La Bu La

I finally found my new favorite Chinese place!
*ahem* Let me make a little clarification, I found my new favorite Chinese place on CERTAIN days.
This place was a little hard to find as it is located on the top of a building, but the parking garage attached to it makes it a bit easier to spot. We actually couldn’t find the place on our first trip so we just said, «Meh, Sushi Land is right around the corner, let’s go there.»
There are a lot of spicy dishes served here so be forewarned that if you want 5 stars, you’re gonna get 5 stars. The servers here will try to remember your order and impress you with their great memorization skills… unfortunately for us, the server forgot two things we ordered and we agreed that next time, we’ll just write down what we want instead and politely hand it to them.
The one gripe I have about this place the first time we ordered a fried rice dish and it was the best fried rice ever! Then, the next time we came in we ordered the exact same thing and it seemed like they just threw a bag of cut-​salad on top of the fried rice… carrots, lettuce, purple cabbage and all. It wasn’t nasty or anything, but it wasn’t something we were expecting.
I know, I haven’t said anything positive in this review so far, right? Well, everything else was actually really good. I recommend the sweet and sour fish. It was pleasantly delicious!

Food is average. Service is good until we presented our Groupon. Suddenly we’re second class citizens. Hahahaha! Bad people.

Super slow service, and, they won’t take our groupon! Well at least the garage parking is free…

I cannot speak to the food quality because I was hung up on by an employee of the restaurant and that is the extent of my experience. Based on that I would leave no stars if it was possible. Called to make a reservation for next weekend and the man on the phone was taking down the date/​time information until I mentioned it was for 2 people. He yelled at me that they don’t take reservations for 2 people and hung up on me. I understand if a restaurant with bar seating only takes reservations for large parties, but there was no need to be rude and obnoxious. I was excited to try the food here based on reviews and the menu but after the way I was treated over the phone I will not be giving this establishment my business.

I am from Boston visiting Seattle for a week, of all the Sichuan restaurants that I have tried in Boston, this place blows them all away! Every dish we ordered was just so authentic and spectacular, it makes me consider moving to this city!
The string beans were well seasoned and perfectly cooked, the fried dumplings were perfectly crispy and the spicy dipping sauce was the perfect amount of soy sauce and spiciness. The pork blood and intestines was my personal favorite, it might sound a bit gross but if you try it, you will like it! It is cooked is very tasty and spicy soup, great to eat with rice. This dish also has tofu, bamboo shoots, and spam. For the Dan Dan noodles, we were given a choice of thin noodles (authentic) or knife sliced (not how dan dan noodles should be but was made with house made dough that is chewy and delicious).
The fire pot fish is as good as it gets, absolutely sichuan delicious!
The prawns with honey walnuts surprised me, I normally don’t like my entrees sweet, but the prawns was covered in some sweet creamy white sauce, balanced by the saltiness of the shrimp batter, made it so heavenly.
Everything we ordered was beyond expectation, I can’t wait to go back to Seattle go eat here again!

The food here tastes really good. The twice cooked fish is one of the best dishes here. Nice place in the heart of downtown Bellevue.

I went here for the first time for lunch couple of days ago. I woud never have known it’s there until a co-​worker took me. You walk up the stairs to this apartment complex. It looks like a higher end Chinese restaurant. I ordered the rice cake dish with vegetables. It’s in the Noodles section of the menu. I highly recommend it! Perfectly flavored, and it had my 2 favorite ingredients – rice cakes and Chinese broccoli. I will for sure be back!

I’ve been here a few times, not sure how come it’s taken me so long to post a review; time to correct that.
The dinner menu is massive, over 150 items if memory serves. Food is excellent, especially the (special) seafood selections. Portions are large, so plan on either leftovers or better yet bring a group of friends and go family style. Interior is decorated well, and the high ceilings make the space feel larger than it actually is.
The real star though is the underrated happy hour. Food and drinks are incredibly inexpensive, one of the better HH’s in Bellevue proper. La Bu La is a welcomed addition to the Bellevue dining scene and if you’re near the Soma Tower apartments building be sure to stop in and check it out.

We are always up for trying a new Szechuan restaurant in the area because we always go to one of our go-​to Bellevue places Spiced, Little Garden, and Szechuan Chef. Spoiler Alert– We enjoyed La Bu La but felt that the traditional dishes were either cooked by a Taiwanese chef or they were toned down a bit for American palettes.
We drove by La Bu La thanks to Google not updating their location. There is validated parking or you can park in a nearby shopping center and have a stroll through downtown.
We measure authentic Szechuan dishes by tasting their Dan Dan noodle and dry wonton in chili sauce. We ordered these 2 items, bean jelly noodles and lamb with green chiles. The bean jelly was the highlight of the evening — very fresh, tender and full of flavor. The lamb dish was also very good but sadly, the chili peppers were not spicy due to being mostly de-​seeded. The dry wontons had thick dough and an oddly sweet chili sauce with a hint of sesame oil. The Dan Dan noodles were good but again, the chili sauce was lacking.
Overall, great and fast service for a Friday evening. Be prepared to pay Bellevue prices for the food — La Bu La is in a nice building and the menu prices reflect this.

