Bamboo Sushi — Restaurant in Portland

After 3ys of being loyal, local customers & spending thousands of dollars there with loved ones, I now wish I could give less than one star for this review. There are many reasons my husband, Hoss, & I have been so loyal for so long. I have a many food allergies, & finding a place that caters to all of them without giving us lip or hesitating is not easy. Bamboo, specifically a server named Zoe, has always had our back with that. I had never gotten sick there because of their once immaculate food handling process (which has since gone downhill), & their willingness to disclose ingredients & prepping practices. When I got too sick to cook or my apartment became too humid to cook (severe sensitivity to humidity), I cannot express how many times Bamboo was the only reason I was able to eat that night. It had gotten to the point where my husband, who did most of the ordering & pick up, was known both by face & name there. He never had to say order for celiac anymore, because they knew him so well & treated him like the valued local regular (regular as in at least twice monthly for three years. Sometimes twice a week in the last year) he was. We have both expressed our gratitude countless of times, & they know that when he orders there, it’s because a) we’ve exhausted our other food options or b) I’m really sick & this IS our only food option. This honesty has been another huge reason we have been so loyal in returning, as it’s been nice to have a place understand how much their food & openness means to a generally alienated & illness vulnerable person.

Now, both of us have worked in the service industry for many years & we understand what it means to be swimming in customers. We understand that sometimes good food requires patience. That’s why we’ve had no qualms waiting two & a half hours for take-out from this very place, because we knew it would be safe on my system... but this past Sunday, we weren’t even given that option.

Before Hoss could get his order out, the woman on the other end of the phone told him “We are too busy to take to-go orders.” When they realized it was him, they started to back-track & apologize, but then immediately doubled down on “we are too busy.”

Never in my life, have I heard of a restaurant being ‘too busy’ for to-go orders. If any of you have ever watched Kitchen Nightmares, that’s a huge red flag. Gordon Ramsey would tell you to shut your damn doors, because you have failed as caterers to the service industry. If you’re too busy to even give people an estimated wait time, something is severely off about the way you are operating as a business. Hire more staff. Change the way the teamwork in the kitchen flows. Do something! As a restaurant, you are in the business of nourishment & in this economy, it takes a lot for someone to spend so much of their hard-earned money on food at a restaurant where one plate is designed to tickle your taste, not to fill you up or sustain you. It should not be your choice to not serve someone simply because of how long it will take. Give them an honest time window, & let them make the choice... rather than playing the part of the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld. You’re a restaurant. Not a dictatorship.

You cater to people with allergies. Turning someone away, means that you might very well have taken away someone’s very last safe option for the night. That person may have been willing to wait three hours, just to make sure she didn’t have to go to bed on an already aching & empty stomach. While we all make our own choices & I take responsibility for mine- know the cause & effect of turning away someone with so many food allergies, is on the shoulders of the people who chose to handle my husband’s request to order that way. For the first time in three years, we were forced to try somewhere new or not eat at all... & because of that, I have now spent the last few days sick as a dog.

10/10 will never be returning & telling everyone who will listen.

To be honest, I’ve had twenty-year friendships end, that were less painful that this break-up...

Thanks to the generosity of the most amazing builder around town, Urban NW Homes, both my S.O. and I were able to tantalize our senses at the lovely Bamboo Sushi located within the NE side of Portlandia. Upon entry, we were greeted with bright smiles and welcoming faces. We were seated at a table for two, placed close to the corner of the restaurant. At first glance, the menu is simple, yet full of insightful information. Not only did the menu described each dish in detail, but they also list the sources and methods used surrounding most ingredients. Pretty neat! We started our night with the “Miso-Cured Black Cod”. Oh. My. Goodness! The black cod was my personal favorite of the night. It was flaky and as soft as butter as it melted in my mouth. Rich in miso flavors with strong hints of ginger and citrus, it was better than candy. We continued the night with their “Albacore Carpaccio”. The carpaccio was fantastic! Smokey with some nice tang coming from the pickled shiitake mushrooms, which I had never experienced before. We also tried the “XO Flank Steak”. This dish was dang good! I had to remind myself to actually chew instead of just inhaling. Moving on to the sushi rolls, first, we tried the “Kimono”. The Kimono was very different than any other sushi roll I have tried. It contained delicious crab meat, apple, and cucumber all topped with seared salmon. What I found most interesting about this roll was the garnish on top of each piece; a fried sage leaf. The next roll we enjoyed was the “Full Circle” which came with some yummy albacore and tempura green onion all topped with an interesting citrus ginger dressing. The last roll we tried was the “Ocean Farmer” which was the best roll! It had crab, avocado, cucumber, with a garlic oil topping, and seared Hawaiian Kanpachi. This roll also looked the coolest. It had thin strands of tasty seaweed over the roll giving it cool almost 80’s lake monster vibe. We also ordered some standard nigiri tuna and an order of scallop nigiri. I didn’t pay enough attention to the menu at this point (too busy stuffing my face) and didn’t realize that the scallops came with a vinegarette. I did not care for this surprise much. I was expecting a somewhat sweet scalloped but was taken by surprise by the strong sense of sour. Feeling a bit extra that evening I wanted to try Uni for the first time; so I ordered 2 orders, 4 pieces total. For those of you who might not know what this is, it is raw sea urchin which is considered a Japanese delicacy. I found out real fast that I am not a Uni fan, but proceeded to eat the rest because mama didn’t raise no quitter. Overall I had an amazing experience and plan on coming back with family and friends in the near future. And again, I want to thank the lovely people over at Urban NW homes for giving the ability to experience new memories and truly...

Horrible experience tonight, and we go here all the time and usually love it. Literally everything went wrong, as if the place was cursed: 1. They were out of our favorite appetizer (on a Wed! At 7!) 2. Out of a main ingredient of our favorite cocktail. 3. Later, out of another ingredient of said cocktail, "but the bartender can substitute another Japanese whiskey, for an upcharge." (Seriously?! An upcharge?!) THEN, our server comes back with the bar menu and says he spoke to the manager about the drink and she said they could substitute another comparable whiskey. This was simply asinine: to go to the trouble of talking to the manager and for the manager to not approve of an upcharge for a customer who's been told "we're out of that" three times?! 4. After waiting for ten mins after placing our appetizer order (so that it would come out first), our appetizer came out a good 10 mins AFTER our rolls. When we looked at our server funny, he asked if we had ordered the appetizer. We said yes, but as an appetizer. He said he would see about comping it, and then didn't. 5. Server forgets to come back for replacement cocktail order and when he finally does and it finally arrives, we are done eating. 6. We ordered a roll to go and it came out on the plate instead. We told them we had asked for it to go and the woman left to box it up. Two seconds later our server comes with another order boxed to go. The woman who delivered the first role handed it back to the sushi staff and they said something to her about it and she threw her hands up and made a snarky face and said (loud enough for us to hear a few tables away), "it wasn't MY fault!" 7. Our server asks if we want anything else, we say no. He leaves and doesn't come back for more than 10 mins, and then asks again if we want anything else! 8. He then has a new palm credit card reader and tells us what our total is: $66 for the worst dining experience we've had in years! Then he says, "do you want to see it?" (Awkward and inappropriate) and then stands there waiting while we have to tip him on the spot. (More awkward and innapropriate). 9. No apologies for any of it. Literally not one. Our server was cocky and arrogant at every interaction. 10. Everyone in there was frowning. Is there new ownership?! Horrible evening. So horrible that our family started arguing because we were all so cranky and on edge about every single thing going wrong. Most appalled by the manager saying no to fixing...