Bamboo Garden Vegetarian Cuisine

Their sweet and sour “chicken” is really great!

…although it may take you a while to experiment and find the few dishes you want to revisit. The dishes can be hit-or-miss on the flavor scale; and every person has a different take on which meals are the hits.

That said, I found the service has been quite great and immediate. And the food is certainly healthier than at most other restaurants — low on salt even, and no MSG. There are fried items you can order, too, but the healthier items are clearly marked on the menu — which is huge, by the way.

I was initially down on the place, mainly for relative lack of flavor, but I decided to come here more often as a break from eating dairy for a small while, and I’ve come to appreciate this place far more, now that I’m finding the entrees that work for me.

Just for grins, here’s my favorite dish here:

#75: Bean Curd Skin and Vegetables (Bok Choy, onions, and carrots) in Satay Peanut Sauce Hot Pot

Other than the fact that it smells like a bathroom and looks really trashy, Bamboo Gardens is the best.

They have an interesting array of “meat” dishes, including fake eel and shark fin soup. I haven’t had the nerve to try either yet, but the sweet and sour chicken is amazing.

Somehow, they get the food out amazingly fast. It usually takes about five minutes. It is quite a mystery, but I can’t complain!

My boyfriend and I visited Bamboo Garden for the first time a while ago. Although there was no one else waiting before us, we had to wait 45 minutes to be seated. Then our waiter proceeded to ignore us in favor of the large table next to us. The food was really good, but the service left much to be desired. Maybe we’ll give it another try at a less busy time. For now, I prefer Teapot Vegetarian Restaurant.

Update: I’ve been back to Bamboo Garden several times now and can confirm that the service is always terrible. The food is still good, though.