places you go back to every once in a while.

I love Mongolian food and we've been visiting Bali Hai for a few years now. We used to go to the one in Garner so I'm glad we have this one near our house now. If you're not familiar with the style, here's how it works: they will ask you what kind of sauce you want (spicy or non spice, sweet and sour, combination or curry), and what kind of rice you want or if you want noodles instead. They will give you the paper with your name and sauce/rice choice and you just put it on the tray. Take one or two (or more) bowls and then add whatever you want in it form the buffet and take it to the guy that will cook your food on a flat grill. The buffet: they have three types of meat: beef, Turkey and pork. You can mix and match and add as much as you want because you will pay by weight. They also have lots of veggies options like onions, zucchini, carrots, green onions, bens sprouts and others. The food is very good! I usually pick the B spicy sauce level 3 (you can choose from 1-10) and my husband likes the Q house sauce + E Curry together. Their fried rice is delicious! You can either eat there or take it home. No matter which one you choose, your food will come in a box already with plastic silverware or chppsJust a few cons: - they don't give you free water, they only have bottled water or soft drinks. - They add so much rice to your food that you can't eat everything. You don't get to choose how much rice it will come with and remember that you pay by weight and they weight your food after adding the rice so you'll usually get over a pound of rice which is about $7.50 per lb. Unless you choose the no rice option, then you pay more per lbs. I wish I could choose how much rice I want. I love their fried rice, just don't need a whole pound of it. Overall the food is very good! We go back there once in a while. I recommend the fried rice and the house sauce.

I honestly eat this place 3 sometimes 4 times a well. Its so good!! The ladies at the cashier are always super nice, its always a delight to see Charlotte (I think thats her name, I remember it was a name like someone from sexinthecity) anyways the food is ALWAYS consistent and on point. Idk how anyone can leave a bad review. And to the comment about the chef not enthusiastic, please shut up you never know what people are going through. He has to stand there and cook piles of food all day excuse him for not being over the moon.

Horrible. Few protein and veggie options available. Food came out bland, overcooked, and served in a styrofoam container even though I was dining in.

I'll start by saying that I really used to enjoy this place in it's old location that burned a few years back. I have gone to the Strickland Road location twice now, but this will probably be my last visit. I went in today for lunch and dutifully loaded up 2 bowls of veggies/meat. Handed it to the person prepping the order for the cook and very clearly asked for 1/2 portion of rice. This was written on the ticket as well. After handing off your food, you have to wait a while until they cook it. I guess I should have waited and kept an eye on things, because when they called me to pick it up, it is placed in a takeout container (styrofoam clamshell) and then you weigh it to determine price. My price came out to $13.80 for 1.7 lbs of food. OK fine. The PROBLEM happened when I got to the table, opened the container, and realized that literally 50% to 70% of what was in the container was RICE! I went back to the checkout and showed them, enquiring as to whether this meets the standard for '1/2 portion of rice' and the guy was essentially just not too concerned. I really felt cheated at that point. What I expected was to remove 1/2 the rice, re-weigh, and get a refund for the difference, but they indicated that they 'could not do that'. I'll finish by saying that the food was good, but I threw away more than half of the rice, and it just was not even close to worth the cost! I've attached a picture of the rice that was left. The entire bottom portion of the container was loaded with rice, and my meat/veggie stir fry fit into the small portion of the container at the top of the pic. So, going forward I refuse to pay $7.50/lb for a bunch of white rice. Not going to happen. Bali Hai may be 'calling', but it's far from my 'special island'. I can go to lots of other places where they will fix an order that was clearly served in error. I guess the lesson I learned here is to check what's in the container BEFORE I pay!

I have always been a fan of the original Bali Hai off Wake Forest Rd. in Raleigh, although the some original owners' still run the Durham location, it is too far for me. I have only been to this location a few times for take-out since COVID-19 hit us. I appreciate the clean ingredient bar & nice customer service. However their rice is overly dried and it sucks that if you ask for rice, they will pack a ton of it in your box to add more weight --you pay by the pound. I generally get 2 bowls + 2 separate entrees every time and would spend 28-30 bucks for two people. I usually like to save the leftover food for the next day, but the rice turns into hard rice grains by the next morning. I would still recommend this place, but take caution on deciding if you want rice or not. Maybe I'll try to see if I can just get one scoop of rice instead of watching them pack 3-4 scoops in your tray from the kitchen.

I used to go to the one in Raleigh before it burned down, then the one in Durham before the pandemic. They were not much on atmosphere but the food and flavor was phenomenal. The process to order, get food, and pay was impressive.This place had pretty atmosphere but lacked on everything else. The food was bland, the service nonexistent, and no more fun food stacking as you pay by the pound... including rice. And you pay before you eat. No iced tea so we ordered water, they tried to sell me bottled water but I caught it and asked for tap. I got a strange look but they complied. What used to be a $10 meal per person with drinks is now $30 with tap water for 2. If it were as good as before it would be acceptable but no, I cannot recommend this anymore. It's very sad. I used to love Bali Hai.

Orders got messed up and the food quality and options were not as good as I have had at other Mongolian restaurants. We did a blind walk in not reading any reviews and I wish I had. The food tasted ok, but not what I was anticipating from past experiences at similar style restaurants.

My favorite place to eat for 30 years! So happy to have them in North Raleigh off Strickland Road, Garner was a drive!

Unique experience and flavor. The same "experience" as was on Wake Forest Road inside the beltline. It has a cult-like following, including me