Bowl Izakaya — Restaurant in Longmont

Went to Bowl for an anniversary dinner. We were seated right away. There were only a couple of tables sat when we arrived. Person who sat us asked what we wanted to drink, my husband answered first, and then the waiter said “ok” and walked away. Guess I didn’t need to speak for myself.

Had looked through photos and reviews before deciding to go so I had an idea of what people liked. I ordered one of everything that was mentioned except the Ramen, as I was not feeling noodles this time around.

Shishitos- were great. Served hot, great seasoning salt, perfect quick app. Chicken Yakatori- nicely seasoned, perfectly cooked, really enjoyed it. Spicy pork soup dumpling- excellent, but took another reviewers suggestion and asked for chili oil. It’s not served with it automatically. Good flavor, great texture of the dumpling, nice and soft and juicy just the way it should be. Pork Bao Bun- missing something. The bun itself was ok, just needed something else with it. Very little flavor and the meat was dry. Ended up dumping my sauces from the soup dumplings in it. Crispy Garlic Ribs- never again. Don’t order if you like your teeth. They were so crunchy and hard we couldn’t eat them. I attempted to peel off most of the coating, but even the meat inside was dry and hard. Overall just awful. Sushi rolls- we tried a simple California and the Spicy Boy I think it was called. Didn’t go for any of the raw sushi as people suggested in other reviews that it wasn’t great. I will tell you the cooked rolls aren’t great either. I think they would be better off taking sushi off the menu completely and just sticking with ramen and dumplings. There was a man dining next to us who ordered a full plate of various rolls and he let the server know that they were very untraditional and not good. He asked what people typically order and the waiter told him to come back and try the dumplings and ramen. I agree completely.

Aside from the food, the ambiance is just weird. The whole Social Distortion album “Somewhere between heaven and hell” was on play during our dinner. And although Social D is one of my all time favorite bands, it just seemed out of place. I still sang along. It just distracted me a bit from my date. Furniture is uncomfortable, but probably on purpose to keep tables moving.

Wait staff were attentive and food came out relatively quick. I will come back when in the mood for quick dinner of ramen or dumplings. But likely nothing...

After a long day of hiking, we looked forward to eating here since they received such high ratings. The place was a nice looking establishment, but we were sorely disappointed with the food.

We ordered the crispy garlic rib appetizer, it was fried so hard that the meat was dehydrated. I didn't complain hoping my garlic chicken ramen would be better. I ordered medium and it was over the top spicy. Now, I love spicy foods and order medium to hot at restaurants all the time. Even my husband who orders everything hot agreed it was not "medium" by any standards.

They offered to bring me the mild version and it was awful. It had a burnt flavor that I can't explain. We love ramen bowls and I can't understand how they could ever serve that to patrons. The cooks should always taste their food to ensure quality.

Hubby ordered the tuna poke, and he wouldn't rate that much higher either. Hardly any sauce, the tuna lacked sesame... Bottom line it had no flavor. And with me not eating, he didn't bother asking for sauce. It was just time to go.

The waitress didn't ask how his food was and offered no apology for the ramen. She seemed quite annoyed in truth. Thankfully we were only charged for the dry ribs and tasteless poke. Needless to say we will not be going back...

My wife and I are foodies that dine out all over the country and across the globe. Bowl had pretty good reviews, so we gave it a try while visiting Colorado. The fried ribs appetizer was so tough, I couldn't pull the meat off with my hands. My wife got the fried chicken Ramen bowl. She asked for medium heat, but it was scorching hot with seasoning. I could only tolerate three spoons of the broth and we eat hot Thai and Indian food. They returned with another bowl for her but it was inedible with a strong burnt flavor. How can Ramen broth get burnt? I think they were just upset the other bowl was returned. I got the tuna poke bowl. It was basically flavorless tuna on a salad. I've never in my life had a poke bowl without any sauce. It was a tiny amount of rice buried under a whole lot of romaine lettuce with some avocado, corn, edamame, and chopped fake crab. No sauce or flavors or seasoning at all. The picture I took looks like a green salad without any dressing. That was about the flavor. We paid and left without really eating and are now going to go get dinner somewhere else because we're still hungry. One of the worst dining experiences...