Mystery Diner in Kane: Build your perfect dish at Jiang’s Mongolian Grill

Jiang's Mongolian Grill is tucked in the Algonquin Commons outdoor shopping mall off Randall Road in northern Kane County.

Tucked in the Algonquin Commons in northern Kane County sits Jiang’s Mongolian Grill.

Known for its build-your-own stir-fry, Jiang’s has a buffet-style setup where the customer grabs a bowl and tray and begins creating.

The menu is affordable and diverse, with Jiang’s charging by the plate, the price also dependent on when you decide to dine in.

The restaurant walks the customer through the creative process with its menu when the diner sits down.

Jiang's Mongolian Grill walked you through the steps on its menu.

Included with building your own stir-fry is a soup and salad bar.

That tempting array of edibles also acts as an alternative to ordering a stir-fry meal, providing the option of sticking with the unlimited soup and salad selections.

In addition, Jiang’s offers appetizers along with its entrees, including crab Rangoon, egg rolls, spring rolls and pork dumplings.

The first step in building your own stir-fry is to pick a meat or other protein. There is plenty of variety, including imitation crab, barbecue chicken and fish.

For our stir-fry, I chose to do a mix of peppered beef with shrimp. For vegetables, I decided on mini corn, snap peas, mushrooms, onions and broccoli to bring out the best in the beef and shrimp. The lineup of vegetables to choose from also included soy beans, jalapeños, peas, carrots and green peppers.

The next culinary building step was to select the sauce from more than 10 options, including peanut sauce, sweet and sour, teriyaki, and orange sauce. We decided to go with the spicy Szechuan.

The final decision was to pick a grain to pair with the dish. Customers have one of three choices, including white rice, rice noodles and Chinese noodles. I opted to go with the Chinese noodles.

Once the patron is done gathering all the ingredients they’d like for their meal, they head over to the middle section of the restaurant.

Michael Lin helms the Mongolian griddle during dinner service on an earlier visit.

There sits a large, circular, flat-top grill helmed by the chef, who cooks the diner’s pick of ingredients. The customer is given a number for this element of the process, and the chef announces it once the food is cooked.

The final product of stir fry from Jiang's Mongolian Grill.

The chef called us over to the grill to hand us the dish, whose presentation looked phenomenal.

The beef was tender and paired well with the broccoli. Despite the restaurant noting the Szechuan sauce would be spicy, it was not particularly hot. Overall, the collaborative dish turned out hearty and delicious.

At Jiang’s, patrons determine their dining destiny, with the interactive component adding its own flavor to the experience.

• The Mystery Diner is a newsroom employee at Shaw Media. The diner’s identity is not revealed to the restaurant staff before or during the meal. The Mystery Diner visits a different restaurant and then reports on the experience. If the Mystery Diner cannot recommend the establishment, we will not publish a review.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Jiang’s Mongolian Grill

WHERE: 1740 S. Randall Road, Algonquin

PHONE: 847-458-9888

INFORMATION: www.jmgrill.com