Bamboo House

 

3

2

Dylan L.

Honolulu, HI

The food is totally decent Chinese cuisine, and they have a great lunch special (very affordable - $6 gets you egg soup, a random dim sum dish [whatever they have leftover, I'm assuming], and an entree with rice or noodles; tea is complementary). It can be a bit on the bland side, but a splash of shoyu or dash of salt can help fill in the taste bud blanks well enough.

On a personal note: please help these people out. They can't afford to turn on their electricity most of the time, don't speak enough English to communicate effectively in this country, and have had to turn people away because they're not equipped to accept credit/debit cards. They actually go out of their way to smile and thank you for dining there, breaking the mold of local Chinese restaurant owners who are overtly racist and stingy, give minimal, robotic service, and will hold an eternal grudge against you for tipping less than 15%. The value is certainly worth your charity.

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16

81

demur e.

HI

2 and a half stars.  Bamboo House is eatery #2 on the eat-at-every-restaurant-on-Kapahulu Ave.-challenge.  (Yes, we need to think of a better name for it!)  Bamboo House is definitely a big step up from eatery #1 (Viet Bistro).

Food:  Pretty yummy.  We had lemon chicken, which was nicely fried (not too gloppy with the batter) and had a mellow lemon sauce.  It was slightly underseasoned for me (aka kinda bland) and my friend wished it was one piece of chicken breast, battered and fried, then cut up into strips, rather than pieces of random chicken coated with batter and fried.  It reminded him too much of popcorn chicken.
         We also had the shrimp with honey walnuts (my favorite dish and I order it at every Chinese restaurant).  It was good.  Not too much batter, a thin layer of mayo on the shrimp and yummy honey-coated walnuts.  There were no sesame seeds on the walnuts, though, and the mayo looked a little unappetizing on the shrimp after it had been sitting for awhile (tasted okay, though).
         Potstickers rounded out our menu.  I mention this appetizer last, because that's when we received it.  Most of the chicken and shrimp were gone by the time our potstickers arrived.  They were nice and hot and seemed to be filled with a lot of chives.  It was pretty darn verdant when I bit into it.  Crispy on the outside and steaming on the inside, it was quite good.

Service:  We were seated, given our menus and had our order taken quickly.  Then it was a bit of a wait for our food.  We had to keep signaling them to bring more water.  And then waited forever to get our bill.  People were nice enough, though.

Ambiance:  Typical neighborhood Chinese restaurant.  With that plexi-plastic thing sandwiching the tablecloth between it and the table.  Pretty spacious.

Overall:  Not bad.  Not as good as Eastern Paradise, Happy Day or Little Village, but not as expensive either.  I liked it a little better than Pineland and the prices are comparable to that.

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