Nancy Leson, the food writer at our news partner The Seattle Times, has published a review and photo gallery about dim sum restaurants whose proprietors have decamped from the International District to other areas. Leson wrote this, in part, about Bamboo Village (4900 Stone Way N.), the restaurant recently opened by longtime House of Hong owners Po and Amy Lee:
These days you’ll find the Lees and son Daniel catering to neighbors from Wallingford, Fremont and Green Lake in a spacious, brightly lit dining hall decked out with faux bamboo and a big-screen TV, a pair of carts making the rounds by day.
Come evening, dim sum is a la carte — that other “carte” being a shortlist on a table-tent. Then, fleets of families with soccer-cleated kids show up to delve into family-style combos and Cantonese classics with familiar names that rely on descriptors like “happy” and “delight.”
On three dim sum-centric visits, I delighted in bright-green spinach-filled dumplings, Shanghai steamed dumplings, chicken feet in black bean sauce, egg custard tarts, challah-like baked onion twists, sesame balls, roast duck and the best (special-ordered) sautéed pea vines I’ve ever eaten.
Read the rest of the story and see the photo gallery here.
Is Bamboo Village an advertiser here? Why leave out the last paragraph of the article?
“Yet I'm apt to wonder whether local dim sum aficionados will be as lukewarm as I was over lukewarm offerings served just after noon during a weekday lunch. Among them: over-sauced and over-sweet honey walnut prawns, rubbery fried squid and two sets of dumplings whose flavorless vegetable innards (green peas, diced carrot and corn) tasted like frozen product.”
Thanks for your comment, Ann. Bamboo Village isn't an advertiser, and I didn't consciously highlight only the positive part of the review, but I can see how you could read it as such. I'd intended to direct readers to the Times to read the rest of the review and see pictures.
I thought Nancy's full review was spot on – lunch was disappointing the one time I went, but the menu items were fantastic. I was planning on giving them a few more weeks to get their act together, and try again.