Bamboo Garden
108 N Rengstorff Ave, Mountain View, CA, 94043
Bamboo Garden Menu
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Visit below restaurant in Mountain View for healthy meals suggestion.
Visit below restaurant in Mountain View for healthy meals suggestion.
Visit below restaurant in Mountain View for healthy meals suggestion.
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Address :
108 N Rengstorff Ave
Mountain View, CA, 94043 - Phone (650) 967-7334
- Click To Get Directions
Opening Hours
- Tue
Specialities
- Takes Reservations : Yes
Delivery : No
Take-out : Yes
Accepts Credit Cards : Yes
Good For : Lunch
Parking : Private Lot
Bike Parking : No
Wheelchair Accessible : Yes
Good for Kids : Yes
Good for Groups : Yes
Attire : Casual
Ambience : Casual
Noise Level : Average
Alcohol : No
Outdoor Seating : No
Wi-Fi : No
Has TV : No
Waiter Service : Yes
Caters : No
Categories
Chinese Cuisine
The popularity of Chinese food in America can be adjudicated by the appearance of China Town in many major cities in the United State of America. The popular trend of ordering or opting for Chinese take away food isn't unknown in America. Chinese take away food comes to rescue when you're too tired from work or too exhausted to cook. No one can resist the temptation of eating spicy noodles, shrimp, chicken, beef or pork cooked in the sweet and spicy sauce. The cooking method of authentic Chinese food is a lot different compared to what is served in America.
Generally, Chinese use dark meat small bones and organs to cook dishes but this changes when you are eating American-Chinese fusion food prepared using white boneless meat cooked with broccoli, carrots and onions. Back in China, the food is less spicy and oily as they favor steaming and braising method for cooking the most popular dishes. So, if you have a taste for authentic Chinese food, then try finding a real Chinese restaurant in the city. You can also try the most popular fusion Chinese food like Pecking Duck, Chicken Feet, Hot Pot, Shrimp Dumpling Soup, Mapo Tofu, Wontons, Chop Suey, Egg Rolls and not to forget Fortune Cookies.
There are not many restaurants in America serving authentic Chinese food. A little research on Restaurant Listings directory can help you locate the best Chinese restaurants in the city. Chinese cuisine is continuously evolving, and you can find a variety of dishes categorized as the food for lactose intolerant, gluten intolerant, vegan, vegetarian, and diabetic friendly. So, if you have a group of friends with different taste patterns, save the hassle and visit the nearest Chinese restaurant in your city.
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Nadja T.
My parents recently visited us in Mountain View. Being Chinese from Vancouver (Canada), they are spoiled by delicious Chinese food in that city. We took them there for dinner the first night they arrived. Before that night, my husband and I have already been there a few times and thought their food was good, especially the XLB, which were the best we've ever had in the Bay Area. My parents were impressed with the food. Since my father knows Putonghua, he chatted with the owner, Kathleen (sp?), who is generally very friendly to her customers, in particular, the regulars. He inquired about whether the food contains any MSG, and she confirmed that they don't put any in their dishes except for maybe one or two of them. My parents visited for three weeks, and they went to Bamboo Garden for 5 meals, (lunch, dinner and take-out). Some of the dishes we ordered were: XLB, pork belly/bamboo shoot with sticky rice, pork/mustard greens in soup noodles, Shanghainese fried noodles, smoked tea duck, baby bak choy shoots, and scrambled egg and shrimp. There were a few more dishes we tried and liked, but I don't recall their names in English. There was one dish we didn't particularly enjoy, and that was the drunken chicken (appetizer). Otherwise, almost every dish we ordered, we really enjoyed. Food is delicious, service is efficient and friendly, prices are reasonable. Definitely would go back again, especially since my parents will be visiting us again for the Christmas and New Year holidays in a few weeks!
(5)Tanya T.
Gone here twice now since they Reopened as Bamboo Garden. Both times I was happy with the food and the very friendly service. Here are the things we ate: XLB (the soup dumplings) - way better than HC Dumplings in flavors (which has closed by the way) soup is tasty and plentiful. Only problem is that the skin can tear if you don't have finesse on getting it out of the steamer The fried buns, dont know what they're called - same filling as the xlb, so its good, but to me, too filling, I'd rather save tummy space for the other stuff. but would be a good meal if you were only eating one order of that for lunch Shanghai Stir fried rice cake - kind of sweet, there's soy sauce and other stuff, good flavor and I like the rice cake texture - good Pork and preserved vegetable stir fried rice cake - this one looks bland but isn't. good taste and textures as well. I have a preference for the Shanghai style, a little bit more dimensions to the flavor. Fish filet with wine - YUM! love this one. nice tender fish, woodear mushrooms, edamame beans and a good healthy dose of xiao Shing wine to the dish. Stir Fried Shanghai veggie (seem like baby bok choy or something like that to me) good. simple Spicy beef tendon - good texture, nice chew, and good flavor, not too spicy Onion Pancake - thin and you can tell it's made fresh. I liked! 8 treasures rice dessert - I couldn't count out eight, but it was good. Over all, good food, no MSG and pleasant owner/hostess. I want to go back and try their pork knuckle, that sucker's for $17!
(5)Albert W.
Ordered the following Smoked fish - 2 star (too sweet and not salty) Shanghai fried noodle - 4 stars (not greasy and tasty) Smoke duck - 3.5 stars ( a bit undercooked but flavorful) Shanghai dumplings - 5 stars (juicy and skin is thin) but too bad they don't have the one with crab meat Braised meat ball - 2 stars (the meatball is not as tasty as others) Shanghainese preserved meat soup (forgot the translation on the menu) - 2 stars (the soup has the bamboo taste, the meat has no taste at all) Pan fried buns - 2.5 stars (the juice is inside but the skin is a bit too soft) The service is quite good though especially being a Chinese restaurant.
(3)Quill B.
We regularly order Xiao Long Bao by the steamer, which is fresh and handmade. It is easily the best in Mountain View. The full menu is a bit hit-or-miss, but when it hits, it's great. I had to go there a few times to find out their truly superb dishes, which include Pork Shoulder, Smoked Tea Duck, Yuxiang ruosi, Eggplant, Pea Sprouts, Mongolian Beef. Ba Bao Fan for dessert is simple and tasty. Misses include: Pork Spare Ribs. Don't get this.
(4)Jay Y.
The food is generally good. especially the small steam meat buns (). Some items are very inexpensive, like noodles are $5.99 and $6.99 mostly. It's mostly Shanghai style, with some items of Northeastern cuisine and Sichuan food. It tries to cover all corners of China, thus losses its identity somehow. The size is not very satisfying though.
(4)Tony L.
Came here on a Friday night with the girlfriend. Definitely one of the better Chinese restaurants in the South Bay. Although they specialize in Shanghainese, they have a variety of other Chinese foods as well on their menu, and the ones were not half bad. It's kind of a hole in a wall next to the Shell gas station in a non-too reputable part of Mountain View, but don't let that fool you - this is a gem in the rough. Service Service was excellent. A Chinese restaurant that actually checks in to see if your food was alright. Seriously? I don't recall any other Chinese restaurants doing that in recent memory. Food came very promptly (in fact, it literally took five minutes between our order and the xiao long bao coming out). In addition, the lady is very nice and friendly, which always colors the food in a positive manner. Dishes Xiao Long Bao (crab): 5 Xiao Long Bao (pork): 5 Garlic sprout? (Suan miao): 5 Water Boiled Fish (Shui zhu yu): 3.5 Smoked tea duck: 4 The xiao long bao was as advertised. Probably the best in the bay area in terms of thinness of skin, meatiness/portion size, and juiciness. Pretty good as expected. The spicy water boiled fish was not as spicy as I would've liked, but then again this isn't a Szechuan restaurant, so that's probably to be expected as well. The smoked tea duck was decent, with a very authentic taste. However, this taste is partly acquired - not sure if it's for everyone their first time out. In general, the quality of the food was very high, and extremely high for a Chinese restaurant in this area. Price Decently priced. Price could've been cheaper, but we got 5 dishes for about $45. Could be worse, as we definitely got what we paid for, and then some. Verdict This is a must-go for fans of xiao long bao. Have to travel pretty far to find something that comes close. Everything else is good, but not great, but more than suffice in playing backup to the xiao long bao. Will definitely come again.
(5)Meghan B.
I really like their xiao long bao. The place is definitely a bit of a hole-in-the-wall but if you're craving XLB it's one of the few places in the area that does it well!
(4)Lisa Q.
This place is pretty much perfect - authentic, cheap, delicious and the staff is extremely friendly!! The stir fry rice cakes remind me so much of my mom's cooking. I'm only taking off a star because sometimes I wish they'd go lighter on the MSG. But I guess that's part of what contributes to the authenticity.
(4)Andy B.
Very impressive Chinese food, with some great atypical items (the pig's kidney is awesome). Overall the food was very flavorful and notably low in salt and oil. The location is tucked hidden in a stip mall, and unremarkably labeled - so it is something of a hidden gem.
(5)Denis L.
Those dumplings are as awesome as other reviewers say. The service was excellent, even though we were the only Caucasians in the New Years crowd. The beef tendon was excellent too. We were expecting a bit of a dive, given the other reviews here, but it's rather nice inside! We'll go back with more people and a bigger appetite!
(4)Shiawase O.
first off, order the xiao long bao. don't pass go, don't collect anything until you eat a few of these. i like how some people can just pick them up and not make a super mess. i have to use the little spoon thing to hold it and then i poke it a little with my chopstick. it's all delicious fun! i don't know if we hit bamboo garden on a good day, but the xlb was simply delicious, including the meaty broth. my friend ordered sweet & sour chicken (so standard), but was surprised by how much she enjoyed the xlb. (the s&s chicken looked good, but who orders that at an authentic restaurant??) i also ordered the glutinous rice with pork in bamboo (seriously, it came in a big piece of bamboo...) and was overjoyed at the flavor and the juicy pieces of pork. health enthusiasts may turn their noses up at this particular dish as it is all about fat and pork and glutinous-ness... bamboo garden is not chi-chi or in a beautiful location. but if you like authentic tastes like me, you will turn on your gps and get yourself over there...
(4)J G.
i love this place cause it provides authentic chinese food and the taste and quality are consistent. decent price and the owner was very friendly. i also love that desert soup. yummy!
(4)Claudia S.
The one time I came here was alright, the xiaolongbao was alright. Small place, so a little understaffed.
(3)Margaret C.
I have to agree with other Yelpers that the soup dumpling here are incredibly delicious! A great place to go with the family.
(4)Matt G.
Delicious. This place has good won ton soup. Unique bean soup dessert.
(4)Amy I.
We went here last night for dinner after seeing four star reviews for this place. We ordered the xiao long bao, salt and pepper fish, pan fried noodles, and seafood and tofu clay pot. Overall, the food was mediocre and the location was a little shady. First the xiao long bao - not bad. I can see why people liked them. They tasted pretty good. As good as the dumpling houses in Cupertino? No way. But pretty good. Salt and pepper fish lacked any real flavor. pan fried noodles - not sure where the noodles were. Usually people complain because there isn't enough topping, but in this case, it was hard to find any noodles. The noodles to gravy/topping ratio was really off. Other than that, it tasted pretty good though. Seafood & tofu clay pot - biggest disappointment. Maybe because I've had tofu pots elsewhere and they use the fried tofu and a delicious brown sauce. Here they used soft tofu and a white sauce. the shrimp also looked white, not the nice pink/red color when cooked well. Therefore, everything in this dish was white and extra goopy. Just the look of it was a turn off. And the goopiness of dish was really gross. The service was okay. Nothing to rave about, but nothing to gripe about either. the server was nice and always came to refill our tea/water. It's definitely not the best chinese food around. The best is really in Cupertino (what I call "little chinatown") or in San francisco. You just can't beat the dumpling houses over there. I would give this place a 2.5 stars, but you can't give halves so I rounded up to 3.
(3)Janey A.
I'm really quite shocked about this place....shocked that the food is so good. I live very close by and have never eaten here because it's in this crappy shopping center. But the place was packed and they also appeared to do a brisk take out business. I wasn't sure what to get and the waitress suggested the salt and pepper fish....yummy! So good that I came back again later in the week. Again the place was packed. Everyone's dishes looked so good, I'll be back again real soon.
(4)Diane W.
Zhangcha Ya was good (sort of like ham) Bamboo pork was awesome:)
(4)Kris S.
For its price, one of the better and most authentic Chinese restaurants in Mountain View.
(4)Ryan B.
Been here ~20 times. Xlb is amazing as well as a few dishes like pork and glutinous rice. Service is poor, even for a Chinese restaurant. Owner was nice - not so much now that I'm a regular. The young waiter is clearly untrained and spilled half my soup when pouring in a to go box. Good food, but held back by the people serving
(3)Stephanie L.
"One of the best meals of my life." Those were the exact words I used at the end of the meal. We ordered the following: - Hot & Sour Soup: Subtlely delectable :9 - Green Onion Pancake: Not greasy or overly dense like the ones I've had at other places. - Dumplings with Crab Meat Paste: I didn't know these were soup dumplings so the first one I picked up dribbled all over the place so don't make the same mistake I did. Pick it up carefully as to not lose any of the savory lip smacking juices. These were the highlight of lunch. - Shanghai Style Pan Fried Pork Buns: These babies were fantastically juicy and delicious as well. The sweetness of the dough pairs lovely with the savoryness of the pork innards. - Glutinous Rice with Pork & Bamboo Shoots: I love the presentation of this dish. It comes in a cyclindrical bamboo "dish" and inside is stuffed with fluffy glutinous rice unlike any kind I've had before. The rice is obviously of very high quality and the toppings of fatty melty pork belly with bamboo shoots and sauce takes it over the top. So good! I didn't want to post a review of the place because I want to ensure a table the next time I come here but it was too good not to share with you guys.
(5)Jolie Y.
The place is small but decent, bright and clean. We ordered the Shanghai Pork Noodle Soup, pork dumplings and vegetable dumplings, all three items are pretty good. Unlike some other Chinese restaurant, he flavor is natural, and I'm very impressed with the vegetable dumplings, the filling reminds me of the homemade dumplings I had at my grandpa's. I would love to dine here again.
(4)Rob C.
better than expected. XLB are pretty hard to make, and here's a place serving a thin wrapper, meaty inside with a lot of juice and not too much fat. flavor is a bit different but still good with ginger/vinegar/soy dip and worth eating again. maybe since i came right at the start of lunch they were fresher. it was good. in any case, also had the glutinous rice with pork in bamboo dish -- cool presentation, good flavor but fatty pork (smells because of preserved bamboo), and the house special spareribs stew string bean with potatoes from the dongbei section. this was very homey with ginger star anise flavors and the only thing i would change is that i prefer string beans lightly cooked. came back to try again, michelin recommended. still some of the best XLB in this area. nice thin wrapper with lots of juice, just thick and sloppy at the top. sheng jian bao were less impressive cuz although crispy on the bottom, much thicker and less juice. also had the lion's head meatball which was good but variable, large 5 part portion. this time tried the fish with wine sauce and woodears mushroom, heavy on the wine sauce, portions will last you awhile. don't order the sparerib stew with eggplant and potato, very bland, and not order the general tso chicken because they don't know how to do it right with too thick batter and ketchup based sauce.
(4)Lila P.
This was by far the worst Chinese restaurant I have ever been to. My husband and I are relatively new to the area, but we had a craving for Chinese and looked on Yelp to find a place with good reviews. We figured if this place came so highly recommended it had to be good and when we showed up, the amount of locals that packed the place told us the same thing. Well, maybe it was because they were busy or maybe it was because we were the only white people there, but the staff completely ignored us. We were shoved in a small table right next to the kitchen and kept getting bumped into as they walked by. We had to ask for drinks at least three times from each of the waitstaff before they gave it to us. They also waited at least 30 minutes before they took our order and ignored us any time we tried to flag them down. I ordered white rice with my meal and had to ask for it twice. My dish also came out at the same time as the appetizer which was a good 20 minutes before my husband's meal came out. And any time we did ask for anything they acted totally put out like it was a nuisance for them to have to do their job. As for the food, the dumplings we ordered were so so and there was no lettuce at the bottom of the container so they completely stuck to it and completely ripped apart as we tried to take them out. The duck (which is highly recommended on here) tasted old, like it was the leftover one that had been sitting there forever. When we left without eating more than two bites the waitress just smirked at us like she had planned the whole thing. I got the cashew prawns which was actually really good, but by the time I got to it, it was cold since I had to wait so long for my husband to eat. Never again.
(1)Arthaey A.
The other Yelpers are not lying: GET THE SOUP DUMPLINGS!
(4)Mary N.
I went to this place several times because I live very close-by. It is getting worse and worse. The waitress kept suggesting that we did not order enough but ended up we had way too many left over. The bamboo pork is very greasy and is fried in a regular pot, then put inside the bamboo. The XLB is watery and torn apart. We complained one of the dishes was not done properly, then the manger came out and insisted that nothing wrong with it. At check out, the handwriting on the receipt is so hard to read, we pretty much had to trust whatever is there. Not a pleasant dining experience at all.
(1)Amy B.
I love xiao long bao!
(4)Mimi L.
Love their XLB, will come back just for that. The best so far in the South bay.
(4)Ede S.
The quality of the xlb wrappers have gone down... it is a lot thinner and broke easily. The vegetables that we ordered were also a bit undercooked... perhaps the quality of everything has slowly gone down a bit? I also noticed that the place is not as crowded as it used to be...
(3)M K.
Best XLB on the Peninsula Bamboo Garden is a hidden jewel for those who love authentic Chinese food without the MSG. Let me start by singing the praises of the pork XLB. First, the dough is nearly translucent and very fresh and fragrant in and of itself (those of you who know what fresh homemade dough should taste like know what I'm talking about). Then, each massive XLB is filled with a very flavorful, piping hot soup. My husband and I are always on the hunt for the best XLB and after we found these, we've basically stopped looking. Yank Sing and Su Hong should learn from the XLB here at Bamboo Garden! Even beyond the XLB, there are many truly excellent dishes on the menu--the beef tendon and tofu clay pot is addicting as are the pan-fried pork buns. My husband and I go about once a week and we try different things every time--we have yet to be disappointed. There are so many dishes here from my childhood that my mother used to make, but that I've never been able to find in a restaurant before. And the owner is awesome and super friendly--it tastes like home!
(5)Serene L.
1. Order the crab paste Xiao Long Bao! It's pretty close to Ding Tai Feng's, but larger! Love the vinegar/sliced ginger sauce that came with them. 2. Very good tofu dishes - love the ma po tofu (can be served vegetarian or with meat), and the seafood tofu. 3. Water boiled spicy fish (Shui Zhu Yu) is great too! Comes with a load of fresh fish on top of vegetables and cellophane noodle soup. 4. Didn't like the lion's head meatballs as much, but the hubby loved them. The insides were slightly pink, so I'm not sure if they were supposed to be totally well done? Fast service and great care is taken to prepare each dish - we got free dessert the second time we went too. Will be a regular customer.
(5)S C.
Great little restaurant. Seems like a family run business. Ask for the specials and specific recommendations from the owner. I tried the Xiao Lung Bao and the Vegetable Mu Shu. Warm bean soap for desert. Give it a try, you'll be surprised.
(4)Lainie F.
This place has the freshest tasting food. Not too salty or saucy but just right! I highly recommend them. Good for families and your wallet. :o) Most of their items are hand made like dim sum, wontons and pot stickers..
(4)arlene d.
Nasty ass place. Rude ignorant slow waiter and nasty food wayyy too much msg
(1)john w.
on sesame chicken Very friendly and fast service, I was in and out in ten minutes. They used white meat chicken fingers (same as in sweet n sour chicken). Two thumbs down. I am not sure if that's their style of cooking it but, you gotta stick with the dark meat when making this. They also put water chestnuts in it with two pieces of brocolli wtf. Sauce was aite. If I do go back I will try the other recommended food.
(3)Sean H.
Not the best atmosphere. Very plain and boring. The food was only "Meh", I love good Asian food, and was really hoping to find one of those "Hole in the wall" places - only to be disappointed. Probably won't be coming back.
(2)Jessica N.
This restaurant has very good service! The waitress started us off with recommendations . As said in other reviews, the XLB is a must-get, my favorite dish of the night. I also got the Bamboo Pork thing, but you know, bamboo kind of stinks, and it freaked me out a little bit. I don't think I'd go for that one again. The baby bok choy was very good, but at $9 for the plate, it was a little pricey for just vegetables. We also got a complementary dessert, some kind of milky tapioca thing, It was good and not too sweet. I would definitely come back here for the XLB.
