RainBowl poke salad and Ramen — Restaurant in Virginia

Some nice things and some stuff they need to work on before I think this place will be successful. The proteins are not very well seasoned at all. The cooked proteins are served cold (chicken and steak). All of the seafood proteins are cold (which is okay for the most part). Two of the staff members nearest me didn't speak very good English and was difficult to explain what I wanted when placing an order. This is especially important if you're offering "custom bowls" with tons of different ingredients. The protein portions are extremely small. Perhaps 1, maybe 1 and a half tablespoons of protein. I understand the need for portion control in restaurants, but this is kind of crazy when the restaurant is charging 8-12+ dollars on a premium bowl. That being said, the restaurant itself was clean and was a nice place to sit for lunch. The food tasted okay...but with all of the different toppings/sides, I was really hoping for some more flavor. It is no exaggeration to say that the salad dressings were the most interesting parts of the meal/bowl. The abundance of sides was a great idea and really can ensure that you could come back multiple times and not get repeat meals. The staff members who did speak English were very helpful and friendly. The owner(?) walked around during lunch asking the lunch-goers how everything was and that's a very good thing! Altogether, I'll give it a another try; but I really hope they work on making the "large" bowls more filling and more protein. If you're charging 1 - 1.75 times more than a place that does similar bowls, say "Chipotle"; then you should at least leave the restaurant full and not needing to stop at a fast food place on the way home to get full. Definitely give it a try...but if you're an average sized person and really looking forward to lunch; you're likely going to leave hungry and have to stop somewhere else for more food on the...

I love Poke bowls so I was excited to go to this place. Good things: the dining area was clean and I like how you can construct your own bowl to your liking and the taste was good. It also was beneficial that the food comes in a bowl that can easily be covered by a top if you are unable to finish it. Negatives: The boba tea and smoothie we got were not great. I wouldn't personally order either of those again. Also, I'm not typically critical, but the time we went the bathroom was filthy. It looked like it hadn't been cleaned since the day before and had trash falling out of the can and could have been swept. It was just a stark difference from the clean aesthetic where you ate. Overall, it was a decent experience and I'd go there again for food and the canned milk tea.

Update: Went a few weeks ago and they have now added Ramen bowls to the menu. It was okay, but that's partly because it was warm when we first got it so the noodles were still sticking together in a clump. We did ask for it to be reheated which they did immediately and apologized for it not being hot enough. After that, it was fine. The place was clean and it's still one of the few places around town where I can get a MTO Poke bowl. I'd still come here again for that, the seaweed salad, and the Milk Tea.

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Hello! A couple of days ago I went to Subway for the first time in a "YEAR". Every time I would go there they would be sold "OUT" of something that I wanted. Sure enough this last time I went they were sold out of the bread I wanted. So in a furious-hangry mood I raced across town to my goto restaurant "RainBowl". I was immediately greeted by a young lady who was slammed busy at the time. She informed me that she would be right with me. Once it was my turn to order she had the most friendly smile! I noticed she had an accent and asked her where she was from and I learned she was from Romania. Her kindness and friendly smile were all I needed to turn my frustration around! On top of that the salad she prepared me was amazing and filled me up. I have been in restaurant management for 20 years and employees like this young lady are what managers like myself hope to be lucky enough to hire! I hope this young lady is full time because my family and I plan to remain regulars especially since this young lady is employed...