came here during late dinner, pre ordered the omasun with ginko soup, taste very peppery, and other items as well, and ordered deep fried tofu, which is not the best option but got to live with that by paying $15 for it. place looks very run down from the outside, broken blinds and doesn't seem to be open for business, but the inside is completely different story

Nostalgia Can Be Costly. I grew up in Richmond, and started eating Chinese food back in the early '70's when there were a limited number of Chinese restaurants around. The Bamboo Grove was one, the King Wah, (owned by the same family), and the Brighouse Cafe.

My friend expressed an interest in going to the Grove a few days back, and yesterday when we discovered that the Golden Spot on Bridgeport was closed (for good), we ended up at the Bamboo Grove.

We parked out back behind the restaurant and entered through the back door. That should have been our first clue. The hallway was lined with very nice looking dark wooden panels and some lovely stone work. Getting to the dining room, we found 3 staff members getting ready for the dinner crowd in an otherwise empty restaurant full of large round tables covered in crisp white tablecloths and glass lazy-susans.

Within a minute of sitting down, we were brought menus and 2 white teapots. One with tea, the other with hot water. Nice touch.

After opening the menus we discovered how they paid for the fancy wood and stone work. Prices were about 30 to 50% higher than we are used to seeing the more common Chinese restaurants that we frequent.

Fried Rice started at $15.95 for a Yung Chow Fried Rice. Same price for Chow Mein with Chicken. My friend added a Sweet & Sour Pork and we were off.

Two problems at this point. Small "dinner plates" that are common in the high end Chinese establishments and no forks. While we can both handle chopsticks, rice has always been a pain and we both prefer forks for handling rice. On request, the waiter brought us a couple of forks, but we didn't bother asking for larger plates.

The Yung Chow Fried Rice was the first to show up. The plate was piled high with beautiful rice with shrimps and peas and egg. Some of the best fried rice I have had in a long time! If the shrimp had been any more tender you wouldn't feel them in your mouth. Wonderful dish.

Next up was the Chicken Chow Mein, done Hong Kong crispy style. Another excellent dish.

Last up came the Sweet & Sour Pork with Pineapple and Green Peppers. Photo perfect - wish I had my camera to document it. The S&S sauce was perfect, a nice balance and tasty and thick. The only problem was the size of the pork pieces. Just a little too large to comfortably eat. Very tasty, and even somewhat tender, they were more than a mouthful. They would have been perfect at half the size.

All in all, it was a very tasty and filling meal. There was even a little left over for me to bring home. The quality of the food was great. But I am reminded that you can never go home.