Critic's Review
I heard about Bol completely by accident; Restaurants on Indian Reservations don't have to jump through the usual State hoops so they can appear without much notice. Bol is owned by the Seminole Tribe; it's located inside the Seminole Hard Rock Casino, right next to Council Oak.
They portray Bol as "an elevated Asian Experience". To me that involves girls in silk garments, but they apparently have another idea.
When I first spotted Bol, I was surprised at how small it is. A little nook just off the main casino. There's a hostess who stands out front; it started out badly as she tried to seat me at the counter. "I don't want to sit at the counter", I said. She seemed miffed as she scanned the largely empty dining room. "Oh, I can seat you over there", as if there would be some demand for seats at 3:15 on a Wednesday in late May.
It's very bright at the tables. I guess the room is attractive, although I'm not a big fan of Asian decor.
It was a while before a server came over. She asked about a drink order and I ordered Iced Tea; I knew what I wanted: Vietnamese Spring Rolls, Salt and Pepper Shrimp and baby bok choy. I asked her to get me extra lemon for the Tea.
A runner brought out the tea first.
Ok, well those aren't lemons. The runner was a kid; "You don't have lemons?", I asked. "No, we don't have lemons". Ok, lime isn't terrible, but the server should have told me that when I ordered.
Considering that this is the Hard Rock, the music was really bad. Alternating Michael Jackson and Culture Club. C'mon, at an asian restaurant? The spring rolls came out shortly. Served with a sweetish peanut sauce, there was too much vermicelli and not enough flavor. There were a couple of thin strips of pork and shrimp in each roll; neither had any seasoning.
I didn't like the sauce; the rolls were a complete failure. While I was dissecting the second roll, a runner dropped off the bok choy.
Of course I was hoping that this was stir fried, preferably with garlic, but this was just steamed. But there was no sauce or drizzle; typically this would have an oyster sauce drizzle; something to give it some flavor. This has no flavor at all. I could have dumped some soy on it, but that's not what I was hoping for at all.
When my server dropped off the shrimp, I asked if the Bok Choy was supposed to be served with something; "No, just steamed as side". She took it away and said she'd have them put some garlic sauce on it or something.
The shrimp looked OK, but the bed of lettuce they were on served no purpose; it would have been nice to get something else that was edible with the shrimp.
Now you're supposed to eat these whole, and I tried that with the first one, but the shells weren't crisp enough and it was just like eating a shrimp shell. There was also a lack of taste; these weren't good enough to eat shell-on. Unfortunately they didn't brine the shrimp before cooking, so they were completely bland. Some of the shrimp were only partially deveined.
One thing that struck me was that the shrimp were served with a wedge of lemon. I thought they didn't have lemon?
It seems that they threw the bok choy in a wok with some garlic oil and it was more to my liking. Still not the kind of crazy-good stir fried bok choy I anticipating when I ordered, but a heckuva lot better than just plain steamed.
In a "high end" restaurant, you hope that the white rice isn't the throw-away stuff you get at fast food restaurants. This was just a stuck together ball of starch that broke off in big clusters instead of grains.
$34. for lunch with no leftovers. Ugh.