THE BAMBOOHOUSE,
94 MILITARY
ROAD,
COLCHESTER,
01206 364483

LOCATION, location, location.

It’s the same for restaurants as houses and although at first glance the Bamboo House may seem a little out of the way, on closer inspection you can see why they’ve opened where they have.

Across the road there’s a whopping big new housing estate in the process of being built and I’m sure when theymove in, the new residents will be very pleased to have this place on their doorstep.

With Chinese restaurants, and especially when you’re in a group of people, you can’t go far wrong with a set menu.

The meal got off to a spectacular start with a plate of sumptuous appertisers, the pick of which for me were the chunky, thick ribs, dripping in delicious tangy capital sauce.

I was also impressed with the prawn toast, which actually contained whole prawns and the fact I could use the sauce from the ribs and peanut sauce from the chicken skewers to swirl the crispy seaweed in.

Next up was the aromatic duck, sliced rather than shredded, with hoi sin, spring onions, cucumber and loads of pancakes – very filling, crispy and tasty.

Feeling pretty full already, the mains arrived together, with the three kinds of seafood (fish, squid and king prawns) sizzling on its skillet.

While the chilli beef was crunchy and spicy, the stir fried chicken was succulent and delicately flavoured – almost the perfect culinary yin and yang!

For me the seafood could have done with a bit more heat but the pak choi was an absolute taste revelation, fresh and easy on the palate.

We were pretty much done in by then and yet then came the apple puree battered and deep fried, drizzled with syrup and served with vanilla ice cream.

If only I lived closer, I could have staggered my way home, although the long walk did work off some of those calories.

NEIL D’ARCY-JONES