A "Big" Disappointment

Ordinarily I'm not one to complain about restaurants and food establishments, especially those that have been at the top of my favorites list for years, but I have to say I am disappointed. If you've read my profile, or happen to know me, you might know that I have an obsession with Big Bowl, the restaurant. Ever since it moved to an area about 5 minutes from my house, I've been ordering their chicken satay appetizer, lemon chicken entree and a hibiscus iced tea to drink.

I went recently though, and things just weren't the same. Maybe it was the hyped up expectations after a long semester at school without a nearby Big Bowl, or maybe my perceptions serve me correctly. I'm not quite sure, but my main problem was that portions were much smaller and presentation was lacking.


If you'll notice in this picture of the chicken satay, there are only 3 skewers of chicken! Aside from that being a small number for any sharable appetizer, there used to be 5! Ok, I know that was back in the day, they had cut it down to 4 first. Yes, Big Bowl, I'm watching you and I'm not such a fan of your sneaky ways of diminishing how much food one gets in their order. What's worse, they got rid of the cucumber salad that it came with! Chicken satay needs to be served with cucumber salad, not an unattractively colored lump of I don't even know what. Even their peanut sauce is different! Used to be chunky, now it's straight liquid that falls all over the plate upon serving.

I complained about the portion to the waiter noting that it used to be bigger and he laughed in my face and said, "Oh, did you want to just order another?" Great service buddy. Maybe if it were free.

Perhaps I'm overreacting, but please understand that this happens to be one of my absolute favorite foods ever. I like the way they prepare it, or shall I say prepared, and I just can't deal with change like that.

The hibiscus iced tea and the lemon chicken did stay up to par though. I will give them credit for that. I didn't even realize that the hibiscus iced tea had free refills and that was a definite perk!

Will I go there again? Probably. Even though the portions were smaller and the presentation wasn't the same, the truth of the matter is it still tasted really good. If you noticed, I was just disappointed because I wanted more!