Stuart Park’s Bamboo Lounge shuts down, staff relocate to Darwin Ski Club

After 12 years of cooking up a storm, the chefs of Bamboo Lounge are on the move, with its owner revealing the restaurant’s tasty menu will live on in another part of town.

Bamboo Lounge owner Romal Shrestha says it feels “bittersweet” to shut up shop. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

After 12 years of cooking up a storm in Stuart Park, the kitchen staff at Bamboo Lounge are on the move, with its owner revealing the restaurant’s tasty menu will live on in another part of town.

This week, Bamboo Lounge took to social media to announce its shock decision to close down after more than a decade of serving its South East Asian-inspired cuisine and award-winning laksa dishes.

On Tuesday, owner Romal Shrestha told the NT News the time was “probably” right to close.

“Our lease was coming up, we’d just won the laksa competition, Mum’s retired, and Bamboo Lounge is such a small part of what we do in terms of the entire hospitality company we have that we just thought it’s probably time,” he said.

“This is the first business I did with Mum so, yes, it’s a little bit bittersweet but like I said it was the right time.”

Golden Bowl 2024 winning restaurateurs Romal Mr Shrestha (left) embraces Chow owner Jason Hanna after being announce joint winners of the 2024 Golden Bowl at the Darwin International Laksa Festival. Picture: Facebook

With thousands of Territorians having dined in the restaurant, Mr Shrestha said Bamboo Lounge was one of his “favourite restaurants”.

“We’ve always had a really fantastic team in there, the food that came out has always been great,” he said.

“And we always got fantastic feedback throughout the time we’ve been here.”

Bamboo Lounge’s favourite dishes will continue to delight locals however, with the staff set to serve at the Darwin Ski Club.

“We’ve taken over the kitchen there and we’re actually cooking up our laksa right now,” he said.

“The laksa was one of the first things back on the menu and also our lamb shank which was our second-best selling dish.”

Mr Shrestha says Bamboo Lounge’s legacy will “keep floating” around Darwin. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

Beyond the location move, Mr Shrestha revealed he had turned an eye to keeping the Bamboo Lounge legacy alive across greater Darwin.

“I’ve been contacted about the Darwin Festival this year so we’ll probably do that again under the Bamboo banner,” he said.

“And we’ve just acquired a food truck, so I thought I would be sneaky and put some food trucks around the Ski Club, so the name will keep floating around - I don’t think it’ll completely disappear.”

Mr Srestha issued his thanks to the Darwin community for the support over the years.

“Thank you for being a part of our family that we had on the little corner down at Stuart Park,” he said.
“Some of the best memories I’ve had is definitely down at Bamboo, so thank you.”

Originally published as Stuart Park’s Bamboo Lounge shuts down, staff relocate to Darwin Ski Club