JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — It's been voted as one of the best restaurants on the First Coast and the menu at Blue Bamboo is sure to have something that pleases your palette.
Executive Chef Dennis Chan is no stranger to the restaurant business. For him, it’s a family tradition. He was born and raised in Jacksonville and while growing up, his family owned 12 restaurants all throughout the First Coast.
“I felt that calling and ready to continue that family legacy," Dennis said, "and so I went to school at the culinary institute of America, learned how to eat and came back and started Blue Bamboo."
After more than a decade, his restaurant continues to attract new customers and set the standard for great tasting Asian and southern comfort cuisine. The food isn’t the only ingredient to his recipe for success
"We do a cooking class one Saturday a month, we do dim sum which is Asian tapas one Sunday every month, we have an Asian taco Tuesday, one Tuesday a month and we also do a Ramen night," Dennis said.
Popular on the menu are the Chinese BBQ spare ribs served with fries and slaw made from sweet chili aioli. The ribs are first marinated in a special hoisin sauce for two days.
"And then they are slow roasted for two hours in our oven and they are finished off just in the grill just to give it that nice Smokey flavor and then we brush it with a little honey soy glaze," Dennis said.
The restaurant's signature dish is the red curry shrimp and grits. The grits are slow cooked and fried into cakes.
"They’ve got a nice texture to them and we take a couple of those and we top them with a red curry stir fry that just gives it that southern goodness of shrimp and grits but it’s also got that Asian flavor of that red curry in there," he said.
For dessert, you have to try the award-winning home Mandarin orange cake it’s been a hit on the menu since day one.
"Layers of yellow sponge cake with real Mandarin oranges cooked into the layers and then it’s got a pineapple cream cheese frosting that’s such a delicious cake It’s a cross between a cheesecake a Napoleon and a layer cake."
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