Bamboo House Chinese Food — Restaurant in Calgary

TLDR: Wow! So much yum! 5/5 stars from me. We tried Bamboo House Calgary, for the first time tonight. I’m so impressed and so thrilled! Definitely recommend!

They have a section where you can list allergens and dietary restrictions and they will call you if what you ordered can’t be altered. They say they make everything fresh to order, so they are able to accommodate people’s dietary needs for many items. I’m not gluten free but they have gluten free options and I think vegetarian options as well.

We ordered one of the dinner for two options and it included:

2 spring rolls or 2 battered egg rolls. We didn’t want battered egg rolls, so we got the spring rolls. They were exactly how I like them. Crispy. Packed full of sprouts, cabbage, veggies, spices etc.

Chicken chow mein- delicious. It’s the kind with crispy noodles that soften as the sauce blends in.

Chicken fried rice- I didn’t wind up trying it. My stomach was getting full so quickly and I didn’t want to waste my tummy room on rice lol 😂

Sweet and sour spare ribs- these were a surprise front runner for me! I thought my husband would enjoy it and that I wouldn’t like it very much. But it was a really tasty brown sweet and sour sauce and the pork was such a good addition. Some protein that isn’t fried, to counteract some of the deep fried stuff

Battered torpedo shrimp with red sweet and sour sauce. These were like sweet and sour chicken balls but with shrimp, so even better, imo. The batter was similar to chicken balls and the red sauce is the same. We really enjoyed it.

This is what was in the meal for two.

We also added on their weekly special-

Salt and pepper squid. It was one of my favorites from tonight. The squid wasn’t rubbery at all. It wasn’t fishy. It was perfectly cooked. It wasn’t as spicy as I hoped it would be but it has amazing flavour to it, that makes up for it not being as spicy as I expected when they wrote hot/spicy beside it. I will definitely get this again!! I’ll ask to see if it can be made spicier, next time.

We also got the ten wontons with egg noodles and soup on the side. But the soup wasn’t on the side. It was all in one container. But that didn’t really matter to me. I didn’t feel like broth so I just plucked a wonton out and put it on my plate. The noodles were cooked to just the right consistency. The meat inside the wonton wrapper was full of flavour and it is just such a soothing food.

We also got 3 fortune cookies.

They must have followed my allergy requests because I did not have any reactions from their food.

And now we have a ton of...

It pains me to have to write this review. We have been ordering from Bamboo House for over 30 years. Since the new owners, the food has really gone downhill. I always gave them the benefit of the doubt, like a bad day or they were busy, but no more. There food has changed and they don't even know about it, which tells me that they simply order there food from a distributor and prepare it and do not do any quality control. A couple of examples. They had the best Pork Dumplings. The new offerings are TERRIBLE. I called in to ask them about the new recipe, and nobody was even aware that they even changed, including the owner! Palace Style Chicken. Used to have a "kick" to it, sauce was a very dark orange. Now, it looks just like S&S Pork with the light sauce and has no kick. S&S Spareribs. Used to be the small ribs, and now, they have been replaced with some big and nasty rib ends, looks like the scrap meat that was leftover. Ginger Beef - Dry and undercooked. Salt & Pepper Squid - texture is rubbery now. All in all, so disappointed that I am now in search of a new Chinese Take-out and will not be back. 30+ years!!! I am not the person who complains over stupid little things, but this is not that. My spidey senses are telling my that the new owners do not have the same passion in serving quality food, and instead, it is just a job. I wouldn't be surprised if they chose to cut costs and are now using a different distributor. If they did, this is the quickest way to end up out of business. I would love to see this business continue, but many things will have to change to get back to their past glory. On a positive note, they seem like very...

This is my 2nd time ordering from here. 1st time I found the food incredibly greasy. I was spitting out mouthfuls of oils which were in the food. I thought I would give them another try a yr later to see of they had changed. Upon opening my purchase I saw A LOT of grease on the outside of the bag, which led me to believe my order was heavily laddened with oil. Wor wonton soup was good, not the best I've had. I ordered standard Shanghai Noodles which should be a lower price then the SN dishes that come with meat or vegetables. I found $15 for some noodles and spices to be a heavy price. There is no tier for the dishes. You pay the same price for plain, or with meat or vegetables. The Shrimp fried rice was good, the shrimp were not over cooked. For the Cantonese Chow mein I found the noodles to be incredibly oily, vegetables cooked well prawns cooked perfect. After a few hrs the tub which the Sweet and Sour spare ribs came in had very thick white grease which hardened into the leftovers. Very unpleasant. I did not get a sweet and sour flavour from the dish. The lemon Sui Gai was a bit greasy, cooked well, lemon sauce was OK. Mixed vegetables with shrimp was good, a bit heavy on the cornstarch. Ginger beef was OK, again very oily. This would be a good place to go if not as much oil was used in cooking, they rendered the fat off the meat, and had tier pricing for dishes which have optional add ons. For the price I paid, I could have gone to a casual fine dining. I did not want to eat most of the dishes I bought. I do not think I will go here again. Sorry Bamboo...