Bamboche

Bamboche is a Japanese barbecue restaurant and buffet. This was an accidental find for me; I was next door getting new tires for my car, and my stomach got the better of me. From the outside, it’s not much to behold, but inside, it’s surprisingly big. It’s completely help yourself, and all you can eat. After being seated, you have free reign.

If you’ve never been to this type of restaurant, prepare to be amazed! All the tables have cool little fire pits. The flame is low and protected by a safety grill, but if you have kids keep a close eye on them. They have a combination of normal seating (booth style seating with the table and fire pit), and Japanese seating (low tables with fire pits but shoes not permitted).

Food choice is extensive. A combination of Japanese dishes is offered alongside American, so have yourself miso soup with fried chicken. There’s salad, hot and cold options, and barbecue. The barbecue selection ranges from beef, pork, sausages, and chicken, but also liver, heart and offal. You can play it safe like I did (sausages and beef were pretty tasty), or dig into something like intestines. The way it works is simple: grab a tray, a plate or two, load up and head back to your table. I put the raw meat on its own plate, then helped myself to spring rolls, dumplings, fried chicken, potatoes and a beef curry with rice. You can have as many servings as you like. At your table, place that meat on the grate and use the handy tongs they give you to cook it to your liking.

For dessert, they have an ice cream machine, plus a chiller cabinet filled with cute little cubes of cake; when I went, they had strawberry, chocolate and orange.

To drink, there are mostly soft drinks, juices and water in the buffet area to help yourself to.

The decor is muted, but has a warm, friendly atmosphere and is clean. The front desk has a glass display filled with retro toys and games from the 80’s and 90’s. The restaurant owner, a kind Japanese lady, told me they were the games and toys her children used to play with when they were young. After they grew up, she saved them and put them in her restaurant, which I thought was a sweet story.