Bamboo Sushi & Hibachi (Niceville) — Restaurant in Niceville

My buddy and his wife love Bamboo and, since I owed him a dinner, I suggested that we have dinner here.

Prior to reading my review, I need to disclose to my readers that, ever since I've returned from two trips to Japan, I'm very picky about my sushi/Japanese food. It's probably not fair to use these places I've eaten in Japan as a marker for rating sushi bars in the US. However, it does influence my opinions, unfortunately. The environment is well lit and fairly open. There is 80's music playing at a decent level but wasn't too loud in my opinion. Seat yourself and browse the menu. Then, once ready to order, walk up to the cash registers and place your food order with the cashier. You order your drinks as well. The menu is fairly extensive. One thing that I do not like about Japanese restaurants in the United States is that they try to offer everything. Instead of getting good at just one niche. So, accordingly, they offer hibachi entrees, ramen, appetizers, including tempura, edamame, etc. We ordered edamame and vegetable tempura as apps for the table. The edamame was great. I was not impressed, however with the tempura. Tempura batter should be very light....read "thin." These veggies looked like they were bathed in pancake batter and plopped into the fryer. This as a deck of cards, they had so much batter it was tough to find the food. Seriously, disappointed as I was craving some deep fried veggies, Japanese style.

For entrees, I ordered the sashimi dinner. It came with miso soup, steamed rice and 9oz. of fresh fish on an oblong chilled platter topped over a mound of Diakon radish curls and micro greens. Well presented, it was quite pretty. The fish was tasty, fresh and delicious. It was priced a bit high at $30. I thought it was interesting that the menu denoted the actual weight of the fish. This is definitely a US thing as you would never see this type of thing in Japan. My friend's wife had the Filet mignon hibachi dinner and for $1 more, substituted the fried rice for the gratis steamed variety. It also came with stir fried veggies. She was quite pleased with her meal and finished all the meat and veggies leaving half the rice. My buddy, ordered three rolls. He prefers the soy wrappers over the traditional seaweed/nori sushi wrappers. Why? You ask? Well, so do I. He's picky as they come! That's all I'll say about that. They had half off hot sake on Mondays, which was nice and it was tasty as well; pairing nicely with the fresh fish. We also ordered a couple beers. My friend's wife wanted the Yuzu flavored rice wine. While it was tasty, the $25/12oz was quite off-putting. I can't recommend it based on the price. Overall food was pretty decent minus the tempura which needs serious help. With tip the bill for three came out to over $175.00. This left me feeling a bit beat up and realizing that, in my opinion, the restaurant is fairly overpriced. Food: 3.5/5 Service: 5/5 Ambiance:...

I really wanted to love Bamboo in Niceville, FL. We are on vacation this week and staying at the Holiday Inn Express around the road and could smell the Hibachi from the parking lot and told the family that is where we were eating because it smelled great. When we arrived the parking lot was full and thought man we are about to eat good tonight, man was I wrong. The pricing was a little high and a lot higher compared to similar Hibachi food style restaurants where they do not cook in front of you. At Bamboo they do not cook in front of you. The restaurant is in what looks to be an old McDonalds or other fast food restaurant of days past, but they have renovated it inside to try and make it fit the style of food you are eating. You seat yourself then you walk up to the counter to order. If the food would have been terrific I would have been pleased and be writing a much different review, but the food was not. The shrimp had an off flavor to them (that bleach/chemical taste you sometimes get if you eat shrimp at restaurants a lot to know what I'm talking about), the steak was ok, but didn't have much flavor, and the fried rice, which should have been the star of the show was not good at all. It lacked flavor and I've had much better for much less elsewhere. I travel a lot across the nation and Japanese Hibachi is my favorite food and I'm a bit of a connoisseur I would like to think and either we had a bad visit, or folks around here just don't know what good fried rice tastes like. Now they do offer a lot more than Hibachi and rice and the other dishes and sushi may be delish, but the Hibachi is not and cannot recommend it. I often compare these style Japanese style restaurants to one in South Georgia called Fuji's and they are almost a third of the price and you get way more meat and the rice is good. For example a plate of Steak and Chicken is roughly $12 and it will easily feed two adults. Anyhow, I just wanted to share my experience because for $68 for two adults and two teenagers to eat this was a major disappointment. Our pizza at Hungry Howie's that cost $12 the night after was 1000% better which fed...

Picture this: a converted McDonalds that looked better as a McDonald's. I have been in auto repair shop waiting areas that are twice as nice as the interior in Bamboo. Then, the place has wire pantry shelves against the far wall of the dining room with sacks filled with styrofoam to-go containers. A young person hands people's orders to them. This is definitely a back of the house function I don't care to see. Order at the bar then sit down? Misses the cafeteria feel too. Super busy? Yes, it is busy, but they don't process the business with grace and it was a wierd energy inside. We ordered four specialty rolls and I would have found a better visual presentation at the Publix sushi counter. Publix sizes their packaging to the amount of food they are selling so there isn't all this empty space surrounding relatively plain, visually flat, "specialty rolls". My four rolls were packaged among 3 full-size foam clam shells containers. Thought sushi makers knew about Styrofoam alternatives? Cardboard, clear plastics... The rolls weren't colorful and beautiful like other sushi places. The online ordering app pictured one of my chosen rolls with a bright piece of tuna atop each slice of sushi. The roll I actually received had ground tuna in its place. Looked like that raw steak tar tar stuff that had lost its fresh brightness. When it is all said and done I think McDonald's may have been a better choice that night. Sushi brings an expectation that we're about to dine on something special. I was embarrassed that I wasted our date night meal. At no point along the way did I think Bamboo Niceville got it right other than the parking lot facing the water has a...