(4)Daniel C.
My girlfriend and two other friends visited Bamboo Garden last night based on the suggestion of a Chinese co-worker; what a GREAT idea!! We ordered Mongolian Beef, Bamboo with Pork and Sticky Rice, Green Onion Pancakes, Seafood Tofu Claypot and Vegeterian Dumplings. All of our dishes were absolutely delicious. Mongolian Beef - a very nice touch of spiciness, fresh scallions and onions, and served hot. Green Onion Pancakes - crispy but not overly oily like in most places. Seafood Tofu Claypot - my favorite dish, had fish & shrimp and a very soft, mellow tofu. This went so well with rice! Bamboo with pork and sticky rice - this was SO good. I am eating leftovers right now and it is such a rich, flavorful dish. Dessert - the owner treated us to a taro pudding. It was very tasty, though it isn't something I am used to :). The service was excellent as well. I can see how some people may have had a bad experience with service, since it does appear they often have only one waiter. The restaurant itself is very clean, and the owner was very attentive and asked us how our food was. I have lived in the Palo Alto/Mountain View area for my entire life and I can't believe I just found this place! I can honestly say it is one of the best Chinese restaurants I have visited in the Bay Area. One other note: I am Chinese, so my tastes may be different than that of other Americans. This Chinese food is definitely NOT Americanized, so if your definition of good Chinese food is General Lao's Chicken or Orange Chicken, you may not be used to the traditional Chinese cooking in this restaurant.
(5)Daniella M.
I LOVE this place. The XLB are awesome and the owner (I assume that she is the owner) is sweet and always gives the best suggestions. Sometimes she even brings out new dishes or deserts for people to try for free.
(5)Mark L.
Pros: 1. Great service... the lady sure knows how to do business... very nice and sincere (No, she didn't give us any freebie, but it beats the previous restaurant "Shangahi Restaurant" where the man was so rude all the time.) 2. Price is reasonable. 3. I'm a big fan of Shanghainese food. I tried a few Xiao Lung Bao. The first time I was here, I thought the XLB was the best I had! You can see soup in the bun, wrapping was perfect, not thick and hard, and soft and sturdy enough to pick up with chopstick, soup and meat flavor is good too. 2nd time I was there (today), it was good but not as "WOW" as the first time, still one of the better one around Mt. View/Cupertino/Los Altos area. 4. Still new enough that wait isn't that long... love those diamond in the rough. 5. There is a pot was really good, but I don't know the English name, with slice of pork and clear soup with bean curb ribbon... Oh.. so good. 6. The smoke fish (cold dish) was awesome. 7. The sticky rice dessert was good... the purple one. Cons: 1. Disappointed in the Shanghainese style vegetable rice in a pot. They still couldn't get the right salty pork to emit flavor to all the rice in the pot. The veggie is fine, I wonder may be those place that made good veggie rice in the pot actually slightly stir fry the pork with the rice so the flavor get through. 2. Occasionally, they will run out of certain dishes because of smaller restaurant, you don't stock too much or it won't be fresh but it's ok with me. All in all, I like the restaurant, definitely a fan. I've taste better in couple of dishes so I can't give it 5 stars but it's a decent 4-41/2 stars.
(4)M. C.
This place is totally overrated. We've ordered from their special menu, 3 dishes for $19.95. We got the black bean shrimp, shanghai fried rice cake, beef stew pot. Food tastes blend. The beef stew pot consists of 80% tofu and 20% beef stew which is a total ripped off. Portions are very very small as well. We got complimentary taro pudding and omg does it taste like water. I've never had a taro pudding which the after taste has no sweetness to it. We gave this place a try since it's really close to home. But it was a total disappointment. We would never go back here again.
(2)Huaiyu M.
This restaurant used to be Shanghai Family Restaurant. The new ownership kept some of the Shanghai style dishes, but added many northeastern Chinese dishes. The sour cabbage pots are delicious. According to the waitress, they make their own sour cabbage, no vinegar added. Their Shanghai style dishes are also decent. They make the best Shanghai steam dumpling (xiao long bao) on peninsula. You have to try it if you go there. The service is great. Waiters and waitresses are very cheerful, and always very helpful.
(5)Monic S.
This restaurant just went through an owndership change. The old one (Shanghai Family Restaurant, or Shanghai Qiao Jia Shan) is no longer existant and the new one (Bamboo Garder, or Zhu Lin Xuan) opened as of today! We were lucky to be among their first customers, and was quite impressed with the quality of both the service and the food. The owner is passionate about her new business, and made good suggestions on what to order. We had three dishes - Zhangcha Duck, Garlic Spinach, and Peeled Shrimps (Qing Chao Xia Ren). All are good. I also like the fact that they serve brown rice rather than white rice. The owner also said they'll introduce 3-dish-for-19.50 with free rice or pancake soon. Will definitely come back.
(5)Lesley J.
like this place, especially their Ba Bao Fan and Xiao Long Bao. will go again.
(5)Edith H.
We passed by this little plaza a million times but never been to this place. The soup dumpling is very yummy and the other dishes are decent as well. We had this fatty pork rice inside a bamboo and it was delicious! Will definitely come back.
(4)Julia T.
We ordered take out from here and we ended up dumping 70% of the leftovers into the trash. We didn't order dim sum (though most of the yelpers continuously mention to order the xiao long bao) but we ordered the Vegetable with tofu, pork and preserved veggies fried rice, and beef w/ green beans. The veggies with tofu was recommended by the lady that was taking the order. It had a mixture of baby bok choy, broccoli, cabbage, soft tofu, carrots, and spinach all sauteed in a white thick goopy sauce. It was incredibly bland and soggy. The pork and preserved veggies fried rice was a huge let-down. My boyfriend commented on the smell of the fried rice, obviously it consisted of preserved goods - but it smelled a little more like ... skunk (sorry). The fried rice was bland, the veggies didn't have that acidity I expected and the pork pieces were dry and nonexistent and as I previously mentioned, it had a bad lingering odor. The beef with green beans was the best out of the three but it wasn't wowed by it. Most likely, my other half and I would not come back to this place, we had way better shanghainese food up in the milbrae area. However, the great thing about this place.. it's cheap. And since it's located in an empty strip mall, there's ample parking. Cheers*
(2)Gwynn A.
The day I moved in across the street, I could smell the delicious food cooking in this restaurant, literally. As my husband and I are new to the area, we thought we would try this place out, and we both agree..... this place is as good as it gets, and found it to be on par with some of the Chinese Restaurants in LA. For the price and the amount of food you get (one dish will feed 2) it's a total steal. The wait staff are super friendly and accommodating - the first time my husband and I went, it was 30 minutes to closing, and the owner still invited us to sit down in the restaurant and eat. If you are in the area, this little place is definitely worth the visit!
(4)Vincent V.
I am very pleased with the Xiao Long Baos here. As far as I'm concerned these are the best in the area. If you're used to Ding Tai Fung, well..... my rating is slanted for the Bay Area. If you want Xiao Long Baos around Mountain View this is the place to go. If they could give 3.5 I would have done so, but theya re not a 4 so 3 it is.
(3)Miki Y.
yummy yummy
(5)Fern K.
I was so sad to find that the old Shanghai Family Restaurant is closed, but we checked this one out anyway. The Xiao Long Bao + Crab meat is very good. The owner speak good English and suggest many dishes. We followed her. I like the house special yellow fish the most. At the end there was dessert. I will recommend this to other people.
(4)Saloni J.
i've been here more then couple of times... a friend of mine took me there and ever since I love this place.... I took some friends there too... the owner/server so sweet and pretty.. she recognizes us by now and is super sweet.... the veggi dumpling are the best and hot and sour soup is always recommended..
(4)Florence W.
The shanghai dumplings are amazing. The waitress was very friendly and nice and taught us how to eat these special shanghai dumplings, which are particularly bigger than the dim sum size you find at dim sum restuarants. You also know it's legit when you try to order something and the waitress tells you no and instead orders something else for you. She could tell we've never been there and we liked the suggestions. After all, she really is a native Shanghainese and probably knows the food better than we did. We came in with an open mind and were blown away. The food isn't particularly greasy and having traveled to Shanghai myself and having eaten their food, this restaurant is as close as it gets to the real thing. I appreciated the light and complex flavors, the non greasy food, and yes, at the end, they served us a dessert bean soup. I've spent my years in San Francisco eating all kinds of chinese food and haven't encountered in a long time a restaurant that serves a bean soup dessert after a meal, at least in the peninsula area. I'm definitely going back and bringing my friends. AS a grad student with a low budget, you really get your money's worth in the quality of food. Yes, it's a hole in the wall but I don't care so much for that. I just appreciate the yumminess of the food at a really low price.
(5)K C.
Solid chinese food. I will definetly come back and try the other dishes. Ordered the following: onion pancakes 3 stars - little on the thin side - did not taste homemade rice cake & cabbage soup 4.5 stars - well balance soup, no msg thank goodness xiao long bao 5 stars mongolian beef 4 stars - beef is fresh and well seared, dish is overladen onions Overall delicious and bit better and healthier than most chinese places in SF. Bamboo Garden is great alternative if you are allergic to MSG. xlb is on the top three of out the 20 places I've tried. Positives: ingredient is fresh, no msg, not overly salted, very reasonable. service is quick. Cons: atmosphere 3 stars, women toilet room is through the kitchen, crowd seating.
(4)Emily S.
I'm a Chinese/Taiwanese American who is always looking for authentic and delicious local finds, and I LOVE this place! - EXCELLENT xlbs. In this geographic area, this is my favorite xlb place. Delicate skins that are still strong enough to not leak. The soupy innards are full of real meal juice, not just broth (the difference is FAT). Steamed extremely hot. Very well flavored fillings. Generous with the meat. - LOVE the pork belly and house-pickled-cabbage soup. In the winter time, this is my favorite treat. And they are very generous with the portion size. - VERY friendly and personal service. The proprietress of this place is always smiling, genuine, and ready to greet. She is attentive and knows the menu very well. She really cares that people have a good eating experience. - many other delicious dishes including their eggplant and lions head meatballs. Overall, one of my FAVORITE things about this place is that it is not greasy. You'll notice when you eat here that the food is flavorful WITHOUT having a thick layer of slick oil over everything. It's like home-cooked food without having to do all the work!!
(5)SC W.
I had lunch alone so didn't get to try their major dishes, but the two items I had (one noodle soup, one appetizer) were both underwhelming. The appetizer (Mixed ma-lan head with tofu) was salty enough but had no flavor from either ma-lan head (a wildly grown leafy vegetable, I was told) or tofu. The noodle soup, shredded pork with pickled Chinese vegetables (Xue Cai Rou Si Mian) was the same way. The soup base was seasoned enough but there was no flavor from either the Xue Cai (which wasn't even the right kind in my opinion) or the shredded pork. The portion was good given the prices, and the service was friendly. But that was all I can say about this restaurant without trying other dishes, which I am unfortunately not eager to given the experience I had. ps. Shanghai Family Restaurant, or Shanghai Qiao Jia Shan, has moved to Cupertino Village, in the storefront formerly occupied by H C Dumplings.
(2)Andrea F.
I was disappointed in the quality of the food after reading the positive reviews on Yelp. I went here for takeout, so ambiance and whatnot wasn't a big concern for me - I was just looking for delicious, well-priced Chinese takeout. Unfortunately, I found the food bland and rubbery. I would not recommend and I won't be a repeat customer - there are definitely better places for Chinese takeout!
(2)BarkingDO G.
This little, unassuming restaurant, under new ownership, is worth seeking out for authentic, extremely fresh northern style Chinese cuisine at a very reasonable price. Wedged between Hobee's & Walgreens, it is easy to miss. Was impressed by the freshness of the vegetables--all cooked to order and no msg. I ordered from the Special Menu, ie 3 dishes for $19.95. Next time, will order from the main menu and let the chef can show his skills. Kathleen is very friendly and can make menu suggestions. My order: - Eggplant with garlic sauce. Outstanding. Would order this one again. - Curry chicken. Well done, but too mild for my taste. - Twice cooked pork. Good. - Green onion pancake. Excellent.
(5)Love K.
OMG! This restaurant makes the best Shanghai crab meat soupy dumplings. I love their garlic pork chops, sticky rice with pork in the bamboo, sour cabbage soup, sour cabbage steamed dumplings. The service is excellent. The owner weak up at 4:00AM everyday to choose and purchase her restaurant's ingredients herself. Everything is so fresh....The owner of this restaurant put a lot of her passion in to her dishes. Try it , so you can understand what I am talking about.
(5)Jen-i M.
I really like this little restaurant. The woman who owns the restaurant is very hard working and friendly. The service is very attentive. The crab dish we ordered today was delicious. It was as good as the one I had in a very famous restaurant in SF. And the price is much more reasonable. We have been there at least twice a month, and we always go back. We have tried many of their appetizers, dishes and dim sum type of food, and they all are very good. Oh, their purple rice dessert is a must!
(5)Jim S.
The main problem was that the restaurant was freezing tonight when we were there. That made what could have been a good experience bad. It was literally so cold that all of our dishes were cold by the time we tried to eat them. The waitress (owner, I suspect) was very friendly and helpful in recommending dishes for our party of 6, but the temperature meant we had to stay bundled up in jackets throughout the meal and were still quite uncomfortable. So...I would say only go to this restaurant in moderate weather.
(2)Jenny V.
If you want mediocre food & a horrible waiter like the male chinese worker they have working here.. then hey go for it!! one star is too much for this place. ZERO STARS!
(1)Luna L.
Why is this place getting such rave reviews? Are you kidding me? The XLB does have a lot of soup and has pretty thin skin but the flavor is not there. OMG, speaking of lack of flavor, the seafood tofu clay pot was the grossest thing I've ever had. It had a few shrimp, few edamame beans (weird) and lots of soft tofu in a light cornstarch gravy... *ugh* nasty. We also had scallion cake which was crispy and has less oil than most places-- it was ok. The mongolian beef had a large amount of onions compared to the beef but at least it had some flavor. The free dessert was green mung bean.. its like partially boiled mung bean with barely any sugar. I've had Shanghai-nese food plenty of times at other restaurants and this is the most disappointing place I've ever been.. actually its one of the worst restaurants I've been to. Yelp has steered me very very wrong this time. With the number of Asians in the restaurant, I'm shocked at how they could like this tasteless place. We had lots of left overs that we ended up giving to the dog.. although we don't think the dog will eat the food except for the rice.. yea.. its that bad.
(1)Jack K.
stick with the dim sum
(3)Jeremy H.
This inconspicuous place was great! Based on the recommendation here, we had the soup pork buns (Xiaolongbao). The waitress saw our confusion and came over and showed us white folks how to eat them correctly. :-) Then we had the garlic eggplant and orange chicken. Both were delicious. The eggplant was perfectly cooked and flavorful. The orange chicken was a bit crunchy without being too chewy or oily. I look forward to coming here again.
(5)Joz T.
great potstickers, and great service!
(5)Y L.
agreed with jiaomin's review below... bad service, bad food. we ordered a fish dish - the fish tastes weird, not fresh at all. the owner comes over at the end and asks if we need a to-go box - i say no - no way we are taking home that kind of low quality, stinky, fish. before i had a chance to say why, she's gone - probably not wanting to do anything about it. 90% of the dish is still there when we get the check. not going to come back here ever again.
(1)Vicki W.
I am actually pleasantly surprised by this place. I've been a few times already, and I've found my experiences to be pretty good. The location is in a small shopping center/strip mall that has a Hobees. I would say it is pretty easy to miss because the sign isn't very flashy and the font is small. The inside decor is pretty uninteresting, but it seems decently clean for a small Chinese restaurant and believe me, I've been to many. The prices are fairly reasonable, and they do have an extensive weekday lunch specials menu. For such a small place, their menu on the whole is fairly large, and you probably won't have a hard time finding at least something. I've had quite an assortment of food here that I don't really think I need to list out, except to say that I've found most of the standard fare to be pretty good. The XLB is probably not as good as a place like Din Tai Fung, but seeing the dearth of good Chinese restaurants in this area, I'd say it satisfies a craving. The green onion pancakes and the chive pancakes are pretty tasty and not greasy, and the neen goh (which is the dry kind, not the wet one) is actually very good. So far, most of the food I've had here hasn't been that greasy, and I haven't come home and had any MSG-induced nightmares, so I'd say either they don't really use MSG or it's very little. So far I've been there for both lunch and dinner, and while I can't speak to the typical dinner time because it's only been once, the couple times I've been for lunch haven't been exceptionally busy. There's a pretty constant stream of people, but it has never been crowded, and I've never had the feeling of being rushed out, which I find refreshing. Actually, they didn't mind that I was there for close to 2.5 hours talking with the person I went with, and they were generally polite and responsive. I think you have to keep in mind that typical Chinese restaurants are not going to give you award-winning service, so if you go to a place like this expecting that your service is going to be like a PF Chang's or Eurochow (not to say those places are benchmarks), you're not going to get it. If you can get past that, you'll find that the service is pretty comparable to what you would expect, and your experience will probably be equally rewarding.
(4)Frank C.
xlb really above average. other stuff a bit hit or miss...
(3)Hubert S.
The best xiao long bao I have in the bay area and they are consistently good!
(5)P K.
Tried Shanghai style Pan Fried Pork Buns here, their size are larger than other restaurants in bay area(I have never tried this food in Shanghai, so I don't know which size is more Shanghai style), the taste is pretty good. Their Fried bread stick and soybean milk is just so so. Anyway, I will visit here again as it is close to my place.
(3)Doris Y.
We came for the Steamed meat buns (XLB) and they are very good. Not the same as Ting Tai Fung but they are the best XLB that our family have eaten around here. ( That is the only reason I did not give it a 5 star because I feel the 5 stars for XLB goes to Ting Tai Fung ) . Their veggie bacon fried rice is pretty good too. I though the service is really friendly as well.
(4)Jennifer Q.
Don't be fooled by the 3 and a half stars. This is a truly authentic Chinese restaurant with food that reminds me of my mom's cooking. But unlike other Chinese restaurants, the service here is great! The owner is a super nice woman who loves her restaurant and customers. Good dishes to try are all the clay pot dishes. You can't go wrong with any of them.
(5)Anita T.
Not bad, but only if you have plenty of time to kill. This place is a moderately sized sit-in restaurant located in a surprisingly shady looking shopping center in Mountain View. There is a ton of parking and it's conveniently located right on Rengstorff, a couple minutes off the 101 exit. The interior is not much to look at and the decor is minimal. I came before lunchtime (11:20ish?) on a weekday and it was nearly dead empty (around lunchtime, a couple other tables filled up). The three dishes we had were pretty good overall. The soup dumplings (quantity of 6) had a thin skin that was surprisingly resilient to the flavorful pork and crab soup filling -- one of the better ones I've had so far living on the peninsula. We also had the sheng jian bao (fried pork buns) and they were quite good, juice on the inside and just the right amount of flavorful (however, it will take 20 minutes for it to come out so order early). The stir fried rice cake with preserved vegetable and pork was only ok and the serving was small to average. My main gripe with this place was the slow service, despite it being an unusual mealtime. It looked like it was being manned by just 2 people, who were overseeing the kitchen and also taking orders AND also handling take-out pickup. While I was seated immediately (and that shouldn't be surprising, given that the restaurant was empty), my order wasn't taken for nearly half an hour while the woman at the register was bombarded by one take-out pickup after another, and the other worker was dashing in and out of the kitchen. I also saw them putting the buns together from scratch after each order was put in, which is certainly nice but as expected, all of this took some time. Overall, the food is fairly good and Mtn View has been a bit of a black hole when it comes to good Chinese food, in my opinion, especially with Sunnyvale and San Mateo nearby. But just don't expect to get in and out in a short time frame, even on a weekday.
(3)ChiRouDe Z.
Caters to the palates of the un-Americanized Chinese and tastes like home if you don't consider chop suey authentic. My recommendations: Dried Bamboo Shoots with (Fatty) Pork Hot and Sour Soup Duck Stew Napa Cabbage Shanghai Style Pork Knuckle Fish Fillet with Wine Sauce The steam pork buns have thick skin and so do the fried buns. I'll eagerly await the grand opening of Din Tai Feng.
(4)Titus O.
One of the best places for soup dumplings in the Bay Area. Just order a bunch of those. Everything else is okay. Not bad, but the soup dumplings just blow everything else out of the water.
(4)Zoe G.
