Good bowl

Good Bowl is located in Central at Garden City in Richmond. This wasn’t Grayson and I’s first time visiting Central at Garden City but we never realized how many restaurants there are in the plaza and I think this will be our new stomping ground in Richmond for the next little bit or at least until we try all the other places in the complex out.

Fresh pressed juices

I decided to get a juice and Grayson got a smoothie. Each drink is $5.95 at 12oz. It sounds kind of steep but this is pretty average as far as fresh juice and smoothie prices go these days.

For the juice I got to choose between a base of apple, orange, pear, beet or carrot. I decided to go with beet and then you get to choose any veggie you want from the display case to add some more pizzazz to your drink. I decided to go with beet, pineapple, celery, ginger and kale. Grayson wasn’t a fan but I enjoyed it and felt rather radiant after.

Grayson went with the green machine smoothie that had spinach, kale, pineapple, fro-yo, and banana. The fruits added sweetness to the green veggies and he enjoyed his drink. His only negative was that he won’t ask for ice next time because it was already quite cold from the fro-yo.

Good bowl menu

Now then, onto the food. Good bowl’s menu is simple. Kid bowls are $7.45, regular bowls are $10.45 and the large bowls are $13.45. The concept of the restaurant is similar to chipotle where you choose your size bowl and then you can add on whatever toppings you wish. The more veggies you decide to include in your bowl, the larger your bowl will be in the end.

Build your bowl

You get to choose your carb next which is between jasmine rice, wild rice or noodles. The two of us went with wild rice because it was the healthiest option out of the three. Then right before you go to the cooking area, you choose your protein which is between free-range chicken, grade AAA beef, tofu or sakura pork.  You can also choose to add-on shrimp or an egg at an additional cost.

Once you have all the raw ingredients on your plate, you pay for your meal before your food gets sent off to the cook top.

But before your food even gets on the grill, you need to choose your sauce(s). You can either choose to go with one or mix a bunch to create your own. I went with the Hunan, coconut lime leaf and lemongrass ginger. Grayson went with the Hunan and the coconut lime leaf.  Our taste buds couldn’t be any more similar.

Sauces to choose from

Choosing the sauces was my favorite part of the whole thing because you got to make it your own and it also means that even if you order the same thing on another visit, you can switch up the sauce and create a whole new dish altogether.

Even though it is a mongolian grill, they don’t add lots of oil to the hot plate when they cook. All they use is a spritz of extra virgin olive oil before adding your plate of food along with some water to facilitate the cooking process. The cook time took about 5-8 minutes so it wasn’t too long of a wait.

DIY good bowls

★★★★★

Even though Grayson ordered a large good bowl, my bowl (left) looked like it was the same size as his. I think it’s because I chose to add all the veggies to mine where as he didn’t. The proteins are portioned though so you won’t miss out on that part no matter what.

As expected the sauces made the bowls into amazing creations. The coconut lime leaf sauce was the most prominent out of the ones we chose because all you could smell was the coconut coming off the plate. They were sooo good and they definitely have the right to be called “Good Bowl.”