Four Seasons of Wafting Fragrance
Ambience: 4
Food: 5
Drinks: 4
Value: 5
When the Soma Tower started construction, a long standing Bellevue institution was torn down. No, not Adult Toy Inc. (though that too was taken down). The Four Seasons of Wafting Fragrance was closed, its English name: Bamboo Garden. The reincarnation, in the new Soma Tower is ‘La Bu La’. It is, in fact, not a phonetic translation of its Chinese name, which remains: the Four Seasons of Wafting Fragrance. Its English name translated into Chinese is actually a question: is it spicy?
The answer is emphatically, yes! Well… at least if you order the right things. A disclaimer, when we eat Chinese, we go native – all the way: the weirdest, the spiciest available. We’re talking about pig intestines and blood. We’re talking about spicy frog legs. In this case, it’s the last page on the menu. All the specials of the house.
The food is done right. The spicy is hot without being overly salty or MSG induced. It is great. We’ve had a tour of the (special) menu and it’s all very good. A couple of suggestions. First, stay away from the Americanized stuff; go native. Second, the flaming pots are great, get one. The setting is fantastic. It’s modern, it’s stylish, and it’s clean. It can go toe to toe to the best of Bellevue restaurants.
Lastly, a hidden gem about this place is its awesome happy hour. It is one of the most fantastic deals in all of Bellevue. $ 3 beers! Including the IPAs. The house wines and bottles of sakes are $ 4. The special cocktails (including a Moscow Mule and a Margarita) are $ 4. The great food are also at great prices. Their spicy chicken wings (and so many of them) are only $ 4. It’s awesome, plus it’s not just at the bar, you can get it at your table.
All in all. This is a great place. A place you should definitely try.

This was probably one of the worst Chinese restaurants I’ve been to ever; I’d even recommend one of those we do everything sketchy places off the highway where you’d never expect Chinese food over this place. It’s that bad.
Probably most telling thing other than the food being completely bland, even the sliced pig ear, was their reaction when we pointed out that the szechuan beef we ordered was 1) not spicy at all and 2) tasted like dish soap. There are a huge number of Chinese restaurants that you can find in the Seattle area that will have better service and flavor… Such as red lantern over in the international district.
But really, being told the flavor of peppercorn has a lemony fresh soapy taste was amazing. I never had that experience before, and we cooked our own food plenty of time with the same spice they claimed caused the flavor we were «unfamiliar» with.
Don’t go here if you value your taste, time and money.

So i went here for lunch on xmas day. I was way excited to eat here! It was around 1 when the four of us sat down. This is where the experience went downhill.
So we ordered stir fired pork in hot garlic sauce– ³⁄₁₀. Chicken hunan-​6/​10 and mongolian chicken-​3/​10. We also ordered potstickers but it literally arrived at the table after we were done eating-​cold.
The staff was super rude especially the senior staff. I have been a restaurant owner myself and i can tell you that you may off days food-​wise but the discourteous service is unacceptable.
Not going here again obviously, just going to hit din-​tai-​fung for some asian goodness!

La Bu La is my go to spot for Chinese food in Bellevue. Yes, yes I know Din Tai Fung is here, but it always has a crazy line and is significantly more expensive than LBL.
I’ve never actually dined here (only take out), but the restaurant’s décor is classy as hell. I see plenty of families and couples eating here.
Now I’m a big fan of Sichuan food (gimme that spice), but it’s usually too spicy for me to bear. La Bu La has a nice spice level that I’ll need a glass of milk to cool things down, but not too spicy that I’ll have tears streaming down my face.
Favorite dishes include the Chongqing hot chicken, twice cooked pork sichuan style and mapo tofu with pork. Be sure to get a side of white rice ($ 1) as these dishes don’t come with rice.
Like any Chinese restaurant, there are some dishes that are misses. These include the stir fried rice cakes (just bland and greasy) and the crispy chicken with hot garlic sauce (too bready).
Take out is always ready in 10 – 20 minutes. Gotta love the efficiency of Chinese restaurants!

dinner
food: hand shaven chow mein, string beans, mongolian beef, fried chicken wings. everything was decent. its all super spicy in any of the foods. the portions were decent. the string beans came out in a huge plate. i think my favorite was the mongolian beef, then the string beans. the wings were crispy, but lacking a certain flavor. ***3/​5
service: server was great. got our orders in, food arrived. no fuss. the place is very modern. you couldnt tell it was an asian food establishment until you see all the décor. i like it. ***4/​5
value: its not that much more than what you would usually pay at chinese restaurants. the size is a bit smaller. it averages out to under 15 a person and we were stuffed. nothing was special enough to really make me want to come back, but i dont oppose coming here again. ***4/​5

We love La Bu La! The staff is always super friendly and the dishes are constantly on point. My husband and I go there a lot and here are some of our favorite dishes: 1. Bamboo shoots in chili oil 红油竹笋 2. Eggplant in garlic sauce 鱼香茄子 3. Pork belly in colorful pepers 生爆盐煎肉 4. stir fried pork in hot garlic sauce 鱼香肉丝. Definitely give this place a try if you’re in the neighborhood!