I give this place the following ratings: FOOD: 5 out of 5! Service : 4.5 out of 5 Price: 4.5 out of 5 I don't mind the simple decor as long as the service and food are good so I won't comment on that. As mentioned by the previous reviewers, its a new restaurant with new owners who bothered to hire a chef to figure out great recipes which they are sticking to. And they do not use MSG. The flavors are expressly chinese and clean. I am a big fan of the flavors here as its very well balanced. Been here 3 times already...first time was 3 days after they opened. They've finally updated their signage and they accept credit cards now. I will be a regular patron of this restaurant. =) Love it!
(5)Joie P.
The bf and I walked into what use to be Shanghai Family. As we were seated we were greeted by a cheery new face, new menus and new decor. Though I miss the year round Christmas lights that use to hang by the windows, I have to admit that the place looked better with simple decorations that fit a Chinese restaurant. We ordered the spinach, dried bean curd with young chives and small fried fish (this has a chinese name that I have no clue how to spell - sorry!) The one thing my bf didn't like was that they didn't have plain white rice. The rice was a purplish-pink color (red-bean) but it didn't taste any different to me. Overall the food tasted a healthier - less salty, less oily. The only other downside of the evening was that the credit card machine wasn't working yet and the waitress didn't tell us until after we had ordered. It was a good thing we had cash. A good backup place to have when you don't want to think about where to go for dinner.
(3)Paul S.
Just came back from lunch and probably would not go back. We got there at 11:30, they sat us down and ignored us for 30 mins while we tried to get their attention. Once we ordered food came quick but everything was bland. We had the lunch special and tried the sesame chicken, orange chicken, and kung pao chicken. Waitress also highly recommended their pork water steam bun which she showed us how to eat after we had already eaten it. So we did not eat it the right way and was bland too.
(2)Munchie S.
Decent Chinese food. It's clean inside and super clean bathrooms which is always a plus. everything we ordered tasted and looked the same. But in xl portions lol!!!
(3)Darren C.
For a place that is supposed to be known for their XLB, it was a letdown. Friends told me of this place, supposedly the best XLB in the area, if it's true then I guess I won't ever be eating XLB in the Peninsula. I don't know what exactly is missing, maybe the cold NYC wintry nights that made the XLB at Shanghai Cafe (100 Mott Street) so good? You know a place is in for a bad review when your dining companions keep trying to save the restaurant by saying 'it's great for the area.' Unfortunate as I was really hoping that it'd be good enough to bring my coworkers to.
(2)Zack H.
(This place recently changed owner and the entire team.) My wife really liked the southern China / Shanghai-styled dishes this place serviced before the change of ownership, so I go there for carryout every so often. Last tuesday, I went in to grab some dinner on my way home and felt something was different... It took me few seconds to realize the place was brighter, MUCH cleaner and all the staff were new faces. The new owner is a very talkative young lady with a bubbly personality. She explained to me about the change of hand. The restaurant continues to serve Shanghai dishes, and apparently they've also added Northeastern Chinese cuisine to the menu, which is a big plus for me, I was never really into the sweeter Shanghai style stuff like my wife does anyways. After I expressed my interest in the northeastern food, the owner eye sparkled and "forced" me to take home two small northeastern cold dishes she prepared. One of them was egg plant mixed with garlic of some sort and the other dish was paper thin slices of pork soaked in chilli sause of some kind. Sorry, I don't cook, and have no idea how those are made, they were very tasty, stronge flavored and quite unique. Anyways, I went back there again last night with wife and couple of close friends, surprisingly the new owner still remembered my name! The food was great, we finished every dish, and over-stuffed ourselves with sticky rice desert. The food, and the new clean look (no more sticky floor!!) was already enough for me to give it a 5-star rating. The attentive staff and the cheerful owner prompted me to actually spend the time to review it on Yelp (which I hardly ever do, too lazy ;-P ). Give this place a try...!
(5)Nathan W.
I'd passed by this place once at lunchtime and saw that it was packed, putting this spot on my radar... This appears to be your standard Americanized Chinese hole in the wall, but they do offer certain dishes from the North, making this place somewhat unique. Knowing this, I still ordered sweet and sour shrimp off of the lunch menu as I'd been having a hankering for it. It was very good, but I soon started doubting myself as the watiress started bringing specialties like xiao long bao to the table next to mine. Ugh... The service here is quite friendly for a Chinese restaurant, and the prices are great. Definitely worth trying...
(3)Sunil R.
Hole in the wall. Very average lunch special. Did not try any of their specialty dishes.
(3)Susie S.
I really like coming here. The food is very reasonably priced and delicious. The food is not your regular greasy Chinese food but definitely has a lot of flavor still. You won't be thirsty after eating it because they do not use MSG. Gotta order the Xiao Long Bao!!! It's dumplings full with juices!!! It's so yummy!!
(5)Patricia V.
$6.95 & $7.95 lunch specials: item over rice with soup. Not bad, not bad. Funky looking curtains on the front restaurant windows look pretty cheesy, and they have a big ol pad lock with a fat a$$ chain wrapped around the front entrance doors when the place is closed...makes the place look pretty ghettofied.
(2)binda k.
My sister introduced me to this place, and I love it. It doesn't use MSG in its food, which is huge for me since I allergic to the stuff. My favorite foods: I really like the XLBs. They've got a super tasty little broth surprise in each XLB. I think they're mighty tasty. I think these are called pork meatballs on the menu. But if you ask for Lion's Head meatballs (the literal Chinese translation), the owner will know what you're talking about. These are really really good. My dad, who knows his northern Chinese food, says that these are some of the best he's ever had. They appear to be dense and huge - but they are light and fluffy (can meat be fluffy?) in a very nice sauce. I don't know exactly what this is on the menu - it's fish tail in a dark sauce. I know others have said the fish they had was too salty - I think this is not overly salty - perfect mixed with rice. The fish is super tender and oh-so good. They're serving the tenderest part of the fish. I'm a huge fan of seafood done right, and they do this just right. The sauteed loofah is excellent. It's in a clear sauce, and very tender. The owner buys them directly from a grower in the area, so they are fresh (older loofahs are bitter).
(5)Mike L.
All my friends told me this place is great, but I think it is only ok. Nothing in this place is really special. I don't think this place particularly good or bad, but I do think you should calibrate you expectation (especially after reading all the glowing reviews in Yelp).
(3)Tuna P.
xiaolongbao is a must try!
(4)Jennifer Y.
The boyfriend and I came here after waiting in line at Shoreline Amphitheatre for $10.53 tickets for BFD 2011, which we sadly did not get. So 3 hours after getting to Mountain View, I wanted some good Chinese food so I found this place. So glad we came here! The service was not what I expected from a Chinese restaurant -- it was actually good and polite! I've had experiences in the past where servers are rude because I don't speak Chinese well enough to order food. The woman there was so nice and so apologetic for making us wait. We ordered the xiao long bao which was definitely worth the wait. The green onion pancakes were also good and I liked that they weren't as oily as I'm used to. They didn't have the sesame pan-fried buns with beef that day so we settled for the buns without beef and they were still good. We also got the sauteed string beans, which the server specified that it was "Shanghai style" possibly because she could tell I was Taiwanese? I don't know exactly why she had to make that clear. The service was a bit slow - only one server for a full restaurant and a woman came in and ordered what seemed like a meal for 10 people to-go. All in all, not somewhere I'd drive all the way down from Oakland to eat but if I was ever in the area again, I'd make sure to stop by and get my xiao long bao fix!
(4)Ducky K.
ma pao tofu was sweet hot rather than spicy hot, weird indeed. I'm usually excited to be the only white person in a chinese restaurant but I began to realize why as I ordered. The lady was friendly until she told me what I wanted to order and when I had ordered wouldn't be good. She went to prove it to me by taking the eggplant appetizer out of the fridge and showing me how I wouldn't like it. I was appalled by her shoving it in my face and telling me her food wasn't good so I agreed that I didn't want it and left it at that. Unattentive and their plastic ware smelled strongly of bleach as I brought it to my mouth. I'll pass on this place.
(2)Tony C.
Living within walking distance of this place made it necessary to try this place when the new owners took it over and renamed it Bamboo Garden. I was hoping they'd clean it up a bit, and they tried, but it's still a bit grungy. With that said, there are still many excellent things to eat here. First of all, the service here is generally better than most Chinese eateries. The woman who usually takes my order (I always get takeout) is extremely energetic and polite. The item I've tried and liked: Sauteed green beans (gan bei shi gi do) - excellent here. The beans are perfectly firm and soft at the same time. Well seasoned without being overly salty either. Salt and pepper shrimp - has the head on them, which is the best part to eat :) Ma po tofu - my cousins who are total Chinese food snobs thought this was excellent. I thought so too. Tea smoked duck - my wife thought the tea flavor was too strong, but in my opinion, there's no such thing as too strong. Tender with smoky tea flavor. And, just to be clear, the only reason I don't dine in is because I live ridiculously close and it's easy to pick it up on the way home.
(4)Roger F.
I had 4 dishes here. It ended up being $35 (including tax and tip): 1.) Green onion pancake - I'm used to the dough kind, this was the crispy batter kind and it was really good. 2.) XLB - the dumplings were good. Big and juicy. 3.) Corn and chicken soup - This was just a nice simple soup 4.) Pork and bamboo sticky rice - This was excellent. It was moist and full of flavor At the end the waitress was nice enough to serve complimentary green bean soup dessert. It was definitely a nice touch!
(5)S F.
stopped in for some XLB. super yummy. what perplexes me is how they have it ready and steaming hot on the table in 5 mins!!! it normally takes 20 mins to prepare at olther places, even at the old HC dumpling. i will discover their secret! gluttonous rice was good. it was surprisingly sweet. must be southern or hakka inspired. as usual (2 out of 2 visits), they provided dessert. taro and tapioca soup. yum! 5 stars for dessert.
(4)Jennifer K.
3.5 stars. We came on a Sunday night and were seated right away. The restaurant itself was smaller than expected, but service was friendly and attentive. We ordered Xiao Long Bao, pan fried buns, salt & pepper fish, and beef and green beans. Everything here was good, but I wouldn't say that any of the dishes were exceptional. Pretty happy with the first experience. We will definitely be back to try more.
(4)Allen T.
They XLB's here are very good. They don't use MSG so its not too salty and there is a lot of juices. It's not Ding Tai Fung, but its a ok alternative for the bay area. The lady who runs the place is very friendly and talkative. She use to work at the old shanghai dumpling place so I think she knows what she is doing. Also, real chinese people are eating there..like the real chinese speaking peeps so its gotta be decent. The place doesnt get that busy but its not a huge restaurant either. It's definetly worth trying.
(4)Bucky M.
I am a total xiao long bao (XLB) snob. I have been to the best of the best (best places in Shanghai, Din Tai Fun in Taiwan, Din Tai Fung in LA, Joe's Shanghai in NY, etc). This place can hang with the above places. I'd probably rate this place's XLB 4.5 stars, but I'll round that up to a 5. They also have very good Sheng Jian Bao too.
(5)Lily L.
My review is based on trying one dish, chow mein, which is my litmus test at a Chinese restaurant. It was very bland. The noodles were mushy and despite being very brown, like it was covered in sauce, it was very bland. All the meats were overly tenderized and the shrimp was not so fresh tasting. There really isn't much service required but one of the two servers was really nice. I love noodles and since this place failed on that, I won't be back.
(2)Jaching H.
4 stars for the xiao long bao! Thin skins that don't break, gingery pork filling, soft crab filling, and delicious soup inside! Perfect ginger vinegar dipping sauce too. I've been searching for good xlb from Cupertino to San Francisco, and I haven't found a place that beats this yet. Standard authentic Chinese restaurant service (read: not very good service). The Shanghai cakes are also pretty good, as is the pork cooked in bamboo. But the best thing about Bamboo Garden is definitely their xlb.
(4)Alice C.
Don't be fooled by the exterior and shopping area. If you want a home cooked un-American style Chinese meal you must come here. The XLB were delicious! Thin skin, tasty meat and broth dumplings here are the bomb! Green onion pancakes were crisp and not greasy, noodles could have used more soy sauce but had such a great chew. Auntie likes the smoked duck here. I have a soft spot for family run businesses and the owner of this establishment was welcoming, hard working and funny as heck! You can tell her regulars love her. Will be back for sure to try the more of the menu. Newly remodeled inside - super clean! Just like a traditional Chinese restaurant, just raise your hand to signal the server you need something.
(4)Jessica Y.
I would say that this place is 3.5 stars. I came here for lunch after church service on Sunday. Prices are decent and there is a wide selection. The XLB are good and the wrappers are thin, but I've had better in SoCal at Din Tai Fung, Dumpling House, and Mama Lu's. The Jia jia mian was pretty good. We also ordered salt and pepper fish, although it was kinda bland and not spicy compared to other restaurants such as New Port. They were very busy, so service was slow, but overall ok experience. Typical, average chinese food.
(3)Evelyn K.
Some friends of ours are regular customers to this place. Because they have a young baby, we offered to pick up dinner and bring it over to their place. They placed the order. When we arrived, we picked up dinner for 4, which was a pretty large order. The door clearly states that they accept credit cards, but the woman would not let me pay in anything but cash. She said that we got some special that requires paying in cash. Pretty annoying. The restaurant is located in a strip mall off of Central Expressway with Shell Gas Station on the corner. The dining room was very basic, definitely not upscale and definitely no ambiance. It was functional. A bunch of large round tables might be good for groups. I found the food a bit too greasy and not that flavorful. The meat also didn't taste very fresh to me. My Chinese friend who ordered says this place is authentic, and all the people eating inside the restaurant were Chinese, so maybe this is just how legitimate Chinese food tastes. For context, I am Asian and have had tons of Asian food all my life. So maybe this is just how un-fresh un-flavorful legitimate Chinese food tastes. :P I would only eat here again if the same friends wanted us to pick it up and bring it over for them because they have a young baby.
(3)Johnny D.
Loved the XLB (shanghai soup dumplings here). I was skeptical of the reviews but to be honest it surprised me. Everything else here tasted decent or average. The portions for the lunch special are nice and big and come with free soup and salad. Great value. The owner/waitress is very nice and accommodating.
(3)Crystal C.
The XLB is still amazing (see my previous extensive review) and I wanted to give a shout out to their vegetable dumplings, oh that delicate skin! I noticed Kathleen (co-owner) wasn't looking as happy as I knew her to be in years past. Actually, she looked chronically stressed. Gotta remember to check-in on the well-being people who have been working day after day to bring us such amazing dumplings.
(5)Nora M.
This place is so good that I almost don't want to review it out of fear that it will get popular and crowded. The food is simply amazing. Like other posters said, you must get xiao long bao ("steamed dumplings" on the menu). But I've been many times and never had a bad dish, so try anything. It's a bit of a hole in the wall and usually not too busy. The staff is friendly and actually remembers us, which is nice. Feels very homey. Love this place.
(5)Edmund Y.
Great Xiao Long Bao. Pork knuckle is huge and tender. Owner is friendly and service is quick
(5)Henry L.
A family-owned restaurant in a small mall that Packs a Punch! When I first walked in, the place didn't look impressive. Boy was I wrong! Once our food arrived, it was insanely good. The juicy pork bun was at just the right temperature, not too hot and not too cold, with lots of juice still inside. We saw the other tables in the restaurant order the "bamboo" rice thing and followed suit--score! The server literally cracks open the bamboo on the table in front of you, and you can see the steam coming out while the juicy goodness flows out onto the plate. Best order decision eva No wonder this place was so packed!
(4)Jenn W.
I saw the Michelin recommended sheet on the other side of the restaurant, so I had hopes (plus my friends really like this place), but eh, I think it was just ok. We ordered shanghai rice cakes, 2 steamers of xlb (6 in each), pork belly/bamboo/sticky rice, and a stir fried veggie. Nothing spectacular, the XLB in particular were really unremarkable. I wouldn't be able to describe it to you one week later. We finished everything but a few bites (how un-Asian!) - total for four of us was around $60 after tax and tip. I'd rather go to Shanghai Dumpling - slightly better food and more spacious restaurant, plus it's a few miles closer to my apartment.
(3)Tuan P.
XLB would eat again. Affordable with crab. Ma poo lunch special can be skipped. Sauce is oily. Pan fried pork dumpling is pan fried XLB. Filling and fun texture. Very reasonably priced.
(3)Joyous V.
The bamboo, pork, & rice dish is so tasty. Their xiao long baos are also very good. Yum!!!
(5)James F.
Top notch XLB! So soupy and such delicate skins! Service so kind. Greens tasted so fresh and clean. Green onion pancakes and wonton soup all excellent as well. Wish this was our local spot and not 100 miles from my house!
(5)Mark D.
Crab paste xlb - their xlb is pretty solid. Good skin. Doesn't compare to Din tai fung though. I would get the non crab paste one next time. Didn't really enjoy the crab paste Si gua with pork and vermicelli - very bland, pork not good, wouldn't get again Bamboo sticky rice pork belly - tasty but too oily for me. Wouldn't get again but is worth trying if you don't mind the oiliness. Tofu skin with pork (house special) - bland and the pork was terrible Spring onion pancake - not oily, very normal. Prob wouldn't get again. I may come back one more time when I'm feeling xlb
(3)Estella H.
My most frequent experience of xiao long bao was from Din Tai Fung, so it has been really hard to find decent XLB in the bay area. Finally Bamboo Garden is one place that makes a decent dumpling! You can see them making it in the back behind a window! Good prices too. The xiao long bao are good; the shen jian bao were just so so...a bit too bread-y and doughy for my liking compared to Shanghai Flavor Shop. The place is a bit small so trying to go out to eat with our young kid or a large group can be hit or miss.
(4)Jennifer T.
Soup dumplings were great. Upon arrival I wondered what else was good here. The answer is nothing (based on what we ordered). I got the salt and pepper fish- very oily and mostly batter. The husband got orange peel chicken. He says it was okay, tasted like Americanized Chinese food. A lot of diners near us got the bamboo pork thing. Rice is not included with entrees FYI.
(3)Xing F.
I'm native Chinese and this place sucks. Ordered ShengJianBao and I thought they forgot to put fillings inside. Completely disappointed at the dishes. No flavors and taste cheap! Not an authentic Shanghai restaurant at all. No wonder they were empty around noon on a Saturday.
(1)Shanna W.
I've had it with this place. It's not the food that I want to complain about, it's their service, it's just horrendous. They are so cheap. I ordered $50 of food for 2 people, I asked for to go boxes, two of the dishes had soup in it. She (the co-owner of the restaurant) first gave me two paper boxes, I said the soup will leak from the paper boxes, then she gave me one small plastic container, which doesn't even fit all the leftover we had. She said the other dish would be fine in the paper box. After we got home, everything was leaking, making a mess in our car. This time I ordered their soup dumplings to go. I should've checked before I left but I decided to trust that everything is in the bag. She packed only one piece of napkin and one pair of ragged chopsticks in there, no spoons. Everyone knows you need to eat the soup dumpling with a spoon. I ate mine without a spoon, everything was leaking and falling out when I take a small bite, food dropping into the vinegar container and splashing grease and vinegar everywhere. All I needed was a plastic spoon!! C'mon! How cheap can you be? Can't even spare a plastic spoon for takeout??? Also, she demands payment in cash for anything under $25, what an unreasonable request. Their food is okay, but because they constantly trying to cheap me out, I will not want to spend a dime there anymore.
(1)Wendi A.
I am a semi-regular to this restaurant. The food is usually very homey. They seem to use very little MSG and oil which is rare for Chinese restaurants. The Shanghai Dumplings are a must. The owner makes them after you order. The dumplings are soupy with just the right proportion of meat and a very delicate dumpling skin. Most importantly, the dumplings were not greasy like in most dim sum places. I also ordered the Bacon Fried Rice and the Fish with Wine Sauce. The bacon fried rice has a lot of Chinese vegetables in it, making it a well balanced dish even though the rice and bacon are greasy. The dish more accurately resembles a clay pot rice dish, not so much a fried rice dish. The fish with wine sauce is a light and mild dish. The fish is tenderly cooked with beans and Chinese fungus, it provided a perfect compliment to the greasy fried rice that we ordered. The restaurant is your typical Chinese restaurant with a small window for dumpling watching. The staff is extremely kind for a Chinese restaurant and the owner is a sweetheart that will give you recommendations if asked. This is a nice and healthy homey place to eat. It is great if you want a nice dinner for yourself or take out as well. It is also extremely family friendly but I would not recommend it for atmosphere or dates.
