Friday 6 February 2009

Bamboo Restaurant, Macquarie St

The new Bamboo Restaurant in Macquarie St was tonight’s eating destination. I was interested in going there to eat, as I’d read about it being the result of ex-Me Wah staff breaking out and doing their own thing. I’m a bit ambivalent about my experience tonight so looking back at the evening, and summing it up, the rating I’d give it is 2 ½ out of 5.

I went with three others, so sampled a few other dishes as well as the ones I had. They had three banquet menus listed at the front of the menu, one of which was a duck special, and that’s what I ordered, along with Kim. It was priced at $70 and had to be ordered for a minimum of 2 people. It was made up of 4 dishes: thinly sliced duck in pancakes (you got two of these small pancakes, filled and folded in a quarter); then a duck version, in its lettuce cup, of Sang Choy Bao (one filled lettuce cup); then a duck and tofu soup, and lastly a duck Cantonese style with rice.

Out of the above, my favourite was the Sang Choy Bao, which was, I suspect, the usual mix of finely diced duck, shitake mushroom and water chestnuts stir fried in hoisin.

I finished off the meal with Banana Fritters, which is an old favourite, and was fine. It was priced at $10, and came drizzled with chocolate topping and a scoop of ice cream. The banana had been cut into 3 pieces and deep fried.

Josh had the steamed prawn dumplings entrée which looked appetizing, and I wished I’d ordered them when I saw them. He got 4 in the serving, and they were round $10.

I tried Josh’s Beef and Black Bean, which was quite nice, and priced round the $16 mark.

The service was fine, the restaurant renovation ditto. They weren’t very busy, especially for a Friday night, but they had enough staff rostered on to cope with anything.

All in all, a very average experience, with nothing outstanding or memorable to comment on.
Posted on by Rita
9 comments

9 comments:

jus said...

I went there the other night in support of one of my ex drysdale students, however both myself and my dining partner left very unhappy. no need for dessert as there is enough sugar/sweetness in the main courses.

chicken and sweetcorn soup was good though.

Miles McClagan said...

This is slightly off topic - did anything happen with the restaurant that was the discussion topic at the Ross Noble comedy gig? There was a restaurant mentioned as having cockroaches all over the place, I just wonder how far something like that goes? I'd imagine in Tassie, negativity goes really quickly?

Rita said...

Miles, I'd seriously doubt that happened. You might find the odd cockroach in a restaurant here but not "all over the place", no matter what end of town you're searching for them in. I love Ross Noble, but might I suggest that possibly a tad of exaggeration might enhance his (or any comedians) performance?
I could suggest places where I'd like to feel justified in starting that rumour, but in honesty don't think it truly happened.
Now if you were talking about the great restaurant-owner-assaults-customer episode, as detailed here on this blog last year, then you're really talking turkey!

Rita said...

BTW Jus - I seriously considered the Chicken & sweetcorn soup last night but decided against it due to the Duck soup being a component of the Duck Banquet. Bugger!

Miles McClagan said...

What happened was he asked these two people in the front row why they were late, and they said it because they were dealing with cockroach infested rice and thus it became a running gag for the whole show after they named the place. I can accept it never happened, but it seemed incredibly defamatory! I know I'd be mardy if it was my restaurant...

Rita said...

You've got me interested now Miles. Is it possible to email me with the name of the place? You're probably best advised not to put it here in public.

Anonymous said...

No. You'll be right Miles.
Just tell us all. Half of Hobart {those that went to see Ross} knows anyway.
How much trouble can you get in to?
I'd hate Rita to get in any though.
Sorry but to be honest I'm just a real busy body at heart, and I'm dying to know.

Tassiegal said...

Make that me three about which resturant it is...
I'm still looking for decently priced take away fried rice that doesnt require me to trek to north hobart.

Anonymous said...

It was an Indian restaurant in North Hobart, one that has recently branched out. The rice apparently wasn't 'cockroach infested' but had 1 in it, as did the replacement rice.

On the topic of Bamboo, I checked it out one lunchtime, and was rather disappointed. Very limited menu, lax service. The takeaway special was simply not an eat-in option, even with the offer of paying more for the privilege (the seats were all empty too). The chicken and corn soup was tasty.
The evening menu does look very impressive though. I am undecided whether or not to give it a go.