Rice Bowl

Rice Bowl is a long-tenured Chinese restaurant in Columbus' Scioto Southland. It produces relatively characterless Chinese fare at extremely reasonable prices.

Like most Chinese restaurants, Rice Bowl offers a small selection of meatless offerings on its menu. The most troubling part of the vegetarian choices on Rice Bowl's menu is that there is a lack of vegetarian protein on the lunch menu. There is a stir fried bean curd on the dinner menu, but the lunch options consist mainly of vegetables without tofu.

The vegetable spring roll is made in the traditional Chinese deep fried style. It is stuffed with an abundance of cabbage and shredded carrots, and served with sweet and sour sauce and hot mustard.

The Buddhist Delight is thin Chinese pasta tossed with mushrooms, water chestnuts, bean sprouts, baby corn and pea pods. For the most part, the dish is fairly bland with very few redeeming characteristics.

The Szechwan vegetables have a deeper, spicier flavor. Green peppers, mushrooms, onions, water chestnuts, peapods and carrots are coated in a thick, brown Szechwan base. Though it is a superior dish when compared to the Buddhist Delight, the flavor profile is still somewhat one dimensional.

There is limited dine-in space at Rice Bowl. Take-out orders are prepared rapidly. I was easily able to transport it home and serve the food at a hot temperature.

Overall, Rice Bowl offers fairly pedestrian Chinese food. Since the South Side of Columbus is somewhat lacking in meatless dining options, Rice Bowl will do in a pinch.

Rice Bowl