New Owner (?) Bowl Izakaya Review
This review is going to be as objective as possible, and not meant for negativity, just observational things, some of which come from just being professional like making sure your menu is printed correctly etc.
There will be a few nitpicks from a professional standpoint, again, like if you’re relaunching and printing brand new menus. I used to work with graphic designers/UI folks and I feel this applies here.
Is Bowl Izakaya under new ownership? I’ve been going for years and tonight the below was our experience, I feel like they’re going through new (understandable) growing pains:
-New Menus
They are condensed, since they got rid of the sushi card/pencil menus for sushi. Understandable, and this means dishes that previously had all ingredients listed, like poke bowls, no longer do so to save space.
No big deal, just ask your wait staff if you have allergies or questions, assuming they know.
However there are now typos, and some sections that were cut off due to cropping (see photos), or when printing them out, some ink was illegible or hard to read.
How much is that salmon Nigiri? I can’t read it. Why is there MS Word wrap formatting, and the next item has pricing on the left instead of the right? The flowers seem like they’re part of the text and shifting stuff around. Aka bad UI design.
Some items were removed like the Running Gold Bao, but that’s their choice and no big deal.
-After being served water, we had 5 different wait staff come by to ask if we’re ready to order in the span of a minute, even though we said we need a few minutes each time, and two of them were within 20 seconds of each other. Not a big deal, but wondering if it has to do with their new AYCE policy and those tables having a 90 minute limit. Again, pretty much no big deal, but I had to keep saying I need a few minutes 20 seconds apart.
-I ordered Miso Veggie Ramen and asked for no Tofu pieces in the ramen. It seemed like they didn’t understand what I was asking, and kept asking me to repeat it, and then said “so you want nothing but broth?”. This wasn’t a one time thing, it took maybe 6 times of them asking me, and even said “I just don’t get it because no one has asked for that before”. I pointed out there are veggies and egg and mushrooms in the ramen, and I wanted all of the rest, just not the tofu. I’m writing this up to a miscommunication, or translation issue even they spoke *very* good English. Maybe they thought I said I wanted no broth or miso. Whatever.
-I didn’t recognize any wait staff, and I’ve been going for years and knew some of the regular crew.
-In my pics you can see their new AYCE option. The menu is basically the same with rules added on; however they didn’t give me and my partner a regular and AYCE menu each, just one of each, so we shared the regular menu together/upside down.
Again, not complaining, just a heads up. Not sure if anyone here has been or if you know that they were actually bought out (I didn’t ask).
Food seemed about the same, that’s not what this is about. Just trying to be informative.
Happy dining regardless!