(4)Jennifer F.
When I am craving for Chinese food, this place is always my number one choice. I like the fish filets in hot chili and the sticky rice with pork belly, so good!
(5)J. R.
Pros: - fantastic XLB - good Chinese donuts + dipping milk (soymilk) - I confirmed with them that they use no MSG (it's a good sign that I didn't get any MSG side-effects afterwards either) - staff was very helpful in suggesting items - clean place Cons: - limit of exactly 1 credit card per table - the suggested items are more traditional, and may not suit American (or Chinese-American) palates well Other notes: - it tastes like they may use soybean oil -- if you are allergic to soy, you should definitely ask them about it before eating!
(3)Michael H.
I stayed in Mountain view and was looking for Asian food around the area and came across this location. It's true that this place is in this ghetto-looking plaza but the food is pretty exceptional. Here is my breakdown of the place. Food: I highly suggest ordering the bamboo pork chop and rice. It's a tad bit on the salty side but if you mix this with rice, it's actually not too bad. In addition, I would recommend getting the xiao rong bao (dumplings). I particularly like how they made the dumpling skin to be thinner. Unlike most places, where the skin tends to be very thick and 'doughy'. Also, I would recommend the smoke duck but i know a lot of my friends have mix feelings about it. Personally, I think it's not too bad and I am a fan. Place: I came here on a Sunday night at 7:30 pm. There wasn't much of a wait. We were seated immediately. Service: Family own, the food came out quickly so no complaints from me. My only complaint is that you have to spend $25 minimum to be able use credit card. Parking: This place is in a pretty large plaza, so there are plenty of spaces available.
(4)Henry Y.
The 10 ingredients fried rice came with only five. One of them was meat inappropriately sized for the dish. Another ingredient consisted of a couple of small overcooked shrimp. And that was the best of the dishes. A sad excuse for chinese food. Yet the restaurant is packed so something appears to be working!
(1)Aron S.
mediocre food except for steamed pork dumplings. Everything else=mediocre. Many complaints 1.) Small place; like putting Godzilla into a porta potty. 2.) High prices; with what they charge, you'd think they could afford a larger place. I've seen better restaurants with better food and larger places. Lika vaso azzurro, please expand this place. If you come here, prepare to be ripped off and go home with an empty wallet. I give this place 2.7 stars, but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt.
(3)Kevin N.
Great, little family-owned restaurant with fairly decent service compared to many other Asian restaurants I've been to. I ordered the glutinous rice with pork and bamboo which was excellent. I actually wish this dish came with more rice as the richly sauced pork got quite heavy to eat towards the end. I rarely never finish a dish but I had to take part of this one back. I also tried their xiao long bao which was actually good quite. The skin is delicate and light but strong enough to keep all the delicious soup from seeping out. I would definitely come back to try some more of their offerings if I'm ever in the area.
(4)Haley D.
Very bad experience. I ordered Shanghai rice cake, which let me wait for about one hour. After some people who came after me got all their dishes, I could not wait any more and let the waitress to check when would it be ready. I asked her three times and finally after 10 mins, mine was ready. By looking at the rice cake I thought it only needed about 10 mins. So before I pushed the waitress, I thought my rice cake had not even started. Not sure if it was because the rice cake is cheap and they wanted to make dishes those were more expensive first no matter who came first. Will never go to the restaurant again.
(1)Justin M.
Tucked away and a little hard to find, this place from the outside strikes you as "just another strip mall Chinese joint". Which in a majority of the nation, means "el sucko". However around here, this place is a prime example of quality has no location. Walking in, the lady who I assume is the owner/manager seats us and it's crowded, mostly Chinese folks. Always a good sign. The menu is expansive and there are all types of things I had never seen before, "loofah" being the one that stands out (it's just some weird vegetable). We get two orders of the XLB (soup dumplings, hong kong style, whatever you want to call them) and these live up to the hype... best in the area hands down. We tried to order the loofah soup but apparently they were out of loofah. Darn it. She suggested the green been sprouts which were fresh as all hell, vibrant color and just steamed right with some vinegar. Delicious. We also ordered the glutinous rice with pork. While pork belly is usually my thing, there was just too heavy of a mushroom flavor here to really give this thing a two thumbs up, unless of course you LOVE mushrooms. Even if you just like mushrooms, it might be too heavy of a flavor. Everyone seems to love it though so I guess give it a go, but with a menu this big I will be trying other things on my next visit back. Because I will be returning.
(5)Ting M.
There was a black bug in our food. It was big and quite scary. We called the waiter and he said it's just a regular vegetable bug. He did not do anything to improve and even felt it was normal. That's ridiculous.
(1)Kaori M.
I have had dinner here probably 10 times by now. Sooooo good. xiaolongbao, Tofu-related dish, glutinous rice in bamboo is must try. I always come here with a Japanese friend and now the nice Chinese waitress thanked us in Japanese!
(5)Andy F.
The best authentic Chinese food I've had in the peninsula. And I've been to pretty much every Chinese restaurant in the area. Usually the Palo Alto/mountain view area has Americanized Chinese food, which is OK but this spot reminds me of home cooking! Loved the sheng jian bao
(5)Salina Z.
The glutinous rice with pork is alone worth the 4 stars. Braised pork belly! With sticky rice! So excellent. I was surprised by the XLB: they were pretty perfect with the droop (meaning lots of broth), thin skin, and not broken! However, the taste! Blech, the taste. It was way too sweet and just had an overall strange flavor. And I eat a lot of soup dumplings. I think we also had the beef noodle but I can't remember which means it was nothing special and nothing offensive. I think the noodles were good. Worth a try for the glutinous rice.
(4)Randy F.
**Open Christmas Day!** **3.5 Stars** Bamboo Garden replaced a favorite restaurant of mine, Shanghai Family. And while my initial impression when they first opened was that they didn't reach that favorite standard, they have steadily improved and we really had a great Shanghainese meal. Xiao Long Bao - this is the go-to standard for so many restaurants and so hard to execute well. Ours came steaming hot and were excellent in the quantity of soup broth. The skin could have been thinner but wasn't too bad. Enjoyed this and tasted very fresh....the best I've had here in my 3+ visits. Nowhere near DTF level but then again no other Bay Area place is, except the very pricey renditions at Yank Sing. Very affordable at $5.85 for 6. Braised Lion Pork Meatballs - not served in a clay pot as I prefer but very tender and served with a nice assortment of Chinese vegetables. Goes well with white rice. Bamboo Pork Rice - sticky glutinuous rice is served with fatty pork in a bamboo presentation container. This was a new dish and one that many reviewers like. Admittedly, as some have stated, the pork is very fatty, but that's the nature of the dish. It was tender, very tasty, and for the health conscious, I think the braised pork meat balls above are a great alternative. Chinese spinach - i just like this vegetable. great portion size too. Overall, this was a great holiday meal. I've been here a few things and thought a few years ago the food was so-so. They've gradually improved and are getting busier which means there is more turnaround of materials and food preparation. It's a good cycle. Although Shanghai Garden is still my fave, this is a close by solid option. Bamboo Garden accepts credit cards, but not American Express.
(3)Jennifer S.
surprisingly good xiaolong bao! their bamboo meat dish was also very good. I got takeout but may try to dine in here next time.
(4)Jenny Z.
Bamboo Garden is one of my top go-to restaurants for Chinese food in the Peninsula. Compared to other Chinese restaurants in the area, Bamboo Garden stands out for serving authentic Shanghainese cuisine. Almost everything I have had are delicious, salted perfectly and untainted by MSG. If this is your first time having Shanghai cuisine or first time here, here a few dishes that I highly recommend. -Pork and bamboo with sticky rice -Loofa- soft silk squash lightly sautéed with goji berries! -Fish in rice wine sauce- fish slices are generous, soft to the bite. The rice wine really imparts wonderful texture and richness to the dish -Xiao Long Bao- shanghai's famous soup dumplings which are supposedly made fresh here -baby boy choy- a speciality shanghai vegetable. It's simple, sautéed, but I would have this over other vegetables any day! -tea smoked duck- this is often made too salty at other restaurants. However Bamboo Garden makes it like how it should taste in China. If you haven't been to Bamboo Garden or haven't tried Shanghainse cuisine, you must visit!
(4)anja l.
Another one of those super yummy and budget friendly places on the radar. Their XLB is juicy as can be without an oil slick. Not that there's anything wrong with oil slicks but if you want tasty and not an oil bag, then come eat here. Their other dishes are good as well, and this place is extremely attractive to the Taiwanese or Shanghainese folk so be prepared to be the token whitey here if your of that color. ;)
(5)Jason S.
A small place hidden in a strip mall, if it wasn't for Yelp, I would have never noticed Bamboo Garden. $25 credit card minimum. The glutinous rice with pork in bamboo was about what I expected. Some tender braised pork belly in a gravy. Fatty goodness obviously. However, the Smoked Duck was fantastic! 'Twas nicely smoked with a crispy skin and was not a fatty glob of grease. I was very happy because usually my experience with duck at Chinese Restaurants has resulted in fatty, greasy, no meat ducks, so I love it when a place makes a good duck. Although, in the end, I think there are too many Chinese place on the peninsula for me to make the effort to return. It is too far from me for a quick/cheap meal and does not have higher end dishes for a special occasion meal.
(4)Ken K.
Well, you know how I've been called "King Of FOBenese food" by a friend? Actually I'm not (but I love the name, thanks Cherylynn N.!) I just love the chit so deeply like a rat does cheese. Nibbling away, hopefully squeezing in sips of wine and slices of pear with honey in between. There are some true gourmets and gourmands out there who are of the camp that think "you are not qualified to judge food properly if a) you have not had that food in the country of origin (if ethnic food) and b) you do not understand the cooking process that goes in, how it is made traditionally so you can make valid comparisons locally vs abroad, and c) you do not cook yourself". But also to be able to judge properly, one needs to eat often (say, of a particular cuisine) and a lot of it, of this I do agree with. But eating a ton of moo shoo poo poo doo doo broo hoo hoo unfortunately does not gain you the ranking of Emperor Moo Poo, let alone a mayor. Anyways, got a message from a good friend "Dood, where can a brutha get some half decent Xiao long bao around the South Bay"? I was like "$heeeeeit dawg, that's like asking me to find acceptable ha gow at dim sum!". But fortunately I've had at least a few people whose opinions I trust (including from a raccoon, don't ask!) who have been waiting for my take on Bamboo Garden in Mountain View. And I remember the Yelpers can't stop talking about their XLB, and even those who are not just "experts". So without skipping a beat, I sent him the Yelp listing, to which he found some of the other dish pics interesting....so I told him I'd meet him there for dinner. Now this brutha is actually the Dark Sith Lord when it comes to Shanghainese, and he cooks too (I don't). Just like Yum's Bistro is my territory, anything involving Jiangnan (which oddly enoughly translates to Gangnam in written Chinese), Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, is his. I'm just but a young padawan outside of Cantonese food. But as his eye lit up like Superman using heat vision as he saw and dictated his favorites from the menu, I nodded in agreement, and I basically had him take the rein$. Because I omakase him.... TRU$T. RE$PECT. Oppa Jiangnan style!!! Started off with Sweet and Sour Spareribs (Tang Tsoo Pai Gu). This is the OG godfather of sweet and sour pork, but Northern style, just sugar and vinegar, or arguably a sweet black vinegar. Looks as dark as a Sith costume, and it was a little colder than room temperature but not fresh out of the refrigerator. Lean sparerib cuts, with a nice chew/bite. Other than it being too sweet, it was otherwise deemed a re$pectable rendition. Xiao long bao - At $5.95 you cannot go wrong with these. Soup whores will absolutely squeal with joy as each "bao" has so much soup inside it gushes like mad (insert Peter North jokes here). Watch out for "floaties"...by that I mean pork fat globules (congealed), does make the soup taste better. Pick up the XLB from the tip (top) because the middle sides are more fragile and it gets droopy and weighed down from the soup, dip in black vinegar, put it on the soup spoon and nom that chit. Very good and above average solid XLB rendition, excellent for this area. Even the Sith Lord found it impressive, and this padawan learned something too. Stir fried large pea sprouts - The first choice of Loofah with gluten wheat puff and dried scallop was not available, so we went with this, and requested everything with less oil and less salt, and this still came out quite solid. Nicely done. Stir fried rice cake slices with ji-zhai - also known as stir fried "nian gao", not that different from the glutinous rice cake rolls seen in Korean cuisine, except these are sliced like small cross section cuts of sausages. A little more oil (or lard) would have sealed in the heat further, maybe a tad more char. But otherwise not bad. Braised fish tail (hong shao hua shui) - the carp tail was a humongous piece, where it looks like a beautiful elegant brush, "painting" the water, hence the name hua shui. The fish appeared to be steamed first then had the sauce poured over. What's respectable about this rendition is that the freshness and flavor of the fish can still be tasted and the sauce didn't interfere much (it's a fairly sweet sauce, almost like the spareribs but a tad different). Carp has a ton of bones, but the tail has fewer compared to the rest of the carp body. Fatty rear end (no Sir MixxALot jokes please) where the skin met flesh was tastiest. I'm normally not a fan of this dish, but BG's rendition was very pleasing. Green bean dessert soup closed the meal, mildly cold, very refreshing in this weather. Quoting Darth Vader: "Impressive". Quoting the Governator who impregnated a maid: "I'll be back".
(4)John G.
èœè‰²ç¾Žå‘³ï¼Œåƒ¹æ ¼åˆç†ã€‚We always ordered the same takeout every Sunday for the past 6 months. The owner already recognized my voice when I called.
(5)Loon E.
Have never been a fan of Shanghainese cuisine (Was in Shanghai several years ago and just didn't like the flavors of most of the dishes). Well, we were looking for a nearby joint to eat at and I hadn't tried this place and knew they were Michelin recommnended, so jumped on yelp and found out what those dishes were and we were off! They actually recommend four dishes, but we could only stomach three (actually two, as we had leftovers). We passed on the glutinous rice with pork belly, because we're familiar with that particular dish in my family as it is. We started with the XLBs (steamed pork soup dumplings) and I thought they were overrated. Okay, but nothing amazing like I had been reading about. Anyways, the Shanghai baby bak choy came out and it was excellent! I've never seen bak choy like that, but you could taste it (as somebody who eats a lot of bak choy in home cooking) and it had a nice, light snappiness to each bite that I loved. As good of a dish that was, the tea smoked duck was even better! One of the better versions I've had, though the wings of the duck were omitted. I understand it's difficult to cook, since it's more firm than chickens, but I still want em! Grrrr... Wasn't a fan of the fish filets in wine sauce though. I was the only one who didn't like it though. Just had an overpowering flavor to it. Fish was cooked well though and the mushrooms were good. Ended up being around $50 for three of us. I'd return to try the other recommended dish and to come back for the duck and baby bak choy dishes again for sure!
(4)Nick L.
We recently ate at Bamboo Gardens and the place was pretty packed at noon. I am giving this 3 stars and would go there again to try some of their other dishes. We ordered the beef tendon, sliced rice cake with preserved vegetables, xiao long bao, and stir fried pea shoots. We would order all of those dishes again except for the beef tendon, which came out cold and the sauce coagulated onto the tendon. It wasn't appetizing at all. The other dishes were pretty tasty, with the xiao long bao standing out as the best of the bunch. Having tried xiao long bao at a number of places in the bay area, this one ranks as one of the better places. The service was decent, and the food was hit or miss.
(3)Grant G.
Small "hole in the wall" with excellent food. NO MSG in anything. Hot & Sour soup was too spicy for our kids but we enjoyed it. Dim sum pork buns were not what we expected but very good (we were thinking BBQ pork buns). Szechuan shrimp and pork belly w/sticky rice were excellent. Mu-shu vegetable was as good as any where. We obvious do not know how to order Chinese food since the table next to ours had ordered "yellow croaker fish" and a ribs dish that looked awesome. The real bonus here is we can walk to this jewel of a restaurant. :) We'll definitely be back.
(5)sanayo k.
Everything was delicious. You know it's a good sign when you walk in and all the patrons are Chinese. We were the only white group there, and the server was very kind - she asked us if we had any questions, explained how to eat the soup dumplings, and reminded us to eat them while they were hot. Very helpful and attentive, which I wouldn't necessarily expect from a little hole-in-the-wall kind of place. We ordered the garlic eggplant, boiled fish in spicy sauce, Shanghai noodles, tofu with vegetables, and the soup dumplings. The noodles were a bit heavy on the sesame-oil taste, but overall very good.
(4)Jessica H.
***Four stars is based solely on their XLB*** I've been on a quest to find the best soup dumplings in the Bay Area ever since I moved here from New York over a year ago. Doesn't quite measure up to Joe's Shanghai (oh, how I miss you!) but still pretty tasty. And much better than the other places I've tried... As for the other food - mediocre at best.
(4)Tony J.
I came here with a group of friends a few weeks ago. Their xiao long bao is better than most: ample soup inside, fresh pork, and skin strong enough to hold it all together. We also got their bamboo glutinous rice, which seems to be their signature dish. Personally, I feel like it could use more flavor, though I have to give them props for the presentation. Everything else, like the green beans, tea-smoked duck, etc., were good, but not particularly memorable.
(3)DJ M.
Ordered tea duck for 15 dollar, the order was sooo small and tasted horrible! Never ordering tea duck there again.
(1)Erica S.
Lilly W treated me here for lunch since she knew I loved to eat xiao long bao. She knew exactly what to order so I was happy. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have known what good things to order since I'm not too familiar with Shanghainese food. For 3 people, we had quite a bit of food: - Xiao Long Bao (steamed pork soup dumplings) - Shanghai Style Pan Fried Buns with Pork - Glutinous Rice with Pork in Bamboo - Sauteed Green Beans - Green Onion Pancake - Shanghai Baby Bok Choy and some eggplant dish. I enjoyed all the dishes, but my favorite was the glutinous rice. It was very flavorful. Seems to be the popular dish here too! The XLB was good, but not the best. Eat those while they're hot!
(4)Karen G.
As soon as a coworker told me about pork buns (xiao long bao, or xlb for short) I had to try them. Apparently there aren't a lot of places that make these, or that make them well, nearby. So I trusted my food connoisseur friend who found Bamboo Garden and we went for lunch. The service was great - quick and friendly. But maybe I started off a little biased because our server told me I had pretty eyes. ;) I started with a complimentary hot and sour soup. I don't usually like it, but I would have asked for seconds on this if I weren't ordering more food. Very tasty. Our first dish was, of course, the pork buns and....YUM! I thought were really good, just a bit sticky. But I don't know if that's how they are supposed to be since it was my first time. My friend, who has had them countless times, said he liked them a lot. Next I had the green onion pancakes. They were okay, just a bit on the dry side. I might order them again because maybe I got a not so great batch (I went after the lunch rush). Lastly, I had the Shanghai rice cakes with chicken and veggies which I liked, it was just lacking a tiny bit of seasoning or sauce. But I loved the rice cakes (first time having those too). Overall, this will definitely be a new lunch spot for me!
(4)R Y.
The XLB was great! Small hole in the wall restaurant with good dumpling selection.
(4)Dilys S.
I have always vouched for this "hole in the wall" before it became Michelin recommended. It is not unexpected. It makes me so happy this branch of mild main land Chinese food has been around this part of town all this time. It is a happy contrast of the heavy seafood Cantonese food, spicy sichuanese food, soy sauce heavy American Chinese food. It is considered refreshing. They are famous for their hot soup steamed dumplings, cumin lamb slices, bamboo shoot sticky rice and so much more Some times there's free soup dessert
(5)Caroline K.
In honor of Dumpling week ( npr.org/blogs/thesalt/20… ), we rode our bikes to Bamboo garden for dumplings/xlb. We ordered pork xiao long bao, kung pao prawns and pan fried shanghai dumplings. I wasn't sure how the last dish would come out but it was pretty good. Very doughy and bready. It was almost like the chef made steamed buns (like char-siu bao), filled it with the XLB filling and soup, steamed them and then pan fried them. The XLB were delicious and served piping hot with no breakage of the wrappers. The soup inside was flavorful and not a meager amount. The kung pao prawns were average, spicy and lots of shrimp, water chesnuts, pepper and onion. Better than the place on Castro St. but maybe not quite as tasty as R&B in Palo Alto, though priced accordingly.
(3)Tessa L.
Was very surprised at the high quality of good food and friendly service!! The smoked duck was absolutely on point. Super fresh and smokey. The soup dumplings were a little sweet but hit the spot. Nothing like joe shanghai in New York but tasted really homemade and was delicious (wish they were a little bigger though)
(5)Kedar D.
