Bamboo House Austin — Restaurant in Austin

Disclaimer: I am a Beijing-raised immigrant. This disclaimer is important since this restaurant is mostly about Peking (Beijing) Duck.

This is a hugely popular new Chinese restaurant in town, originally from northern Houston. It’s in soft opening at the time of our visit, but the line was about 30 mins on a weekend night.

There are things I like about this restaurant, but there are key factors that prevented me from giving a 5 star despite its popularity.

Things I liked: Peking Duck. It was ok. Peking duck is their main dish. The waiter was quite honest: people come here to have Peking Duck, the rest of the menu are basically regular popular Chinese dishes. The duck is passable. It is not crispy nor well cut like those from good restaurants; it’s skin is not well separated from the meat (for authentic Peking Duck, you dry the skin then blow air in between the meat and skin, so that the skin is separated from the meat and becomes crispy when you bake it, without having to use bread crumbs). This restaurant’s duck is not crispy enough. Plus the cut is more like a Cantonese-style BBQ (for example, Ho Ho Chinese BBQ or Din Ho Chinese BBQ), not Peking Duck style, where you have one plate for crispy skins, one plate with meat on crispy skin, and one plate with just duck meat. Peking duck usually has a high requirement for the wrap/“flour tortilla” as well. It has to be semi-opaque and be spongy. Their wrap is not like that, although clearly handmade. I rate this Peking Duck 6/10. It’s not cheap, $27.95 for half a duck, nearly $50 for a whole duck. When I was a kid in Beijing 15 years ago, my mom used to buy cheap 40 RMB passable Peking Ducks for me from a random restaurant in Beijing. That duck was exactly like Bamboo House’s.

The receptionist (probably the owner himself) gave us a free appetizer since he forgot to call our number.

Their recommended tip was before tax. Very good.

Things that I didn’t like:

Again, the Peking Duck. It is their main dish so having only a passable 6/10 duck is the main reason why I cannot give a 5 star. If you, the reader, ever go to Houston, where Bamboo House is from, try to find Courtyard Cuisine in Sugar Land. Although undeservedly less popular as a restaurant, Their Peking duck is cheaper with much better quality. I’d give it 8.5/10, the highest I’ve ever had in the US. One example why Courtyard Cuisine is better: for the duck soup that comes with your Peking Duck, the soup is more flavorful and it is from the duck bone of the duck you ordered. In this Bamboo House, the soup is from a giant pot of duck dones of every table’s duck, so the soup has too much water added and much less duck flavor, also the duck soup is not necessarily fresh because it’s not cooked from your duck’s bones.

The price. Most menu items are overpriced.

The selection. The menu is definitely on the smaller side, both for those who like American Chinese and for those who want authentic Chinese. Plus the flavor is just average. There is a house tofu + pork dish which was pretty good on the authentic Chinese...

Came to Bamboo House on a Friday night for dinner with my partner. When we went, there were a lot of people waiting for a table. We talked to the hostess by the table and got a ticket. When your table is up, the number on the screen above will show it and it will also make a noise to notify everyone when new numbers are up. We waited around 20 min for a table. We ordered the crispy and spicy chicken, the pork belly with preserved vegetables, and the half Peking duck. We got free soup for ordering the duck I believe, it was very delicious. The crispy and spicy chicken was my partners favorite, perfectly fried and spicy with that Szechuan pepper. The pork belly with preserved vegetables was good. The entrees were a decent size for its price and came with white rice for the table. We had to wait a little longer for the Peking duck after our entrees came out which is fine because we read that other reviewers mentioned the same and it everyone is ordering Peking duck. The Peking duck was so crispy and perfectly salty. It came with brown sugar, duck sauce, Peking duck sauce, and the garnishes. My partner said it was one of the best Peking duck he had compared to other places and half a duck is only $30. The restaurant is quite busy and they are short staff, the tables, and servicing water can be a little better but we understand since they were super busy. I would definitely come here again and recommended my friends to come try this place. Even if you do not like Peking duck, their entrees are so delicious. For two entrees and half a duck, our bill totaled 69$ which is really not bad. Come check this place out.

Update: came back here again after a long time. Still a wait for a table on the weekdays. We ordered a ton of food, the prices are reasonable still and the portions...

As a person from Beijing, I’m very confident the Beijing roasted duck I had at this restaurant was not good. I gave it two stars bc at least it is Beijing roasted duck. But this is honestly the worst duck I’ve ever had in my life.

My comments about the duck itself- We couldn’t choose between the duck soup and taking the bones back ourselves The soup came only about 3-4 minutes after we ordered. That is a solid evidence that the soup is not from the duck we ordered. And this is very offensive for a roasted duck. It also indicated that your duck is not freshly roasted because you can’t got the meat off the duck before it’s roasted. Of course they didn’t slice the duck in front of us🙁 We ordered a whole duck instead of half to make sure the duck would be freshly roasted ( the pic just showed half). Because chances are your duck won’t be fresh if you just order half. You don’t know if it’s the first half or second half. BUT still the duck didn’t taste as freshly roasted to me at all. The meat felt way too tight and the skin was too greasy. I think it was roasted before and heated agin after we ordered and that’s terrible for a roasted duck. Lost all the flavor

Comments about pancakes and sides- Overall I was happy about the sides. Because i was able to find everything I needed. And they also paid attention to details for example they peeled the cucumber and took the central part out. However, probably the sugar was put in the air for too long. It already became a whole big chuck and I wasn’t really able to get it with the duck skin The pancakes were TERRIBLE!!! It was so tiny, not round at all, and had too many babbles. These pancakes really irritated me. The restaurant should have better quality control. If I make pancakes like this, I won’t serve...