Bamboo Korean BBQ House

Don’t understand why this place has bad reviews. Maybe because people are reviewing their ramen, but cmon people this is a Korean house!!! If you want ramen go to a ramen house (DUH). I’ve been here both of lunch and dinner for my Korean BBQ fix, and I’ve never had any problems.
This place has been here for a while — if you live in Milpitas like me, this is the place to go for Korean BBQ in the area. Located in a little hidden complex next to St. John’s elementary school and church. A very homey and community feel.
I think the staff is great — they’re fast, attentive, and friendly. I’ve never had issues with slow food service, even when they’re really busy they’re usually on top of it.
Dinner can get expensive as most Korean places, I think they have a deal AYCE for $ 20 though. I highly recommend the lunch special, $ 10 – 11 dollars (unless you get the kal bi/​short ribs which is always more expensive) for a good portion of food. Almost always have left overs, and it comes with all the side dishes, side soup, rice, and noodles all in addition to your meat choice. WHAT A DEAL.
Don’t judge by these reviews and check it out for yourself, I highly recommend this place.

Spotted this area while in the Milpitas area and discovered this gem for some BiBimBap. Service is quick and they give you all the banchan you can eat. Service was friendly and my meal was good. If you have a craving for a Korean meal, come check this place out!

WORST STAFF EVER! If you want cheap mediocre crap korean food then by all means you got it!
I got dragged in by my bf to try their cheap 19.99 per person BBQ with practically everything in it. Man sounds too good to be true right? YOU BET! We ventured in got seated they gave us a menu then I practically asked my glass of water, utensil, and stop them to take our order. It took another 15min to get the waitresses attention then another 15min for her to do her job… why?
I can only describe the entire experience as PURE SHIT and I’M DOING YOU A FAVOR FUNDING YOUR SHACK. The food took 1hr+ when my soup arrived the waitress forgot my spoon but she remembered everyone else order spot on. The service was dead I don’t understand how you can make me wait this long when theres only 4 seated tables and be that careless. Oh and we were ignored the whole dinner without any service I had to get up and ask otherwise Id be ignored. The check came and the ass whole staff AUTOMATICALLY CHARGED US $ 7 TIP FROM OUR CARD. WITHOUT TELLING US. When my bf asked all I heard from her is broken english «yu tip!» Whats with the entitlement? The food was horribly seasoned and everything didn’t taste fresh just covered in salty gross sauce. My bf was nice enough to let them keep their stolen tip but I left feeling super pissed. WHY SHOULD ANYONE FREE HAND PPL WHO DON’T CARE? GO TO OTHER KOREAN PLACES STOP FUNDING THEIR SHIT SHACK.

We live neaby so come a lot. I’m curious a few guest here most of time, how they earn enough money? But the food was good, especially the all u can eat with $ 20/​person. Recommend try it if u live around!

We came here to eat for my late bday celebration, we made reservations, but when we came nothing was prepared. There was one waitress handling all tables so you can imagine how we had to ask for everything, from non lip stick stained bowl, to more water.
Its suppose to be unlimited, but we literally ate all the meat and had to wait extra time for them to give us more meat, they lagged on that as well. Understaffed totally.
To top it off, the owner tried charging us for my 15 month old daughter. She literally ate 3 pieces of meat and 6 bites of rice. Other places under 3 they dont charge AT ALL but evidently even one bite will cost you. Luckily my husband noticed the charge and pointed it out and she took it off.
Make sure you ask for a detailed receipt before paying, they can easily charge you hoping you will not notice.
Never coming here again, would have rather gone to Gen and pay the extra $ 5 bucks than to deal with their staff and owner.

Every time I go here, I seem to be the only one dining here with my guest…
Food is mediocre. AYCE BBQ with ban chan sides.
However, the waitress dictated how much tip we should leave… She even opened up the receipt booklet to check to see that we left the tip she had dictated to us.
Ridiculous

As much as i hate giving one star reviews, i have been on the toilet for almost 20 hours in total and just came in for dinner yesterday.
We came here friday night after work so it was about 715. Thought man this place is empty. Should have left there and then, but thought to myself why not give this ma and pop joint a try.
We got seated right away and saw AYCE KBBQ for $ 19.99. Ok cool. Im down for some brisket :) asked them for the all you can eat.
They brought out the banchan (korean side dishes) and i started to taste each one to see which are good. Started out with the chapche. Man i tried to make this stuff at home and it came out way better.
Next went on to the kimchi. Under processed so it taste like cabbage with some chili. Then thought to myself ok… Well maybe the food will be better.
To my suprise they brought out some tofu soup. This was probably the most enhoyable part of the entire meal. after thw tofu, they precooked chicken, bbq chicken, and bbq beef. They brought so much we ended up leaving more than half.
Thought to myself… Wait we didnt get to choose what kind of meat we wanted. Oh well. Going with the flow.
They brought out some brisket and some pork belly. All super frozen to where i knew it wasnt fresh. Just think of cooking a frozen rock. Yes Thats whats we ate.
The meat had freezer burn and the brisket turned black when cooking. Not from burning but from all the freezer burn.
We wont be coming back to this joint.
As Unilocal says… «You wrote the pants off this revew.» the only pants down are here in the bathroom while im struggling to stay alive from all this stomach pain