Chinese restaurants in stripmalls are either hidden gems or duds. In this case, Bamboo Garden is closer to a dud. I started off with a green onion pancake ($3) which was too dry and not filled with enough green onion. It basically tasted like pan-fried pieces of white bread. For the mains, I got a kung pao tofu ($9) and a "fried gluten with bamboo and black mushroom" ($9). The kung pao tofu was pedestrian---just a stir-fry with bell peppers, chunks of onions and water chestnuts, and a couple of peanuts tossed into the mix. They deep-fried soft tofu for this dish, which doesn't quite work for me---soft tofu, by definition, doesn't have the same kind of crunch and heftiness as a denser variety, so I think they make a mistake on using only soft tofu. The fried gluten is an unusual dish, which is why I ordered it, but it was really bland. It basically consisted of tons of thick, briny mushrooms (not my favorite kind), four or five soft, gooey gluten puffs (which have the consistency of jello) and then bamboo shards. The sauce lacked any zing or seasoning and fell flat. The service was nice, though, and I'm glad they have brown rice ($2 extra). One major gripe: all their to-go containers are styrofoam, which are not only a nightmare for the environment, but also not very sturdy or reliable for securely holding anything at all. I can't believe that any place still uses styrofoam in this day and age and Bamboo Garden should be ashamed. All told, I wouldn't bother with Bamboo Garden. That said, there's another Bamboo Garden in Millbrae (different owners) which is far more interesting and tasty (and much better for vegans and vegetarians, too).
(2)Mona W.
Xiao Long Bao here is really not bad. Freshly made to order. Delicate skin with good amount of filling and soup. The broth is not the richest but is well seasoned. I don't think it tasted too mellow. The only problem is breakage and leakage. The fault lies on the presentation rather than the preparation. The steamed xiao long bao sticks too much to the paper liner. Using lettuce leaves could have easily solved this problem. While I found the xiao long bao and wonton quite decent, the other entrees were just average. The gluten puffs were too soft and not as chewy and spongy as I would like. The sauteed crystal shrimps has good crisp texture but some didn't have the veins properly removed. The restaurant is very kid friendly and accommodating to the little ones.
(3)John N.
Crab xlb and regular is legit good here! The owners are very nice. Definitely coming back for more!
(4)Kary M.
I was introduced to this place on rainy day for their xiao long bao. I had never heard of a ... soup dumpling? Soup in a dumpling? what? Although it definitely requires skill to pick up without piercing, THEY ARE DELICIOUS. By appearance, this place is nothing special. I mean, it's literally a definition of a hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant... but the people who work here are really nice and the food is pretty consistent. The only negative thing I can say is that their "baby bok choy" dish has a strange after taste... but that's pretty much the only thing I haven't liked off their menu so far....
(4)Alex T.
Since Din Tai Fung may not come to Bay Area long before Vladimir and Estragon meet Godot, Bamboo Garden is the place to go for XLB. By the way, if Godot does come, the lines will be longer and the price will be higher, while at Bamboo Garden one just sits down and eats, without significant weight loss of the wallet's contents. Also, I did not feel the place is a one-trick pony - it may be true that the other dishes may not be worth a long drive, they are quite decent. In addition to XLB, we had fish in wine sauce, rice with ham, and eight treasure rice. All of the above was quite good - family style, of course, but very satisfying. Also, the waitress openly told us not to get Shao Bing (which we were about to order), since on this particular day it was not at the level. I can see some reviewers complaining about the service - but it is really what you get in this kind of place - the waiters are not going to fawn over you, but simply do their job. Overall, a good restaurant - excellent XLB and fairly good at everything else
(4)Spicy T.
Not sure we will back after being given difficulty for not having ordered $25 before tip and using our credit card.
(2)Warren W.
Wow, I'm sad to report this place has gone downhill with food and service (ok, maybe service was never a strong point). I've enjoyed their XLB here many times and loved the fact that they are wrapping these dumplings in front of your eyes. After motioning to the server that I was ready to order, he started to take my order and then cut me off halfway and told me to wait since the phone was ringing. OK I could let that go, I'm here for the food anyway right? After finally putting in our order, I'm chatting with a friend and then hear a loud, constant thumping from the kitchen area. I can see right into the kitchen and see clumps of frozen meat getting broken--not on the counter, or on a cutting board, or even thawing in the sink--rather the cook is tapping the piece of meat on the floor (?!) while the other guy in the back is mopping maybe 5 feet away. Just when I thought I was done dry heaving, a few minutes later the same guy tapping the meat on the floor is now handling some dough. As he handles the dough, he happens to drop the dough on the floor, but does he throw it away? Nope. He picks it up, looks around to see if anyone saw and proceeds to knead and prepare food for myself and other patrons. Yeah, not ever coming back again. That's just wrong on so many levels.
(1)Harsh M.
Didn't like their food, very small portions. The wait time in the evening is on avg 30-45 min. The food is not consistent in flavor and portions compared to their branch in North Carolina. We tried Wang's kitchen before and after our dinner here and the food tasted way better and was consistent and portions were big at the same price.
(2)JJ W.
As soon as we walked in, we knew we had came to the right place! Nothing like watching people make your dumplings right on the spot. The results, was yummy hot and succulent dumplings...We order Pan fried bunds delicious, Xiao Long bao heaven.....glutinous rice with pork... WOW ! All this food by the way had no MSG!! Did I mention they actually are Michelin rated..... we definitely will be back!!!
(5)Derek S.
Bamboo Garden is located in a nondescript strip mall in Mountain View, next to Walgreen's. There used to be a Shanghainese restaurant here that is now located in Cupertino Village. We were warmly greeted upon arrival and presented a table with menus and a pot of tea waiting... The highlight of the meal was definitely the xlbs, which had plenty of soup and a very thin skin! :) For some reason, the waitress recommended the non-crab meat xlbs! The green onion pancake came in a close second being very thin and tasty when hot. There was very little green onion. The dry-fried string beans were well cooked although on the sweet side. The string beans themselves were on the "old" side...maybe string beans are no longer in season? The glutinous rice inside the bamboo was mediocre as it was filled with bamboo shoots, which I'm not a fan. There were also plenty of pieces of fatty beef/pork. The worst dish of the meal was the wine chicken. The chicken wasn't super fresh and was over-cooked, resulting in very dry and coarse white-meat chicken. To top it off, the wine had an extreme bitter after taste. ..upon taking a closer look, they used many pieces of chicken neck and chicken wing tips at the bottom of the dish to make it look bigger... Service was friendly and prompt at this restaurant. Food: 3.5 stars Service: 4 stars P.S. They have a 3 dish for $21.95 special if you do take-out! ;)
(4)Michelle L.
I get my quick fix of XLB here since I live just a few minutes walk away from this place. Service may not be the greatest. But the XLB is one thing to die for. Yes, the almost perfect XLB in the middle of Mountain View. The wrapping is thin. The filling is delicious. (it's just the size is still a tad bigger than what I get in Asia). From the peak when the new ownership takes over this place (and changed the name to Bamboo Garden) - there are some areas that have gone downhill. The guys who serve us are not as attentive and caring as the owner. But the owner works really hard for this business so it breaks my heart when I see sloppy service from the waiter (she was working pretty much until like a few weeks before her baby due and she came back to the restaurant a couple of weeks after the baby was born). Food wise - the stables that I usually order are still the same. XLB, the stir fried green beans, the shanghai style fried noodles, drunken chicken, smoked fish, and the tofu/potato stir fry. So I'm still a fan of this place :D
(4)David C.
Food is OK. Like the 上海鸡毛èœ, but the 竹林轩å°ç‚’ is just so so, not recommended. Service is good.
(3)Katharine A.
I've had this place in my bookmark list for a long time. I was craving XLB today and didn't want to have to make a long drive to my "known" XLB restaurants, so I popped in here for lunch. It is a small restaurant in a random shopping center. Atmosphere is minimal, but the service was nice. I had an order of XLB which were just OK. Some of them had already been split open before I even handled them and that makes me sad. The tops were very thick as well. They were juicy, but a bit larger than I would have liked. I love black vinegar and ginger and adding it improved things. I also ordered pot stickers which were also good, but not fantastic. I say that both could have been more infused with flavor than they were. I'll be back to try it again. It doesn't strike me as a place that I'd go out of my way to go to, but if I was in the area and wanted XLB, I'd return.
(3)Amy D.
I had a craving for xiao long bao and decided to give Bamboo Garden a try. We arrived a little past noon on a Friday, and the restaurant was full but there wasn't a line. However, we did have to wait close to 10 minutes for a table to clear up. We ordered right away, but it took about 15 minutes before any of our dishes arrived: -Steamed Pork Bun/Xiao Long Bao/XLBs (6 pieces, $5.95): Overly ambitious, I got 2 orders, and they were only ok. These xlbs were larger than I'm used to, but the skin was nice and thin at least. However, the meat filling was too salty, and needed more sugar, sesame oil, and rice wine. I don't think I would order these again. -Shanghai Style Stir Fried Noodle ($5.95): Pretty good, but nothing special. Although it wasn't expensive, the plate also wasn't very big. The service wasn't great, but typical for a hole in the wall type place. Even though the food here was inexpensive, I was pretty disappointed with the meal from today and don't think I'll be back. However, if you're looking for a cheap Chinese place for lunch and are in this area, they have over 40 lunch specials from $6.95 - $7.95. At least parking is easy in this center (they are located next to the Walgreens off of Rengstorff).
(2)Trang H.
Bamboo Garden is a tiny, understaffed hole in the wall restaurant next to a shady convenient store in an even shadier strip mall. Come here for the xiao long bao, and only for the XLB - soup dumplings! I believe they hand make them behind the counter, but cannot confirm. They are very, very good and even better on cold days. I have tried many other items on the menu, and they have all been massively underwhelming, generally bland or lacking in texture. Even the hot tea they serve is only lukewarm. Just order enough XLB to fill you up, and nothing else. Service is okay, but can be very slow during rush times like lunch. For example, the last time I was here it took them nearly twenty five minutes to get two orders of XLB on the table. I sat there starving. Despite a few awkward apologies, the wait left a bad taste in my mouth.
(3)Ronny T.
A hidden neighborhood gem with authentic Chinese food. Get the XLB and the potstickers. You can see the lady make the XLB behind the window when she's not serving customers on the floor. Wonton soup and the string beans were very good as well. Everything fresh and cooked just right. The locale is not a 5-star type of place, but the food is as good as it gets.
(4)Epicurean _.
Really great food that was catered. I had to ask where it was from, and sure enough it was an interesting mix of Chinese and Indian food. Spicy. Their veggie dishes tasted savory. The paneer was outstanding. Much recommended!
(5)Victor Y.
An outstanding authentically Shanghai restaurant as good as any Chinese restaurant in Silicon Valley. It's a small but crowded eatery in a small nondescript shopping center. This restaurant has been a favorite of mine for years. The clientele originally was all Chinese, but in recent years, a scattering of non-Asians have discovered this gem. It helps to have a Chinese-speaking host since the best dishes are not familiar ones. The specialty are dumplings with paper-thin skin that are mouth-watering tasty. One of the best dishes I have ever eaten is the glutinous pork with rice. See other reviews with a picture.
(5)Jeff J.
Bamboo Garden is a great place for home-style Chinese cooking. What I mean is it tastes like something a superbly gifted mom would cook... tasty and far less oily than many restaurants out there. The Xiao Long Bao were delicious. Very thin skin, lots of soup inside. Certainly not as delicate as a Din Tai Fung, but seriously, why are some people even trying to compare? These are good enough that I had a chopstick war for the last one. The Si Gua is also a great deal. Bamboo Garden lets the ingredient speak for itself without overwhelming it with artificial flavors and grease. I was less pleased with the Xian Yu Ji Li Dou Fu Bao. Perhaps it was just different from what I remembered, but I'm used to it being less soupy. They also asked me if I wanted white rice. Of course... duh. But, if you're coming to a Chinese joint looking for great service, you don't have a great grasp of the Chinese dining experience. You're just there to eat, and Bamboo Garden gives you great eats.
(4)Alan L.
Ok....so I just had to come back here to try more food. This time I tried the Smoke Duck. This was delicious....the skin was crispy and the duck seemed to be cooked about just right served on a nice big platter. I just had to order the Glutinous Rice With Pork in Bamboo again....it's soooo good!! Can't eat that just once.....more please!!! This time the hostess/waitress made a suggestion and offered a vegetarian dish. The dish was called Tai Gu (I think I spelled that right). It's a Green Vegetable sort of like Bok Choy....but it's a lot thinner and chopped into smaller pieces and a little more crispy....This dish is only seasonal dish and usually served around Chinese New Years time frame. For this dish...it's not on the menu, so you'll need to ask for it and it is a must try if you are into good Vegetables! For desert we had the Taro Mud Pie. Yummy!! I changed my rating to 5 stars because I've not had a bad dish since they opened up and the service has always been excellent. Good food, good place, good service, good for an hour or more lunch break. Chinese New Years is coming up soon....this place highly recommended!!
(5)Cathy W.
My boyfriend has been here once before with his co-workers, and he said the food was pretty good, so we decided to bring his family here for lunch yesterday before we headed up to the City. I was a little hesitant about this place when we first sat down as my plate was very much chipped & I had to ask for a new one...(really? Just throw away your old plates and replace them please!)... I didn't know what was good, so I left it for my boyfriend and his family to order. We ended up getting the following: - steamed pork buns: we had 3 orders of this based on my boyfriend's recommendation. All the buns were VERY juicy and flavorful - I thought the soy sauce/ginger was totally not necessary! - sauteed string beans: very well done and delicious! A lot of restaurants tend to overly stir-fry string beans until they are black and dry, but Bamboo Garden does it just right! - glutinous rice with bamboo shoots and pork in a bamboo holder: this was a pretty unique dish (at least I've never had something like this in a restaurant setting yet) and was also very delicious! I really love glutinous rice to begin with and the bamboo shoots & pork were seasoned/flavored very well. I didn't like how the pork was too fatty, though, so I mainly just picked them off instead...ha ha. - house special duck soup: I'm personally not a soup fan, but this was a very well done soup! The duck was very tender and there were bamboo shoots and other ingredients as well that contribute to the delicious flavor of the soup. - green onion pancake: this was probably the least impressive dish of our meal. It was very dry and way too fried...I've definitely had better! Overall, this was a very nice meal with lots of authentic Chinese food that's hard to come by! I will probably bring my family here also next time they come to visit!
(4)Kabir S.
Nice ambience and it was quiet when we visited. Staff was decent. Corn soup was good but HotnSour soup wasn't good enough. Manchurian and chilly-garlic noodles were awesome.
(4)Ze Lin X.
I used to come to this place when it was called Shanghai Family Restaurant but apparently they've changed ownership, menus, and everything. At first, I was bummed when I couldn't find the algae fried fish they used to sell, but ended up loving the few items that were recommended to us. Definitely get the glutinous rice with pork in bamboo! It's the best thing I had there and it is presented in an actual bamboo rather than just bamboo leaves. I was also get their dumplings, both the steam and pan fried ones! They were delicious. The waitress also recommended us the garlic spare rib, but it wasn't as good. It was just deep fried spare ribs with deep fried slices of garlic--nothing like what I expected.
(5)Paula N.
I decided to explore this place due to pretty high rating from several yelpers. I am wondering how other reviewers can even give Bamboo Garden more than 2 stars. The restaurant offers the fattiest food I have ever had in my life. $50 for a very simple lunch for two persons is definitely not cheap. - Xiao Long Bao: so fatty. If I had tried Xiao Long Bao the first time at Bamboo Garden, I absolutely would not have wanted to eat it again. I had to ask the waiter to bring me more ginger so that it can subside their food fatty. - Fried Xiao Long Bao (Sheng Jian Bao): I can't even finish one bite. - Glutinous Rice with Pork & Bamboo Shoots - Soggy and fatty. The idea to put sticky rice and pork belly in a piece of bamboo seems cool. But once a waiter got the food out the bamboo in front of me, it looks so gross and messy. - Stir-fried veggie is also on the oily side. I do not recommend this restaurant. Stay away from it or take zantac before going there to avoid heartburn.
(1)Local S.
Yet another group visit to sample more house specialties prompts this Update. The 2013 Michelin Guide recommendation (news to the restaurant in November) is now displayed on the door. My previous Update has more about the Michelin itself (a source often misperceived by people who only hear about it third-hand or online rather than reading it). As if to remind us that B. G. is NOT just about XLB dumplings, Michelin suggested four other Shanghainese dishes (and wisely advised skipping the usual American-cliché or "Mandarin" menu items). They're first 4 dishes mentioned below. VALUE is part of Bamboo Garden's very real draw: Even a lavish lunch built on the "Michelin" dish suggestions came to $18 per person inclusive; other meals have run around $10-12 per. It is definitely a place to go friends and enjoy some variety. Alcohol note: Restaurant personnel said beer only. TRIED SO FAR (on multiple visits where indicated): [Tea-] smoked duck, $12 Delicious, mildly smoky. One order had plenty of lean duck meat. Fish fillets in [rice] wine sauce [with wood ear mushrooms] $10. Fresh, savory -- mushrooms round out the flavor. Glutinous rice w/ braised pork, pork belly, bamboo shoots, served from barrel-shaped container made from a large bamboo stalk, $11. Good but VERY rich, from much fatty pork belly. Shanghai baby bok choy sautéed with broth, garlic, goji berries, sesame oil $10. (Michelin identified the greens as spinach shoots, but restaurant was emphatic that they're actually specially ordered very young baby bok choy.) Pleasant, subtle. Xiao long bao (XLB) steamed soup dumplings (5 visits). House's #1 seller, employees said. Better than versions at most local restaurants. On first visit we liked them enough to get two orders (of six pieces @ $6) for four hungry people. TIP: To keep XLB intact, pick up with your fingers by the gathered top. Pork w/ mustard-tuber steamed dumplings, $7. Disappeared fast. Personally I value the unique flavor impact of the mustard tuber, which was weak here (these had mainly pork inside). Shanghai style fried buns with pork, $6 (2 visits). Pleasant discovery to me: six big balls of thicker, bready dough enclosing savory herbed pork, bottoms fried brown. Fried dumplings filled w/ Chinese chives, $5 (3 visits). Knockout aromatic version of this large vegetarian filled pastry (superb also at Chef Zhao's Bistro not far away. Zhao's photo of these dumplings: yelp.com/biz_photos/jmRC… ). Bamboo Garden's was superb, like Zhao's yelp.com/biz/chef-zhao-b… -- but thicker wrapper. Kind of thing making Chinese savory pastries famous world-wide. Marinated duck appetizer ($6) -- cold meaty appetizer, subtly marinated, no (thank the heavens) excessive five-spice or star anise (which haunt cold-marinated-meat dishes at some restaurants). Went fast. Smoked-fish appetizer, $6. Served cold in dark sauce it was cooked in. Pleasant and savory, bit of anise flavoring IIRC. "Wild green with tofu" soup ($7, 2 visits): Light and fresh, mercifully NOT highly salted either time. Ample bowl for the table. Crabmeat paste and tofu clay pot, $9 -- light, delicate. Soft tofu, sweet fresh vegetable bits (dont know why called "paste" -- there were bits of crabmeat). Delicate, satisfying, almost a soup. Sauteed eels noodles, $8. Colorful, popular. Chinese chives and dry tofu with pork, $9. "Yellow" Chinese chives with lots of brown pressed tofu in narrow strips and a little pork. Another delicate dish. "Sauteed mustard with bamboo shoot," $9 -- mistranslated or ingredient-substituted: came with spinach, but very good, a fancy, herby, fat-free vegetable dish, lots of color-contrasting bamboo-shoot slices in the bias-cut "horse-ear" shape. Sauteed string beans $8. Rather fresh with little seasoning bits. Ma po tofu, $8 (available vegetarian or w/ pork). Typical non-Sichuanese cook's loose interpretation of this Sichuanese dish, containing neither the traditional hua jiao nor leek-type vegs. Pleasant light tofu main course though, pea and carrot bits, moderately spicy from dou ban jiang.
(4)Bonnie n.
Love this hole in the wall place. The food is great and its cheap The pork xiao long bao are scrumptious, juicy meaty full of deliciousness Glutinous rice in bamboo- mmm... the meat is fatty but just aim for the less fatty pieces and you'll be fine. Sometimes I wish there was a little bit more rice though Sauteed Green beans- soo good, it is perfectly cooked with a nice crunch to the beans. Has little dried shrimp (which I normally don't like but they don't over power the dish) shanghai noodles (i think this is what its called)- its flat rice cakes with meat and veggies. yum the beef noodle soup is pretty solid also, nothing spectacular but still yummy.
