Bali Village Restaurant — Restaurant in Richmond

I visited this restaurant a couple of times. The second time was mostly to see if they were having an off day the first time.

The first time, we dined inside, for lunch, and the restaurant appeared nice, It looked clean, and we were seated promptly. The server brought us some “fried wonton chips” with dipping sauce, and a pot of hot tea with little cups. It was a nice surprise. We ordered, and the food came out pretty quickly, and the food was hot. We ordered three different meals, but they all looked sort of similar... they all had a brownish colored sauce, and a lot of it. The smell of “Chinese 5 spice powder” was really prominent. It’s a great flavor, but needs to be used very sparingly since it can be overpowering. The taste, in my opinion, was overloaded with hoisin sauce and 5 spice powder. All of our different meals lacked complexity of flavor and basically tasted sweet.

The second time, I ordered a chow mein lunch combo with an egg roll and white rice. I requested the white rice, because the fried rice I had during the first visit wasn’t a flavor that I enjoyed. I wouldn’t say that it was bad, I just didn’t care for it. The white rice was perfect. Besides the white rice, another good part of this was the egg roll, which was crispy and hot, and not re-fried like I’ve had in some other take out places. One thing about the egg roll, was the neon pink meat inside it... kinda weird. The flavor combination of the egg roll and white rice was my favorite part. The chow mein itself was a different story. I had high hopes in my mind as I was ordering it. I imagined a similar visual look and flavor of the chow mein that I’d ordered from other Chinese restaurants. It was a little disappointing when it wasn’t. Again, brownish/olive green color and an overpowering sweetness to the taste.

Overall, I liked the restaurant inside. The hot tea and the fried “wonton chips” were a nice touch. The service was friendly and attentive. The food was served hot, but, the flavor profile of all the entrees we ordered was too sweet. The flavor lacked complexity and the texture was all soft and saucy. Honestly, the food wasn’t visually appealing. Probably not going back, except for white rice...

This restaurant gave my family food poisoning from the chicken we ordered. Half the pieces, the chicken meat was hard. Usually we like this place, close and decent prices. Foods nothing to brag about but pretty good. We called to try to resolve the issue and ask for a refund. The manager yelled at me over the phone and hung up on me twice. I live down the road so I go in thinking we could talk calmly, nope.I was yelled at and then he threatened us with calling the police. I tried to explain to him that we had not eaten for several hours and then after eating this we were throwing up within an hour. DONT EAT HERE. I brought up health codes and handling food safety and he just yelled more and threw me out. Manager (he said he was also the owner) is volatile and rude. He apparently also in the dark about health code. His bad practice is going to make more people sick...

Bali village is a pretty decent chinese spot in town. The food is ok nothing too crazy and i feel like its allot more affordable then dragons palace. The portions are what id assume are just standard portions when it comese to chinese food and you will have left overs. In terms of quality of the food id give it a 4 out of 5 its just not completely there but it doesnt take away and that its pretty good. Besides that the inside dining is gorgeous the staff are some of the nicest people ive met and the architecture and layout of the building is just really beautiful plus they have a fish tank near the entrance thats always cool to see . Im suprised Bali village is allot bigger then what it looks and they have a really nice bar. Id say if your looking for some decent chinese food this place is it or if you want to drink...