Since this business has been around for a while, I wonder if they bring in enough profit to hire more people?
Came in during lunch time on the weekend, and there was only one person — one person to cook and serve.
Also, why is the ramen the cheapest thing on the menu? I’m pretty those noodles are from the instant ramen package… A little sad

I’m the kind of person that tips based on service. I give great tips for great service and I give shit tips for shit service. The people at Bamboo Korean BBQ House are complete shit. They are inattentive and incredibly rude. I took my parents out to lunch and the servers here treated my parents like garbage. It’s one thing to have bad service, it’s a whole ‘nother monster to be flat out rude.
I hate the way the servers walked away in the middle of my parents ordering their food… Don’t you want to hear our complete order before you walk away???
I hate the way I have to flag down the server for everything no matter how slow they are. If they are busy and only have one person working I understand that I can’t get your full attention. If there’s one other customer in the whole damn restaurant then come by and see if I need more water… Why do you make me chase you.
I hate the way they NEVER say «you’re welcome» no matter how many times I say «thank you»… Am I not welcome? Do you not want me as a restaurant patron. My mother literally said «Thank you» five times in a row just to make sure the server heard her. All the server did was stare my mom down and walk away. The English speaking Korean girl was mean mugging my mom and walked off like she wasn’t shit…
If you like good service then the service here will drive you crazy. Like I said, I tip based on service and I refuse to tip a server that is inattentive and rude. Add to the fact that the server had the damn nerve to chase me down and demand a tip. If you don’t treat me like a customer then I won’t tip like one. Simple. Don’t go here. I won’t be anymore.

The only reason I went to eat here was out of a combination of hanger and grief due to my normal favorite bibimbap spot closing down (RIP Sandwich Gallery and their amazing $ 6.50 bibimbap), and I figured there probably wouldn’t be a wait like the other spots on the Asian side of McCarthy Ranch, so I swung by to do the Korean meal equivalent of pouring one out for the homie.
Where do I begin — super understaffed. There were at least 7 tables of customers. Exactly one server. Exactly one cook.
Second, the bibimbap was overpriced. ($ 13,95). Sure, it comes in a fancy hot stone bowl with an egg on top, but there were hardly any vegetables or beef, and it might have helped if there was ACTUAL BEEF. Instead, the rice was interspersed with something that had the taste and texture of cooked beef jerky.
That was a tough one to swallow considering I’ve had twice the quality for half the price. Most likely not coming back.
On the up side, at least I’m full.

Really good service! Extremely toddler friendly. And the FOOD?! Oh man it’s sooo good! Definitely coming back!

When I first sat down, I couldn’t figure out why this cool looking Korean restaurant had absolutely no one in it on a Friday at 5 pm. Slowly but surely, I started figuring it out.
I went with one other person. We got the AYCE for $ 20 a person. They brought a ton of appetizers, and then after brought out a plate of 3 different kinds of meat already cooked. Then they brought out 2 more types of frozen meat and cooked it at our table. It was a TON of food, enough for 4 people.
And yet, even though we didn’t ask for refills on anything (except for broccoli) they told us we couldn’t take the food home… There was literally an entire plate of the meat they brought out already cooked. It was just odd, a waste of food… Like damn, I paid $ 50 +tip, didn’t ask for anything extra and I don’t even get any leftovers lol. Wheird. I could understand if it was a buffet. But they just brought out all this stuff to our table. I left feeling like I wouldn’t want to come back.

The best price (cheapest) all you can eat Korean BBQ in the Bay Area ! I don’t know why reviews are so bad here but I think everything is just fine ! I couldn’t ask anything more ! The people who work here are very friendly. I like this place. I will come back again.

We came here in a party of 5, and we decided to take the ‘All U Can Eat’ menu, but only we found out later that short rib is not part of ‘All you can eat’ any more, this was quite disappointing. Beef was frozen sliced, so it was not really what we had expected. And the dish presentation isn’t so great. Food variety of very limited, with 20 bucks, you will get some frozen beef, precooked bbq chicken and pork, some really badly cut pork belly and of course included few small dishes. But not like some other review stated, the kimchi was quite below average.
The only reason I gave 3 stars was because the service was good by having only one person look after entire restaurant.

Attentive service, food comes out fast, and the food is good!
I normally get their kimchi tofu stew and it’s tasty hot bubbling goodness.

