Bambuza Vietnam Kitchen - PDX Concourse C & E

I don’t normally eat Vietnamese but this place was better than expected. I had the garlic glazed pork loin with noodles with a spring roll, tasty. There was more meat than I expected which was a bonus. I sat and ate at the bar, service was quick. There’s lots of seating here as well as you can see in the pics. Thanks Bambuza for a decent meal.

Who would've imagined a place like this exists in an airport. I appreciate the kitchen making quality food for this hungry So Cal traveler. Looking forward to coming back to this place on my next OR trip. 👏

Bambusa is a walk up restaurant inside of PDX, which is Portland international airport. We had the spring rolls and the wonton dumpling soup, both of which were delicious and the rating would have been higher if it were not for the poor service of Dorice. The broth of the wonton dumpling soup came out hot and you can taste the ginger, lemon grass and all of the wonderful spice which you want from the wonton soup on a cold Washington day. The spring rolls were delicious and crisp which came with a chili sauce that was not too spicy. It had the perfect amount of heat. The only downfall from this restaurant was the customer service , and in my opinion if you can get the front of the house to mesh with the back of the house you would get this restaurant right on point.

Well, prepare your tastebuds for excellent Vietnamese food before take-off! Right there in Portland Airport, Bambuza has fresh salad rolls, crispy spring rolls, and a host of other favorites! From bahn-mi to Phõ, coconut shrimp to bao, gyoza, & even fried rice, everything is delicious and fresh-tasting! The best part is the low price and fast service. You can feast and still make your boarding time.

UPDATE: APRIL 2024 Visit Delicious Banh mi and good way to start off my vacation. I didn't see cocktails on the TV monitor style menus so I asked at the register. A sign was flipped around and shown to me. They made me a tasty mango margarita to get things started. There was a little bit of a wait for food and beverages on this trip, but nothing wild and crazy. I really appreciated the employees care for their work environment - despite several polite signs that ask customers to throw away their own dishes and other disposable items, it appears most people choose to ignore this and leave their items. An employee was courteous and taking care of this while we observed/ate/drank. PREVIOUS REVIEW I wasn't aware they are also in the C concourse food court. The "E" concourse location is somewhat beautiful and they have nice wooden panels on the side wall facing the shared seating area to help with the SE Asian feeling. My partner had phô and shared some small fried bites with me. Other than missing out on real plates and dishes, an overall decent experience. Local brand that still has at least one off airport location so prices are very fair (PDX still does not allow markups).

I was really dissapointed with this place. I liked the blurb about local organic ingredients and a family startup so I figured I'd give it a try. It was the worse Bhan Mi I have ever had & one of the most expensive. Huge/thick cirlces of cucumber, no daikon or carrot- nothing had that spark of "pickled" or tasted fresh, just pork and mayo like dressing making the mediocre bread soggy. My friend got the chicken salad and said it was mostly just a lot of cabbage. I feel like maybe this place did a fushion of vietnameze with Midwest bar food (no hate to either genre) but this combo lost the best parts of each. I also disliked that they have a tv going with sound into what would otherwise be a nice dining room.

Got a Shrimp salad roll (or summer roll) for $9 and Chicken Banh Mi sandwich for ~$12. The salad roll was cut into 3 pieces - it was wrapped tightly, but neither ends were closed and the middle piece was wild and free. Might be a bit messy to eat! Chicken Banh Mi was delicious - chicken was tender and flavorful, with a little of bit of veggies + cilantro for some freshness.

Airport pho. Noodles were ok, very skimpy on herbs. Broth was vegetarian I guess? Very little flavor but mysteriously fatty. Airport, so flimsy plastic everything and dirty tables.