(4)Lei Y.
Bamboo Garden's xiao long bao(XLB) is great. My credibility--to be able to make such a bold statement--is as follows: 1. I'm from Shanghai, where the XLB was invented. Hence, during numerous childhood and adult trips back to visit relatives, we have eaten at big, small, new, old, famous, and not famous XLB places through the city. 2. I've eaten at Ding Tai Fung (most famous + delicious XLB chain) from their flagship store in Taipei and other parts of the world. 3). I've eaten at 7+ XLB places throughout the bay area and SF. Bamboo Garden's XLB, especially the crab, is definitely yums! Made fresh to order, the thin skin, flavorful soup, juicy meat, and proper ginger & black vinegar dipping sauce makes this place legit.
(4)Karen M.
Yes, the XLBs are very good here BUT: I want to post a warning about the links shown above for the restaurant's website and menu: When I clicked on either of these links I got a msg telling me that they were sites that could be harmful to my computer! I run Firefox. It was a very strong warning that going to those sites was a very bad idea!!! Just sayin...
(3)A H.
a family favorite. We think they have the best XLB around, and stuff ourselves on those. We also love the potstickers. With those, we usually order the green onion thin breads, and the black bean noodles, and then experiment with other dishes. The service is always friendly and helpful, the food comes out promptly and in phases, and we can get refills on water and tea.
(4)Karen W.
Mmmm the food is so fresh here! I came here, of course, for the XLB ( s3-media2.ak.yelpcdn.com… ). It was BURSTING with juice. Sooo yummy and tender. The sad thing is that almost all of my XLB broke before I could bite into them (picking up XLB without breaking them is a skill). We also ordered fish slices with tomato ( s3-media4.ak.yelpcdn.com… ), which was also of really high quality, though the fish and tomato combination was a bit odd. Last, at the recommendation of the waitress, we ordered some sort of Chinese vegetables ( s3-media1.ak.yelpcdn.com… ). She said it was the best, even better than my favorite Chinese greens (empty heart vegetable). It certainly was tasty and was perfectly seasoned and sauteed with enoki mushrooms. Delicious, though I wouldn't say it's better than my favorite vegetable :) Service was fabulous too. I am wavering between 4 and 5 stars, but given the freshness and clean taste of the food here, the delicious XLB (VERY hard to come by in the states), generous portion size, and the good service, I am going to have to go with 5 for now.
(5)Albert L.
My favorite local Chinese joint. It's a hole-in-the-wall in a dingy strip mall, but it's solid, solid food. Get the xiaolongbao's. At only 6 for $5.75 the price might seem a little steep, but they're well above average for what you can find in the area. They're on the big side, they're loaded with soup, and the skin is very thin. I'm also a big fan of the Shanghai-style stir-fried rice cakes, as well as the cucumber with garlic sauce on a hot day. Only $2.95 for a big bowl of cucumbers! This is one of those places where it's hard to go wrong with the food. Probably a fair share of MSG in each dish... which, naturally, means everything tastes decently good.
(4)Tiffany H.
Was really looking for chinese food places in the area that delivered, but changed my mind after deciding that I needed some fresh air. I saw this place and yelp and became interested because most of the things on the menu were authentic chinese. When I went in, the first thing I noticed was that not only was the family style restaurant packed, but it was packed with Asian faces. My rule of thumb for dining at any place that offers Asian cuisine: if there are other Asians sitting and dining in the place, then it is good enough for me to eat there also. There was a woman with her baby behind the counter, I placed my order with her, and as I was doing so, the owner came out. She was very polite, confirmed the order with the woman with the baby, took my payment and went back to the kitchen. Her and one other waiter were the ones circulating, taking orders and serving people their food. It took a bit longer than I would have liked for me to get my food, but the fact that the food was great, and the owner was super nice totally made up for it. I also can be impatient at time when I am hungry :) I highly recommend going here.
(5)Joe P.
I met the owner when she was working at Shanghai restaurant (now Taiwanese) near Prospect and De Anza Blvd. In addition to the Shanghai food they have added some Dong Bei stew dishes (Northeast China). We had the famous pork with sweet rice cooked in bamboo, smoke duck, wine cooking fishes and Shanghai Ji Mao (chicken feather) vegetable. I am glad they are recognized by Michelin as one of recommended restaurant. Congrat. It's very clean, small but very home-like restaurant. Some of the guests came in to see the new born baby. Next time I will try their xiao long bao, people next to our table said it's excellent. So glad to see them again, I definitely recommend it.
(5)Susanna W.
J and I wanted to try a new Chinese place, and ended up at Bamboo Garden. AMBIANCE: small space with a steady flow of customers. Has the potential to feel claustrophobic, but wasn't too full when we dined there. Had some issues with flies, which was really annoying. SERVICE: friendly and oh so Chinese. The owner/owner's wife (lao ban niang) was quite charismatic, and took time to explain the menu and offer suggestions to non-Chinese/Shanghainese customers (neighboring table). FOOD: - XLB: A lot bigger than I anticipated, these dumplings were essentially bags of soup that exploded on contact (better use your best ninja chopstick skillz to extract them from the steamer). I thought the overall flavor was too sweet, and the meat a little tough, but appreciated how fresh they were. - Shanghai stir fried rice cakes: Bland, could use more soy sauce while stir frying for color and flavor. The rice cakes were well cooked though, with the right amount of bite. - Hot and Sour soup: HUGE portion, I think J and I each had around 4-5 bowls each. I liked Bamboo Garden's version, and would order it again. OVERALL: Decent food at a decent price (I think it was around $20-25 for our dinner). Complimentary green bean soup at the end of the meal. I'd be willing to return to try other items on the menu (bamboo sticky rice!).
(3)Cat P.
After a few more trips to this restaurant after falling in love with the XLB, i've come to the conclusion that this place has good XLB and very mediocre/below average food. I'd say that if you're craving good XLB in the south bay, you've come to the right place, but don't expect much from the other dishes. Except maybe if you order the pork knuckle, which I still really enjoy. Everything else though isn't worth it.
(3)L.L. M.
I came here because of the high yelp review & Michelin mention. The restaurant is relatively clean and the service was pretty good. The food was sorely disappointing. The XLB was awful and tasted "peppery". The pork glutinous rice in bamboo had a lot of MSG. Will not visit again.
(2)Edward Y.
Xiao long bao pork is great with nice flavors Xiao long bao pork with crab paste is something I'll pass on next time as I don't like the crab paste flavor but this is typical of my palate
(4)Andrew C.
Wow, this place is a shockingly good chinese restaurant in a less than impressive area... Located in the middle of a strip mall, in between a few mexican restaurants and liquor store, this place definitely takes the case and is quite possibly one of the best chinese restaurants i've eaten at in the area. As everyone has said, you must get the Xiao Long Bao (xlb's) and get two orders so you don't have to share any from the first order! The dumplings are sizeable, affordable (5.95) and come with about 6. Glutinous Rice with Pork and Bamboo: Normally, I wouldn't expect a super nice presentation, but this place actually has the mixture of bamboo, fatty pork (and thus, tender), and glutinous rice all in a bamboo tube. It is delicious and I am beginning to crave it as I write this review... 10.95 Shanghai Style Rice Cake with pork and preserved vegetables: Very sizeable portion of rice cakes and great flavor despite the look of it. It is not super sauced up like other places do, but has just the right amount of kick to it. 6.95 I would HIGHLY recommend coming out to this place if you're ever in the area and I would definitely add this to my rotation...even though it'll take me 20+ minutes to get there.
(4)Tammy Y.
STAY AWAY. I used to be a regular here but there is no way in hell I will step foot in this establishment after my experience today. I should probably give you guys some context: Any time my friends, coworkers or family crave Chinese, I always recommend this place. The boss lady always goes out of her way to say hi to me and joke about how I won't try anything new. You can always catch me raving about their xlb or their lion's head meatball but I have to stop coming here on pure principle. Today was the first time I placed an order for pick-up. I ordered their 3 dishes for $21.99 takeout deal and on their menu it says it comes with a starch and soup. The choices are steamed white rice or green onion pancake for the starch, hot and sour or wonton for the soup. I chose to go with rice and hot and sour soup. My S.O. heads into the restaurant for pickup and he is surprised by the total so I get a call on my cell. He passes the phone over to owner lady and immediately she recognizes my voice. In fact, her exact words were "Oh, pretty lady. I recognize who you are. You always order lion's head meatball". So she proceeds to tell me that my total for the 3 dish deal is going to be $32 so I ask for a breakdown in cost. She tells me that I ordered 3 dishes and a hot and sour soup. I politely inform her that the menu says that the deal comes with soup and her tone COMPLETELY changes and things get ugly. She says to me, "Hey, lady. Read more carefully next time. The soup is only free if you order 6 dishes (Btw, it totally DOES NOT say that)." So I reply and say "Well, we won't be needing the soup then so can you please take it off our order." She replies, "I'm already giving you two bowls of rice for free (really, it's part of the deal so it's not really free) and I already made the soup. I'm not taking it off and you need to purchase it because you ordered it. I tell her that I don't think that's very fair and she says as a favor to me she'll let us swipe our card this time because the S.O. didn't bring enough cash, but in the future it's cash only (EXCUSE ME!?!?! Thanks for doing me a F&*@ING FAVOR you B@#$@). Despite all this attitude, I politely tell her that I'm afraid that we won't be returning. Do you know what she said to me? She said, "Whatever, DOESN'T MATTER" and she hangs up. This is the way Bamboo Garden treats their loyal customers. STAY AWAY. Their food is average, at best, but their service is ABSOLUTELY UNFORGIVABLE.
(1)Jim P.
I Quick Tipped "Killer Dumplings" and I'm sticking with that! We had the Xiao Long Bao (XLB), Glutinous Rice w/ Pork in Bamboo, Pork w/ Mustard Tuber Steamed Dumplings and the Green Onion Pancakes. All of the dishes were fresh and wonderful but the dumplings "Stole the Show". Hot and juicy goodness! The XLB had delightfully thin wrappers and the Pork w/Mustard Tuber Steamed dumplings had super thick and doughy wrappers. I have to agree with a number of other reviews that the only downside is the breakage level when picking the XLB out of the steamer. I hate to lose all of that juice. Lettuce please! Surroundings are kind of rough; but the food and freindly staff more than make up for it. Cheers!
(4)Jennifer S.
So I ate here last night and thought the food was pretty decent. The waitress was really nice as well.. For 4 people we ordered plenty since we weren't that hungry. Plus 2 bowls of white rice to go with the veggies. We ordered: 1. The Bamboo Rice - This is really everything people hype it up to be. Full of fatty, tender pieces of pork, bamboo shoots and glutenous rice...I can definitely appreciate the fact that they put it together like a piece of artwork (Reference pictures). It was REALLY oily though..so I don't think I could eat here often or else I might explode. 2. Shanghai Soup Dumplings (XLBs!!) - These XLBs are pretty good, but they kept sticking to the paper and the soup would seep out. I swear it wasn't an nooby mistake on my part, its just that they were STUCK. The meat inside was tasty and the soup (when I could get it to stay in the dumpling) was yumsies indeed. I would make this the king of Soup Dumplings in this area, easy. 3. Bean Sprouts - These were pretty standard and again on the oily side. I'd say it was even a little bit bland..Meeps. Overall, I'd just take away stars for the amount of oil in the food for the health conscious and the lack of flavor in the bean sprouts. Sad face..
(3)Angela L.
SLB is delish but beef noodle is a bit salty and overall not that great. Potsticker runs small. Had to chug a cup of water after the meal.
(3)Sheri P.
Last year was my first time dinning at this cute lil restaurant for an early lunch. I've always loved Chinese food, especially dim sum, but I realized that day how much I was missing out on Xiao Long Bao all these years! I was soo intrigued when my friend was describing how it had soup in it. :P I am now clearly obsessed with xlb and haven't found another restaurant to compare it to just yet. :) We have been back a few times since and have had several dishes which were also very tasty!! Can't wait to go back! :)
(5)Marie S.
After having Din Tai Fung in SoCal, it's been pretty hard to find anything close to that here in the Bay area. Ok, I'll admit, I haven't tried to hard. But hey, if something opens up near me, I'm not one to say no! I'm no XLB connoisseur, but for the most part, the wrapping was super delicate, but not delicate enough where it was easy for it to break, the pork was flavorful and tender, and the soup was so flavorful! Not as easy to eat as Din Tai Fung, but the quality and the flavor were great. The woman who served us also recommends some really great veggies, which are shipped fresh to their store daily. Plus, a meal for four was about $40ish, which was WAY cheap. Plus, the woman who served us reminded me of aunt and always treated my hubby and I like we're fam. So major props to BG for serving it up!
(4)Jamie T.
My favorite thing here is the pork and bamboo in sticky rice. The fresh bamboo is so good and full of earthy flavor combined with the fatty pork. The xlb here is alright just don't expect skin as thin as those who perfect and specialize in xlbs. I also like the Shanghai chow mein (thick udon like noodle) with spinach and pork as well as the vegetable dish that is tofu beancurd skin with soybean and green mustards.
(4)Cindy K.
Very delicious XLB! We were having some after dinner munchies - hey, don't judge! Looking for some quick eats around the neighborhood. Found this place through Yelp and headed over. It's located in this dinky plaza next to Walgreens. Small family-owned restaurant. We ordered to go and got our order in 10 minutes. They even gave us free dessert. Yay! The XLB was amazing!! I loved the flavor of the meat and the juice was just great. I definitely want to come back again. Maybe for a sit down meal next time.
(5)Esther Y.
Been here a couple times already for lunch. Reasonable prices, decent xiaolongbao, and good fish dishes. I also liked the Shanghai stir-fried noodles. Ironically, the pork belly rice that comes in a hollowed-out bamboo container was not very good at all. It was way too salty and oily. Too bad, because it seems like it would be their namesake.
(4)Lee K.
Great Food, Great Service, .. what more could you want? More tables? They always have something new as well as keeping all my favorites. The owner seems genuinely glad to see my wife and I, and always tries to provide any special requests. It is a joy to eat there. It is like going to a friend's house for dinner.
(5)Cynthia C.
Surprisingly good Mandarin and Shanghai eats. -XLB $6.95 Five baos of soupy goodness. Must dip in the vinegar sauce they provide. -Fried dumplings w/Chinese chives $4.95 Quite good, not greasy and filled with eggs, bean thread and chives. -Duck stew napa cabbage w/bean thread $10.95 LOVED it, so savory, plenty of duck Service is good, Mandarin is the dialect used, tea is watery and bagged.
(4)Mateo C.
First I want to say the service here is horrible. I came in for take out and even though the place was empty, I had to wait about 10 min before being acknowledged. Then, after I ordered, I pulled out my credit card, and the the guy looked appalled. Seriously if you have issues with credit cards, just charge like 25 or 50 cents per transaction. Getting upset and asking your customers to pay cash is just unprofessional. I would much rather him say, "it is 50 cents extra to use a credit card" with a smile than to look shocked and ask, "can you pay cash?". Then on top of all that he overcharged my by $2. Not a big deal so I just took y meal and walked off. Still, the service was horrible, and even though I love Dim Sum and this is close to my work, I will never come here again. After all of this, the food was average, as were the portions.
(1)J S.
Eggplant, tofu kung pao was good.
(3)Will C.
Went here once and the food was really good. The restaurant itself is quite small and probably has a little over ten tables inside. We had great xlb cooked perfectly with not too much soup, which was good because normally I scald my mouth trying to eat these things too quickly! The signature bamboo sticky rice with pork was quite good also, but the waitress just poured out all the contents from the bamboo container onto our plate, whether or not we wanted her to. Very saucy and tasty! The claypot veggies were quite delicious, and we noticed that the other table that got it had a slightly different veggie make-up. Fortunately, the lady doesn't like carrots and our version had only two slivers, poifect! The pig knuckle was ok, although we didn't eat much of it because we were deathly full by this point. Great food overall, but I found it a little strange that I could see a baby carriage in the back from my table, but I guess that just means the place is that much more of a legit family-owned joint! 3.5 stars rounded up. Not a life changer
(4)Ann S.
My buddy Dave wanted to take me and boyfriend out for a lunch to hang out. We went to this place, since his work is in Mountain View, and he said it was pretty decent. We pulled into this ghetto parking lot, and see the hole-in-the-wall place. I had high expectations for something that looked this dumpy. *No offense at all! I know from personal experience that dumpy places often produce food fit for gods.* When we got seated and tried to look up popular dishes on Yelp, but alas, there was no reception. So I relied on some time-tested faves. We tried a stirfried lamb dish, which was well done. Our second dish was curry prawns, which comes stirfried in curry powder, with red and green peppers and sliced onions. This was delicious, although I would just ask for the red peppers next time. I don't like the taste of green peppers with prawns. Salt and Pepper fish tasted like handfuls of floury dough with some fish bits stuck inside. Mapo (Ma-La) Tofu tasted more salty than spicy. I mean, come on. If you have "Painfully Numbing" Tofu, shouldn't it at least make me sweat some sadist love that this Szechuan delicacy normally gives? This was highly disappointing. I don't really care for the service; the waitress who was supposed to help our table kept forgetting everything. We had to remind her for our white rice, for my friend's drink, for our curry prawns, for our tea pot refill, etc. I would suggest to visit outside of peak dining hours (lunch or dinner). I think the service would drive you mad if you had to wait for servers to figure things out with 5 tables' request instead of just your own table. Anyways, the place is advertised as a Shanghai place. Darn me for not noticing the sign beforehand. I would not mind giving this place a try with some Shanghai dishes and some XLBs.
(3)Marilyn T.
The location is kind of random, but it's also convenient for where I live. Everyone comes for XLB, and if you're a vegetarian, they also have steamed vegetarian dumplings. they feature a lot of Shanghainese dishes, which have good flavor but aren't done quite traditionally. For example, there too much corn starch on the Shanghainese sauteed shrimp,, so it didn't have that almost crisp texture. but they did use plump, large, de-veined shrimp, and the flavor was pretty authentic. The taro dessert with red bean is also hard to find around here, but it also doesn't taste quite like the traditional one (they use less lard and less sugar, which I guess is a good thing :p). Other good dishes include the shanghai style stir fried rice cakes, glutinous rice in bamboo, and duck dishes. We came pretty late on a Sunday night, and they were nice about accommodating us. They were prompt and pleasant. Unlike around Castro, parking is never a problem. And they do take credit cards!
(3)Dan B.
I came seeking the phenomenal Chinese restaurant with big crowds that several have raved about on Yelp. I couldn't locate it. But I did find a very standard Chinese restaurant with the same name and location, serving fresh but mediocre food. There were no crowds to speak of; The place had few customers on both my visits. Prices were good though. -- Broccoli chicken lunch special: $6.95. Fresh but very average. 3 stars. The cook had the habit of making loud, loogy-hawking noises in the kitchen, which put a damper on my appetite. 2.5 stars. -- Kung pao chicken $6.95; Decent, and chock full of perfectly cooked pepper and onions. 3 stars Perhaps I mis-ordered, since this place seems to specialize in Shanghai cuisine, of which I know nothing about. All I can say is that their Americanized Chinese selections were merely so-so.
(3)Shannon K.
