Rice Bowl Cafe — Restaurant in Austin

I am so glad that I came across this so I can leave a review. First I have to say that the food is so delicious. Normally I have our food delivered and have eaten inside only a few times. We have ordered by 3 times lately and I say the food is still amazing but.. Once in August and in September we have ordered twice so far. We usually order the same entree's. Sesame Beef or Chicken Curry Chicken Combination Lo Mein Orange Peel Chicken Hot and Sour Soup. We have tried a lot of dishes and love them all. I am not sure what is going on but the last 3 times they haven't given us our rice with our meals. I have even asked them to make sure they double check to make sure it's in the bag. Also the portions have gotten so small. Normally we have enough for lunch the next day. Twice this week they didn't give the rice. I ordered a Sesame Beef and Combination Lo Mein. It was delicious but would have been better with the rice. I had my grandkids and they are not big eaters thankfully but it really bothered me for them to say they were still hungry. Like I mentioned earlier we usually have plenty left over for lunch the next day so we should have had enough for two small children. My daughter came home and I sent her to Burger King to get them some burgers and fries. I didn't call them because of the rice because everyone was hungry and didn't want to wait. So tonight I made sure to tell the person who answered the phone to please check to make sure they packaged the rice. I ordered Chicken Curry and Chicken with Mushroom. I wasn't the one to answer the door but they didn't give us any rice again even though I asked them to make sure they included the rice. I tried to call them but they must have been busy and the kids and my daughter was hungry so they ate and I didn't. There wasn't enough for me to eat and I just said I wasn't hungry. Also instead of using the foam take out containers we always received our food in they delivered our food in the black carry outs. I understand the portion at lunch is smaller but this is the evening meal and the Lo Mein was practally smashed in the container and the Sesame Beef.. it was only a few pieces and tons of the hot red peppers. Rice Bowl Cafe our family really loves your food, the delivery person is also very curtious and friendly and I know how clean your place is. When I have dined inside I see people always cleaning. So please fix your portion sizes and please make sure that the orders are double checked to make sure it's right. I have thought that perhaps you have hired a new cook and if that's the case he may not know everything just yet but it needs to be addressed. Thank you for taking the time to read this long post. I look forward to...

I wish I could give 0 Stars!!! Mostly the food is good, except for their OBSESSION WITH ONIONS and the owners dismissive, un-customer focused attitude.

The first time we ordered from Rice Bowl (on a recommendation) we were amazed at how all of our dishes had a lot, and I mean A LOT of onions. So after much arm twisting, I convinced my wife to give them another try, promising to request our orders sans onions. We ordered the Beef Rolls - no onions, Terriyaki Chicken, again - no onions and Crab Puffs, to which I mostly jokingly said "you don't put onions in that, do you?"

When I got the food home and my wife said "they put onions in the Crab Puffs, I thought for sure she was joking but to my surprise, I found - Crab Meat, Cream Cheese, inside a Wonton skin and fried, PLACED ON A BED OF SLICED, WHITE ONIONS! (picture included below)

(Note: I'm not sure if they got the deal of the century on onions (making them cheaper than lettuce) or if this a trendy new way (lol) of presenting, but "WOA!")

I immediately called the restaurant and spoke to the guy who took my order (not knowing at that point he is the owner/mgr.) and complained about the situation. He said "well you didn't tell me - no onions" (in the Crab Puffs). I reiterated my (joking) inquiry about them not putting onions in that dish then asked if he was the manager. He confirmed, so I asked for the owner to which he said "I am the owner." I replied, "If a customer orders 2 dishes and specifies - no onions, and inquires on the third, wouldn't you think to tell/ask me if I want a bed of onions underneath / included with that one? To which he repeated, you didn't tell me - no onions! Lastly I asked "How would I know to tell you that as I wouldn't think you'd put Crab Puffs, ON A BED OF ONIONS!!! I then told him firmly (no swearing, I swear) that this was our last time patronizing his business!

So Onion Lovers - Enjoy. Non-Onion Lovers- be warned. Naturally he'll NEVER receive our $$ again!!!

Cheers, Cory

Photo of Rice Bowl Cafe - Austin, TX, United States. Onions, Onions everywhere!!! Onions, Onions...

By far the worst Chinese restaurant I’ve ever been to. We ordered Walnut Shrimp and the weirdest thing happened, the shrimp was cooked but the batter was not so we basically just ate flour. If they used fresh cooked shrimp this would not happen but I suspect that they used left over shrimp and attempted to re-fry it. Then we ordered stir fry green beans and the green beans came out raw and the most outrageous thing is they didn’t pick the ends of the green beans!! On a side note they also charge extra for extra rice which most Chinese restaurants don’t. We talked to the manager about the food and he completely denied any wrong doing. He didn’t even say he was sorry and had a horrible attitude. He made up some very lame excuses on why the food was not cooked correctly. One of his excuses was the Mexicans cooking the Chinese food messed up and it is very hard to deal with them. Another excuse was we were rushing to have the food cooked when we never rushed them at all. And the most outrageous excuses that had us leave the restaurant right then and there was we cook our food our own way different from other restaurants, this is good food we don’t even cook this well when we are cooking for our family. Conclusion, avoid this restaurant at all costs unless you want to have a horrible experience that you will never forget. Avoid this restaurant as if it was the plague. I wish I was sarcastic but...