Bambuza Vietnam Kitchen - PDX Concourse C & E — Restaurant in Portland

I am a sucker for Asian food so when I saw this joint was available at the Portland airport, I knew it had to get something. There's a variety of Vietnamese food here and I don't care if it's 6 in the morning. I want it all!

We landed at PDX at 7:30. I totally thought that they'd be open. They offer breakfast banh mi sandwiches so 7:30 shouldn't be an issue. Ya, they didn't open till 8. I only had a limited amount of time to get something so I ended up getting food from another joint.

After they opened, I went over to get something small. Something is better than nothing. Walked to the counter and the gal working just stared at me. She was finishing up chewing her food at the register and couldn't really talk. After she was done eating, she got my order in. There's a time and place for everything and eating at the register isn't one of them.

I got my bbq boa bun! It was like a piece of san Francisco in that little brown box. I have fond memories of these buns. It brings back a piece of my childhood. The bun looked so cute in the little to go box. It was warm to touch.

I ripped that baby in half and you can see the bbq pork in the middle. The bbq was savory and the bun was sweet. It's the perfect combination. I ate a much as the bun as I could. I'm sure they nuked it in the microwave cause parts of the bun was so hard. I couldn't eat the hard parts so I ended up throwing away part of it. Kinda sad when you want to enjoy the whole thing.

Due to the late opening, I wish I could have tried more items on their menu. I won't be hitting PDX on the way home so that was my only shot to try it. I wish it was a better experience from the staff to the product. Maybe in the future I'll be able to give them another shot. And hopefully it...

Frequent flier and frequent visitor of Portland International here.

Service - 4 Stars - Cashier was really friendly, but had a difficult time understanding “No Greens, no onions”.

Atmosphere - 3 Stars - Yep, it’s an airport with airport seating. Nothing abnormal or special.

Food - 1.5 Stars - Can’t quite bring myself to say 1 Star, it’s a brutal rating for me. Got the Honey Garlic Chicken bowl. Thankfully, the greens and onions are on the side, so ignoring my request to omit them wasn’t an issue. The chicken was a bit overdone, a little tough, but hey, it was better than a vast majority of airport Asian. A great flavor. A fat Zero Stars for the steamed rice. Dear god, it was terrible. The rice was cooked to the point that it was basically pudding in the center of the scoops. After 3 years of perfect rice while living in Japan, I am a bit sensitive on the steamed rice front, and this place embodied the root of all my rice-based fears.

I regret every ounce of my decision to try something different.

I’ve eaten here many times in the past, but always limited myself to their salad rolls, the little shrimp and pork jobbers with the delicious peanut sauce. Those have always been off the hook delicious!

In the future, I am going to limit myself to the salad rolls, sorry guys. Like getting wasted on Vodka, I don’t think I can stomach a second try of your...

UPDATE: APRIL 2024 Visit Delicious Banh mi and good way to start off my vacation. I didn't see cocktails on the TV monitor style menus so I asked at the register. A sign was flipped around and shown to me. They made me a tasty mango margarita to get things started. There was a little bit of a wait for food and beverages on this trip, but nothing wild and crazy.

I really appreciated the employees care for their work environment - despite several polite signs that ask customers to throw away their own dishes and other disposable items, it appears most people choose to ignore this and leave their items. An employee was courteous and taking care of this while we observed/ate/drank.

PREVIOUS REVIEW I wasn't aware they are also in the C concourse food court.

The "E" concourse location is somewhat beautiful and they have nice wooden panels on the side wall facing the shared seating area to help with the SE Asian feeling.

My partner had phô and shared some small fried bites with me. Other than missing out on real plates and dishes, an overall decent experience.

Local brand that still has at least one off airport location so prices are very fair (PDX still does not...