Overall, I really enjoy Bamboo Garden because it's a convenient, go-to restaurant for solid Chinese food. If I had to sum up why I dine here, it would be their xiao long baos and reliability-- you know what you're going to get and you can expect great service along with good Chinese food that isn't greasy or oily (unlike Queen's House on Castro Street). XIAO LONG BAO (4.5/5): These are definitely the best I've had in the Peninsula. The skin isn't too thick, and it perfectly cradles perfectly steamed and marinated meat with a good spoonful of juice. YUM. The xiao long bao is made to order so you get each order piping and steaming hot. One steam tray comes with 6 for about $4-5. It's a little pricey compared to the prices I paid in LA, but it's still tasty and worth it if you're craving some home-style Chinese food. Along with the xiao long bao, you'll get ginger and vinegar sauce. YUM. that's all I need :) SHENG JIAN BAO (3.5/5): These are deliciously prepared, though I will say that the thin is a bit thick. I wish the bread portion was a little tastier instead of tasting like plain white bread. In any case, the meat inside is good, and the outside is delicately fried to give it a good, crispy texture. The sheng jian bao holds a bit of soup, which goes so well with the fried bao. I've tried another place in LA that makes the most perfect sheng jian bao, so I'll have to give this a 3.5/5. GLUTINOUS (STICKY) RICE WITH PORK IN BAMBOO (3.5/5): This is a very tasty and popular dish that comes in a little bamboo box/gourd. The sticky rice is nicely flavored with a strong soy sauce base. I'm a little conflicted because I can never tell if the pork is primarily cubed pieces of fat or if it's... jelly-ish tendon? I think it might be fat, which is a little disturbing to me because I'll see a ton of fat and just a little sliver of meat... If that doesn't bother you, then definitely try this dish. PUMPKIN CURRY (4/5): Can't go wrong here! Japanese pumpkin with curry-- delicious over rice. MA POU TOFU (4/5): This is tasty as well. Our table of four devoured this in record time. COMPLIMENTARY DESSERT (GOOD (if you get it)): If you're a regular, you usually get complimentary dessert consisting of the oh-so-good cold Chinese dessert soups (with tapioca balls or red or green beans) or fruit (like sliced oranges). Unfortunately, even though I've been here several times with my boyfriend, we never get dessert! But when we come with our other friends (also regulars), we get dessert. haha. I can't figure it out, but I feel like the Chinese guan xi relationship should kick in somewhere.
(4)B S.
The xlb were not bad at all, but I like my sauce a little more vinegar-y. NOTE TO RESTAURANT: It was a really disgusting turn-off to smell the cigarette smoke wafting in from the kitchen area to the dining room. YUCK! Restaurant, please respond!
(3)Michael W.
Pretty good. Dumplings a bit dry though?
(3)Madeline N.
I wasn't expecting this to be so good, but it was! Went here in search of xiao long bao and was happily surprised with the quality of food. Not a pretentious place but one with good quality Chinese food!
(4)Jennifer L.
I really like Bamboo Garden because their food is the next closest thing to homestyle Chinese cooking, especially their Preserved Pork and Bamboo Soup -- my favorite! I also really like their Eight Treasure Pudding, a black rice pudding with azuki bean paste in the middle in a pool of lightly sweetened syrup. My boyfriend is not fond of their food though. He thinks they are bland and weird -- as expected for non-Americanized Chinese food for him. Bamboo Garden does have some Amerianized Chinese food items (e.g. Kung Pao, Mongolian, etc) but they're still on the "bland-ish" side. So this is probably not your place if you're accustomed to Americanized Chinese food. The waitress is very nice. Service could be slow because only that one lady is working in the front. Occasionally her husband helps bring out food and water/tea. Don't go there too hungry. They're always busy.
(4)Joey H.
Came with high anticipation for the Shanghai Soup Dumplings. The dumplings were huge, and soupy, but tasted too meaty and bland. The pork in the stuffing looked pink so we couldn't finish it. The Bamboo Rice was on the greasy side with fatty pork and not enough rice. The vegetable dish was okay the portion was generous. This restaurant is good for to-go because it's so close to work. The waitress (who is also the owner) was sweet and attentive. For the to-die-for authentic Shanghai goodness, I'm going to have to make the drive to Cupertino, bear the long wait and sometimes rude waiter/waitresses at the Shanghai Garden on homestead.
(2)Dan S.
Amazing. Best XLB in the area. The wife and I tried it and it was nothing short of spectacular. On par with HC in Cupertino along with the famous Ding Tai Fung. Bambo Garden is tucked away in a ghetto plaza (Central and Rengstorff). But the food would exceed most of your expectations. My tip for eating these steamed dumplings/buns: 1. Carefully use your chopsticks, pick one up from their top part being careful not to tear the bottom skin when removing it from the paper bottom. 2. Place it on your soup spoon. 3. Bite into the top part of it leaving an opening to add your "sauce" which you prepared beforehand. 4. When the temperature is right, put the whole thing in your month and enjoy. Sauce: Mixture of their vinegar/ginger sauce + soy sauce + hot sauce.
(5)Chloé N.
A very kids-friendly restaurant!! hahaha, every time I went there, there are just plenty of kids!~ I almost have never seen that in any other restaurant! People working there are really friendly~ First time I went to this place they just opened not too long ago, my boyfriend seems to be in love with this place every since. The Buns are really juicy and delicious, and the sticky rice with meat in bamboo is one of my favorite as well!
(4)Jiaomin O.
it sucks.... So i went there for take out because my friend was sick and I was being nice. I called in before hand and got there, picked up the food, and left. But 10 minutes after I left, they called me and said that they messed up my order with someone else's.... uhhh, so i drove back in rush hour traffic, and walked into the resturant, and they didn't even give a smile, or apologize for anything.... NEVER coming back ever. I would have given a negative star if possible. for the food, it wasn't impressive either. probably 3 stars. I think Koi Place has better xiaolongbao. Smoked duck was way too dry,. beef tendon tofu clay pot was pretty tasty, except it was a little bit too greasy and salty.
(1)Dave G.
I really love this sort of hole in the wall chinese restaurant. I'm no chinese food expert, but the XLB, pot stickers, onion pancakes and lemon chicken are delicious. We were served by the woman manager (owner?) and she was super friendly and got us everything we needed quickly. Feel like a family run business with a friendly vibe. Highly recommend.
(5)Michael C.
XLB has really thin skin. It's too thin and fragile for my taste. The fillings weren't authentic. The best XLB is from Shanghai Cafe in NYC (not Joe Shanghai) and I was born and raised in Jing An, Shanghai. The veggie-meat wonton is not bad, on the salty side. I also had the sea-cucumber in some brown sauce. Not bad. Pricey. I would only go back for the wonton soup or maybe the noodles.
(3)Rachel H.
I absolutely love this place! I used to come here all the time when I lived in Mountain View. Their Asparagus Chicken is to die for!! They always use fresh ingredients and their vegetables are crisp and tasty! I miss this place very much and I try to pay them a visit whenever I am in town. Service is usually good when the owner (a woman) is working. She is very friendly. There was one time she was not there and the service was not a good, but the food was still delicious!
(3)Jenny L.
I'm giving this place 4 stars because I tried their xiao long bao and fell in love. So much flavor and soup packed in the little wrappers. Absolutely delicious!!!
(4)Madison W.
very very good hidden gem in the middle of a nondescript shopping mall near the train tracks. The food is very authentic - attested by the all Chinese-speaking customers on a Friday night. fried rice cakes - sooo good. very delicious. XLB (xiao long bao) - very good with thin skins - very juicy stir-fried loofah - I love this dish and is cooked with goji berries cold cucumber salad - very good, cut in very funny shapes with great salt and garlic! Will definitely come back for other dishes. Love this place.
(4)Nicole S.
My husband and I enjoyed a nice sit down meal here. They serve hot tea with all orders, but we had to ask for water, which wasn't refilled. The "egg" rolls are actually fried spring rolls and were very tasty and hot. My chicken fried rice was loaded with lots of chicken, and his sweet and sour chicken was also tasty and made with big chunks of onions and bell peppers. The decor wasn't much to look at, maybe a little dingy looking, and the service was all right. If we're ever in the area again, we would come back.
(4)bruce k.
The most important aspect, the food, is good. Not great, but better than many Chinese places and though not cheap is reasonable considering the area. We rated it at about second among most of the local Chinese places we have visited. The local selection in terms of Chinese food in the Palo Alto area is not really great, though most are not terrible I'm trying to find a reliable fresh and tasty spot to go to. Bamboo Garden is acceptable, though mostly for take out I think. I used to own a home several blocks from this little mall, and it is not a very nice area. There is the train, right beside a gas station, lots of traffic, and the noise and it's right beside a liquor store where there are some shady characters that hang out. It is not really pleasant place to go but not unsafe that I know of. The interior is dingy and drafty, the walls were stained as well, but it is brightly lit. Bamboo Garden is small, but efficiently run. The place was about 2/3 full and our food came really quick and was nice and hot ... and that was 3 dishes. Shanghai Vegetables, string beans, and fish with vegetables. The ingredients were fresh. The sauces were a bit watery and not that much flavor. The string beans were too salty and did not look good, although they tasted good aside from the salt. Fish was good as were the vegetables. The rice was kind of dry and low quality I thought, it did not stick together or have a lot of taste. They always say if you want to find good Chinese food go to a place where Chinese eat. Well, I was the only non-Asian at the time we went. There were a lot of dishes I had no idea what they were but would like to try some of them. Service was friendly and adequate. Other customers seemed happy and friendly with the staff. The compromise Bamboo Garden has made in terms of location and ambiance works out because the food is very good. I'm looking forward to trying out more of it, but I think that will mostly be take out. One thing that kind of irked me was that they gave no fortune cookie at the end of the meal. PS. The guy that complained about them not taking credit cards was way off base. We used our credit card to pay and the waitress acted as if it was routine - scratch that unfair and silly1 rating off.
(3)Niniane W.
I went to this restaurant intending to go to Shanghai Family Restaurant, but that one had closed, and this one took its place. The xiao long bao was good but not great. The spareribs were decent. It wasn't as good as the previous restaurant but it was okay. It's 3.5 stars.
(4)Edward W.
I went at 10:00 and they close at 10:30. They wanted us to take it to go, which was slightly inconvenient. I got the corn soup, glutinous rice with pork and bamboo, and xiao long bao (small pork buns). Corn soup with chicken is pretty standard, not too much to rave about. The glutinous rice with pork and bamboo has way too much bamboo and an overpowering smell from the bamboo, but the pork and rice were still good. The xiao long bao was pretty good, but some of the soup already had leaked out because we had to take it to go, so that was disappointing. TL;DR; A pretty average chinese place for takeout. Glutinous rice had an overpowering bamboo smell. Could be better if we dined in.
(3)Dianna D.
Pretty good for Shanghainese food. Staff really nice, though pretty under what is needed, and service is not only fast but friendly. XLB: I can't agree with other users on how great the xiaolongbao are because they don't compare to the ones I've had in Shanghai. However they get pretty darn close. The texture of the skin is the perfect harmony of being chewy, not too thick, and being so easy to pierce. However, I would say the soup and the meat is just so-so. Perhaps it is just an overload of MSG that the people in Shanghai put in their meatballs, or a ton of lard. Either, way, I feel that these xiaolongbao didn't measure up to their tasty unhealthiness. Drunken chicken (chicken in wine sauce): Yum! Stronger than any ones I've tried before, but really good. Also makes the skin less oily-tasting. Smoked fish: Perfect Shanghainese representation here. Sweet, sour, and salty all at once. Just be prepared for random bones. Chinese chives and dry tofu with pork: A bit too oily, and a little lacking on the amount of pork, but big on flavor. I would totally come here again. It's hidden away behind the stupid Shell station, so you have to be prepared to turn right after you see the gas station before you see the restaurant.
(3)James M.
My gf and I discovered bamboo garden 2 months ago and have been back weekly since. This place has hands down the best xaio long bau. I've had XLB all over the bay area and the flavor, freshness and quality of Bamboo Garden's can't be beat. That said other dishes worth trying: - beef fried rice (not too oily) - green onion pancake (not too oniony) Free dessert most visits tops it off :) Add in very friendly service whether you are Chinese or not and you've got a reliable Chinese restaurant with reasonable prices and delicious food.
(5)Sean O.
Situated between a Walgreens and a liquor store, Bamboo Garden's location leaves something to be desired. If aesthetics are your thing, I would opt for something in downtown Mountain View, preferably outside or near a window not overlooking a gas station and parking lot. I ordered to-go, which was a painless experience. From my brief time inside the restaurant, Bamboo Garden seemed to have a steady clientele of happy, hungry customers. I enjoyed my beef fried rice, especially since the portion was big enough to eat dinner and still have enough left for a lunch portion the next day. Service was friendly. I haven't been back, but it has more to do with it being located in Mountain View's armpit than the food or service. Hence my recommendation that you order to-go, or else that after dinner walk will be as romantic as picking up the dry cleaning and a carton of cigarettes.
(3)craig I.
I have been meaning to write this review for a long time. This has become one of our favorite restaurants period. First the Xiou Lung Bao is the best ever!!! (deserving of a M. Star) And the food in general is tasty, homey and delicious. We love the Shang Hai baby bac choy, fish fillet in wine sauce, pork knuckle, fish tail, smoke duck, and bacon fried rice. But we've also fallen in love with what my sons call the "White Soup". It is a heavenly broth with ham, bamboo shoots and tofu skin knots. Especially wonderful on these cold days!!! The owners are friendly and the service has always been right on point. We love this place. My sons order 2-3 XLB orders just for themselves. Certainly a not to miss, here.
(5)Jay H.
I came to this restaurant because it had four stars. When I picked out the items I wanted off the menu, the lady basically told me that those were "American Chinese" dishes, and that she would like to recommend other items instead. Not sure why they would include those items on menu if they really don't want to serve them to customers. Anyway, she basically insisted that we try what she recommended which was really annoying. We tried the dumplings, bok choy and some rice dish with bacon in it. There was a hair in the rice and everything lacked flavor. I noticed that there are a lot of positive reviews about the dumplings. I guess they were OK, but I'm just not a fan of sucking meat juice out of my food. The service was really weird and food was not worth it.
(2)Oboro M.
This place is understaffed. On Friday, we waited for 30 minutes to get a table and 15 minutes to order dishes. The food including xlb is OK. The pork in Bamboo rice has too much fat.
(2)Susan D.
Nothing short of amazing both times I've been. The baby bok choy is my favorite, but the soup dumplings are a close second. I used to not even think I liked Chinese food, but places like this totally changed my mind. Fortunately, this place is located about 2 minutes from my girlfriend's place, so plans are to return as often as possible. Highly recommended!
(5)Debbie Chiou S.
Tea smoked duck was pretty smokey. No soy sauce flavor. Just tasted like it came straight out of the smoker. Xlb were quite gingery. They seem to have quite a few stacked and ready to go all the time. Glutinous rice with pork in bamboo was uniquely served, but a bit sweet for my taste. Actually, every thing there was just a bit too sweet for my taste, but the service was great. Attentive, quick, and friendly.
(3)Joon L.
The best xia-long-pao in town!
(5)Johnson C.
Very disappointed with with XLB (dumplings). After reviewing some of the positive feedbacks , I drove there today to try their XLB but have to disagreed with many previous reviews. The skin is a bit tough, the meat is salty, and the soup in the dumplings is too thick. Even though their pricing for lunch special is cheap but the serving portion is small. Tried their sweet n sour chicken, pan cake, and salt n pepper fish. All the 3 of them are average. (1 star) The 2nd star is for the friendly service by the lady owner but she needs to train her waiter as that only waiter looks as if He had woken up from the wrong side of the bed.
(2)John C.
I started to eat vegetarian meals and this Chinese restaurant has pretty good taste of Chinese style vegetarian cuisine. The quality of taste is unique and its complicated that you have to taste the quality of food with tongue. I haven't tried all other foods served here but I can see that the chef provides delicate and interesting food that I have to explore and taste. Recommended place!
(5)Grace K.
I was all about to run out with guns blazing and give this place four or five stars after my awesome meal here last night, before I thought about it and realized the wonderful evening was more due to the company than the food. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with some good homestyle Chinese food -- and homestyle it is, no Panda Express to speak of here! -- but the dishes we had (xlb, glutinous rice, sheng jian bao, and seafood dumplings) all fell short of perfect one way or another. That said, it's a good place to go if you're craving cheap comfort food. Just don't expect it to be fast... they take their sweet time here. Bring good dining companions and you'll have a nice, humble, very Chinese time.
(3)Danny G.
There's only one way to describe this place: best Chinese restaurant in Mountain View. I know you'd think it doesn't say much, so continue reading... Personally I'm not a big fan of Shanghai style or southern Chinese food in general. It's mostly too sweet/delicate/healthy (however you want to describe it) for my northern appetite. For the few thing that I do like usually involves a large portion of meat, i.e. tofu skin stewed pork, XLB. And this place does not disappoint. Before I start with the dish reviews, I noticed the waiter and woman in charge are both from northeastern China based on their accent. Don't get me wrong, I know Shanghai people probably knows better about their food, but their touch of the taste does cater towards my likings, be the chef got influenced by them or not. XLB is good. They sure got the skin right: thin but enough to hold up all the juices inside, floury but not overwhelmingly starchy. Fatty pork stew with sticky rice in a bamboo shoot is also great. It's not as sweet as the normal tofu skin knot with pork stew. Initially I thought it tastes kinda plain, but soon I started growing into it. The cut of the pork is top notch. I noticed a 1-star review complaining about the fat in this dish. I'd say, dude, there's no such thing as "too much fat in a pork stew" like there's no such things as "too much bacon on anything". Just like the earth obits around the sun, fatty pork is supposed to be in that stew of goodness. A sweet surprise is the eggplant dish on their house special menu. Again, the light taste hit me at first, but slowly made me believe it, too, can be a good thing to taste the texture of the eggplant in the meat chili sauce. I like how they steam the eggplant before applying the sauce. It totally gets rid of the rubbery taste in raw eggplant. Lastly about the service. I ordered 2 extra bowl of rice, forgetting about the bamboo pork dish already had enough rice. The woman in charge brought up the rice and cancelled one bowl right on the spot. (virtual fist bump to all great Chinese restauranteurs) That deserves my 25% tip. Overall this is officially going to be my after work dinner place if I ever feel tired to cook at home. Hopefully it keeps its style and not gets confused by people's complaint. Asta la Vista baby, I will back.
(5)Steve Y.
When my wife and I come here we feel like family. Owner is always friendly. I strictly come here for the soup dumplings. My wife and I each get our own basket. They are delicious, soupy and meaty. The skin is not too thick. I usually ask the owner to recommend a vegetable side dish and she always suggests the freshest vegetables she has on hand. We love it.
(4)Peachie Y.
While I think this place deserves a 3.5 it is worthy of a roundup to 4 since the food is substantial and big portions. The service was pretty good too. Here are a few of our dishes and tasting ratings: Mixed Fresh Cucumber with Garlic Sauce 3.5 Green Onion Pancake 3.5 Shanghai Dumpling without Crabmeat Paste 3 Glutinous Rice with Pork in Bamboo 3.5 Orange Peel Chicken 4.5 Pork and Preserved Vegetable Rice Cake 4 Kung Pao Prawns 3.5 Hot & Sour Soup 3 Sauteed String Bean 3.5 House Special Vegetable Deluxe 3
(4)Alio G.
Tasty Shanghai fare. Great for a group dinner. It's a bit small so the restaurant can fill up around holidays. The lady (co-owner?) is nice and can help ensure your party has ordered enough dishes of sufficient variety. XLB have great flavor and are quite juicy. Salt and pepper fish and stir fried rice cakes are worthwhile to try too. The cumin lamb is surprisingly good. Pan fried buns are ok but not outstanding. They had a few cold plates (e.g. smoked fish) that looked interesting.
(4)Marty H.
It felt like home. Our table loaded up on the Xiao Long Bao. I burned my tongue a couple of times because I wouldn't even wait for it to cool off before putting it in my mouth. Wasn't really sure what else to get, so we asked the waittress for some recommendations and ended up grabbing the glutinous rice with pork in bamboo. (yeah real, it's in bamboo). Also ordered Sheng Jian Bao. The waittress came out and apologized on behalf of the shengjianbao. She told us that her husband made it and that he was terrible at it. We weren't charged for the original and she came out with a second copy at the end of our meal. Could totally handle eating here again. Also this probably matters zero to most people, but the place is literally right off of alma and next to a gas station so it's super easy to get to.
(4)Molly L.
What a find--delicious Shanghai Chinese food in generous quantities at reasonable prices! We're not Shanghai aficionados, but we've loved every dish we've tried at Bamboo Garden--from marinated duck to lamb with cumin, spareribs with garlic to duck stew with Napa cabbage and bean threads, and of course the heavenly steamed pork buns. Everything tasted very fresh, the meats were tender, the flavors seemed deepened by slow cooking, and the veggies were perfectly tender-crisp. Best of all, for us, were the absence of any cloying sugar taste and the minimal appearance of oils or fats. Service was impeccable--friendly and helpful but never intrusive. Overall, it was a thoroughly delightful experience we intend to repeat.
(4)Khanh T.
The XLB, man. That's all I would come here for. HUGE dumplings filled with delicious soup and pork. mmmmm, man. I have yet to try this place's Bamboo Rice thingy that seems so popular. I have got to order that the next time I make a trip to this place. But for now. XLB! One day I hope to devour 100 of these bad boys in one sitting, which is clearly impossible because their dumplings are so big. I went with 3 of my other foodie friends, we kind of gave up after eating maybe less than 50 altogether stuffed out of our minds. I think I prefer the regular XLB over the crab one.
