Smokin’ Bowls in Rohnert Park

Smokin’ Bowls located at 295 Southwest Blvd. in Rohnert Park in the shopping center next to the former 49er Pet Store, is a different type of restaurant. As the name implies, the dozen entrees are meals with ingredients served in bowls. They are open from 11 a.m. until 10 p.m. 7 days a week. They have dine-in, take-out, and delivery options. Deliveries are through either DoorDash or Food Jets.

At Smokin’ Bowls everything is gluten free. That’s because two of their founders have gluten intolerance and they recognized the difficulty of eating out when you are dealing with any type of food allergy. The restaurant also doesn’t use legumes. Legumes impact folks with a peanut or soy protein allergy.

When dining in, the restaurant can seat approximately forty customers in booths along the wall or at larger tables in the center of the room. The décor is basic, dark brown topped by a beige color on the walls, and in the booths. There are two large screen televisions mounted at the front of the restaurant for easy viewing while a much larger screen is mounted on the side wall. The service area for ordering, cooking, and paying for your meals are to the rear of the building. Everything was clean and inviting with a very open feeling. Not sure of the noise level when busy, it was uncrowded when our party was there.

In addition to the dozen bowl selections, you have your choice of salads or sides. The salads included a Chicken Caesar, Balsamic Chicken, Asian Chicken, or a Greek Salad. Prices ranged from $8.50 to $9.75. They’re proud of their fries boasting they’re so delicious because they hand cut them and cook them “the old-fashioned way, in natural beef fat.” You can choose disco fries, cheese fries, or Greek garlic fries from $5.25 to $5.95. You can also get cheese nachos for $4.25. Plain fries run $3.45 and a side order of mashed potatoes and gravy costs you $4.95. They have fountain soft drinks and offer a root beer float too. Desserts are limited to S’mores or Salted Caramel Apple Fries for $5.95.

However, the bowl entrees are the main attraction. Running from $8.75 to $10.50, the portions are ample and filling. Some are spicy, others are not. Here are a few of your choices that we found interesting. The Dragon Bowl was a combination of fried rice with bacon, chicken in a hot sweet Asian sauce with green onions and cashews. Then there was the Bowl Named Sue which used southern mashed potatoes, chicken in a white gravy with corn, bacon, and green onions. The Roast Beef & Gravy bowl was comprised of those southern mashed potatoes with slow roasted beef, brown gravy, and creamy horseradish on top. 

Their website at https://www.smokinbowls.com claims the Rohnert Pork is their number one bowl. Nice play on words by the way! This bowl combines French fries and BBQ Pulled Pork with cheese sauce, bacon, and green onions. A similar but hotter bowl would be the Southwest Bowl that includes spicy ranch, hot sauce and jalapenos. For vegetarians you can order the Harvest Bowl. In it you have brown rice, mixed veggie coconut curry, cashews, and green onions. Other bowl choices are a Mediterranean, an Asian Pork, a Buffalo, Loaded Pizza Fries, Dragon Fries, or Super Nachos. There’s something to fit most everyone’s taste buds. We enjoyed it. Give it a try, we think you will too.