Bamboo Sushi — Restaurant in Denver

I used to love this place so much. My experience here every time was top notch. I would always sit at the sushi bar to talk with the chefs and get food quickly. It was an easy breezy life with all the food choices I wanted and if i wasn’t in the mood for sushi they had one burger that was thought up to perfection. I loved every second.

Yesterday I went back to this place and hated every second of the experience. First it’s not a sushi place anymore but a Japanese tapas place. They have a section titled fried rice so I foolishly expected a fried rice bowl but got very small fried rice cubes. The entire cost to make the fried rice dish must have been less then 50 cents but they charge $10 for fried rice cubes with mini avocado slices on top. Next the section called “from the kitchen” should really be called “small plates” it’s quite obvious it’s from the kitchen but it’s hard to tell these plates would be sooo small. Lastly the food took FOREVER. It took us 25 minutes to get a plate of vegetable tempura which they list has four varieties of veggies but after ordering it twice only came with three veggies. Overall the worst experience I’ve ever had at a sushi place cause in reality it is definitely a Japanese tapas place at the moment. There are also serving a burger section with almost the exact same burger but you add mushrooms to the next one, whoa very innovative, that burger used to be a staple and now it’s a bailout to appease everyone your tiny tapas menu can’t

Omg I forgot to mention the joke there doing with cocktail menu. On the top of the drink menu it says “speciality cocktails available upon request” so we asked for the cocktail list and they didn’t have one! So they wanted us to ask for nothing!! What a sick joke and a waste of my time trying to choose a drink. The waiter went on to say they had a special yuzu Moscow mule but no one wanted to put that on a public facing menu. The waiter said they were still setting up the cocktail menu since they just opened, I asked when they opened and to my surprise they opened two months ago but had yet to think up 3 cocktails to push to there guests but they made one burger into 3 and reinvented the fried rice.

Even the way I paid for the meal was terrible and I felt pressured and to my absolutely regret I ended up accidentally giving the waiter zero tip since for some reason when the waiter gave me the device to sign my check it was on an option for no tip which is not something I’ve ever seen before!! Like it’s always at least 15% but the machine went from no tip to 20%. So unless I want to calculate the 15% myself I must give 0 or 20. I think I’ll stay away from here until stuff changes.

Overall though food tasting was not bad, just disappointing. Sadly, my experience was terrible compared to what I had expected from here but I still look towards this place getting back to the good days in a year hopefully and I’ll delete this review with an updated one.

I do highly recommend the checkout system removes the no tip option and the default tip is either 10 or 15 percent. No tip should NOT...

Let me preface this review by saying I don’t eat seafood. Don’t get me wrong I love sushi… but I only eat vegetarian sushi so if that makes me lose all credibility in your eyes you can stop reading now.

Still with me? Okay good! Now let me start by saying for my vegetarians out there, they have one of the largest selections of vegetarian menu options I have seen at a sushi restaurant. Seriously they get a 10/10 for that! My sister and I tried this place on a whim and were so pleasantly surprised. You can see everything we order pictured below.

We arrived around 6pm on a Tuesday and were sat and greeted immediately by our lovely server and because we were in a bit of a hurry we ordered right away. The food was brought out as it was ready— which we loved! and timed perfectly. Loved the vibe of this location as well.

Now for the food. Get the spicy edamame. It was some of the absolute best I’ve ever had! You can’t tell by the picture but there was chili oil in the bottom of the bowl and once you mixed it all together it became perfection. The avocado nigiri was exquisite as well. Okay and don’t even get me started on the tempura cauliflower… like WOW. Incredible. Amazing. Give me 14 of em right now. …..now onto the things we didn’t love the smashed avocado crispy rice was good! A little cold and chewy and kind of reminded me of avocado toast but not a total bust, just probably not the dish for me, no big deal! BUT the real villain of the evening was the green machine roll. Don’t be fooled by the enticing description on the menu. It was foul. And I mean look at it, it looks as if my cat threw up on it. Absolutely no hate to the people who like this roll but it made us gag. It was so putrid I’m having a hard time putting it into words. I think the roll without the sauce would have actually been perfect but the sauce on top was oddly sweet and earthy but not the good kind of earthy, the kind of earthy where your dog just took a steamy hot pile of caca and then it rained. That kind of earthy.

Other than that one tiny thing… everything else was incredible!! 5 stars!! Totally go here! Just steer clear of the green machine roll. I wouldn’t even give it to...

Absolutely the best sushi I've ever had. I can't put into words how well crafted the food is here. The first roll that came out was a traditional spicy salmon roll. Like I normally do at other restaurants, I dipped the edge of my first piece in soy sauce. When I put it in my mouth, the salmon just melted away it was so tender, but I immediately regretted dipping it. The flavor was already perfect and I ruined it by adding soy sauce. I ate the rest of my sushi with only the fresh wasabi they grated tableside for us. Make sure to order the fresh wasabi. It's worth the extra several dollars if you're only used to having the fake 'wasabi' made from horse radish. Just be sure to use the fresh wasabi within 15 or so minutes as the chemical reaction that makes it spicy is time sensitive after grating. Anyways, back to the sushi. Not only are the flavors exceptionally well balanced and delicious, they don't linger for too long. I didn't have to use the ginger a single time to cleanse my pallette between rolls. You know how at other sushi restaurants you can eat a tempura fried roll drizzled in eel sauce and that flavor just sticks to you? We'll that's not the case here, and it's not for a lack of flavor either. The textures within each roll are creative and exciting as well! One of the other rolls we ordered was the Full Circle. It had tempura fried green onion in it and that little pop of texture really completed the roll in my opinion. The cocktails are equally as thoughtfully designed and well crafted. I ordered the Cabin Fever cocktail (japanese whiskey, bourbon, sweet vermouth, ancho reyes, burnt orange oil, firewater) and despite a relatively simple appearance in a low ball with ice, the flavor was absolutely decadent. I've individually tasted all the ingredients before, and I still couldn't tell where one ingredient's flavor ended and another began. Even though I live over 30 minutes away, I'll be sure to come back as often as I can. I know I gave their food the spotlight in this post, but the service and atmosphere are equally as great. If I could give this restaurant more stars or some sort of award in addition to my...