• A dumpling-lover’s haven

There is something immensely comforting about hawker food. Not the hawker streets themselves, which can be challenging environments, but the food is always very comforting. 

The Food Studio at One Galle Face has just launched its newest food experience, Bamboo Boy, which draws on the comfort of hawker food – dumplings and noodles to be precise – within the comfortable confines of the Food Studio premises. The new specialty restaurant features a selection of house-made dumplings both fried and steamed and a variety of noodles inspired by popular dishes from around Southeast Asia.

The Bamboo Boy story

The new hawker-themed restaurant specialises in dumplings – the delicate, bite-sized treats of different fillings wrapped in a thin layer of dough – and soup-based as well as dry noodles ranging from pho to Hokkien mee and carbonara to beef cheek noodles. 

“This is a kind of street food,” said Food Studio Head of Commercial Louzanne Perera. “It’s very popular not only in Asian countries but around the world. I think dumplings are a very popular dish in Sri Lanka and people go looking to find the best dumplings in the country. We are also trying to create an experience at the restaurant itself. We are blessed with specialised chefs who have made making dumplings and noodles an art and we invite everyone to experience them at work whilst they wait for their order.”

“This is the fourth new food concept we have introduced to our food courts in the recent past. Champion Slice (NY style XL pizzas), Hotel Manoli (Levantine soul food), and Khayaban (authentic Pakistani cuisine) are other one-of-a-kind concepts in addition to Bamboo Boy that have been added to our repertoire of outlets within the last year alone. Food Studio will also be opening our latest food court at the Havelock City Mall later this year and an all-new project is set to hit the streets of Colombo very soon,” she added.

The food

The dumplings range from mushroom to prawn, chicken, and beef cheek – boiled, steamed or pan fried – and are served with a range of delectable sauces such as chilli oil and black vinegar, prawn bisque, soy and chilli paste, chilli oil, Japanese mayo, and char siu sauce. For the vegetarians, for both dumplings and noodles, there’s always mushroom and tofu. Two to three chefs work on the dumplings daily – about 500-600 of one kind a day – and much of their work can be seen over the counter that allows customers a peek into the hot, steaming bamboo and noodle pots.

The Sunday Morning Brunch was treated to a tasting of the full Bamboo Boy menu starting with its range of dumplings. Now, dumplings are a clear favourite of ours any day, but they aren’t that easy to find as there are very limited restaurants that significantly devote their time to dumplings. The Bamboo Boy dumplings do not disappoint. 

We started with the shiitake mushroom dumplings in chilli oil and black vinegar. The mushroom filling had a wonderful umami taste and though served with chilli oil, the black vinegar cut the heat of the chilli with a hint of sourness that really pulled the whole dish. 

Our favourites out of all the dumplings we tried however were the Spicy Boys – fat steamed parcels of peppery szechuan chicken swimming in chilli oil and black vinegar. It had a greater bite than the mushroom dumplings and wasn’t overpoweringly spicy (for us). Special mention should be made of the prawn char siu – steamed prawn dumplings served with a prawn bisque sauce which is also a very hearty dumpling option for the seafood lover. 

Let’s move on to noodles, ostensibly the main course offering of Bamboo Boy, though we have a feeling they’ll see a lot of visitors coming by just to gorge themselves on dumplings. 

Bamboo Boy offers four big noodle dishes – the Hokkien prawn mee (fried noodles, tiger prawns, and veggies cooked in Bamboo Boy’s special prawn master stock bisque), the Vietnamese staple noodle soup pho (which Bamboo Boy serves with bok choy, sprouts, jalapeno, hoisin, and sriracha sauce), Dan Dan noodles (a stir-fried noodle dish with a minced meat-based sauce and chinese greens and mushrooms), and beef noodle soup. 

Typically, the Hokkien prawn mee would have been our stand out favourite but we found Bamboo Boy’s prawn master stock bisque a bit too strong for our taste. The Dan Dan noodles were interesting, with the minced meat mixed sauce giving the dish an Eastern bolognese vibe that was really very nice. The beef noodle soup emerged as our top pick, though the broth is very rich and so should only be embarked upon on an empty stomach lest you find yourself struggling to finish. 



A welcome addition

We at Brunch love our dumplings and Bamboo Boy is a joy when it comes to dumplings. Each of its five dumpling options was a tasty treat on its own and each of its noodle dishes also have something unique to offer. This little restaurant opened in mid-November and is the first of several new restaurants planned by Food Studio. We eagerly wait to see what comes next.