Bamboo Garden Seattle: Szechuan with Sizzle
In unprepossessing circumstances marked by a downtown Bellevue cement lot adjacent to an adult novelty shop, Chinese restaurant Bamboo Garden Seattle tables house lazy Susans spinning with authentically spicy Szechuan cuisine. The atmosphere at Bamboo Garden Seattle is almost overwhelming at first -- bamboo stalks reach from floor to ceiling in lieu of more substantial walls, but once settled into a table or booth, the customer can look over the extensive menu. Large parties are easily accommodated at the round tables, each of which holds a substantial lazy Susan ready to be heaped with food.
The menu’s divvied up into the Walk on the Wild Side section and the more staid section, where the usual suspects appear: chow mein, fried rice, sweet and sour pork. Walking on the Wild Side, on the other hand, may involve frog (dry-cooled and firepot), tripe, pork tongue slices, rabbit, and sweet and sour jelly fish.
Recommended dishes include ants on a tree (pork and noodles), bear paw tofu, camphor wood and tea-smoked duck, Chengdu hand-shaved noodles, the green onion pancakes, ma po tofu, the pea vines, salt and pepper prawns, the stir fried lamb with green chili peppers (from the wild side menu), and swimming fire fish (also from the Wild Side). While more traditional dishes that are Chinese restaurant standards are well-prepared, the more unusual dishes are where the Bamboo Garden really shines. The emphasis is on the spicy, and the flavors can be made as bold as the customer desires.
Ample seating means that it’s not difficult to find a table except at the busiest of times, but the same can’t be said of parking. Those who can’t find a space in the lot shared with other establishments may need to circle the block a few times looking for street parking.
HelloSeattle tip: Bring enough friends so that you can sample a variety of dishes.
Posted on Jan 31, 2011 by Cat Rambo
