La Bu La

Reviews 4

A

A Private User

My wife and I decided to checkout Bamboo garden since its parking lot is almost full on weekends, indicating people love this place and also its within walking distance of our place. So we walk-in and see a good number of people eating in there. We waited for a hostess at the counter but no one bothered asking if we need a table or informing there is a wait etc. I had to say "excuse me" to a waitress who was passing by and ignoring us as if we didnt exist. She said it will be a few minutes. We were like ok thats fine. So we sit on the chairs discussing how busy this place is and food must be really good. It must have been 20 minutes and we started to get impatient, partly due to hunger and the fact that upon glimpsing there were empty tables ready for new customers. So my wife decides to stand up and go near the counter to make herself "visible" to these people. Again few waitresses pass by ignoring her completely, making no eye-contact as if it is normal for people to just stand at the counter and not expect any attention. I kinda had the look on my face blaming my wife for bringing me here and of course it was no fault of hers. To make matters worse, an Asian couple walks past us and are given a table. That was it for me. I said to myself what racist MFs. But I did not want to walk out of there after waiting for such long and my wife was really looking excited to come to the place. So I decided to confront any passing waitress about us being here first. So I say "excuse me" a bit loudly to the waitress who was sitting the Asian couple. I was really fuming. She comes towards me and I say to her "We have been waiting". And guess what she says. "No". I did not know how to react. She made me speechless. And after a second or so she asks " how many people". I said 2 and she lead us to our table. Her name tag said "Ming". We start discussing that these people must be racist and recollected Seinfelds Chinese Restaurant episode. Anyway we order our food. It sucked. Mine had negligent sauce on Sesame Chicken and was having it with white rice. My wife said her food was ok. And Ming did not bother to ask for drinks or even plain water. We were really disappointed with the service and food did not match up to our expectations. We would probably never go back there, well maybe if its a question of survival, nor recommend it to anyone. And if you run in to Ming please tell her about this posting.

A

A Private User

In spite of previous reviewers warnings that service is sometimes slow, we decided to try this restaurant for the first time. When we arrived, a group of young men were clustered in front of the restaurant smoking cigarettes. Not a good sign (not to mention a violation of city code), we should have turned away right then. We sat at our tables for a good five minutes sipping tea before I actually got up from the table to go find menus. We were seated at a round table in the main traffic path for dining room staff, so it absolutely astounds me that no one noticed we did not have menus. The food arrived within a reasonable time, appetizers along with the main dishes. When our Lemon Chicken had not yet arrived more than half way into the meal, the waitress assured us that its longer cooking time was the reason. The lemon chicken never arrived, having been forgotten by someone - either the waitress or the kitchen staff, we dont know. We had to ask two times for the check and a to-go box, then waited again for the waitress to come for our visa card. We waited some more and she didnt return, so we paid at the register on our way out the door. Now - one caveat to this review. We were seated at 6:45 on a Saturday evening, a busy time in the restaurant industry anywhere you go. However, the restaurant was not at full capacity and we did not have to wait for a table. So why does this restaurant employ too few waiters to serve the customers in a professional and timely manner?? I have no idea and will never know because we will not visit the restaurant again. The food was just okay and definitely not worth the headaches of poor service. As the only Caucasians in the place, the thought occurred to me that perhaps we were experiencing reverse discrimination!

YE

Yen Duong

It gets 4 stars. Food was ok, service was good. Next time I will come in asking if they cater to the ma la scale. Food- It is for foreigners who want to try authentic food, but arent aware what true Szechuan cuisine tastes like = Americanized Szechuan food. Therefore without knowing the fact that theres actually two spicy scales when it comes to the cuisine, ma = for the numbing effect of the peppercorns and la = spiciness that people are used to from capsaicin, your food will be lacking the numbing sensation. Also, the food is more on the sweet side to please American palattes. We werent offered an option of a ma la scale so.. we ordered: 1) Fish fire hot pot-came with a good amount of chili oil mixed with broth for a very mild taste, with tilapia and tofu. Tofu was firm and fresh. The fish was nicely cooked and flakey. 2) Twice cooked pork- for the bacon lovers! Tasted like lean bacon that was fried with big pieces of scallion, green bell pepper, with soy sauce, and a bit of sweetness, but no crispiness. Service was good. They were good on checking up on our table, especially when we needed hot/cold water. Décor was beautiful. They had decorations that were reminiscent of the Chinese warriors on their wall which was a nice touch. Parking is underneath the building, is small and you have to check in with a meter. I didnt park in the parking lot under the building because it was filled up. The restaurant shares parking with the Soma apartments.

A

A Private User

Foods getting worse and the service is getting slow. However this was the only Chinese restaurant that delivered to my house with Ok food, so I order delivery sometimes. According to their delivery area map, I live well within, but recently they no longer deliver to me for some reason. The ginger and onion crab is always good, but its seasonal price. The orange beef is not good, tasted like over fried and burnt jerky. Recently, more decorations like broccoli has been added to the dishes to take up extra room on the plate such as the general tsos chicken. The chicken tasted the same, but there were a lot of broccoli on the plate. Honey Walnut shrimp tasted good, but the edible basket that the shrimp came in was definitely not edible. Sweet and sour fish was surprisingly good with a generous portion. The wild side dishes are ok, some are somewhat authentic Chinese. Atmosphere is good, but the services never good, servers are slow and sometimes it takes over 30 minutes to get all the food ordered. The last 2 times were disappointing. It is slowly going down hill and becoming one of the American Chinese food instead of actual Chinese food. There are plenty other Chinese restaurants that have better food and I can suffer bad services there. Overall the price is average Chinese restaurant price, the food is a little above average, but be ware of the portion size and decorations of the dishes, some dishes can be deceiving.