RESTAURANT REVIEW:

While I travel to parts unknown, my friend Andre is not so agreeable to venture much past his home in Newport Beach.

That has caused him to miss some incredible places, like the soul food lunch I enjoyed in South Central Los Angeles or the fresh tongue tacos I devoured at a taco truck in Oceanside.

One place I believe he and his wife are missing out on is Little Saigon. Some of the restaurants there are incredible, and half the fun is searching them out amid the massive shopping centers on Westminster Boulevard in Westminster.

Much by happenstance, Andre and I stumbled upon a restaurant in Corona del Mar that features Vietnamese-style cuisine.

Bamboo Bistro has anchored a corner of a little complex for seven years now, and though it serves both Vietnamese and Thai food, the eatery really specializes in Vietnamese fare.

That was apparent when the king crab spring rolls were served. They are one of several different types of the Vietnamese appetizer the restaurant serves. Roasted pork, fresh shrimp, vegetarian and grilled shrimp are the others.

Unlike Thai spring rolls, which are usually fried, or Chinese egg rolls, these are wrapped in rice paper and steamed. The dish is much healthier and the ingredients can be seen before eaten.

It would have been easy to put in imitation crab — most restaurants would have — but any question that the crab was imitation was quickly dispelled as I pulled out a chunk of the crab and it splintered as though it just came out of the shell.

The crab blended nicely with the asparagus, cucumber, carrots, lettuce and mint, but it was the sauce that got my attention.

It is a wasabi and soy sauce with pineapple juice all mixed together. The bite of the wasabi is subtle, but catches your tongue enough to get your attention.

We saved the sauce for other dishes we were going to order.

But it sat there, neglected. The entrées we got were so good no sauce was needed. Andre went with the shaken beef. The dish featured filet mignon, which was sautéed with onions, bell peppers and celery in a garlic sauce.

The meat was tender and the sauce so good, it was almost better than the wasabi mix.

My selection was the Chilean sea bass and black bean sauce. The fish was steamed and then mixed with black beans, onions, shiitake mushrooms and bell peppers. The sauce had a ponzu-like quality to it. It was a little spicy, but not too much, and the fish was cooked perfectly. The glass noodles it sat upon soaked up the sauce and was not too intrusive.

It is one of two sea bass specialties Bamboo serves. The other is a steamed bass, which comes in soy sauce, scallions, cilantro and broccoli.

If I were hungrier, I would have had a bowl of soup to accompany my entrée. The restaurant has both pho and Thai soups. There are two types of Tom Yum (seafood and vegetable) but I would have tried the chicken coconut soup.

It is a combination of chicken breast, bamboo shoots and mushrooms in a lemon grass and coconut base.

There is also a decent selection of Vietnamese pho soups, including a beef and rice noodle.

While I would say Vietnamese food is its strong suit, that doesn’t mean the Thai dishes should be ignored. They are as authentic as the Vietnamese dishes, and on my next visit I plan on partaking in them.

There might be more authentic places north of Newport Beach, but Bamboo Bistro will make you feel as if you have traveled to Little Saigon.

ADDRESS: 2600 E. Coast Hwy., Corona del Mar

PHONE: (949) 720-1289

CUISINE: Thai and Vietnamese

SPECIALTY DISH: sea bass

ALCOHOL SERVED: beer and wine

DRESS: casual

FAMILY FRIENDLY: yes

CREDIT CARDS ACCEPTED: Visa, MasterCard and American Express

RATING: ***

JOHN REGER is the Pilot’s restaurant critic. His reviews run Thursdays.