Work in progress needs a bit more work

Bamboo Asian Cuisine’s food celebrates variety, including dishes from Japan and Thailand. I like the number of choices, from healthy steamed veggies with chicken or shrimp to classic, multicourse, fill-you-up dinners.

The menu has an easy-to-find vegetarian section, poultry including Peking duck, pork, beef, egg foo young and shrimp. Red chiles mark the spicy items. There’s a buffet at lunch and a separate sushi menu.

Bamboo’s approach to food lies between that of a storefront Chinese restaurant and the mega buffet. A sort of borderland, with some borderland issues. Bamboo’s owners struggle against the inherent generic feeling of the building. The dragon statues and figurines help with the décor a bit, but the place could use art on walls and softer lighting.

I also like the way Bamboo treats vegetables respectfully, leaving them at least slightly crisp. You could tell the difference between bok choy and broccoli. Nothing had too much salt, a compliment I can rarely give at a Chinese restaurant. You can order brown rice here, servings are generous and you can always find a parking place.

Although the waitress had a bit of trouble understanding our English, service was friendly and willing. I liked the restaurant better than when I ate here the last time, about two years ago.

The best dish my friend and I sampled on this visit was Bamboo Special Chow Fun ($8.99). I don’t know how they made those rice noodles, but they blew me away with their wonderful thick, soft texture and great fresh flavor. I loved the abundance of chicken, shrimp and pork that came with them, along with a garden’s worth of Chinese cabbage, mushrooms, carrots, snow peas and a sprinkling of zesty Asian black beans. The sauce was light, just enough to tie the noodles, vegetables and meat together. Outstanding, and enough for two meals easily.

The rest of our food ranged from good to solidly average to “a work in progress.” The tasty wonton soup, for instance, included crisp snow peas, two large soft wontons with a well-seasoned pork filling and a light, fresh broth. I found it a bit undersalted, a problem fixed with a dab of soy sauce.

The General Tao’s Chicken, served on a romaine lettuce leaf, got high points for its ample representation of chicken. The large handful of red chile pods, each about the size of a half a pencil, added color (and heat if you chomped on them), to the otherwise average sauce. I liked General Tao’s al dente zucchini, but the overabundance of red and green peppers added a discordant note. You can have too much of a good thing.

The chicken was part of a $14.99 combination dinner that also included half of a po-po platter, one of each appetizer instead of two. We got Crab Rangoon, a fried wonton with a dab of cream cheese in the center, a thickly breaded fried shrimp, a fried spring roll filled with shredded cabbage and carrot, a fried chicken wing, and a meaty pork rib covered in sweet red sauce. The best was a tender strip of chicken breast on a wooden skewer. The combo came with a choice of egg drop, hot and sour, miso or wonton soup and fried or steamed rice. We ordered the fried rice, which arrived barely warm and naked looking, studded with a few lonely pieces of egg yolk.

I was disappointed with the sushi, although it may have been the selections I sampled from the extensive menu. Sushi is popular here, comprising at least half of the orders we saw pass by on their way to nearby tables.

I tried the baked eel and avocado roll. It looked great because of the contrast between green avocado, white rice, tan eel and dark sauce, but lacked flavor. A little wasabi, hot Japanese horseradish used in most sushi, would have helped. Spicy salmon roll becomes a mild salmon salad here. It arrived room temperature instead of chilled, which made me nervous. (I’ve enjoyed this dish elsewhere as sliced raw salmon wrapped in seaweed with rice and radish sprouts and coated with a spicy sauce.)

The management at Bamboo might consider limiting the menu to those dishes they do best.

Photo Credit – journal file
Cutline – Bamboo Asian Cuisine features a variety of cuisine, including dishes from Japan and Thailand.