Lucky Bamboo China Bistro

Reviews 4

A

A Private User

Lucky Bamboo Restaurant - I saw their ad in the Tennessee Chinese Newspaper in Knoxville boasting "the only Dim Sum restaurant in Tennessee". Just before Thanksgiving, I had an opportunity to be in Murfreesboro which is just a 45 minute drive to SW Nashville. My wife and in-laws may have thought I was nutty to drive an hour and a half round trip just to have Dim Sum. Hey, I had driven 6 hours round trip to Atlanta for disappointing Dim Sum! After 45 minutes, I was not disappointed. One of the owners, Ms. Chon Kim, gave me some Dim Sum samples to try while I waited for my take-out order. Since I live in Knoxville, I made sure to buy extra to last our taste buds for several feastings. My $150.00 take out order kept Thao and Sandy and their servers busy for quite a while. The Dim Sum I grew up eating in Hong Kong was the basis of my comparison. Since then, I have had comparable Dim Sum in San Francisco, Manhattan, Philadelphia and San Diego. Lucky Bamboo compares favorably to the “big city” restaurants with their basic Dim Sum offerings, shrimp har gow, pork shu mai, shrimp shu mai, BBQ pork buns, seasame ball, etc. My family feasted several more times on left over Dim Sum. I can’t wait to bring my parents back for fresh Dim Sum (served fresh from a hot steam cart) in the near future regardless of the 6 hour round-trip drive. Lucky Bamboo’s authentic Dim Sum is worth every mile. Pass the word to all your friends (especially if they’re Asian) to try their Dim Sum which is served only on Saturday and Sunday. My compliments to their Dim Sum chef and friendly staff. It is hard to find the restaurant by following GPS instructions. The restaurant is located in a former Kroger strip mall area. I drove right pass the strip mall entrance and I had to double back. No big deal. I can’t wait to go back and try other dishes. I’ll give them a two thumbs up.

ME

Melissa Walker

Seriously the WORST Chinese food I have ever tasted. The reviews on this place are misleading to say the least. I came in on a Sunday afternoon with my family and we were greeted and seated right away. The service was pretty good but thats the best thing I could say about this place. We ordered an appetizer (crab rangoon) and it came out pretty quickly but after that it was all down hill from there. They bought our food out piece by piece. My daughter and I ordered shrimp with broccoli and beef with broccoli one with fried rice and one with noodles, my husband ordered some sort of Kung pao trio with noodles, and my mother ordered cashew chicken with fried rice. The shrimp and beef with broccoli dishes came out first along with 2 bowls of fried rice. My daughter was the only one to have a full meal at this point. I had my overly soy sauced beef broccoli, my mother had rice, and my husband had nothing. 10 minutes later we get 2 plates of lo mein so now my order is complete but my mother and husband still had no entrees. My husband receives his Kung pao trio about 5 minutes later but my mother still had only gotten rice. Meanwhile, there were tables seated after us that had received all of their food and were finishing up before we had gotten even half of our food. 15 minutes after my husband got his food my mother finally received her food. It took 30 minutes for us to get all of our food and thats just ridiculous, especially for food thats less than mediocre. They kept apologizing for my mothers food taking so long but they in no way compensated us for it. I will never return to this place. A couple of the reviews compared this food to the likes of China Town and that cannot be further from the truth. This place insults oriental cuisine as a whole. If you want real authentic Chinese food you should try China Cottage in the Rivergate area.

RI

rick tillis

I have been to Lucky Bamboo a few times now. Up until today the service has been average and the food good. We had a group of seven today and when we walked in she asked if we had a reservation and we did not. The hostess advised another group of seven did but they were late and if they did not arrive in fifteen minutes we could have their table. If you have never been to LB they have a large dining area beyond the main dining room. Today it was empty as usual and there was a six top right at the entrance where we were waiting. So, the hostess apparently has more than one role at LB. Ignoring the people waiting to be seated is one of them and it was not just us. Well the reservation of seven did show up and were seated right away in the empty dining area in the back. As we waited for 25 minutes the hostess devoted her time to ringing out diners as they finished, all the while tables were becoming available, and dealing with to go orders. During this time one couple was seated by a lone wolf wait staff. My rule of thirty had ran out. While the rest waited I walked to the Vietnamese place next door. They had room for seven immediately so the rest came over and we were seated. And then waited for fifteen minutes with no one coming to the table. A waiter at the next table serving people that were seated after us finally yelled over "your next". We waited for a bit more and left. At that point the Fam parted ways and I headed to Coris Hot Dogs on 19th for a delicious hot dog. I doubt anyone from LB will see this which is unfortunate. I rated three based on my three previous visits combined with todays visit but had this been my first trip it would also be my last and it would have been a one star rating. I hope they do see the most recent reviews and get it straight. I really wanted Dim Sum today

EL

Elizabeth Hood

WARNING! The "sesame sauce" for the hot pot is a mix of sesame paste and PEANUT BUTTER. Thank God I chose to get sauce myself or our meal would have ended with an ambulance ride to the hospital for my husband. They told me it was sesame paste but I asked if there was peanut in it when I saw some very large chunks in the container and then they admitted it was mixed. Aside from that, this place is ridiculously ovetpriced and the service is terrible. I had to ask 4 times for napkins. Food was brought to our table and none of us had any utensils, napkins, or plates. I had to ask for utensils the next time they walked near our table. Our hotpot was never topped off and boiled down to about an inch, making it hard to finish cooking everything. The meat for the hotpot was frozen solid together and impossible to break into individual pieces. The most shocking thing on our $80 for 2 adults and 3 children under 5 years old bill (3 dim sum appetizers, only 2 meats for hotpot and veggies/noodles) was being charged $3 for hot tea. Weve had hotpot twice here and standard Chinese dishes 2 other times and I always feel like Ive been ripped off, the service always sucks, and they use so much MSG I get a migraine within 2 hours. We wont be going back. If you want AMAZING hotpot for a decent price and excellent service, go to Sichuan Hot Pot & Asian Cuisine.