Big Bowl

10/27/09

Chic and fun

by lincoln224

I always go here with my Mom, it's "our" place. We both love the peanut chicken and ginger cocktails. The wait staff is always very friendly and upbeat.

• Pros: Love the Ginger..anything!
• Cons: $$$

10/05/09

I like the Pot Stickers :)

by Crit

I really go there for their pot stickers. They are great but yes a bit spendy.

• Pros: Pot Stickers
• Cons: When there is no Pot Stickers

03/21/09

Best asian style restaurant

by oceanwavesmassage

Big Bowl is by far the best in asian food for its freshness, the fried calamari are the best in town ,the batter is very light and has no oily taste and the sauces that go with it are fabulous,overal natural tastes without overdoing on salt , great non alcoholic drinks, original desserts such as the Mochi. I go there as much as I can after work accross from Southdale. The service is pretty good as well. I highly recommend this place if you are looking for a quality meal.

• Pros: best calamari in town
• Cons: can be noisy

08/29/08

love it

by sophilicious

I'm a vegetarian and spicy-food lover and I go to the Big Bowl when I want to treat myself. Their food is great and fortunately, I've never had the problem the previous reviewer has had! A coworker of mine just went there for the first time and was telling us how much he liked it too. I recommend making your own bowl (at their ingredient bar) - that way there won't be any ingredients in your dish that you don't like. Their hot ginger tea is delicious - fresh ginger and honey. I had a pomegranate ginger cocktail that was delicious albeit expensive ($8). And the mochi dessert with ice cream was unlike any dessert I've ever had. Very fresh ingredients. The service has always been excellent except for one waiter who sneered when I asked for tea to SHARE with my mom. The bathroom could have used a cleaning that day too. Other than that, it's been great every time. Love it. Highly recommend it.

• Pros: can pick your own ingredients, ginger tea and homemade ginger ale drinks are great
• Cons: drinks at the bar are a little expensive but still worth it

07/23/08

Don't go near this place if you want clean pants

by realfoodie1er

Holy $%^&!!! Literally. They must put laxatives in their food because my girlfriend and I just had the exact same bathroom experience. Not only that but the food had no flavor. It was as if someone just took my tastebuds out of my mouth for one meal (except for the taste of salt). Even the chili peppers were flavorless. All in all I would say go here if you like flavorless food and dirty socks.

• Pros: Well designed visually minus the uniforms
• Cons: The food

09/14/06

Mixed bowl of blessings

by ennivalo

I like the food at Big Bowl; a refreshing new take on Eastern cuisine that is far different from the usual mundane Asian restaurant. Very fresh veggies, prepared with some interesting twists. This is fusion food, not the local Chinese or Thai takeout, and should be judged on its own merits. Personally, I think they have the best pad Thai ever, though portion size is smallish for the medium to slightly high prices.

That being said, the service can range from okay to really awful. The problem is more with the so-called hosts / hostesses than the waiters. The twenty-something front staff can be really snotty on busy nights, often acting like it's a great favor for them to find you a table despite having reservations. I don't need this kind of attitude and it has limited my visits to Big Bowl, despite my love of their food.

• Pros: Wonderful food, innovative tastes
• Cons: lousy service, not the best value

The first location of this Chicago-based chain hits all the right buttons: young, healthy, global and fun.

by Contributor

In Short
Don't think of Big Bowl as an ethnic restaurant. It's an American restaurant serving noodle and rice favorites from across Asia. Dishes satisfy contemporary nutritional standards--more carbos and veggies, less meat, which also happens to be a good way to keep prices in the single digits. Popular options are pot stickers, won tons, sesame peanut noodles and wok-seared salmon. There's also a stir-fry bar where you can choose your own ingredients.

04/07/05

Yuck

by littleboot

Awful place - probably the worst service I have had in years - worst part the host was very rude - they made old people wait to be seated way too long. The food was so Americanized - really banal use of spice!

Don't bother go to another restaurant in the area.

• Pros: non
• Cons: everything

04/12/03

Expensive Asian Fusion

by Fabulous_Fifi

Well, this isn't your hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant, so don't expect a bargain here but do expect unique food! We came for lunch. I had the special real Ginger drink ($2.50 was too much to have it again) with lemon chicken, which I thought was good- not like the Americanized Chinese version. My fiance had the Kung Pao Chicken with noodles. He was disappointed inthe flavor. Overall, it is not a phenomenonal restaurant but it is pretty good fusion of different asian flavors and food. Prices are not cheap and there is no lunch menu.

• Pros: unique food, trendy ambience
• Cons: expensive, no lunch menu, a chain

12/10/02

Boring

by aharste

Overpriced, boring, chain-restaurant food. This place certainly does not deserve the support it gets. Why are so many people willing to pay so much for such mediocre fare? There are many real Asian restaurants around serving much more interesting and economical food than this.

• Cons: overpriced, boring