Bamboo Terrace, Costa Mesa, CA (restaurant)

Name:Bamboo Terrace
Type:restaurant
Street:1773 Newport Blvd.
City:Costa Mesa
State:CA
Zip:92627
country:USA
Phone:
Status:defunct

Description:
Chinese/Polynesian restaurant. Opened 1971. Closed 2006.

[ Edited by: kenbo-jitsu 2012-06-05 17:55 ]

[ Edited by: kenbo-jitsu 2012-06-05 18:04 ]

Here is what I know about it:

The restaurant was opened in 1971 by Katherine Young when she “moved” the Chinese restaurant her father had originally opened in San Francisco (Fay Ling Restaurant, opened 1950) to Costa Mesa.

According to this article,
http://articles.dailypilot.com/1999-11-20/news/export65097_1_beer-dave-matthews-band-asian-appetizers
the restaurant closed in 1983, “when its location at 17th Street and Newport Blvd. was widened.”

I know this to be false because I went to the Bamboo Terrace several times in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. I think the article’s author might have meant 1993 which was when Caltrans started extending the 55 freeway south and really screwed all the businesses along Newport Blvd. for a while in the process.

I’m interested if anybody has any photos, matchbooks, etc. because I don’t remember how tiki (if at all) the Bamboo Terrace was. I remember the menu was Americanized Chinese food and that it was notably good. I remember the interior did have quite a bit of bamboo and I remember they had a lot of tropical drinks including a multi-person Scorpion which they served in a large shell (or maybe a large shell-shaped bowl).

Anyway, assuming the restaurant was closed in 1993, it was reopened around 1997, this time with the involvement of Katherine Young’s daughter Deborah and her husband. This new incarnation was called, “Din Din at the Bamboo Terrace” and had more of a club atmosphere with live bands and dancing.

The restaurant closed for good in 2006 and it is now an Italian restaurant called Roman Cucina, although I believe the owners are still the same. There are three other Roman Cucina locations in Southern California so the Young family might own all those as well.

There is also this earlier TikiCentral thread from 2006 which talks about the restaurant's closing.
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=19249&forum=1

[ Edited by: kenbo-jitsu 2012-06-05 18:00 ]

Well since this place was in my backyard
(I worked at the Licorice Pizza a few doors down, As the import buyer for the store)
I did go to it alot thru out the 70s & 80s
So I will put in my 2 cents.

The place did have alot of Bamboo decor, No tiki at all
They did serve classic Polynesian Cocktail's, I would take dates here so we could share a Scorpion bowl
in the 70s, The drinks where better then, but it depended on who was bartending, I liked the cocktails
from an old Asian man, I think was named Sam?

The food was pretty good too, The freeway extension you mentioned did not go past 19th Street
so the center where this was located was not affected by any construction, It was between 17th & 18th Streets on Newport Blvd.
Bottom line this was a classic Chinese Restaurant, But not Tiki.

[ Edited by: Atomic Tiki Punk 2012-06-05 20:45 ]

Custom tea cups. Very cool. Thanks hang10tiki.

Hang10,

That tea cup is vintage 50s - 60s and comes from the Bamboo Terrace in Vancouver's Chinatown. They were next to Ming's had some killer neon outside. I have a few postcards from there.

DC

Thanks guys
DC- great pics
:)