And on the eighth day he brought real food to Florida
Written: Nov 07 '04 (Updated Nov 07 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: The best Chinese Food I've had outside of NYC
Cons: Your waiter's rap sheet
The Bottom Line: Simply the best Chinese Food in Florida. Everything on the menu is awesome.
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| carnut2k4's Full Review: The Bamboo Club |
Floridians 11:7 in the beginning the great culinary void encompassed the entire peninsula, but then God said “Let there be THE BAMBOO CLUB”…and it was good….
Holy Crap! I found good Chinese food in Florida! I never thought it would happen. Technically it’s Asian Fusion but that’s close enough for me. I wasn’t expecting to find such a wonderful place today when we went out for lunch so it was even more special. Like that guy who bought an old picture at a garage sale for a dollar because he liked the frame and when he opened it up he found one of the original copies of the Declaration of Independence hidden inside. Now that’s what I call a million dollar feeling.
So what is this jewel exactly? Well, it’s The Bamboo Club located in my local mall right next door to the awful Fire of Brazil restaurant. I’ve been meaning to go here for months but it just never came about – until today.
Look and Feel
We wandered in for lunch and found the place about half full. It’s a large open restaurant with many interesting decorating cues. The concrete floor is painted a brownish / o.d. green sort of color but it’s not solid, it has a lot of texture painted into it. The walls are painted a pale green with occasional darker green lattice work painted over it. A few Asian life scenes are worked in here and there. Nothing hangs on the walls – except an enormous American Flag behind the hostess in the front of the restaurant. The ceiling is a flat fifteen foot ceiling of painted black acoustic tile. Hanging horizontally from the ceiling sporadically are lengths of bamboo from which sheer green fabric hangs to the floor and serve to separate the large dining room into smaller, more cozy dining areas. A few bamboo ‘structures’ of non-descript form are offered as art. Bamboo shoots also soar from a few strategically placed pots on the floor. Lighting was bright and airy – but this was lunchtime. I imagine in the evening it’s quite a bit dimmer in here. A large outside dining area is available just past the large, rounded full liquor bar. Next to the bar a glass wall flaunts the restaurants wine cellar which looked to hold more than a thousand bottles. A few exaggeratedly huge booths made of black fabric are available but mostly it’s tables in here. Tables are all of the cozy, four man, wood with a black lacquer insert covering most of the top variety. No tablecloths. The chairs are white and black rattan. Black linen napkins sit in square, straw colored dishes. All in all, the ambiance is very relaxed and laid back.
The Menus
The first menu you’ll browse through is waiting for you as you’re seated. The Drinks Menu. All the usual martinis and coffee drinks are offered. A beer page lists about ten Asian beers, the standard domestics and a few ‘craft’ brews have their own page. Of these I guess the Sierra Nevada is appropriate but they also included Heinekin and Corona on that list. Guinness and Newcastle made the cut too. A couple of dessert ports are on the dessert page and eight or nine Sake’s are available. The strange thing is that there is no wine list. And wine wasn’t even suggested to us. They spent an awful lot of money and thought on that wine cellar and they don’t push the vino at all. I’d imagine the profit margin on booze is much higher than food – why not provide a wine list?
The Lunch Menu is what we would be ordering from. It offers; Asian Apps, Soups, Entree Salads, Woked Noodle Dishes, Lunch & All-Time Favorite Dishes, Sides and Fried Rices – all have their own sub-sections of delicious choices. Order anything at all without hesitation, it will be good
The Dinner Menu has the same categories but they are somewhat expanded, as are the prices and portion sizes.
Food is served family style with large serving dishes placed on the table for all to enjoy from.
Our Meal
Everything looked and smelled so good that we decided to order a lot.
Combo Appetizer - $11.95 – A generous assortment of Sesame Honey Chicken (outrageously good), Egg Rolls (pork and shrimp egg rolls deep fried and cut diagonally – excellent), Coconut Shrimp (flattened, battered and deep fried – next time I plan on making a meal of these alone - OMFUG are these good) and Potstickers (yummy). Three awesome dipping sauces come with this selection: Honey Mustard, Red Plum Sauce and a Soy Sauce that’s jazzed up with some scallion and other things (don’t remember exactly).
Wonton Soup - $5.95 – Served in a large tureen, this is enough for four people. Not the traditional clear broth that I am accustomed to. A deep rich brown broth with delicious wontons, spinach and pork strips made for a perfect way to start this meal.
Thai Cucumber Salad - $3.95 – Again, enough for four people. Fresh cucumber wedges with julienned carrots and sesame seeds are bathed in a sweet vinaigrette. Very refreshing.
Vietnamese Black Pepper Shrimp and Chicken - $10.95 – Simply a must have. Shrimp and chicken are woked with green beans, red peppers and a few other veggies and heavy doses of black pepper. Out of this world good!
Sesame Honey Chicken - $7.95 – the same as from the Combo Appetizer above – didn’t catch that until after it arrived. No harm, it was very good the second time round as well.
The two main dishes are served with a generous bowl of rice so we had one white and one brown. Both were very good.
Service
We had a few little mishaps worth noting. Our waiter James was a bit of a newbie. After he took our order another waitress came over to take our order – James inadvertently stole the table from her. She graciously excused herself and we stayed with James. We ordered the appetizer up front. Then he returned with our sodas and we ordered the rest of the meal and requested the soup come out ahead of the meal. Well, about ten minutes later another waiter was walking around (seemingly lost) with what I suspected was our appetizer – James was nowhere to be found. A few minutes later James appeared with our appetizer. Twenty minutes is a long time to wait for appetizers. About five minutes later the soup arrived and one minute after that our lunch arrived. The timing of the whole meal was off. Also of note is that James gave us teaspoons for our soup, did not offer chopsticks and brought us a check without offering coffee and dessert. We wouldn’t have ordered that anyway, but the option is always nice. He wasn’t doing any of this on purpose. I suspect he wasn’t quite done being trained before being thrown into the mix. Oh, and unless Indian Ink is making a comeback in pop culture, James had an interesting assortment of prison tats on his hands and wrists. But don’t let these comments deter you. They certainly won’t deter me from going back here.
In Summation
A wonderful Chinese (pardon me, Asian Fusion) restaurant in the land of bland. This is an absolute must on your list of restaurants to visit if you ever find yourself in this neck of the woods. If this restaurant were in NYC it would rate a solid three and a half out of five stars. In Florida it rates a twelve out of five stars. I’ll average it out to four stars. Do try the Coconut Shrimp. Do not ask James about his prison tats.
www.thebambooclub.com
Reservations…..not required, but suggested for dinner
Vegetarians……plenty of side dishes and rice for you
Bathrooms……..clean
Kid Friendly……maybe for lunch but don’t ruin dinner for the rest of us
Hours…………….by location – lunch and dinner
Dress Code……..casual
Recommended:
Yes
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carnut2k4
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Muscle Shoals has got The Swampers
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