Big Bamboo Asian Fusion — Restaurant in Florida

This place is amazing. First time dining here with my family tonight. I have eaten Thai, chinese and Japanese food from all over and the food here is the real deal. The good mark of a great chinese and asian place is Wok Hei...or the breathe of the wok. Its the smoky flavor infused in the dish to elevate flavors from very high heat wok cooking that only a few chefs xan master without burning food. It is difficult to achieve. I ordered Shrimp Fried Rice, Pad Thai and Mongolian Beef, and the smoky wok flavor was all infused in the dish and was amazing. The Fried Rice, had smoky wok flavor all throught the each grain, and each grain was separated so its the perfect texture, signs that they properly cook and refridgerate the rice ahead of time to get the correct texture for fried rice. That is how you properly make fried rice. The Mongolian Beef melts in your mouth, which is another sign of a technique called velveting. This is a marinade and precooking processing to tenderized the meat which is essential in good chinese cooking. Being Lao/thai heritage, and eating Thai food all my life, the Pad Thai is authentic, sweet and little tart and smoky Wok fIavor throughout the dish. The noodles were perfectly chewy but soft and the sauce was delicious and authentic. I was expecting this food to maybe taste like all the other chinese takeout places around the area...watered down, bland, and no wok smoky flavor because they are too scared to burn the food...which comes from inexperienced wok chefs. I watch some of these other takeout places have this huge wok but i dont see fire underneath the wok when they cook....BUT not with this place! From an asian pallete, it is very impressive and authentic....western diners who like local takeout, will never go back once they had Big Bamboo food. I didnt even mention the huge portions of food you get. My wife had sashimi and she said it was really fresh and well done. MY son got orange chicken, and it was still crispy even tho it was coated in sauce, and he said it was the best. My other son had Tempura shrimp and said it was crunchy and tasty...i tasted everyones dish and it was all excellent. The dining experience and ambience was well done and thoughtful. It was around 5pm and the place was packed, and still got all of our dishes within 20 minutes. Very family friendly. Our host was so nice and outgoing. I will say Las Vegas has some of the best and most expensive chinese food in the world and ive eaten at 5 star chinese restaurants there and i will tell you, this place is just as good as the best chinese restaurants in Vegas, but for a fraction of the cost..We are so glad we have a new place to dine around here. After 10 years in this area and eating at all the chinese takeout places in venice, englewood, and port charlotte, i will tell you this is the spot. Believe the hype when you drive by and you see their parking lot packed...its packed for a reason! Cant...

Acceptable. Great in some ways, needs improvement in others.

We did take out last night, I had the Tofu Green Curry, my wife had the Tofu Mae Fun, and we split a Gandhi roll (We are vegan).

The green curry was superb, the Mae Fun was good, but my wife described the wide flat noodles she wanted, and this dish looks more like Angel hair. The Gandhi roll was great as well.

Tonight, we went back in for some dine-in. We started with the Buddha roll (vegan), which was pretty good. It was interesting that the server did not have any knowledge of the vegan rolls, claiming he'd worked there for 2 years and had never heard of them. Since we had ordered one of them the night before we were pretty sure they had them, and asked him to check with his management. Sure enough, they were a part of the menu.

Not wanting to mess with perfection, I ordered the tofu green curry again, and it did not disappoint. My wife asked for a vegan Pad Thai, with Tofu instead of meat, and no egg, normal level of spiciness. It was quite bland, with no perceptible heat, and no peanut flavor. Someone else in our party ordered the regular (non-vegan) Pad Thai, which had the heat level and peanut taste expected, so it was something specific to my wife's dish. She split the tofu green curry with me, and we took home her pad thai to heat up and fix up for lunch the next day.

All-in-all, a solid 4 for the area, and we'll probably head back next time we visit Port Charlotte, but we will certainly do some research to see which other vegan...

After being a customer as both an on premise diner and a take out customer for 2 years, I had a terrible experience this evening I felt compelled to share. I placed a take-out order and asked for a sauce on the side. After being given a price over the phone, when I arrived to pick up the order apparently the employee working the take out order register observed an excessive additional charge on the bill and questioned the employee working the host stand. Apparently the two found it humerous as they discussed the excessive charge added, the pronunciation of which is not much different in the language spoken than english, and laughed over it as the employee at the register resisted sharing detailed bill when I requested one. Honestly the additional charge was nominal in the grander scheme of things and frankly unfortunate. I paid no more, and in fact probably less than I typically would as I typically would add a generous gratuity having a past hospitality background but for obvious reasons did not this time. Sadly, I just won't go back. Not for one incident but I've had similar incidents with additional charges in the past, often times added in multiples. This experience just validated that they are intentional and malicious in nature as opposed to in error or ignorance. This post is just a warning to watch your take out bills and express my disappointment as we used to enjoy the food, dining experience, and interactions with some past employees. We'll opt for other venues in the future. ...