Thai Bamboo Bistro - 4/5 Stars

Authentic Thai cuisine with all kinds of combinations. Plenty of food to eat and also take home for the next day's meal.

Massamun Chicken Curry - thai basil, bamboo, potato, roasted peanut & coconut milk

“Short of screaming-hot Thai food, everything can be suitable for kids too.” - Guy Fieri

Location

Thai Bamboo Bistro is located in the Quail Hill Shopping Center. Closeby are other fine restaurants and a couple of spa places. From my knowledge, the area surrounding the restaurant is quite affluent which gives some context for the people who dine here. Also, there used to be a location in the Tustin District but that closed down a couple of years ago.

Company

Finally, after a long semester my brother was able to come back and enjoy a nice meal with my parents and me. We had actually been to this restaurant in the summer time and really enjoyed it. I had a not-so-great experience at another Thai restaurant near my house, so I wanted to cleanse my palette and dine at the bistro.

Service

Service was very good at Thai Bamboo Bistro. We were seated as soon as we entered the doors of the restaurant. Our waiter quickly got us our waters and took our orders. Since there was only one other party at the restaurant (we ate a bit of an early dinner), it made sense that it did not take long for our server to attend to us. However, I've had experiences where the serves takes time to come by and take everyone's orders regardless of how busy they were. Fortunately, this experience was good in that aspect. After about 10 minutes or so, all of our food came one by one along with a big pot of rice. The whole occasion was shorter than most restaurant visits and that is a big plus in my book.

Ambience

The restaurant was rather long and not too wide. I wouldn't say it was very small, as there were many tables with a good amount of room in between each other. However, it was not exceptionally large like some of the others I've been to, such as Maggiano's for example. However, this is no problem. I sort of liked that the restaurant was not too large as it made for less time for our server to check on our table and bring our food. As far as decorations are concerned, there were a few paintings and Asian-style objects. This made it feel a bit more authentic, although the American influence was evident. The lightning was nice a dim which I like. One thing I think would have been nice is music. Unfortunately, there was a group of people who were kind of loud and this one guy who kept coughing. The music could have been able to mask that sound and improve our intimate experience.

Food

I ordered the Massaman Curry with Chicken. The sauce was a very good consistency, not too thin, not too thick, just how I like it. I liked the potatoes that were engulfed in curry, but the pieces were a bit too big which made it hard to put into my mouth. The chicken pieces were a much better size and tasted very good. They were very easy to eat and not too spicy for my liking. The curry complemented everything, including the rice very well. I ordered my meal mild, knowing that Thai food is on the spicy side-it was a good decision on my part. We did have to ration the rice because they didn't give too much. This is somethign I've noticed at other Thai and Asian restaurants. They'll give a party of 4 the same amount of rice as a party of 3 or even 2. Aside from that, the food was excellent, and I would definitely come back again.

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