Bobby’s Bamboo Grill

Closed. Was a very good Filipino restaurant. Became a Vietnamese restaurant and a fire burned the place down. They’re now Bobby’s Crazy Crab in Fremont off of Thornton. The one in Newpark Mall is also gone.

CLOSED
A recent fire in the strip mall wiped out the restaurant.
Update: Bobby’s moved out before the fire and is located in the food court in Newpark Mall.

Average filipino buffet food. Tried this on a weekend and wasn’t impressed. The price is ok but the meats were uniformly greasy and grisly. Stuff we sampled:
— kare kare (very little meat, mostly sauce)
— korean beef (nothing special, just sweet sauce)
— salmon with mayo (gross, way too much mayo covering)
— shrimp with garlic (good, simple)
— grilled chicken with some sort of generic sweet/​soy sauce
All in all, nothing I would come back for. Perhaps the individual items on weekdays are better, but I’d try Gerry’s, Toppings, or even Tribu before going back here.

My parents treated my fiancé and I here for lunch. I was expecting a sit-​down meal, but was surprised by the fact that it was a buffet! :) The food was fresh and they had all of the best entrees. Forgive my spelling…
Gulaman
Fresh toron
sinigang
white rice
etc etc etc
DELICIOUS! I even felt like I was in the Philippines :)

Even though I past by this place all the time I came for the first time yesterday. Came during their lunch buffet and it was packed. The interior is nicer than I thought though seating was pretty cramped. The food was overall good. The BBQ chicken was great but many pieces were burnt while the pancit was fine. I tried a bit of the kare kare and it was good. Will definitely come back for the pork sisig. It was flavorful without being too spicy. The chicken red curry was good but I think it had too much grease. The vegetables are ok. Turon is one of my favorite Filipino desserts and here it was pretty good. Some pieces had more lumpia wrapper than banana but still liked it. Their ginataan was ok.
If I came here again I would get certain entrees to go. The parking is ok here and the servers did come back and forth to check on my party.

$ 6 Filipino buffet for lunch? Hmm… ok.
I guess I shouldn’t have expected much and I don’t even like Filipino food to begin with. The food here is just ok. Not the best, but buffets don’t usually impress me anyway.
There weren’t many choices I cared for. I’ll give them credit because it wasn’t bad and it was only $ 6. There was some wonton? soup, chicken adobo, cayote, fried fish, palabok, and sisig. The food was so so. My co-​workers came here last week and had fancier dishes available like kare kare and pinakbet. Auntie behind the counter says they don’t know what the menu will be like because it depends on the chef of the day. The service is very friendly and hospitable. We watched TFC while eating our meal.
The best part tho was dessert! This is where I put the «all you can eat» to good use. The ginataan was the end of me! Yum yum yum, it made up for the mediocre meal.

Filipino buffet restaurant… at $ 9.95 per person (weekend). Good Filipino dishes. Home cooked taste, clean place, warm and friendly servers, and all you can eat food. We had a reservation and they were kind enough to hold it even though we were running on Filipino time. Great bamboo décor, very warm and cozy. Place seats about 40 people so be patient if the place gets packed. My fave is their BBQ chicken, beef with potatoes and bilo-​bilo. Will definitely be back.
Extra * for them bringing us paper plates and knife to cut the birthday cake we brought with us.

This is for CATERING only. We’ve never stepped foot in the restaurant. We hired Bobby’s Bamboo Grill to provide roasted pig (lechon) and lumpia for our daughter’s 1^st birthday. We had them delivered.
The lechon is the best I have ever tasted. No funny smell or taste of being uncooked. The skin was crispy and stayed crispy… with flavor! I first tried it at a friend’s wedding. My husband and I agreed that it was very flavorful so we decided to get the lechon from them for our daughter’s party. We had about 135 guests and the lechon was eaten fully! During the party, many of our guests commented that it was delicous and full of flavor. No surprise, many of them asked us where we got the lechon and we were happy to give a referral.
I took down one star because I had communication issues with one of their staff who almost scared me to death. I called a week to confirm our order and I had a very hard time talking to her. She made me believe that our order was never in the books. I spoke to the owners and fixed the miscommunication. However, the experience really got to me.
The owners are great and are responsive to my calls. I decided to communicate via phone directly instead of e-​mail just to get a faster response.
The delivery time was good, but I just didn’t like how we were charged for delivering to a venue that wasn’t far from teh restaurant. I always say that less than 30 miles should be free of charge for catering service when your primary sales are from banquets/​house parties.
I highly recommend them still and would pay the delivery charge again for future orders. The lechon is worth it!!!

