Bamboo Grove Hawaiian Grille

Bamboo Grove Hawaiian Grille, located on SW Carolina St. in Portland, Oregon, serves up traditional Hawaiian plate lunches.

I ordered a small "Auntie's Shoyu Chicken" ($9, plus a 25-cent to-go fee), a healthy portion of boneless, shredded shoyu chicken with a scoop of white rice and a scoop of macaroni salad. I got my food pretty fast, about 5-7 minutes after placing my order.

Small Auntie's Shoyu Chicken

The shoyu chicken was pretty good, but not mind-blowing. It was moist, shredded well, and flavorful. I also liked the small bed of shredded cabbage underneath the chicken. However, the chicken itself was too sweet for my liking, perhaps due to an imbalance on the sugar-to-soy sauce ratio. Perhaps a little more garlic could have worked here as well. To be fair, I was given a small packet of soy sauce with my food, but I did not want to add any more sodium to my food. The rice was cooked nicely, but I wish they had a brown rice option.

I'm giving the mac salad mixed reviews. It was a very good mac salad, quite authentic in appearance and taste. A very nice macaroni-to-mayonnaise ratio. However, it should have been colder (as in refrigerated), and I feel this mac salad was closer to room temperature. A room-temperature mac salad is not what I would consider appetizing.

It looks like local people (from Hawaii) run this place, which is a damn good thing. However, I must also say that the inside of Bamboo Grove was a bit dark and could benefit from more lighting.

Bamboo Grove has an impressive menu, and perhaps I may enjoy their other menu items. The shoyu chicken was barely above average to me, and I would appreciate it if I got colder mac salad in the future. 5.75/10