Red Bowl Asian Bistro — Restaurant in South Carolina

Sometimes you just have to be brutally honest. I am not trying to specifically pick on anyone, but sometimes you just have to call a spade a spade. It is what it is... Normally I would say that hopefully this review helps in constructive criticism to eventually get the many problems resolved. But based on my experience with this restaurant, I already know that nothing is ever going to change and that this place is destined for failure.

My wife and I have eaten at this RedBowl location now at least 12-15 times since they first opened a year or two ago. We used to eat at the Rock Hill RedBowl all of the time, and we never once had a bad experience there. But this RedBowl location is the worst one I have ever been to. (I've been to four different RedBowls total.) And it is truly a shame because it is a new construction building that is very nice on the inside.

Let me get right to the point. I don't know if this guy is the general manager or if he is the actual franchise owner. But he is a tall Asian man who seems to be the head authority every time that we have been to this restaurant. He is a complete and total idiot. He is the definition of incompetence. It is literally like the blind leading the blind with him. He is incapable of expediting his way out of a paper bag. And because of his incredibly poor attempt at leadership, his wait staff is at a loss before the night ever really gets started. This is one of our tricks that we learned when going to this restaurant, we always tried to go between the peak hours of lunch and dinner. At the very least you would have a slight chance of not waiting an hour to get your food. However we won't be coming back to this particular establishment anymore.

It's so blatantly obvious they need to have a minimum of two sushi chefs on duty every night, or at the very least Thursday through Sunday. But every time I have been there, there has only been one sushi chef behind the bar. This is a major reason why they always fall so far behind. I honestly feel sorry for the sushi guy, he does make good food. But he is not being given a fair opportunity because he is always by himself.

Saturday evening we arrived at this RedBowl around 5pm in an attempt to beat the rush. And the place was not very busy so we decided to take our chances. After almost an entire hour of waiting, of course our order was not correct. Our waiter tried to cop a bit of an attitude with us when we asked about our missing items. He wanted to put them in for us but we said we have already waited too long, please tab us out. He brings the check and tries to swoop by and grab it from me before we are finished with our food and drinks. I thought to myself, is this guy serious??? Now all of a sudden he is in a rush??? Well he got a fat one dollar tip from me and he was lucky he got that based on several other bad experiences we've had at this establishment.

We were told one time before that it would be about a fifteen minute wait for a table. After 45 minutes and still no table we got up and walked out. Especially after seeing people that arrived after us get seated before us. And we were just a party of two...

My wife ordered a salad one time and they brought it out on a small perfectly flat plate. She could not even mix in her dressing without half of her salad spilling out on the table. At some point you would think that common sense would kick in here right? No, not at this place, all common sense is left at the door...

There is actually a few other bad experiences I could mention but I will just leave it at this. We will never come back. We will either drive the extra distance to go to RedBowl in Rock Hill or we will drive up to the Blakeney Heath area and go to 18 Sushi bar. Honestly the best sushi in Charlotte is at RuSan's but that is a bit of a drive for us...

You would think the steady decrease in the size of their dinner rush would be a clue that there are things that definitely need to be improved on. But this guy will never...

Let me begin by saying I or my family have eaten here at least a dozen times and the food is always good (even last night). Normally I don't complain but I hate feeling like I was taken advantage of and dinner at the Indian Land, SC Red Bowl Asian Bistro last evening was really unbelievable.

First we all ordered meals (4 adults and 2 children). Then about 15 minutes my sushi and one of the guests soup arrived (didn't see the sushi chef get off his chair until 10 minutes after we ordered). Then the children's meal came along with two of the adults at the table. Meanwhile one of the adults had no food and didn't want any sushi so he was patiently waiting for 10 minutes watching me eat sushi and the others eating their dinners. We then asked the assistant manger (who by the way did everything he could to help from that minute on - thanks) if we could get some cheese sticks we ordered for the children and if there was any progress on the guest without food's order. 3 minutes later the cheese sticks arrived and a couple of minutes the soup and appetizer for the food less guest arrived. A couple of minutes later the first guest got the wrong meal for what he ordered. 10 minutes later the right meal arrived and I asked about my entree ( there was shock from the folks here because somehow the combined the other guest and my meal order and that was how he got the wrong entree to begin with) and they went and started that. The assistant manager said sorry, the waitress (who was very new) said she was sorry many times and the AM and the owner agreed they would take care of us. We got the check and not discount except for our coupon was given for my sushi. No one asked how we wanted our checks and when we asked the owner said he would take care of discounting my entree and my guest who needed to wait an hour for his soup, appetizer and corrected entree to arrive. The owner came back with a corrected check with an additional $8.00 taken off the bill giving us what he called a employee discount on our 2 $12.00+ entrees.

Now you can see why we disliked our visit at the Red Bowl Asian Bistro. I indicated to the owner before leaving that I was going to go online and give an unfavorable review and he didn't seem to care in the least. I did ask him again that if I did this review knowing my name would be attached I asked him to not make any unfavorable remarks because I could escalate my internet activity and still it didn't seem to faze him. He believes that an $101.00 food bill reduced to $93.00 was fair for our experience and completely understands I'm doing this review. He also understands that I won't be back while verbalizing my displeasure to anyone who asks about going there to eat at the Indian Land, SC Red Bowl Asian Bistro.

So be it.... I won't go back and I'll make sure to not miss any opportunity to let others know about my unfortunate experience at the Indian Land, SC Red Bowl...

The response of the owner of this restaurant was manipulative and patronizing when we expressed multiple concerns about extremely poor service. Let me summarize the problems that occurred:

Six people were present for dinner: Myself, my fiancé, his nephew, my daughter, and my two grandchildren. We also had an additional meal ordered for take out.

1. My grandchildren did not get the cheese sticks that they ordered as an appetizer until after their meal came, and after I spoke with the manager.

2. My daughter's soup did not come before the meal, but was brought out with her meal.

3. Two of the adults--my fiancé and his nephew were not served their meals when the other meals were brought to the table--and one of the adults had not gotten the appetizer he ordered either. After waiting several minutes, I spoke with the manager.

4. After speaking with the manager, the wrong meal was brought to one of the adults and no meal brought to the other adult.

5. After complaining to the manager again, the correct meal was brought to one adult, and the missing appetizer was also brought to the table. The other adult still had no food.

6. We pointed out the manager that one adult at the table still did not have any food and wanted to know what had been ordered. He nodded and said that he would "take care of us". Then he eventually brought the last meal when everyone else was finishing their meals.

7. The manager said that he was going to talk with the owner and "take care of us". The owner came to the table and spoke with us briefly. It was our understanding that we were not going to be charged for two of the adult meals.

8. However, we were given a total of an $8 discount on a $101.00 bill which the owner stated was an employee discount.

My summary and personal message to the owner: In my experience successful restaurant owners are more thoughtful in how they treat their customers. We have been good customers at this Red Bowl in the past, but you have lost our business. We can understand and excuse mistakes with a food order. The larger problem is that you clearly don't value your customers enough to treat them respectfully. The money that is paid for a meal includes the experience--not just the food--and we spent way too much money for a frustrating and unsatisfactory dining experience. We dine out a lot, and there are many delightful places to eat in this area. You will not have our...