Bamboo Village — Restaurant in Seattle

We eat dim sum all over metro Seattle and the Bamboo Village Restaurant remains among our top two favorites. We have eaten there dozens of times, even though it is off our beaten path.

The food is always freshly and perfectly cooked. The service is better than most Chinese restaurants, in fact better than any other I can think of.

My wife lived in Hong Kong for twenty years and she knows what is good. She agrees that Bamboo Village is among the top two or three.

Here's what we had last Saturday -- more than we could eat, but another nice meal at home. Take a look at the pictures. You may recognize the steamed siomai. The wraps have steamed cilantro shrimp, one opened up with the fork. There are deep fried tofu balls with shrimp inside, served with a sweet, warm, ginger syrup, lightly crusted and not greasy. (Is this making you hungry?)

Their congee is very light. You can choose chicken, pork or fish. Order it as early as possible, because it always takes a while to prepare.

My wife says they have some of the best chicken feet and a very generous serving. Another of her favorites is the fat, rolled, white stir-fried noodles in a sweet sesame soy sauce. Check the picture of the receipt, where the prices are quite moderate.

You'll see about as many Caucasians as Chinese eating here, a sign of the places popularity. Arrive early on a weekend, around 10:00 is good, to avoid the crowd. There are lots of kids and folks of all generations.

There is a small gift shop on the side, with a nice variety of household decorative items and some Chinese clothing. After we bought a new Ikea couch, we purchased 5 covers here for throw pillows. I think they were $10.00 each, which is LOW! Wow, they really dress up the living room when we use them.

They do serve beer, wine and saki. the restrooms are clean. We have always been able to park in their lot for free. It is literally across the street from Greenlake -- nice place for a postprandial stroll.

We are grateful to the Bamboo Village Restaurant for gracing our Saturday mornings with many fine meals! On the first day of Chinese New Year, January 22, 2023 we got the last available parking spot at about 12:30. Bamboo Village was jammed and had several large parties with ill-behaved kids. The din was unpleasant, but no blame. (We contrasted it with similar very loud noise environments at Joyale and Dim Sum Factory. They're even louder.)

We knew from experience to order congee as soon as we sat down because it takes a while. Gosh the fish congee was so good! Of course everything that we ordered took excessively long, it was understandable. Honey walnut prawns, siomai, maybe a shrimp-cilantro dumpling and deep fried tofu, all were delicious.

We ordered seafood paradise and chicken with snow peas and mixed vegetables to have lunch food for our work week. Two weeks in a row we've done this! Gosh the food is so good, very fresh and cooked to order. See...

Been living and dining around the Puget Sound for more than two decades and have sampled many of the local restaurants. Bamboo Village is hands down one of our favorites. The dim sum is on par with (and for some dishes, rivals) the most notable spots in the International District. It's so good that they decided to serve it all day. (Full dim sum goes until 3 pm with a more focused selection from 3 until closing due to popular demand.)

The dinner menu is a mix of Hong Kong style and Americanized options, so you have plenty of choices when ordering.

Some of our favorites include the best green onion pancake in Seattle. (Remember Fu Man Dumpling House and their thick, savory, crispy pancake that put all others to shame? This one is just as good!) The Three Delicacies with Garlic Sauce has a mix of spicy, tangy, and sweet flavors with a load of veggies and proteins (chicken, beef, and shrimp) and is outstanding. We've never had a bad dish here.

The staff are super nice and helpful, always greeting us with a smile, answering our questions, and helping us with our order. Portions are plentiful, so you may leave with some to-go boxes.

The interior is clean and airy with simple decorations. Bathrooms are well maintained and conveniently located. Dining room can accommodate larger parties, so it's a good place to bring friends or coworkers. They also cater.

But the real stars are the food and service, which are both generous. Highly...

I’ve actually never left a review in my entire life, however, I have never experienced worse customer service than I have today at Bamboo Village.

I ordered to-go and when I arrived, the lady at the front confirmed/went over my order with me. I guess there was miscommunication over the phone and I let her know there was one additional dish they added that I didn’t order.

As she took that dish out of the to-go bag she proceeded to basically harass me, telling me I did order it and that it was a waste of food. I was in shock but politely told her it was a mistake and that she must have misheard me over the phone. She rolls her eyes, tosses me the receipt to sign and heads over to the back of the kitchen.

As I’m signing, I hear her ranting very loudly to the staff. She comes out of the kitchen and probably assumed I had already left, but I intentionally stayed so I could talk to her. I let her know I heard her in the back and that the way she was treating me was NOT nice. Whether or not there was a wasted plate of food, you should never treat your customers that way. She did not apologize even though she was in the wrong.

I can’t speak for other employees, as it might have just been one bad apple. So if you do end up dining in/picking up, be prepared for the possibility of extremely poor customer service. It’s disappointing because the food was actually good, but because of this experience I will never be...