Came here for lunch and ordered one of the specials. Like most Chinese restaurants, you get the choice of entrée, rice, and soup. The hot and sour soup was crazy sweet. It was like drinking syrup. Only had ¹⁄₃ of the bowl. I had the string beans with beef. Wasn’t anything special. Average at best. Friend ordered the chopped pepper fish. That was much better than the string beans.
Service pace was pretty bad. At lunch time, my dish came out and then we waited probably 15+ minutes until my friend’s dish came out. They were marginally apologetic at best.

It gets 4 stars. Food was ok, service was good. Next time I will come in asking if they cater to the ma la scale.
Food–
It is for foreigners who want to try authentic food, but aren’t aware what true Szechuan cuisine tastes like = Americanized Szechuan food. Therefore without knowing the fact that there’s actually two spicy scales when it comes to the cuisine, ma = for the numbing effect of the peppercorns and la = spiciness that people are used to from capsaicin, your food will be lacking the numbing sensation. Also, the food is more on the sweet side to please American palattes. We weren’t offered an option of a ma la scale so. we ordered:
1) Fish fire hot pot-​came with a good amount of chili oil mixed with broth for a very mild taste, with tilapia and tofu. Tofu was firm and fresh. The fish was nicely cooked and flakey.
2) Twice cooked pork– for the bacon lovers! Tasted like lean bacon that was fried with big pieces of scallion, green bell pepper, with soy sauce, and a bit of sweetness, but no crispiness.
Service was good. They were good on checking up on our table, especially when we needed hot/​cold water.
Décor was beautiful. They had decorations that were reminiscent of the Chinese warriors on their wall which was a nice touch.
Parking is underneath the building, is small and you have to check in with a meter. I didn’t park in the parking lot under the building because it was filled up. The restaurant shares parking with the Soma apartments.

Ambience. A
Service. A
Food. A
Price. A
They’re found on he 2^nd floor of Bellevue Tower. They’ve been open just over 5 months now. Parking is found below the building (get a ticket at the kiosk and display on the dash.)
Can get crowded. Make reservations. Upstairs has nice banquet tables to accommodate 8 – 10 people.
Everyone so far is friendly. Just flag them down if you need help.
Has the spicy chicken wings. They must have been on steroids as they were ample sized, moist and very spicy. You can request to tone down the slickness.
The tea duck was okay. I prefer a crispier skin duck bit the flavors were nicely infused with camphor wood and tea. Nice to order and share.
Used my Groupon so truly worth trying if in the neighborhood.

I would say that the food is more like 3.5 stars but since the waiters were so nice, they get bumped up to 4 stars. It wasn’t too busy when we came. In fact, we got seated immediately. The parking directions online looked intimidating but once we got here, it was pretty easy to figure out.
We ordered a knife cut noodle (this was yummy), mooshoo chicken (ok. Thought the seasoning could be better), xiao long bao (not very meaty inside. I would say, don’t order this), hot and sour soup (sad to say but Panda Express is better), pea vines (pretty tasty) and a Chongqing chicken (crispy and yummy but a little salty). The food came out pretty fast. They didn’t wait to serve it all at once but instead segmented so we could eat it right when it came out of the kitchen.
The service was pretty good. They gave us recommendations. We also asked them to take a photo for our group and they were glad to do so. They were very accommodating.
The restaurant had a very strange set up where they had some rooms on the side. The bathrooms were upstairs. Layout was just very strange.
Would I come back? I don’t know. I liked this restaurant but didn’t love it.

We heard that Bamboo Garden had relocated and renamed itself, so we had to try out the new La Bu La. We got there at lunch time so we decided to order lunch specials.
My wife got the Hunan Fish with Black Beans. She enjoyed the dish. It was very mild, and flavorful. The fish was tender and fresh tasting. The black beans stood out in the tasty sauce, and the red and green bell peppers complemented the fish well.
I ordered the Kung Pao Squid. They used large squid that needed just a little bit of cooking to remain tender. Mine came out very tough due to over cooking. Although the sauce was tasty, I didn’t notice any chili peppers or Szechuan pepper corns. If I get Kung Pao in the future, I’ll try shrimp.
The service was understandably spotty — lots of new people. I’m sure that they will work it out.
Beautiful new digs with lots of potential.