Blue Bamboo — Restaurant in Jacksonville

My wife and I just dined at the Blue Bamboo Canton Bistro after reading numerous positive reviews. Many reviews proclaimed it as the most authentic delicious Cantonese food in the area. Our expectations were high and we were excited to visit the restaurant under award winning Chef Dennis Chan.

The restaurant, located on San Jose Boulevard, is modern decor, spacious dining room and has plenty of parking. Our server was personable, enthusiastic and knowledgeable about the menu items.

We started our meal with the Fried Pork Potstickers. The dumplings were not crispy enough and the accompanying dipping sauce was not good. We prefer the traditional sauce with soy, ginger, garlic, scallions with chili or sriracha.

My wife opted for the Curry Salmon and Shrimp. The seafood was fresh and cooked well but nothing to write home about. The dish was served on a bed of vegetables ... broccoli, carrots, celery, bok choy and possibly some onions. My wife is British, she is very familiar with cooking with curry. We understand that curry dishes are also very subjective. The curry in this Salmon and Shrimp dish was bland, nothing special especially at $ 33.00.

I ordered the General's Chicken. It is their spin on traditional General Tso's chicken, a dish I have had hundreds of times in my life living in the metropolitan areas of NY City and Boston. The menu describes the dish as crispy fried chicken breast meat tossed in chilies with peppers and onions with steamed rice. My chicken was dry, overcooked and served in a tasteless sauce. Extremely disappointing considering all the great reviews of the Blue Bamboo.

The best item we sampled was the Mandarin Orange Cake. It is their award winning signature dessert. It was absolutely delicious! The highpoint of the meal.

We had great expectations visiting the Blue Bamboo as many reviews proclaimed it as the most authentic Cantonese restaurant in the JAX area ( No yellow fried rice). Maybe it was an off day, but we found the Blue Bamboo to be disappointing and...

I recently attended the coursed dinner at Blue Bamboo with my husband, and regrettably, our dining experience left much to be desired. Despite the anticipation of a Vietnamese dinner experience, for which we paid $60 per ticket, we were disheartened to find that the menu heavily favored deep-fried foods. Virtually every item, from the pork to the dumplings, was fried, deviating significantly from flavors typically associated with Vietnamese cuisine.

As someone who appreciates the intricacies of dumplings, I was particularly disappointed by the execution at Blue Bamboo. The dumplings resembled more of an empanada than a traditional Vietnamese dumpling, and the absence of a soy sauce pairing further detracted from the authenticity of the dish. To add, the rice dishes lacked any salt, which was undesirable.

Beyond these shortcomings, it took an excessive 45 minutes for our first course to arrive, a salad accompanied by fried rice cakes. Despite our evident dissatisfaction, the manager failed to intervene or address our concerns, missing an opportunity to salvage the dining experience.

As regular patrons of multiple course dinners in Jacksonville and surrounding areas, we were deeply disappointed by the lack of creativity, authenticity, and basic culinary competence demonstrated at Blue Bamboo. Our visit was not only a regrettable waste of time and money but also a missed opportunity for the establishment to showcase its potential. It is disheartening that the management did not prioritize addressing these issues, further exacerbating our disappointment.

I cannot recommend Blue Bamboo, and I sincerely hope that the establishment takes steps to improve its offerings and...

My boyfriend and I are foodies and came here for a date night, but we were left disappointed overall in the food.

We ordered the crab rangoons appetizer, and they were pretty decent. For the entrees we had the chicken fried rice, and two chefs special items: Sichuan eggplant and beef rib noodles. The rice was the best part of the dinner. It had a nice flavor, but a lot of onions. The beef noodles were NOT what I was expecting, and a bit greasy. They came balanced on a styrofoam noodle cup with a rib on top, which although eye catching, did not look so appealing. Neither of us liked the eggplant. The sauce was overwhelming and it didn’t have a good balance of flavor that I am used to with traditional Chinese eggplant dishes. It didn’t look that appetizing either and we could only eat a couple bites and did not take it home.

Apart from the food, the restaurant itself was beautiful and had a nice elegant atmosphere. There was some event happening when we arrived as well. The service was also nice, and the waitress was attentive. We were honest about the food, but they were very understanding.

Something else I noted was that we had to ask for chopsticks and it took a several minutes for them to hunt some down for us. Didn’t expect that in a Chinese restaurant.

In the end we were not very impressed and could have gotten similar food for cheaper at a regular takeout place. Maybe we got the wrong things, and maybe we will come back here if things change, but if you seek more authentic Chinese food like we do, I recommend...