Something for Everyone

by Ryan M. Place

“Flat Top’s incredibly fresh Asian-style cooking and generous student discounts do very well in college towns."

General Manager Marc Miller, Manager Matt Thacker and roughly 45 employees are holding down the newlyopened Flat Top Grill for your enjoyment. Located on Washtenaw, west of Huron Parkway in the Huron Village shopping complex, Flat Top offers fresh ingredients, homemade sauces, great service and a wonderful atmosphere that combines to create an immensely enjoyable experience.

Miller, 29, recently imported from Chicago, ran a Flat Top Grill in Evanston, Ill. and one in downtown Chicago and is extremely well versed in handling the challenges of a popular restaurant.

“Flat Top offers great products at a great value, and we love our customers. Our Washtenaw location is strategically placed between the two great campuses of EMU and U of M. Flat Top’s incredibly fresh Asian-style cooking and generous student discounts do very well in college towns, and we want to offer the best that we can,” says Miller.

Here’s the Flat Top Grill experience: Once your host seats you, at your table you will find a bowl caddy (a metal holder with one small bowl for meat and one large bowl for everything else). Your server explains what to do (my server, Berto, was very courteous, knowledgeable and friendly): take the little wood paddle with your table’s number on it, write your name on the back with the pencil provided and put it in the caddy, along with a white stick if you have any dietary restrictions or allergies. Take your caddy over to the buffet style layout and stand in line at the stir fry station, where you will choose from rice or noodles, then add fresh vegetables. Ladle with as many different types of sauce as you want, add colored sticks and more. I highly recommend adding Roti Prata, an insanely delicious small round pancake-sized piece of bread, and adding shrimp to the bowl for $3. Drop your creation off at the counter, where cooks stir fry it up on a big steel flat top grill, and the server will bring it back to your table in five minutes.

At Flat Top Grill, it’s all about options. You can create unique dishes from a great variety of ingredients and enjoy the ability to make a completely different meal each time. You can even turn your stir-fry into soup if you want to.  If you’re feeling especially hungry, order an appetizer for $5, such as the succulent Thai Sticky Wings, big chicken wings in Thai sweet chili sauce. If it’s after 5pm, you can include the ridiculously delicious dinner-only Filipino sausage or whitefish as well. For desert, try the mind meltingly tasty Triple Chocolate Storm for $6, a giant brownie covered with a scoop of French vanilla ice cream, chocolate pieces, whipped cream and chocolate shavings. Flat Top Grill also serves wine, cocktails, margaritas, mojitos, Asian and domestic beers and over ten choice wines.

Flat Top Grill is fast, convenient and delicious, featuring quality ingredients, great service and affordable prices. Lunch is one bowl for $9 or unlimited for $10. Dinner is one bowl for $13 or unlimited for $15. Kids’ meals (ages 5-10) are $6, and children 4 and under eat for free. Another of the restaurant’s cool offerings is “Create Your Own Breakfast” for $10 on Saturdays and Sundays between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m., where you can create an omelet, French toast, pancakes or scrambled eggs and enjoy some breakfast snacks while you’re waiting.

“Flat Top started in suburban Chicago in 1995 and this is our 15^th corporate location,” says Miller. “We just opened on November 15^th, 2010, and we have many different stir fry creations to choose from, a slew of different sauces, excellent student discounts and a good, clean atmosphere, so come out and see us!”

Location: 3275 Washtenaw, Ann Arbor

Hours: M—F (11am-11pm), Sat (8am-9:30pm), Sun (8am-11pm)

Phone: 734-531-0230