Customer Reviews

Big Bowl Noodles and Rice: Fresh Asian Cooking From the Renowned Restaurant

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

While the Bay Area has an abundance of Asian restaurants few compare to Big Bowl in the Mid-West. The books aesthetics are very pleasing and the format is easy to follow. The special ingredients section was very informative in explaining the origins and use, as well as pointing out which recipes call for them. What makes this book such a great reference is the emphasis on using quality ingredients and the cooking techniques are well described and easy to understand. In addition, I also enjoyed the array of traditional and modern adaptations of the recipes and look forward to using this book more. I highly recommend the satay, the freshly prepared peanut sauce is a winner. We only wish Mr. Cost never left San Francisco.

I am a regular customer at the Big Bowl in Edina, MN. It's a wonderful place, with imaginative, tasty, fresh foods. I only wish this cookbook lived up to the restaurant. Unfortunately, many of the dishes in the book are also available in almost any good Asian cooking book. The dipping sauces - my personal favorites at the restaurant - aren't included in the book and neither are my other favorites from the restaurant.

I will keep going back to the restaurant, but this book is far from the next best thing to being there! Back to the kitchen...

Almost none of the dishes you would expect to see are in this book. Big Bowl advertises a cook book "from the renowned restaurant", but I didn't see any of my or my friends favorites in here - the Kung Poa chicken, the hot pepper dishes, Mongolian beef, beef and broccoli, thai basil shrimp, thai hot pepper shrimp with basil and peanuts, spicy sichuan beef, bbq pork chow fun, kung poa tofu and spinach, crispy orange chicken, lemon chicken, salmon pad thai, and the list goes on...the advertisement for the book should at least assert that these are not the main dishes from the restaurant, but rather a collection of other recipes that the restaurant recommends/likes.

I got hooked on the Big Bowl as a restaurant originally. Now that I have the book, I use it more than any other. Everything so far is good. I now make the best asian food I know how to find anywhere.

Recipies are sometimes a bit unclear. But the tastes are so good I couldn't live without this book.

Having visited the Chicago Big Bowl for years when I lived there, I decided I have missed my favourite dish so much, that I bought this book. Their signature dish was the Kung Pao Chicken, which I adored.
I received the book today, and was absolutely amazed...there was no recipe for Kung Pao chicken, although the dish was mentioned in the preface. They do have Kung Pao Fish, but the ingredients differ greatly.
Where is the recipe for the chicken!
Plus, the number of photos is a token effort. Every good cook book should have photos of the dishes - this has hardly any.
Too early to tell how the other recipes will shape up, but very disappointed at the moment.

Having grown up near Chicago eating great food all my life, it wasn't until I had moved away that the first Big Bowl opened its doors. Luckily a friend and school mate of mine who works at the restaurant, invited me in on a return visit. WOW!! The only word I could think of at the time to describe the food. If you live anywhere near a Big Bowl, go! If you are like me in Denver, well outside of their delivery area, do the next best thing, buy this book and make it yourself!