Bamboo Garden — Restaurant in Oakdale

This was my first visit stopping in Oakdale for gas and a driving break traveling from the Eastern Sierra to the Bay Area. Historically I have done the same, stopping at a Chinese restaurant on Hwy 120, the road going to I5 and the Bay Area and it was horrendous. So, this place was just slightly off 120 I decided to try. Initially I had premonitions given the location and the overall appearance, but I liked the posted menu so I decided to give it a try. Much to my surprise the food was very good, plenty of it, mostly at fair prices, despite not having some of my desired dishes. The service, when I got it, although rushed, was also good and the noise level was reasonable. For me there were three big issues. While there was plenty of seating there was only a single employee handling all front services including the register, seating, table service and carryout. While not extremely busy for dining service she was running around like a decapitated chicken try and failing to cover all the demands on her for service. Thus, the service was good when I got it, it was extremely sketchy. The next issue was that the orders and food were fully prepared all at once and brought to the table just as soon as it was cooked. I ordered soup, chicken salad and a shrimp dish with white rice. They were all brought to the table almost all at once. This resulted in my shrimp dish getting cold before I finished my salad and appetizer. If the meal had been served in courses this would not have happened. The only somewhat annoying item was they had 2 TV screens constantly flipping photos of different menu items over and over. There was almost no table that would allow you not to see them. Given I had a migraine this proved to be annoying but eventually I got used to it and was finally able to ignore it. I would have much preferred seeing some photos of China using the Ken Burns effect and maybe occasionally the menu items. The atmosphere was quite pleasant with Chinese art on the walls and typical family-owned local neighborhood seating. Unfortunately, it was somewhat spoiled with bright ceiling fluorescent lighting. Some Asian hanging lanterns would have much improved the atmosphere. All and all the wall décor and food quality mostly made up for all the issues. Basically, this is primary a take-out restaurant with seating as the take-out had much more traffic than the seating, with the way the the timing of the way the food was cooked was directed to that. They also do not do substitutions. They had S&S Pork and chicken, and shrimp dishes on the menu but would not make S&S shrimp. They served the chicken salad dressing on the side as I like mine fairly dry. They also really needed another employee in the front for service. Overall, I was reasonably pleased with the place and would likely go there again on a future trip. If I do, I will not order all my dishes at once. I also thought the rice was a bit overprices at $3 for a small bowl but that is often typical in other Chinese...

Decided to take my daughter out to bamboo garden in Oakdale for the holidays. She ordered the appetizer fried shrimp with I have to admit I didn't taste it but it looked very good. I decided to order the salt and pepper shrimp. Let me tell you that was a big mistake. The shrimps were very small and overcooked but the taste was okay had a little garlicky taste to. I decided to order the cream wontons with the sweet and sour. The sweet and sour sauce was very watery wouldn't even stay on my wonton. But the fried wontons we're good. Was it really very busy only two other couples came in along with us to eat dinner. Decided to go use the restroom and the restroom was dirty. Ask for extra napkins and the waiter didn't want to give us them. Also the soda tasted very bad. If you're looking for a good Chinese restaurant and you don't mind the drive I suggest China garden on coffee road or dynasty garden on coffee road. Dynasty is a little more expensive than China garden. But both of these restaurants have very good quality food. I would not recommend bamboo garden because it seems their food has gotten...

If I could give a zero, I would. the older guy that served us was very rude and he was rushing us to order when no one other than us is in the restaurant. When a customer came in to pick up an order, the older guy changed his attitude and was all jolly and friendly, got us thinking what the heck did we do wrong to be treated rudely as soon as we came in! The spring roll they served was undercooked and overall, the food just taste horrible. We used to love Bamboo Garden but now it's one of the restaurants we will...