Rice Bowl Restaurant — Restaurant in Angola

My family had been visiting the Rice Bowl on special occasions since before I was born in the early 70's. I have a degree in Asian Languages, and I attribute it in some small part to this (at the time) incredibly exotic restaurant in the American heartland -- walking inside truly seemed to be like walking onto a different continent, for a little kid.

In the 1990's I believe the place changed hands and menus maybe one or more times, and it kind of ceased to be as vibrant as it had been back in the day.

On my birthday in 2009 I insisted my family go back there and take another crack at it (after like a ten year hiatus, occasionally they would drive by intending to pull into the parking place, and never seeing other cars there....) When our dinner for 4 arrived, my Mother bit into a pea pod and exclaimed it was the freshest, crunchiest perfectly cooked vegetable that it could be. Jaws on the floor. The fried rice is a perennial favorite. Brilliant! We used to go to a buffet in Battle Creek regularly for years; this is a total non-starter now... are you kidding?? Rice Bowl or bust.

And that's how it has been since. The proprietess "Charlene" (Xiao Lin, or Hsao Lin or whatever) is a goofy sweetheart. We go there all the time, with any excuse, and recently when a friend of mine and I had a birthday (yet another birthday), she brought out a massive plate of yummy noodle salad (long noodles symbolize a wish for long life in Chinese culture) just as a nice gift for us. Neighbors down the road in Montgomery MI go there as a special treat and I understand there are some folks from Ohio that are willing to drive a lot of miles for some Rice Bowl take-out. The egg rolls are so good, we've been threatening for years that we will make a meal of them, exclusively, some day.

For me, this is the yardstick by which all Chinese restaurants can be judged. I live in Ann Arbor, MI now and the local places are stellar, but you just can't beat the Rice Bowl. It's a classic. You...

I hate to leave such a bad review because the woman who took my order was very friendly and helpful. Unfortunately the upkeep of the restaurant and the quality of food were not great. The building itself is very old and the inside is extremely outdated. There was no A.C. through the building only a space unit, there was a random assortment of kitchen utensils for sale on plastic racks, very old display case with cultural trinkets and porcelain figures but every single thing had layers of dust! They had beautiful round hanging lanterns that even had dust on the bottom! The food was a bit strange, chicken lo mein was more of a creamy pepper sauce, sweet n sour chicken was a watered down pineapple flavor and the general tao didn't have a distinguished flavor? The breading on both chickens was mushy around the chicken itself and slightly crisp on the outside. The fried rice seemed to be half of a scrambled egg and soy sauce, the white rice was fine. The prices for the meals was reasonable for the times and I should note it is carry out only so I have not mentioned more of the dinning room. Overall I do not recommend...

It was carry-out service, which is fine (I drove to a local park). The proprietress made all of the food to-order so it was all VERY HOT, CRISPY, and FRESH, including the vegetables. As previous reviews stated, the recipes are delicious but may not be exactly the same as other Chinese-American restaurants, for example, General Tso Chicken was sweeter and not as spicy as usual. The roll was very hot and needed time to cool down but enjoyable. I appreciate the chicken was tender and...