Bonita Bowls — Restaurant in Glen Ellyn

I was happily surprised by this place. I was invited to try one of their signature smoothie bowls, but I also ended up ordering a custom poke bowl.

The inside is super cute. They have greens on the wall and flowers hanging from the ceiling. I love the vibe. You walk up and order at the counter and then once your food is ready, you can take it an sit anywhere. They have indoor and outdoor seating. My only gripe with these places was that two of the four spots we considered sitting were dirty from prior customers - as in they hadn’t been wiped down yet and there was trash on them.

The food: I initially ordered the Regular sized Green Beach Bum Signature Smoothie bowl. Unfortunately, they were out of their green base- from that, I infer that they don’t make the smoothie base fresh to order. I suspect they make it at some point in the morning, and when they are out, they are out for the rest of the day. Instead, I ordered the Regular sized Pitaya Namba Signature smoothie bowl. This bowl comes with granola, pineapple, mango, kiwi, coconut flakes, and honey on top of the pitaya base. The pitaya base is pitaya (aka dragonfruit), banana, pineapple, and coconut milk. This was a good size. It wasn’t too sweet either- which I was happy about. However, the base was still frozen when I got it, so I let it thaw for a while I ate the other thing I ordered- the poke bowl.

For the custom poke bowl I chose white rice, tuna, cucumber, cilantro, pineapple x2, cilantro lime and ponzu. The custom bowls are $15- which includes your base (brown rice, white rice or greens), protein (tuna, salmon, tofu, chicken, or shrimp), mixins (4 included), drizzles (2 included). You can add extra toppings for n additional charge. The bowl was actually quite large, but the base takes up a lot of that. I didn’t finish all the rice, but I still think that for the price, the amount of fish and toppings were worth it. And the fish wasn’t fishy- if you get what I mean. It was good.

The people who work here are friendly. Some staff are more knowledgeable about ingredients and how to work the register, but that made my visit more amusing, rather than detracted from it.

I would eat here again- both the poke and the...

Stopped by for lunch today August 7th, around 1:00 PM and ordered two poke bowls. From the start, the experience was disappointing. We were poorly welcomed, and when ordering, I was informed they were out of cucumbers — which is quite surprising considering it’s a base ingredient for poke. When I asked for clarification, the cashier said, “Well, we have some, but we have to prep them… anyway, we’re getting rid of poke bowls in a month.” Not exactly the kind of service or attitude that makes you feel welcome.

I also requested to have the sauce on the side so I could share the bowl with my 2.5-year-old toddler, and was flatly told they couldn’t do it. No explanation, no alternative offered — something as simple as offering a small container would have made a difference.

When I came to pick up the food, I was told they were out of forks — again followed by “we’re getting rid of poke bowls anyway.”

All in all, this place feels unwelcoming and uninterested in offering a good customer experience. Definitely not the kind of lunch outing I hoped for with my toddler. I won’t...

I’ve been coming here since the opening and was initially really pleased with my first few experiences. However over the last year it seems they’ve had some pretty major challenges putting forth a consistent acai bowl. I’ve had to return to the counter multiple times to ask staff to add the extra ingredients I paid for, and recently they decreased the size of their regular bowl AND increased prices. The ratio of base to toppings isn’t quite right, and I wish they’d go back to the previous bowls which were also easier to eat from. The base is also quite icy and not smooth like acai should be.

What used to serve as a meal now feels more like a snack, especially since it seems they reduced the amount of protein powder you get for $1.45 extra. I’ll probably keep coming, bc there aren’t many other options in the area, but it’s a bummer that the quality and consistency are still lacking. I’ve never seen consistent staff or a manager in the store, and suspect that is one of the...