P and I went to Bambu, Shabu and Tapas for our anniversary dinner, after attempting to go to 3 other places. Its located in Clarks Summit, PA, next to Gourmet Family diner and across from So. Abington Middle School. This location has seen such a wide variety of restaurants over the last couple of years, but none have really seemed to last. There was a chicken and ribs place called Juniors before Bambu, and then it was Bambu Noodle House. The noodle house was a bit pricey, but we enjoyed it. Actually, my parents loved it. There were just too many other restaurants that we enjoy to make it one of our frequent stops.
The new menu takes this place from I enjoyed it to WooHoo, we'll be back! If you're not familiar with Shabu, the best way to describe it is liken it to an Asian inspired fondue house. When you sit down, you can select from the tapas (appetizers), and then the shabu menu. On the shabu menu you first select your cooking liquid (broth), dashi (chicken soup base), miso, or veggie broth. Then, you select the foods that you'd like to cook in your boiling broth. They have beef sirloin, 2 kinds of pork, a variety of seafood (shrimp, scallops, tilapia, squid, etc), noodles (vermicelli, udon or ramen), and a large variety of vegetables (bamboo shoots, asparagus, 3 kinds of mushrooms, spinach, carrots, 2 preparations of tofu, watercress, etc...). Then, they bring 2 sauces for which to dip your cooked food, a red one and a ponzu sauce. We ordered a la carte and selected the beef sirloin, scallops, vermicelli, asparagus and bamboo shoots with dashi, and a gyoza tapa.
The gyoga was fine, I've had better, but really it was the dipping sauce that was lacking. Usually, you receive a soy, sesame and ginger sauce, but instead, this tasted simply like some soup base poured in a bowl. The shabu though, was good. It was fun to drop your food in the boiling broth and watch it cook. Really, everything was done in less than 2 minutes, and the ponzu sauce that I dipped it in was great! The red sauce? Blah.
They also serve chocolate fondue with either an assorted fruit plate or a fruit/nut/sweets plate. We didn't get any because P was full and I was satiated. Let's be honest though, I could have made room for some chocolate dipped fruit. They also had mochi and something else on the dessert menu. P had no problem staying while I enjoyed some dessert, but I have to admit that the service was a bit slow. I'm sure it had something to do with the fact that the table across the room knew our server and kept chatting with him about their son and other personal things. Ugh!
I'm sure that the server sensed my annoyance, so when the bill came, he had comped us the gyoza. We only ended up paying about $17 plus tip. Not bad for a meal that was entertaining and filled us up. I cannot wait to go back there and have some fondue! Even more so, I can't wait to take the kids there and let them drop their food in the broth. I'd have to imagine that they'll try whatever I order since it will be a cooking experience for them. And, with the price, I won't feel too guilty about treating them to a nice lunch or dinner. Okay, I'm sure that if I had made this at home, it would have been about $5, but I don't have a hot plate that heats to over 400 degrees and eating at a restaurant is always more fun than eating at home. Don't you think?!
To make a long story short, we recommend Bambu, Shabu and Tapas on Northern Blvd in Clarks Summit, PA. If you go, let me know what you think.
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