Bubbly personality

New Bambu Desserts & Drinks does Vietnamese-style sweet endings in Garland

The specialty at Bambu is "chè," a Vietnamese dessert that's like a crossbetween a cold soup and a pudding.

Bambu Desserts & Drinks/Facebook
Bambu also does an assortment of drinks, such as Vietnamese espressos, blendedcoffees and smoothies.

Bambu Desserts & Drinks/Facebook

From California comes Bambu Desserts & Drinks, a small Vietnamese dessert and drink shop chain that's colonizing Texas. Its most recent addition just opened in Garland.

This marks the second Bambu in Texas, following the inaugural branch that opened in Houston's Chinatown area in December. A second Houston branch will open on the Gulf Freeway this spring.

Bambu offers bubble tea, but the signature item is "chè," a refreshing and exotic Vietnamese dessert that's like a cross between a cold soup and a pudding.

Bambu's menu has nearly 100 desserts, coffees, teas and drinks, including Vietnamese espressos, blended coffees and smoothies. Although Bambu does offer bubble tea, it's not the specialty. Instead, the signature item is "chè," a refreshing and exotic Vietnamese dessert that's like a cross between a cold soup and a pudding, with a goulash-style collection of additions such as fresh fruit, raisins, nuts, cereal, yogurt and Jell-O.

Bambu wins raves because it uses fresh coconut juice — as in fresh from the coconut. A typical offering might be chè 3 màu, with sweet beans, taro and pale green sweet pandan jelly.

Bambu Desserts & Drinks was founded in 2008 by four Vietnamese sisters in San Jose, California. They've opened 11 shops total in Northern California, Hawaii and Texas, with another six slated to open in the first half of 2013.

Hong Luong and Sen Tran, co-owners of Bambu Garland, discovered Bambu while visiting friends in California. They found a storefront in Garland's Saigon Mall at 3212 Jupiter Rd.

"The mall is a popular destination for Dallas' Vietnamese community," Tran says.

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Medium Rare steak frites restaurant closes on Dallas' Greenville Ave

Medium Rare/Facebook

Medium Rare is saying goodbye to Houston — for now.

A Washington, D.C.-based restaurant that only serves one entree is closing its Dallas outpost after only two years: Medium Rare, the trendy steak frites restaurant in the Lower Greenville neighborhood, will shut down after service on Sunday, September 13.

The Dallas news follows the closure of its Houston location on Sunday, September 4.

“After two incredible years in Dallas, we’re sorry to share that this Sunday night will be our final service,” the restaurant posted on social media. “To our Dallas community, thank you for welcoming us, sharing so many meals with us, and making Medium Rare part of your special moments."

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Founded in Washington, D.C. in 2011 by chef and restaurateur Mark Bucher, Medium Rare serves a very simple, prix-fixe menu. Every diner receives bread, a green salad, and steak frites — a coulotte (top sirloin) topped with a Bordelaise-style sauce and paired with hand cut fries — for about $30. Vegetarians may replace the steak with a grilled portobello topped with a roasted red pepper sauce. Even better, the price includes a second serving of steak and fries.

Diners can enhance their meal with oversized desserts like apple pie, a hot fudge sundae, or chocolate cake. The restaurant also serves weekend brunch, which draws a following for its bottomless mimosas.

The Dallas restaurant opened at 5631 Alta Ave. in the former Standard Service space in May 2024.

At the time, Bucher told CultureMap that he and his partner were bullish on Dallas and knew it well.

"My business partner graduated from SMU — Dallas is also where my college girlfriend lives, and I wanted to show her my success," Bucher said in 2024. "No, the reason we're here, we're rolling out across the country, with one location per NFL city."

"Dallas is an incredible food town, I feel it's underrated," he added. "It should be in the top 5 dining cities in the country. The talent of people available to work from culinary to front of the house is incredible. And we feel lucky to get our location on Greenville Avenue, where we'll be surrounded by great restaurants and bar operators."

They fueled a super buzzy steak frites trend around Dallas in mid-2024, which CultureMap captured in this roundup. They also became brought their popular Thanksgiving-time Medium Rare Free Turkey Fry event to Dallas in 2025.

Medium Rare might not be gone for good. "It’s not goodbye. Just goodbye for now," the closure post states. The restaurant's locations in Washington, D.C., New York, Philadelphia, and Boston remain open.

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Teresa Gubbins contributed to this story.

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