Bobby’s Grill for the sis-in-law’s birthday. There was 9 of us in our party so I made a reservation for 11:30 and our table was ready for us when we got there. The buffet was fully stocked with yummy filipino favorites and they were all fresh and delicious. Lots of meat dishes!!! I never realized until today that filipino food is made with lots of beef and pork. LOL
Some of the dishes included: Pata with banana leaves, Kare Kara, Pancit, BBQ, Fried Squid, Fried Shrimp, Caldaretta, Curry Chicken, Nilaga.
There was also Turon and Ginitan for dessert, but Halo Halo is an extra fee.
As with most buffets I ate too much.
TIP: The place is small so it is best to make reservations for your extact party size so they can accomodate everyone.

It’s my FIRST time having Filipino food. .maybe it’s just not my type of food. (hey, just trying to be honest…)
I was super hungry at sunday morning so I looked up Unilocal and hopefully I can try something new. Realized I bookmarked this place earlier so I might as well give it a try. Arrived at about 1pm and my friend and I waited for 15 minutes before getting a table. Seemed to be very crowded so I guess it shouldn’t be bad. I tried all the food they offered– palabok (seafood rice vermicelli), fried pork belly, fried fish, fried shrimps, bbq pork, mussels, beef stews (?), beef tripe, and some veggie dishes. I liked the fried fish and bbq pork. The mussels tasted somewhat too salty to me. The beef stew just tasted like… ordinary stew, nothing wrong but not outstanding. Even though it was very crowded, the staff still tried their best and reached out to everybody.
Conclusion (PLEASE READ): I consider myself pretty open-​minded in terms of trying out new food. I’ve had experiences where I walked into a weird restaurant with no expectation/​no idea what to order, and ended up very satisfied. I am not bashing on filipino food or anything, but seems like it’s just not my type of food. It’s not that they serve sub-​par fried pork belly. It’s just that I don’t/can’t eat a huge piece of pork fat like that. Sorry… I tried but it didn’t work for me so I had to give it a three star. If you haven’t tried Filipino food yet, don’t get discouraged by this review tho. Come try it and see if you like.

I am a BIG fan of this place… I have been a number of times, with family and friends.
My mom, sis and I went last Sunday 7÷9÷11, because I was craving bisteak, and long behold they had it! mmm mmm good, not to mention Lachon Kawali, adobo… and sooo on and sooo on. I have not been to too many «good» Filipino restaurants, this by far is my fav.
So check em out… (very reasonable too)
The staff is great too! :)

Weekend buffet for around $ 10 in Union City. Food selection varies, but the typical dishes are served like Sinigang*, Beef Steak*, Fried Chicken, BBQ, Pancit, Kare Kare, etc. The Turon is on point, but you really need to get in line for that and watch out for when they bring in a new tray. People are vultures over the Turon* (like myself; I learn from the best, haha) and grab the whole tray. Ginataan* is good too.
Seating is pretty fast, and for the buffet price and food selection, its a pretty good deal. Some might say its a little pricey, but that’s probably because they or their family can make the dishes just as good at home. But you come here so you can just relax and grub! Not slave over the stove and cook for hours. Not anything too fancy but the eating/​seating style is something I guess you have to get used to in traditional Filipino buffet dining.
*My favories

I heard about this place after receiving a flyer on my car and decided to give them a try. I came on a Sunday where they had weekend buffet special going on. There was a lot of people in the restaurant, but it didn’t take that long to get seated. Upon surveying the buffet line, they had the typical food that most people order everyday from a Filipino spot; however, its hard to try when there are not enough plates to go around. I found that to be peculiar since they advertised a buffet, but kept running out of plates. Some items looked like it needed rotation, but the popular dishes kept coming, so you could tell which dish was really good. Not a place I can rave about for Filipino food, but if your looking for a meal deal this is a good spot to go to in Union City.
Pros:
— Pork Adobo
— Pancit Bihon
— Beef & Quail Eggs
Cons:
— Lack of Plates
— Some items needed rotation
— Turon kept running out and took a long time to refill

