Bamboo Penny's — Restaurant in Leawood

So, where do I begin… especially when I contemplated on whether or not I would leave a review from this one experience because I am here often and I am always recommending people to this place. It’s literally my favorite restaurant!

However, last night I was not reminded of how much I love coming here because of the poor service my friend and I received. To begin, my friend arrived first and requested a seat at the bar or somewhere upstairs if it was open. Was told the upstairs was closed, but when I arrived the greeter instructed that we get seated upstairs. (Okay fine), upon our arrival upstairs the next greeter looked at us, no true greeting so we noticed bar seating available and asked was it okay to sit there and she said, “sure”. So we sat at the bar. The bar hostess was unkind and stated that she needed to ID us which was fine. We’re adults and was used to this protocol. So, moving forward we proceed to show her our ID and in the midst of this she felt the need to express how the state of KS require them to ask proof of ID and so on and so forth. (Again, what was the point of this conversation, we’re at a bar and this is normal). Then she proceeds to explain to us how she was not even to be working that night. (Making us feel totally un- comfortable at this point as though we were bothering her) so instead of making it noticeable we continued to carry on with our night. We ordered drinks and exchanged stories. Another waiter walks by with a handful of bar-ware and says to my friend “this is literally the worse place you could sit” now, for us we thought, if chairs are placed “literally” in this area then clearly its a place for guests to sit. I mean why would we intentionally move seats to an area that isn’t for guests. So we decided to just shift our seats to “accommodate” the waiter who simply was saying we were in his way! So now were feeling even more tension and discomfort, but we decided to carry-on with the night. We tried to make the best of it inspite of how poorly we had experienced service within the establishment from the servers and staff. So much more to share, but I will stop here.

I must say, this was one of my only awkward experiences here and did not feel welcomed or appreciated in the space. I was very disappointed for my friend experience considering this was an out of town visit for my friend. Just landed from the airport and we decided to grab drinks and a lite bite to eat. But this felt like we made a “HUGE MISTAKE”. Sadly, I may not be on a hurry to return as I “only” choose places to dine and spend money where I am appreciated and this certainly was not...

As of 11/2022 they have live music on Thursdays 🎶🎵

We had a lot of fun checking out this new restaurant just in time for patio season! It was extremely hot and stuffy on the second floor where the Bamboo Room is. More fans could’ve been utilized as there were zip in our corner or at least have the air condition on even though the windows were open. It happened to be a very sunny/muggy day. the roof is retractable but we were not offered relief with that nor did we ask. Pulling it in bed is would’ve helped a lot esp since it was just us over there.

We were in time for happy hour, 4p-6p, when the restaurant first opens. When I was asking about drinks, the particular one I wanted was not on the new menu. I was told about another kind. however I should’ve been told about the happy hour drinks first because I would’ve picked one of those before paying the extra money for the margarita that I received. It wasn’t that good for $12.

Since I had looked online first I knew to ask what were the happy hour bites and drinks specials. It was not something that was mentioned or offered to us as it should have been. The crab Rangoon was delicious. The small bites were all five dollars. My friend got an almond milk chicken soup that was amazing! Unfortunately the waitress threw her napkin into her soup before asking if she was finished and that ruined her eating the rest of it ;(.

The music was OK if I can remember correctly. The bathrooms downstairs were dirty and definitely needed attention especially for just opening. It was nice to have an elevator to go up since I am still wearing a boot from surgery. However if you’re a fitness buff there are plenty of stairs you can run up to get to the bamboo room.

It was a nice place to experience once but I don’t feel we would go back again unless some things are changed. Because of the things I mentioned that is why I gave it a four out of five. The hibiscus royale was the best drink I had which included an edible flower which was even better than the drink itself! That drink is bubbly and a little sweet so those of you who like red flavored sweet drinks you were in for a treat. That’s it! If I ever did go back I would try their dessert of chocolate Rangoon.

Oh the decor is cool and the front staff when u come in was extremely...

[edit] Lowering from two stars to one star because I find it very disingenuous of them to reach out telling me to contact by email about my experience but when I did then didn’t reply to the email and it’s been 5 days now, I was going to give it a full seven before updating but I’m genuinely mad at this point. Pretty restaurant is only worth so much when you have bad wait staff, dirty dishes, and apparently poor management.

It’s a beautiful restaurant and I had high hopes but my experience was one of the worst I’ve had at a restaurant before. It wasn’t horrifying or anything just a bad experience from sit down to leaving. I came in with a friend for lunch. We were seated and not too long after a waitress came to take our drink orders, we hadn’t gotten to look at the menu yet so we ordered just waters for now. I wasn’t completely sure at this point but our waitress seemed upset at only waters or maybe something else was going on, no worries people have feelings. She left us a moment and came back a couple moments later to ask for apps and drink orders. We ordered the Rangoon and still hadn’t gotten a chance to look at the drinks so told her just the waters were fine for drinks still. We got the Rangoon pretty quick but they’re not like most, they taste like garlic bread mixed with a wonton which I’m sure is really great to some people it just wasn’t our thing and that’s okay, I’m not upset about not liking that dish, it’s just not for me.

Where I do start getting upset is the waitress asked if we were ready to order and I said yes and she proceeded to walk away and then for the next 7 minutes walk back and forth by our table but ignored us? I really don’t understand honestly maybe a miscommunication. But then when I’m waiting I go to drink my water. my water glass smelled like what I thought resembled wet dog but my friend says fish. Either way I nearly gagged taking a sip it caught me so off guard. At that point my appetite was gone. I had had half a Rangoon and my friend had had one. We left the others untouched and when asked about them we just asked for the check. We paid fully for them even though we didn’t eat them and the waitress stood over us while we were paying and stared at the tip screen pressuring us to pay for being...