(5)Jimmy L.
I came here again, though this time, I had to order some vegetarian items for a friend's get-together. I ordered the following - vegetable egg rolls vegetable steamed dumplings tomato egg flower soup ...and one other appetizer that I can't remember Well I called like 20-minutes ahead of time, arrived, and their dining room was busy with also someone else with a to-go order ahead of me. I've been here before, and the woman/owner who usually helps me with the cash transaction was running around like a chicken with no head scrambling to make XLB (dumplings). Note that she is always running the front-end operation, and not usually the back-end. In the meantime, I had gotten to the head of the line with NO acknowlegement from anyone. The person ahead of me had gotten their to-go order from the kitchen help in aprons. Everyone looked like they were in chaos, so I thought I'd be mr. NiceGuy, give them a break, wait for them, and see if they notice, or say anything to me. Granted, I am standing right in front of the cash register. Fifteen minutes later, I chimed in, started to say something, and finally, the woman/proprietor interrupts. The first thing that came out of her mouth was, "I thought you were with the other party..." She was apologetic, and she asked me if I could wait longer. I've worked in a restaurant, and I understand, however, there is a breakdown somewhere if you have to stop what you're doing to help the cooks make more food! Lastly, the only thing that I really liked was the soup; the vegetarian items were nasty. They went the traditional route with using a filling made from salted preserved vegetables rather than something like an Americanized cabbage/carrot mixture - which I think could've been better. The total came out to about $40, which to me was overpriced for the amount of food, and the mediocre taste in return. I would NOT come here again.
(2)Jasper C.
Finally a place for xlb, amazing small bok choy, mouth water glutinous rice and overall very friendly and excellent recommendations!!! A must to try and our go to!! Way better than any place we've found in peninsula/bay area
(5)Calvin L.
Been here 3 times already in 1 week. I grew up in Hong Kong so I can get any great food I want ... so I am telling you that the juicy pork dumpling is as good as it can get around here. The only reason I am giving it a 3 1/2 - 4 stars instead of 5 is because I am basing it on HK Standard. The staff is awesome too ... they are really nice and hardworking people. If you are looking for ambiance and not real knock your socks off type of food, then this is not your place. Soooooo happy that we found this place!
(4)E L.
I was skeptical when we first walked in...until I saw what was on the tables of contented diners smacking their lips while we waited in line. Every table had at least two orders of XLB and a very appealing-looking dish that I have never, ever seen in a Chinese restaurant before...and I've eaten at hundreds! It was sticky rice and anise-scented red-braised succulent pork with bamboo shoots spilling out of a hollowed-out bamboo pole. It was as fragrant, rich, delicious as it looked. The XLB is probably the best I've had in the Bay area so far, with the savory golden consomme and flavorful pork dumpling delicately wrapped in translucent, thin dumpling skin. We wanted to try the pan-fried pork dumpling, but they ran out. The green onion pancake was okay, not flaky and layered as I had hoped. The table next to us ordered the sesame pancake with beef, which looked amazing...will try that next time, as I foresee we may become regular diners here! The service is about what you'd expect from a "hole-in-the-wall" - generally friendly, fast, but forgetful due to a packed house - but that's easily forgiven, so long as they keep serving up awesome food!!!
(4)Jerry W.
I actually found a bug in the soup, and the waiter did not want us to cancel that soup, while he just wants to replace it with a new one. Although the soup was canceled finally, but the waiter actually gave us a tough time. Definitely not recommanded, food not clean and service is horrible.
(1)jenn t.
Got tricked by yelp's 4 star review to walk in. Big mistake. Avoid! Run! Change the review filter to show by date and you'll see what I mean. There were two of us. A seemingly inexperienced waiter gave us 3 wet plates, and 1 set of chopsticks before the head waitress (owner?) scolded him to give us the two drier (note, not dry) plate. The bf had to steal a pair of chopsticks to get a pair. I hope it's not because he's white so they thought he didn't need it. I brushed this all off thinking Chinese restaurants usually has a negative correlation between tastiness of food and service. Then came the hot water that was called tea. Faithful in yelp's 4 star review, we still marched forward to order the XLB and the pan fried soup bun. The waitress looked pissed that we only ordered two dishes. Both the XLB and the pan fried buns were excessively greasy. Yes, I understand that's what makes the soup with the bun, but did they really have to keep it to just.. lard? The meat was tasteless, adding vinegar didn't help, it was all a lost cause. We didn't finish our food, couldn't stomach the lard, and asked for the check. No credit card for under $20. We paid and made a run for the exit, looking for something to de-grease ourselves. Diet coke usually helps, but not this time. Yelp, what happened to you? I have been so faithful to your guidance for so long, did you sell me out for whatever this restaurant owner paid you to buy her four stars? From the other reviews, it appears that I am not the only one to feel betrayed. Boo!
(1)Steph C.
This has to be one of the best places for xiao long bao I have ever had in the Bay Area (I have been here twice so far). Of all the places I've tried, none has come even close! The XLBs are always served piping hot and fresh upon each order. Each tray comes with six, all full of delicious soup! Just one look and you know you are in for a delightful bite. The flavor of the meat and soup is nicely seasoned. Not too fatty and there is no use of MSG either (something to be greatly appreciated). Also, the slight chew and perfect thinness of the skin is rather hard to come by. Marvelous! Outside of their famous XLBs, the pork knuckle is simply amazing. It's been slow-cooked for at least 4 hours and the meat was incredibly tender. They also surprisingly have yao tiao (Chinese donut?), which is served nice and hot as well. Crispy and freshly deep-fried, perfect for dipping in soymilk. Bamboo Garden is definitely a neighborhood gem. It took me a year to even consider dining here, due to its surprising location (behind a Shell gas station and next to Walgreens) and slightly outdated decor. Quite a hole in the wall that I am happy to have stumbled upon. The service is consistently friendly and I love the fact that the owner will always recommend some fresh vegetable (from the farmers market) to go with your order :)
(5)Diana Y.
Xiao long bao! I love this place. By appearances, it looks like any ghetto looking Chinese place but the food is good, the service is efficient and the owner is super nice. Very affordable and it's got all the good basics when you're craving Chinese food. This is Chinese food at its best: simple, consistent, cheap. Their soup dumplings are a big draw and super savory. This has become my teams go-to spot for Chinese food since we've essentially gone once a week for the last few weeks now.
(4)Ron Y.
It is possible that this place serves the best xiao long bao in the Bay Area. I've had XLB at a bunch of places, including Din Tai Fung in Arcadia, and Yank Sing in San Francisco. The soup dumplings here are definitely first class. The restaurant is a little hard to see, but it's in the same plaza as the Shell gas station. Update: I returned after a long break, and the XLBs weren't as good. I've found other good XLBs (e.g., Panda Dumpling in San Carlos) so we might not return to this restaurant, since their other dishes weren't as good.
(4)Liz L.
Bamboo Garden is alright. The first bite of my xlb was delicious. Ooh so savory and yummy. Subsequent bites made me realize the broth they used was sweetened, and too much so. The other things are pretty average. The pan fried dumplings are not so good, and the other dishes were pretty unmemorable. This is the kind of place I'd go to if others wanted to, but wouldn't come here of my own accord.
(3)Jay-Tee L.
I had hopes that this would be a great Shanghainese restaurant - but after sampling six courses tonight, I have to file this in the 'mediocre' category. Let me just start by saying my taste preferences are generally lighter, healthy, and complex flavors from great ingredients vs. large portion, food drowning in sauces. So my assessment may not apply to other Yelpers. Here's what I had: (1) Xiao Long Bao (3 stars) -- we had to try this given the glowing reviews. I thought the skin was very well done, thin and durable - there's plenty of soup in the buns as well. So, what was wrong with it? The fillings were very tough, it just tasted like they used a very cheap cut of pork and then over miranading it with too much salt. In addition, good XLB should be able to fit into your mouth in one bite - but this version was large that required too many bites. I generally prefer the version that's a smaller delicate dim sum format (like Ding Tai Fung). Bottomline: it was the lower quality filling that made me disappointed in this dish. (2) Pan fried buns (2.5 stars) -- again, another classic Shanghainese dim sum dish -- same feedback on the filling as XLB - yes, there was plenty of soup in the buns which was great - but the skin fell apart quicly and really, did they have to pan friend this so so much oil? (3) Spicy string beans (3 stars) -- this was well done except the flavor on this was very light - it is supposed to be spicy but somehow, it wasn't very spicy but instead, it had a bit more a sweet taste to it -- the beans themselves were done very well however. (4) Bamboo pork rice (1 star) -- wow, I have not seen this much pork fat in a long time - the bamboo slices were ok and the rice was ok but the amount of pork fat on each of the pork cube made the whole dish extremely greasy. Again, if your taste preferences is one where you prefer fatty pork, this may be ok -- but I am too much of a health nut to even take a bite (5) Stired fried fish filet (3.5 stars) -- actually best dish of the night -- the fish was abundant and the wood fungus was very soft. Again, the flavors are very one dimensional - rice wine + salt + sugar as a sauce on top of these filets. But I did tell them to hold the salt and use as little oil as possible - so in general, I thought the dish was good. (6) Green Onion Pancake (4 stars) -- amangst all the dim sum items, this was the best. It was thin, crispy and not overly greasy. I do think the service here was great -- they were attentive and the food came out quickly. In the end, we also got free dessert - green bean soup, which was decent. All of the above came out to be $55 for 3 people - not too bad and we have plenty to take home (minus the pork bamboo rice which was just too fattening) -- Bottomline: We may go one more time to check out a few more items beause it is really close to our home and we like to support local businesses, esp. when they are so friendly. But based on this meal, it was mediocre at best.
(3)Matthew P.
My girlfriend and I got the stomach flu after coming here
(1)Erik N.
Unique Shanghai and Cantonese dishes. Service is friendly. A bit dumpy atmosphere, more a like a lunch place than a dinner place.
(3)Howard S.
Great place for authentic Shanghainese cuisine. The wait staff is very friendly (especially if you speak Mandarin), the prices are amazingly low, and the food is refreshingly non-greasy (even better than Shanghai, but not better than my grandmother's authentic cooking). Like any restaurant not named In-and-Out, You have to know what to order (NOT the American stuff), but if you stick with what is well-rated on Yelp, you'll be fine: XLB, pork cabbage soup, eggplant, lion's head meatballs. The best part is that they have a three-course take-out menu for $22 that has almost all of their best dishes and it comes with free green-onion pancake!
(4)Cheri D.
This is a cozy hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Mountain View (near where my boyfriend lives), so we come here from time to time when we want cheap, good food and want to avoid going to any fast food places. Things we've ordered before: Smoked tea duck - 3.5 stars Pork shoulder - 3.5 stars Ma po tofu - 3 stars Fish filet w/ wine - 3 stars Xiao long bao (crab) - 4 stars Shrimp & chive pan-fried dumpling - 4 stars Spicy garlic eggplant - 4 stars Chicken & corn chowder - 4 stars Ba Bao Fan - 4 stars All in all, a decent place to eat if you're not looking for fancy. Just good eats :)
(4)Eric Q.
Dinner with my friend who recommend this restaurant, the environment is nice and clean, service is fast, food is fine although not super, price reasonable, I will come back again if to that area.
(4)Ryan S.
Good lunch specials. Decent Chinese food. Wasn't very spicy, which is something I look for. Pretty good flavor though, and pretty cheap. Good tea, but no options for starters! A bit run down on the interior, chipped plates and whatnot. Good enough vegetarian options for those who need it. Wouldn't baulk at going again, but probably wouldn't pick it either. Music is modern Chinese pop.
(2)Maria H.
came here with co-workers for lunch on Friday. I'm not impressed. Most of their dishes were too sweet. The xiao long bao was very big and had lot of juice. But the filling inside doesn't tasted good.
(2)Christina M.
I live very close to Bamboo Garden, so I've become a regular. I tried it before when it was Shanghai Family and was completely dissappointed at the time, mostly by the way I was treated. I felt invisible, and the food didn't blow me away. After I visited the same space as Bamboo Garden, having carefully read through the reviews, I realized that the soup dumplings are what make this place stand out to Shangaiese food fans. It took me a couple of tries to get the hang of eating it, but now I'm an old pro. I prefer the crab over the pork. They are incredibly friendly there and are happy to make recommendations. And the little free dessert they provide is quite wonderful-- not too sweet, but a great cap to a fine dinner. Stick with those soup dumplings, and remember that one order comes with 6 dumplings. And say "ni hao" when you enter!
(4)Jenny W.
Decided to hit this place up upon reading all the positive Yelp reviews and seeing how it was in the neighborhood. It's quite a small restaurant, with only enough room to fit about 9 tables, and only 1 waitress (in addition to the owner lady, who also helps) to take care of all the customers. For that reason, the service is a bit slow, and the food takes a while to come out. However, I did greatly enjoy the food when it did come out. The XLB were quite good as promised, they had a lot of soup and from the looks of it, were freshly made. I've never had XLBs with so much soup before! However, the meat filling itself was only decent, not as delicious as the soup made me think it would be, and not very tastey or savory. We also got a stone bowl of beef tendons and tofu, which the waiter recommended. Unfortunately, it wasn't very good, and I won't be ordering it the next time I go there. On the other hand, they gave us a large serving of pea sprouts, which are expensive and only taste good at restaurants where there is a big fire to cook them with (says my mother, the ultimate cook). While it did cost $9, it was quite a large serving, and tasted delicious. To cap it off, they gave us a complimentary dessert, which I always enjoy. :D Overall, I quite enjoyed my dinner, although I wish the XLB filling was a bit better. I think I will try the crab one next time, and the green onion pancake since it's so highly recommended (also on my list to try: string beans, lion's head/meatballs, smoked tea duck). A decent price ($30 for the aforementioned items) and in a convenient location for me (where authentic Chinese restaurants, with actual Chinese patrons are rare), so I will be back.
(4)Jenny C.
More like 3.5 stars I don't usually eat Chinese food out, except dim sum. But I was craving some Chinese and chow mein so my roommate and I got the 3 dishes for $21.95 deal. We thought it was $19.95 coz of the pic someone uploaded here. So apparently the owner gave us complimentary "dessert" as an apologetic gesture for the price change. It was this mung bean dessert soup. I only had one bite tho, it's not that great coz the beans aren't cooked enough, not that it wasn't cooked but I think the proper consistency should be kinda mushy... Anyways back to the actual food. We had: Mongolian beef - 4 stars. Flavorful thick slices of beef Kungpao chicken - 3 stars...meh I've had better Shanghai stir fried noodles - 3.5 stars I was expecting chow mein noodles but these turned out to be udon noodles...wtf? It was good, had some veggies n scarce slices of meat but I wish they were how mein noodles We also had complimentary green onion thin pancakes which were decent. Once again I'm no expert on restaurant Chinese food but I guess it's decent and good value.
(4)Kirill Z.
What a shit hole! The food is really greasy and tasteless. Waste of money and stomach space. Not sure why so many people were eating here. Don't go.
(1)Tim K.
Great restaurant! Very reasonably priced, family run and extremely kid friendly and they really care about wanting to keep their customers happy. Highly recommend it.
(5)Ken L.
Somewhere between 3-4 stars. Food is absolutely outstanding. The XLBs are delivious, and the dumpling skin that they use is thin which is nice. Also had pan fried rice cakes, green beans, kung pao chicken and the pan fried buns, all very very good. The downside to this place is that it's tremendously understaffed. Our orders came out one at a time with a 10 minute wait between each. We were at the restaurant almost 2 hours. If you don't mind waiting, then this place is amazing.
(4)John Y.
I saw all the good reviews and decided to try out their food. This place is overrated. I had the three item special for 19.95. I ordered the combination fried rice, combination chow mein, and beef sate. It just didn't taste that great. It was kind of bland and the food looked burnt. The beef sate tasted like paper. I'm usually not a picky eater but this place was not that great.
(3)Rundeee G.
I like this place. The first time, I thought it was so so, but when we went back again, I changed my mind. I think it's pretty good actually in terms of the Xiao Long Bao (the soup dumplings) and the Pork and Rice Dish cooked in a Bamboo. I am Shanghai-nese, and I recall asking them for the crab meat Xiao Long Bao, and the flavor is very good. I like the Pork Rice Dish cooked in a Bamboo because of the rice. The rice is very flavorful and soft and goo-ey. I really like it. Other than that, the other dishes were not memorable. But those 2 were. I would go back.
(4)Teresa L.
3.5 stars, rounding up to 4. :) Been here a total of 3 times now, which probably says something about the quality of the food. Honestly, having lived in the South Bay for 5ish years, I haven't really found a Chinese restaurant that I really really like... but maybe that's because I'm from LA. Things I've ordered over the last three trips here: - XLB with crab meat: you can actually taste the crab, which I can't usually taste at Din Tai Fung... nice and juicy, must have it with the black vinegar though. Thin skins are a plus. - Glutinous (sticky) rice with pork in bamboo: comes in a cute hollowed out piece of bamboo, very Shanghainese, savory-sweet. Gotta remember to eat it with the sticky rice though, or else the meat and bamboo shoots can get slightly salty. - Shanghai style pork knuckle: I swear this thing was a full 3 pounds of meat. Really well braised, full flavor, meat falling off the bone... just. enormous. portions. -Yellow chives with eel: something you might have to get used to if you have never had eel before (and the Japanese eel bento type doesn't really count), but this tastes very similar to the dish I had when visiting Shanghai, so it's pretty darn authentic. -Yian Du Xian Soup (I can't find it on the menu... my Chinese character recognition is limited... :T): pretty good from what I remember, not overly salty and lots of ingredients, but we usually make this at home, so I have a higher standard for it, haha. -Ji Gong Tofu (also can't find it on the menu): really really well done, kind of like house special tofu, lightly pan-fried and then put together with an orange-y/tomato-based sauce with squid, shrimp and bok choy. Definitely not what I would have expected, but good nonetheless. -Minced beef and egg drop soup: was a nice way to start dinner, a little starchy but nothing I couldn't handle, good flavor and not overwhelmingly strong.
(4)joanne c.
Best. XLBs around. I just had lunch here on Friday and am going back today. You know it's good when the Asian seniors are all eating there. Try the crab XLBs. also eggplant with garlic sauce is a must. The green onion pancakes were also good. Service is quick and friendly, too.
(5)Patricia L.
Bamboo Garden is in the same shopping center as Walgreens off of Rengstorff and Central Expressway. It's a pretty small restaurant. I came here for lunch with my brother. We ordered XLB, spicy combination noodle soup, and Shaghai style rice cake. The XLB are not the best I've ever had but they are pretty legit. The noodle soup literally had everything in it...meat, shrimp, veggies, noodles, etc. It was a light satay flavored soup base. The noodles were a good chewy texture. The rice cake dish had shredded meat and cabbage in it. Flavors were pretty mild in the rice cake dish but nothing a little soy sauce a chili can't fix! There were only Chinese people in the restaurant when we had lunch there...so the food must be pretty authentic. The three dishes were plenty of food for me and my brother...we even had leftovers! The total came out to be $21.50 before tip. Pretty reasonable prices. Will be back to try the Glutinous Rice with Pork & Bamboo Shoots!!
(4)Kim N.
Looks like Shanghai Family is gone but some of the dishes have remained with Bamboo Garden. The stuff you really should look for is the Northern dishes as the hostess and I would guess the rest of the folks hail from villages around the Beijing area. The House Special pork was a dish I'd never had before and our server said it hailed from her hometown village outside of Beijing. It's breaded pork, deep friend then coated with an interesting savory sauce. We also had the cumin lamb and beef with black mushooms. The Xia Long Bao were decent but not my favorite. Again , focus on the far northern dishes. At the end we got a complimentary dessert which was a black glutinous sticky rice in syrup. They were totally nice to us. Since my friend had various food aversions, Ill need to come back and try the more adventurous stuff
(4)steve c.
Stopped by here the other night.. We used to come when it was Shanghai Family... All I can say is it is definitely an upgrade. It turned out to be a good choice. I am not sure what the heck "arlene d." is tripping on, because they don't use MSG. The food could use a little bit more salt., but the flavor without it was still good. Overall, the staff was super nice.... considering they are the nicer servers from an unnamed shanghai joint located off of De Anza Blvd. The food was definitely better than the other Shanghai places in the area. And there was no wait... so I think I've found my hidden gem.... would definitely come back...
(5)