Johnny’s Red Bowl Restaurant

It’s normally really good food, but unfortunately we don’t frequent it because of their low sanitation score. Sorry.

We love this place and for the most part, it’s excellent. We have had a few misses but they were minor. Such as thai tea or basil shrimp roll. But the rest of the items we order are well made and very tasty. And even the side items like the spring rolls or dumplings, all are excellent. I also love their dipping sauces, all flavorful and not watered down like most places. I gave it 5 stars as they are consistent in their quality over the last 4 years I have ordered from them.

Read several scathing reviews but one of our lunch foursome wanted to try it. I went with an open mind which was soon closed. The wonton egg drop soup was THE worst I’ve ever eaten, and I’ve eaten a lot of the stuff. Completely tasteless. I added soy sauce and hot sauce, it still tasted like dish water. Oh well on to the main course of beef, chicken, shrimp, veggies and fried rice. The fried rice, also won a prize for worst-​in-​a-​lifetime. Lots of it, but, big servings of lousy food are still lousy. Place seemed clean, waitstaff OK and very speedy service. In the end, it beats starving but only by a nose. Usually I give places a second try, not this one. Wifey agrees. We did have a great time with our friends who seemed okay with the place so, reluctantly, I added a second star.

We like the specials — never had a bad one. Service is very friendly and quick. Take away service is excellent.

My husband and I have been here about 4 or 5 times in the last couple of months. We mainly go for the sushi which has always been very good. I have also had the edamame, chicken satay and lettuce wraps that were good but was a little disappointed with the pad thai which didn’t have much flavor. We typically sit at the pub tables in the bar area and have always had great service.

Ordered takeout which included chicken fried rice. It had a fishy shrimp taste and I called them up to complain. Their response was they can give me a free entrée the next time I order. Well the problem with that response is, I WILL NOT ORDER AGAIN. The correct response would have been a refund of $ 8.25 of the total $ 50.66 charge.

This place was gross. Spent way too much money for low quality food. My husband barely are his and they didn’t even care.

My family has been here about dozen times in the last few years. My kids love the chicken and broccoli here. The staff is super nice. We’ve always had good service here. Food is generally pretty good, although sometimes a bit greasy (which is why I left off a star). Prices are very reasonable too.

My husband and I went a few weeks ago. We just moved here and are in search for a great place for pad Thai. Needless to say, this is not the place. My husband commented in how it smelt like cat food– and he was right. The sushi deserves about 3 stars. Average at best. Sadly, we will continue our search… The staff was very nice (that is why they are getting the extra star).

On a recent trip to Charlotte we stopped in to eat lunch at Johnny’s Red Bowl. My wife had the General Tso lunch special with an egg roll and fried rice. The chicken was crispy but lacked flavor. The egg roll was bland. I had the Sesame Chicken with white rice and spring roll. The sesame chicken was mushy and had very few sesame seeds on it. The spring roll was crispy and pretty good. Another positive is that the portions were generous, however large amounts of mediocre food isn’t a good thing.

Unilocalers please note: I got a Unilocal account specifically so I could share with the world how TERRIBLE this restaurant is. I have visited multiple times, each time hoping for a less horrible experience and each time I was disappointed. Last night was the final straw.
Previously I ate here for the lunch special. The food was decent, the price was very fair ($ 5). The service, however, was spotty at best: empty drinks were ignored, appetizers were forgotten, and our server barely interacted with us (might I mention that the dining area had less than three tables occupied at the time?). I chalked it up to an «off day» on the server’s part. No stress.
When I returned to the Red Bowl last night for half-​off sushi (after 8pm), I anticipated poor service. I was not, however, prepared for how unbelievably awful my experience would truly turn out to be. After we were seated, someone took our drink orders. It took about five minutes for us to get out drinks (not terrible). When our server arrived with our drinks and asked if we were ready to order, we requested a few more minutes to decide. HE DID NOT RETURN FOR OVER 25 MINUTES. We sat at our table with half-​empty glasses, twiddling our thumbs, waiting to give our orders. At one point he breezed past our table and as I tried to flag him down HE HELD UP HIS POINTER FINGER (the «one minute» hand gesture) and kept walking. After a few more minutes her returned, took our orders and walked off. We waited for 30 MINUTES for our food to come out. During this time, our server couldn’t be bothered to apologize for slow service, make small talk, or even refill our drinks. He completely IGNORED our table. When our food did finally arrive, he left almost as soon as the plates hit our table. We had to search the restaurant for soy sauce dipping bowls, and he never once asked us how our sushi was. The only time he returned was to give us our checks.
The food is okay (at best) and I think that you get what you pay for. My sushi rolls were unimpressive and while the noodle dish my friend received was huge, I was very disappointed with the size of my rolls. They were small, slapped together haphazardly, drenched in funny-​tasting sauce that muddled all the flavors and textures together.
I understand that a slow-​moving or backed-​up kitchen is not a server’s fault. I understand that when you are serving, you can be overwhelmed by orders and demands (although there was easily less than forty people in the «bar area» and this server was helping only three or four tables including ours). But what I do not understand is how you can essentially forget that a table of people exists and be completely unapologetic about it.
My friends and I joke about the poor service at this restaurant and are generally good-​natured about it, but after last night’s experience I can promise you that I will never return.
TLDR: You get what you pay for. The food is okay at best. The service is CONSISTENTLY the WORST I’ve ever experienced. Spend a few extra dollars at Sushi 101 (which is also in the Promenade) or Pei Wei’s (in Ballantyne) for better food and better service.

