Little Cub Eats: Green Bowl

Green Bowl 131 W Beaver Ave.

Ease of Access: 9.5/10

Green Bowl is a little farther of a walk, as it is a block behind College Avenue and is adjacent to Hammond Building, but on a nice night (like it wasn't), the walk isn't bad.

Lioncash+: Accepted

Bank Account Happiness: 85%

A lunch buffet (get the buffet!) is $8.99 while a dinner buffet is $12.99, so prices are fairly average for the quality and quantity of food.

Big Group Friendly or Study Spot?

Green Bowl is a happening place, feeling fairly crowded when the restaurant is full. The grill is crackling and everyone is enjoying the food and partaking in conversation, so definitely not a great place to get your peace and quiet while you write that english essay. This restaurant is perfect, on the other hand, to bring a group of friends! The food is great, they can split the check at the register, and there were a couple larger tables to accommodate several people.

The Food

In case you're wondering, the sticks indicate that
we have no food allergies, so the chefs know how
to prepare our food.

Let me start off with how much I love this concept: grab a bowl, select which veggies and noodles you crave, scoop the sauce of your choice into a small bowl, indicate which type of meat you want, and let them sauté it together on the grill. It's perfect for someone like me who loves Asian-style foods but hates token ingredients like cabbage and green peppers. 

My only complaint is that the sauces are unlabelled. They have a nice board showcasing their extensive selection of sauces and even describe the flavors to inform you which sauce would suit your tastes, but there is nothing on or around the actual sauces that indicates which is which. The board is super helpful-- includes flavor descriptions and even has a few sauces that are gluten free-- but it is rendered useless when you can't differentiate between a Sichuan sauce and Thai Sauce.

Other than the sauce dilemma, the food is great. Finally, I have found a restaurant that indulges my need to put mandarin oranges in everything I eat. My bowl also included mushrooms, baby corn, cucumbers, and shrimp. I wish I could tell you which sauce I had so I could warn you that it is extremely spicy. Thankfully I like spicy food, but for anybody who doesn't, this sauce was far too spicy to be tolerable. My belly can still feel the fire. Shu's bowl was of similar composition, but with cabbage and (possibly) peanut sauce.

I must mention that the service was a little slow. Perhaps it was because it was slightly busy when we first arrived, but there was only a few other people towards the end of our meal and we waited several minutes for our check. It wasn't too big of a bother, aside from the fact that I had sipped through my water in a blaze due to the fire-level of my noodles and I was sans water for a few minutes.

Despite the service, Green Bowl is a restaurant I will definitely return to. The concept is unique and the flavor is exceptional, even with perhaps two levels too much spice. The walk wasn't bad, and the atmosphere made for an exciting night out with my friend.