Big Bowl

Big Bowl is a classy restaurant located in the Reston Town Center, known for its quality food and sophisticated ambiance, the restaurant never fails to be the location of a great meal, or at least that's what I thought.

I approach the restaurant and was immediately greeted with a huge sign with the name “Big Bowl” written across in huge, bold letters. The sign screamed sophisticated yet somewhat cheap. This immediately changed when I opened the doors and was approached by one of the most refined seating places I had ever seen in northern Virginia. With a theme revolving around the color red, the restaurant is filled with red tables, curtains, and chairs all arranged nicely to welcome different sizes of parties. It looked like the devil’s lair red and dark. There was no distinct smell since the restaurant was pretty empty but you could hear the sound of dishes clanging against each other near the back of the restaurant.

The receptionist treats my party with the utmost respect making us wait no longer than a minute to seat a total of fifteen guests. From ages eight to sixty-eight we all take our seats and are provided with a menu.

The restaurant wasn’t too crowded since it was a Sunday night approaching closing time. A waiter arrives shortly after we are seated to ask us about our drinks order. I order the ginger-ale, expecting it to be Canada Dry or another popular ginger-ale brands but I am surprised with fresh-made ginger-ale made by the barista.

Soon after our drinks were served we were ready to order the food. I ordered the stir-fry bar where I choose which vegetables I wanted and the chef would prepare it. Other dishes that our table ordered included green curry, fried rice, and wonton soup.

Once the orders were placed we waited around twenty minutes for our food to be prepared. I found this both confusing yet reasonable because we were such a huge party of guests I understood why it might have taken a bit longer than usual but on the other hand, the restaurant was completely empty so why did it take so long.

Soon I came to realize only half our table was served. I was ravenous at this point so I began to eat my meal.

The second half of the table had to wait another ten minutes to receive all the food they ordered but when they did arrive they were visually appealing. Unfortunately, the proportions of each meal was too much for one person to eat but too little for two people to share. This was inconvenient because most of us had to pack the leftovers to take it home.

Additionally, each meal wasn’t consistent. My sister and I ordered the same type of stir-fried noodles with hers being too salty and mine lacking salt. Disregarding that the meal was superb with properly cooked food and beautiful presentations. My parents ordered the green-curry which didn’t make sense because it was more of a yellow hue. No matter the color it was absolutely delightful. Near the middle of our night my aunt needed a refill of her water and tried to call a waiter/waitress. This was a task that took a very long time because not one person was nowhere to be seen. Even though the staff treated everyone with respect it was obvious that there weren’t enough waiters/waitresses and chefs to accommodate more people as service was extremely slow.

As we ended our meal no one was in the mood for dessert since the proportions were so large. I received the check and was kind of shocked. The grand total was around $270.00 with each meal around $17.00 and each beverage around $4.00. In my opinion the meal wasn’t worth seventeen dollars but due to the huge proportions I believe it ended up totaling that much.

Big Bowl is like the mama bear of restaurants. The restaurant isn’t too cheap or trashy but neither is it too expensive or sophisticated -it is just right. Goldilocks would have no issues with Big Bowl and neither do I, which is why I recommend this restaurant to anyone looking to try Asian food.

Big Bowl

11915 Democracy Dr.

Reston, VA 20190