Bamboo Garden

Last Spring, we noticed that there would be a new restaurant next to Tastea Grill called Bamboo Garden (see post here). Although I never did get to try it out, Bert told me it was Chinese food.

Then, we noticed this sign stating the restaurant was under new ownership...

and it was now a Thai place!

Of course TC and I just had to check it out...

Bamboo Garden is on E. Palomar St. across from Heritage Park. It's next to Tastea Grill (the owners of Tastea Grill used to own the former Bamboo Garden). The building is mixed use with businesses on the bottom and senior apartments on the top.

Next to Bamboo Garden is Cotixan taco shop and a pizza place...

Since I never went into the old Bamboo Garden, I don't remember what it used to look like. For all I know, this might have been the old place's furniture.

Update - A quick chat with Bert (who actually ate at the old BG) confirmed that it IS the same furniture. However, the Thai wall decorations are new (elephant tapestries, etc).

Their menu:

I skipped over the appetizers page. Almost everything except for the fresh spring rolls was fried. Ugh.




We started off with the Papaya Salad (spice scale was a '1' since I wanted TC to try it but not be scared off by a '3')...This was a very bright and fresh dish. The mound of shredded papaya was bigger than it looks in the photo! This was a tame version, no dried shrimps or heavy fish sauce taste. This was actually more sweeter than I remembered other papaya salads. I really liked it since I have a sweet tooth.

We ordered our dishes to share. This was the Pad Thai with Chicken. Very colorful and flavorful, unlike the bland and quite possible the worst version of Pad Thai at Memelas. The tamarind sauce was pronounced but not overpowering (or too saucy). We both loved this and saved some for Bert so he could also try it.

I wanted to try something different so I got the Garlic Fish, fried fish with a garlic sauce and stir fried vegetables served on a lettuce leaf.

I think I would have enjoyed this more if the sauce weren't so salty. I did like the heavy garlic flavor and the garlic pieces within the sauce but could only take it in small doses.

The portions were very generous and the prices on par with other Thai restaurants with similar offerings.

Our server was very attentive and polite to us. I noticed on their take-out/to-go menu that they had 'lunch specials', but didn't see any on the menu. We plan to go again to try other menu items and perhaps one of the lunch specials. In all, a very promising restaurant and the closest Thai place to us after Mea Kwan. With the exception of the overly salty fish dish, we liked what we had and are eager to try more dishes...