I’ve been here a few times for their Weekend Buffet. For $ 9.95 it’s like cover charge to the best Filipino party food going on in Union City at 11am on a weekend.
Each time we’ve been there, the buffet offerings vary, but they usually have their main offerings of Pancit, Sinigang, Pinakbet and Caldaretta. But on some days, they had Kare-​Kare, Fried Chicken, Ribs, BBQ, Arroz Caldo, etc. I guess it just depends on what they feel like cooking that day. But every time, the food has always been pretty good as they’ve got me going through the buffet at least three times.
It’s a nice family run restaurant who seem to be quite friendly. Bobby himself, served us our drinks and bussed our table one time and the other times were probably his kids or nieces or something.
Just a couple tips:
TIP #1 — If you plan to go on a Sunday, get there early, right when they open if you can. It gets pretty busy by 11:30am when the St. Anne’s crowd gets there.
TIP #2 — The buffet is small, it’s all of what, 8 ft. if that and two trays deep. So be patient, the food is not going to run out, their kitchen is right there.

I came here for the weekend buffet they had with my Mom. I got to say that it was not bad here. The Filipino food ranged from kare kare, pork sinigang, bbq pork ribs, pinakbet, etc. For dessert they had ginituan (sp?) And turon. Everything was fresh since there was a gang load of people in here eating as well.
I for sure be here again if I’m lazy to cook!

Bobby’s is a traditional Filipino «Turo-​Turo» style restaurant, which means the food is presented in a manner which allows you to peruse the already cooked food and point out what dish or dishes you want.
I’m not too fond of this form of dinning and coupled with the fact that their food is just average, doesn’t make for a laudable review.
The only dish that I like is the ginataan, which is a dessert that is sweet and hot, similar to that of porridge.
The staff on the other hand are warm and attentive.
I would recommend this restaurant to those that are familiar with Filipino food and are crazy about Filipino good, if this isn’t you, then this place is not a place you want to eat at.

I have been meaning to write a review about this place.
I discovered a gem in Union City. Wow! The food is good.
First of all, the fried milk fish, made just like the way my Nanny made it when I was growing up. Awesome. And I love, their Pinakbet!
It is in a pricey side which what made them loose 1 star and I still want to go try their weekend buffet! Yumm! Their halo-​halo, OH EM GEE! And their ginataan, WOW! Love it. Authentic.
It’s in a small strip mall and have lots and lots of parking spaces which I feel comfortable in so nobody would ding my car.
It’s also clean and the owners are very friendly. I’ll be back!

This place is very clean and inviting. The Sunday buffet is pretty good, but excessively oily… and please don’t tell me Filipino food has to be that greasy because it doesn’t! The bf is Filipino and even he agrees. Sometimes the choices aren’t the greatest, but they do switch it out from week to week. Pretty standard fare… kare kare, beef mechado, pancit, sinagang etc. For my personal taste, it’s sometimes a little on the bland side, but one definite plus is the turon! I love the stuff! Bananas & jackfruit wrapped, fried, and covered in caramelized sugar. Yum. Whenever we go here, we have to stock up as soon as they come out or else we’ll end up waiting another thirty minutes for the next batch.
… HOWEVER, if you have the choice to go here or do a tiny bit of traveling, I would highly suggest you take the 15 minute drive down to Manila Garden … that’s the FREMONT one, not Hayward. You won’t regret it. The only thing is that their buffet ends at 2:30pm while Bobby’s ends at 3. Sometimes that half hour makes a huge difference when you’re running a little late and still want to grab some Filipino buffet… and in those situations, Bobby’s takes the cake.

I woke up with the urge to eat with my hands one morning so we decided on Filipino food.
I didn’t bother looking at the names because we chose the buffet lunch and grabbed whatever looked tasty.
The dark braised looking stuff with beef was good, especially with the sauce poured over my rice. The chopped up meat thing (lookin like taco meat) was tastier with extra jalapenos. I think they call it SISIG?
Everything else was ok, nothing too extraordinary.
One question though… NO LUMPIA?

Solid 4 stars from me and my boyfriend.
We came for Sunday brunch hoping to find some yummy Filipino food to stuff our faces with and we were surprised to find a buffet. Yay! For $ 9.95 a person, I cannot complain. The food choices were plentiful and the actual food wasn’t that bad at all. It surprised the heck out of me to find some delish food in this random Filipino restaurant. The service was great, and I typically hate coming into Filipino restaurants because the people that work there are usually rude. But these guys were SO nice and SO accommodating! At the end of our meal, we were happy and couldn’t wait for another reason to stuff our faces.
The reason I docked one star is because they couldn’t keep a steady stream of turon for their patrons. Whenever my boyfriend went up to get some, some guy in front of him took all of them from the serving dish :(