thai bamboo restaurant

comparingthaibamboo with a few otherthaiplaces in spokane might not be a good idea as the famous ones are mom 'n' pop family styled eateries andthaibamboo is kinda established restaurant .. but just like any other place across the globe (a lot of times) it has been found that the family styled places somehow serve more delicious food .. stands true here as well
:d

the place is huge btw .. neat clean tidy - yes .. service is good too .. the menu is having a vast array of food items .. a section dedicated to vegetarians as well which is nice .. everything, to be honest, is great except the food which could draw mixed reactions.

we ordered the vegetarian spring rolls to start with and the famous sodas .. the spring rolls were bland, bland to the scale where you forget to put anything in the food .. no salt no spice .. i have had 'em earlier too but they were pretty nice back then.
we wanted mango sodas but they weren't available .. ours were raspberry and didn't have much flavour ..

the food, yet again, was just sweet sweet sweet .. asked for less sweet but apparently their sauces are based with sweetness and they can not change it, which is okay .. (made me think, if the quantity of the sauce could have been adjusted) .. the hotness of the gravy was all the same .. 2, 3 choose anything ..

i had this chicken hot garlic with veggies .. except chicken and veggies everything from the description was missing .. garlic, hot and spicy - nope. the chicken was dry too.
the best was in the order was the massaman curry which was vegetarian btw.
the other good thing was the quality of tofu they used .. which was better than anywhere else i have had in recent times ..

all in all, the food was just good at its best, given the decor and all i expected the food to be really really good .. and not dangling between mediocre and good and a miss here and there.

ps - surprisingly the mains do not come with a side of noodles or rice or anything which should not happen.

left craving for authenticthaiflavors. we had the padthaiand the pad sewu (sp?) but the authentic flavor seemed to be missing. it seems like this restaurant is geared towards the american clientele that is not accustomed to authenticthaifood. we ate less than a third of our meal then left.

updated: the owner called me and apologized for the issue below. they took responsibility, and i will give them another shot.

ate there tonight for the 1st time ever with my family. the padthaiwas made with (what we later found out be) too much ketchup. yep, ketchup. per the waitress... anyways, it was bad, they made excuses, and still charged us for it. we liked everything else, and would have been back. however, due to this experience, and a $65 meal that turned out to be sub par, we won't be back. simple customer service, & admitting that something is wrong with your dish, could've saved you a client, and a negative review.

yum yum yum. it doesn't matter which of the fourthaibamboo resteraunts you go to, valley, south hill or north division you are in for soem great food and great service. i highly reccomend this restaurant to everyone; and have treated many of my friends here!!!

my husband and i visited on a saturday night. they were busy, but it seemed terribly understaffed. it took 10 minutes for us to be greeted by our waitress who brought us waters, and didn't give us a chance to order drinks. our appetizer was almost thrown onto our table by the food runner, no one asked if we needed anything with it, we did. our food came and mine tasted delicious, but my husband had basic phadthaiand he said it tasted off, sour almost. after not refilling our waters all night, it took forever for her to come back with our credit card. we won't be back.

great service, decent thai. my dh and i visited the new location on north division at noon on a saturday. it was busy, but not crowded. our service was great and the food was not too bad. note that their spicy level is less than what we've experienced withthaion first. i ordered three stars and it was barely spicy. my dh loves curry and ordered his very, very, very spicy and thought it came just to his liking. portions were plenty too. the dh stated we'll be back. :)

i prefer the oldthaibamboo. as a frequent patron ofthaibamboo at its former location (just one block south on divison from where it is now), i was excited to try the new, modern restaurant upon its relaunch. sadly, i was disappointed with the direction it has taken.

while it is great that this restaurant is doing well enough financially to afford a much larger facility, i felt much more at home in the original, small building. the new restaurant has almost a cafeteria atmosphere, whereas the older restaurant booths seemed much more private. when i visited the newthaibamboo location with several friends, i noticed that the portion sizes were quite a bit smaller than they had been, and the rest of my party agreed. the food still tastes good, but many things just seem a bit off with this new restaurant.

padthaiwas bad thai. worst excuse for padthaii've ever had. whenever i go to a newthairestaurant i sometimes get the padthaito gauge the quality of the restaurant because it is the staplethaidish and should be perfected by everythairestaurant. i asked for it to come pretty spicy but it didn't have a hint of heat; had to pour chili pepper flakes on it. the rice was overcooked and not even jasmine. the noodles seemed overcooked. there wasn't even any peanuts or lime juice. i've been to dozens ofthairestaurants across the country and all of their padthaidishes at least tasted similar to one another; this one did not. that is all.

getting bad. they used to served pretty good authenticthaifood, but over the years it got "americanized"

oh yummy.thaiis my favorite and this is the best in town. for about ten bucks you can get enough lunch to have leftovers for dinner. i have eaten here maybe a hundred times -- at all 3 locations. never a complaint on the food quality or the outstanding service. i highly recommend this place.

love this place! best curry and padthaii have ever tasted!

amazing curry dishes. i love going tothaibamboo for the curry dishes they have....they are consistent and delicious. the other dishes they have there are decent, but the curry is where its at.

the prices are a little high forthaifood, but the service is always great and the location on sprague is nice and small if you want to go out of the way for a more intimate dinner.

bestthaifood i'v had in years