Tucked into the back corner of Promenade is Johnny’s Red Bowl Asian Fusion place. The atmosphere is quasi-​industrial with the high ceilings and exposed duct work. Friendly staff, clean, nice place.
The food is also acceptable. It’s a small step above the Chinese food place where you stop on your way home from work, but I wouldn’t put it up there with a P.F. Changs.
The biggest issue I take with this place is the value. It’s rather pricey ($ 11-​$ 15) per dish, and the quality just isn’t that much above some of the other Chinese places close by. It’s like they added a nicer restaurant, slapped on a higher price tag, and serve the same olé food.

New to this immediate area, but a 22 year veteran of this side of Charlotte, I am still working my way around the restaurants at Promenade on Providence. Johnny’s Red Bowl is on the 485 side of the shopping center, out of the main flow of traffic, near the Subway and the Hallmark store.
I stopped in for takeout tonight and got a variety of things for dinner for the next 2 nights. The breakdown:
Restaurant: clean and the young lady working at the front desk was very friendly. I told her this was my first visit and she handed me a menu and said if I had any questions to please ask. There was a thin crowd, but it was 6:30 on a bank-​holiday Monday night, so I wasn’t expecting a line out the door.
The order:
1 Spring Roll and 1 Chicken Egg Roll: Typical takeout. Neither was amazing, but both were fine.
Egg Drop soup: Nice broth, good amount of egg, I added salt and pepper and a handful of the crispy noodles and it was good. Seriously tasted exactly like every bowl of egg drop soup that I have ever gotten for takeout.
General Tso’s Chicken: Slightly spicy, but not crazy, just the way I like it. Served with white rice. I believe this was a little over $ 10 and it was a huge portion. Placed in a nice plastic takeout container, there was a layer of lettuce on the bottom (?). Odd. I dumped the chicken on a plate with the rice and picked the lettuce out. Even after a stop at a bakery on the way home with the food, it was still smokin’ hot. A LOT of food.
Veggie Lo Mein: I ordered this specifically to put in the fridge for dinner tomorrow night. I had a bite just to taste it and it was pretty good. Lots and lots of veggies, which was nice. Again… typical of Chinese takeout.
The total for everything was $ 27. It was good. Nothing that was going to win an award, but was good takeout, hot food and fast friendly service.

SERVICE IS TERRIBLE!!! We went there today (Sunday) for a late lunch. We were seated right away and given menus. A waiter never came over to us but we clearly were in this guys section because he waited on everyone around us. The manager was cleaning a chair at the table next to us and could see we still had not been acknowledged by wait staff. The waiter looked over at us again with a glare and took the check from the people at the table next to us, still not saying a word to us. After being ignored for so long we said «lets go». BTW, we went right across the parking lot to Sushi 101. They were happy to accommodate us and our $ 125.00 tab! Your loss Johnny Red Bowl !!

The staff was terrible… the food was great? It’s just really to bad the employees are so bad…

The last couple of times I have been in, we have noticed a decline in overall service and quality of the food. Still, it is overall a good value and I will now go back since they have taken steps to try to clean up their act (after the negative inspection rating they had a little while back).
On a recent visit, I had the pad thai, and quite honestly, I can do a better job making this at home with a kit. But, the $ 5 lunch special is a really good deal (I always get chicken & broccoli with brown rice and a spring roll & /​tea). David usually gets the bang-​bang shrimp which is tasty, but fried so not so healthy.
I no longer consider this place to be a four star– but I give it 3 stars for solid value and decent food. They do need to work on their server training, since on our last couple of visits, we had less than stellar service.

Went for dinner about a month ago and the food was all fantastic, but canot afford it on a regular basis. Service was average. Surroundings retro look.

Love this place. Five buck lunch special. Chicken/​broccoli/​fried rice/​spring roll/​ice tea… whooowah.

I have only tried this place for lunch and I am a fan! They have $ 5 lunch specials with salad and sushi, which my wife loves but I get the Sesame Chicken special and it is great. The only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars is because the 3 times we went, the waitstaff wasn’t very attentive 2 of the times.

Good for families and the prices are really good. We’ve eaten in and carried out both where good.
The portions are large if you are not overly hungry you can split the meal and still get what you need.