Bamboo Asian House — Restaurant in Swansboro

Went to Bamboo for the first time tonight. They were rather busy, but we were seated right away and had excellent table service from our waitress. Our food came out quickly and our drinks were refilled without even asking and our plates were cleared within a couple minutes of finishing our meals.

My only minor complaint is I guess substitutions are not allowed? I totally understand that the price of each type of fish varies, some being more expensive than others and because of that, substitutions with sushi often times are not allowed. Hypothetically speaking, you can't substitute a piece of flank steak for filet mignon and expect it to be the same price. However, what I had asked was to substitute for something else that was ALREADY OFFERED in the sushi dinner assortment package, which, in my opinion, is completely different than asking to substitute for a different kind of sushi entirely. It would have been an equal substitution. It's not like I was asking for an upgraded substitution that I wanted for the same price.

I wanted to order a few pieces of sushi for my meal. There were a couple options on the menu to accommodate what I wanted, which was great (they have an extensive menu with lots of options!). There was a dinner option of 8 assorted pieces (2 each of tuna, shrimp, salmon, and yellowtail...or something along those lines) that came with either a soup or salad for $17.95. Another similar option had about 8 pieces as well (1-2 pieces each of red tuna, white tuna, salmon, shrimp, yellowtail, and bass...or something along those lines) but without the soup or salad for $15.95. Both were very reasonably priced options. But here was the issue... The "assortment" was not a "you choose 8 pieces from these 4 or 5 options" type thing, it was a "you get x number of pieces of each of these 4-5 options" type thing. I dont care for yellowtail or bass, but I liked the rest of the options in the assortment for each of those packages, so I had asked if I got the dinner for $17.95 could I substitute the yellowtail and bass for one of the other 3 choices in the assortment and the waitress said no. As someone who spent a good 10+ years as a waitress and working in restaurants at one point, I would have offered to ask a manager if that substitution would be okay or even if it could be offered with an additional charge, before I flat out told the customer no. If the restaurant has a strict no substitutions policy (I don't know if they do or don't, it's not posted anywhere that I saw) then the waitress could have communicated that to me. But no explanation or alternative option was given, just a flat out "no". So the only option to get the 8 pieces of sushi was to order it a la carte which was $4.95 for 2 pieces. So I wound up paying $24 for 8 pieces and the salad, rather than $17.95. So, I was a little disappointed with that aspect of our service. I wonder if our waitress had bothered to talk to a manager, if it would have been a different outcome? But, regardless the rest of our service was great, and so was our dining experience overall. The food was really good. The hot food we ordered came out piping hot and the sushi tasted fresh. Overall a...

Went to this place tonight for the first time. Yes, I know, we went on Labor Day weekend. We expected to wait anywhere we went, so that's fine. When we got there we were told 35 minutes. Cool. An hour and fifteen minutes later, our beeper went off. We were committed, so we stuck around. And we've been told how good the food is. We'd already had seafood more than once, so this was for something different.

I will admit, the food we eventually got was very good. That's all the good we experienced.

Right off the bat, we should have left. Their sanitation rating is a 92.5. I worked in a lot of restaurants and know pretty well that you have to be doing A LOT wrong to get that kind of score. Still an A, technically, but not good at all.

We finally got to our table, and were pretty promptly greeted. We noticed that all of the folks working there seemed to be hustling. Good! We should get our food quickly.

We ordered drinks, an appetizer, and two sushi rolls first thing. A few minutes later, we ordered our entrees thinking appetizer, then sushi, then entree. Sweet. Then, we waited. The gyoza came, and was very tasty. Then we waited some more. Empty Diet Coke and Miller Lite on the table. Our waiter...hanging out by the end of the bar doing nothing. Walked by us a couple times, nothing. We had to stop him to get him to refill our drinks. Fine, whatever.

Then, we waited some more. Nothing from our waiter at all. Lots of food going out of both the sushi bar and the kitchen. Everybody, except our guy, still hustling about. Finally, our guy comes over and tells us the entrees are about to come out, and he will bring the sushi when it's ready. Not what we wanted to hear.

Entrees came. They were very tasty (General Tso Chicken, and Shrimp Pad Thai). We ate our entrees, thinking sushi would be there soon. Nope.

We had to stop our waiter, again, to tell him we no longer wanted the sushi and wanted our check. We were over 2 hours in at this point. He goes to the lady, who I think is the manager, and she comes over to tell us our sushi would be right out. No, we don't want it anymore. Check please. Then, more about how the sushi almost done, blah blah blah. Then, my wife let her have it. Shortly after, our check came.

Our table was right outside the kitchen. If you want to know why they got a 92.5, check the kitchen out. The door isn't covered well at all. It's NASTY. Food all over the floor, overflowing trash cans, food in open tubs sitting on the floor, people using their bare hands on food. I watched our waiter multiple times handle dirty dishes and glasses, then turn around and garnish food and prepare salads, with his bare nasty hands. Should have taken pictures.

Lesson learned. We won't eat there again. I should have paid attention to my spidey senses from the start. If you want their food, order takeout. Then pick it up, and don't look up at the sanitary rating behind the bar. And, don't dare go near the kitchen. We go to a lot of different restaurants in a lot of different places, and this was hands down one of the worst...

We drove 1 hour and 15 mins to go eat at this restaurant today in Swansboro, NC and my family and I were saddened by how much it has changed since it first opened. My wife, six month old son and myself just had the worst experience eating out at this restaurant than I have ever had in my entire life, and I’m 61 years old. Cindy the manager at the front desk was extremely rude, insensitive, inconsiderate and very condescending to me and my family. We waited almost 45 minutes for our order that never came. The waitress was terrible that served us, she does not need to be waitressing and serving the public. She did not check on us or tell us why it was taking so long. Cindy the floor manager was talking about my family to one of the cooks and our waitress behind the counter near our table in regards to an appetizer bowl of soup that the waitress served me that was incorrect. When I questioned that the soup was not the soup I ordered according to what the waitress told me it consisted of, Cindy came over to my table with the soup in a to go bag and said that I had to pay for the soup. When I told her that the soup was not the correct soup that I had ordered she then proceeded to tell me that it was….I told her I was not paying for soup that was not what I ordered. She started being hateful and condescending to me and my family. Personally I think that Cindy, the waitress and maybe even the cook who consulted with Cindy about the soup was prejudice of my 6 month old grandchild, due to his mixed race. My wife and I were starred at walking in by the restaurant staff with racial tone all over their face, at least that’s what it seemed like and that’s how they made my family feel right from the start. After Cindy was so manipulative and condescending about the soup I got up from my seat with my family and went to the front desk to pay for the appetizer and two drinks we ordered and proceeded to leave the restaurant, I told Cindy that I remembered when Bamboo’s first opened their doors I was one of their first customers and how much I use to enjoy coming here but over the past 1.5-2 years now ever since all the Asian wait staff left and the Americans took their positions it has gone downhill. I mean when I walk into an Asian restaurant I want to feel the Asian culture and taste the authentic Asian cuisine, now there is neither and there is no respect or curiosity shown either. It’s very sad. I know the owner and she is a wonderful person that I respect and I am very fond of, she is a good and beautiful woman inside and out and I know that if she knew how others like myself in the community now feel about Bamboo’s she would be very disappointed to say the least, and to make things even worse Cindy overcharged us for the one appetizer and two drinks. She actually charged us for two appetizers when we only had one….just an absolutely awful place to dine now, it is really sad…I will...