I’m still trying to figure out why this place doesn’t have good reviews… b/​c for me personally, it deserves more than three stars… that’s just me though…
Anyway, came here a couple of weeks back with friends for a post-​work early evening dinner…
We did the all you can eat «buffett.» They should have just dropped the buffet part b/​c it really isn’t haha… you don’t choose your choice of meats FYI… but it’s all good b/​c all the meat we had was very good anyway…
It’s part raw meat that is to be cooked at the table, and then they serve you an already prepared/​cooked plate of meat which has bulgogi, chicken, and spicy pork in it…
And of course, we are served ban chan… which is always good haha…
Not a fan of any type of tofu soup
I give this place four stars b/​c we still had a lot of cooked meat left, and I wanted to take it home… so I told the guy that it’s pretty obvious there was whole lot of meat left, but he said we weren’t allowed to take it home… I know I know, it’s the rules… but deng… that’s a lot of good food about to be wasted…
Overall good experience… and I feel that this is one of the more cheaper places to eat Korean bbq compared to other places I’ve been to…

I came here today with my girl for two all-​you-​can-​eat bbq, my gf said their kimchi is the best she ever had in a while. TBH their side dishes are super good. One thing that I didnt like is the frozen beef. I rather not have that frozen beef.
Other than that everything is very tasty: DDD

It took 5 minutes for us to get seated as the server was in the back running an order. The restaurant looked clean, but the outside/​building needs some fixing to get more attention to customers. We got seated and the menu was quite simple and easy to order. The waiter gave our food and did not come back to be checked on or refilled water. The food was slightly better than average which is why this place has 3 stars. I wanna give this place one more chance w my friends. But overall the food will bring me back here.

Alright people. Calm it down. We all know there are better cheaper kbbq places in SoCal and better non-​ayce places in the south bay.
But for all you one-​star hoity-​toity trash talkers, here’s why I actually like Bamboo.
1) Dollar for dollar, it’s one of the least expensive kbbq places in south bay. Ever paid $ 30 at palace? $ 26 at bob sang? Yeah. It’s not like you get any less food and it’s not like the quality at those other places is exponentially better.
2) Because of, or maybe… thanks to all your one-​star reviews, this place remains relatively hidden and not filled with opinionated, egotistical Unilocal yuppies.
3) The service is fine, actually charming almost. Ever been to Bob Sang? they literally yell at you to eat food.
4) News flash for the person that complained about their pork belly being frozen, all commercial meat comes frozen. Even sashimi is frozen to kill parasites. Also, If you let it cook too long it’s going to taste horrid. I mean it’s literally just pork belly. It’s not like they specially prep it to make it taste bad.
Every time I’ve been here, I’ve been greeted warmly and attended to consistently. If you get here when it’s really busy the service is going to be slow though, that’s just how it is. Sure it’s not the best and sure it’s super slow sometimes, but it’s my go-​to place for a quick fix and for that I’m happy to represent.

oringinally i wanted to give this place two stars because it may have some potential but after giving it some thought…
Came here to have dinner and catch up with a friend and was shocked to see the establishment completely empty.
I didn’t see any sign so i literally walked in and confirmed with the worker that this place indeed was BAMBOO KOREAN BBQ HOUSE.
The guy wanted to quickly seat me but i declined since i was waiting for a friend.
We contemplated for a minute whether or not we should find a different spot to eat but since we were already here– WHY NOT!!?
Going over the menu, there seems to be a pretty big selection of items to choose from. We had our heart set out on table side grilling and noticed that in order to take advantage of that, each table would have to order a minimum of 2 bbq platters. That normally wouldnt be a problem but the platters ranged anywhere from $ 20+ and choosing the all you can eat route is about $ 20/​head.
That was a no brainer!!! We went with the AYCE!!!
Tea comes out– Piping HOT (which I absolutely appreciate) and then the unlimited banchan arrives. Super teeny tiny portions but its supposedly unlimited so whatever. They also provide you with a bowl of rice per person.
A huge plate comes out with skimp portions of what i am assuming to be beef, maybe pork? and two slices of thick, super fatty, pork belly strips along side.
The guy is nice enough to throw on all of our meat and quickly walks away.
We start digging in and he comes back with a sizzling meat plate with three types of meat. I dont know what they were or how they were marinated– all i know is that it was GOOOOOOOOOOD! Definitely the highlight of last nights meal.
The meats that were to be grilled was nothing special. Frozen and bland but i guess thats the purpose of the sauce they provide for you.
It takes the guy a minute to ask us if we wanted more meat to grill up but he eventually does. Wierd thing is, he comes back with half the portion that originally came out… AND THAT WAS ALREADY SO SKIMP TO BEGIN WITH!
Next to the frozen meat was ONE STRIP OF PORK BELLY.
What a trip! This is the strangest AYCE spot i have ever been to.
So heres the run down– food is very mediocre. best thing about their banchan is the kimchi. They’re shady with their portions and take super long to even refill your meat platter and the banchan.
i would skip this establishment– there are so much better korean spots out in the bay area! Nice service but that definitely doesnt make up for all the negatives in this establishment.