Chicken katsu at Bloom Boutique Bar & Eatery in Albany is topped with a salad of cilantro, cabbage, onion, carrot and peanuts.
Stephanie Gravalese/For the Times Union
Bloom Boutique Bar & Eatery, open in Albany since January, is a restaurant that is playful, irreverent and unafraid to have fun. The dining room delivers on that promise immediately. The food is working to keep pace.
When a restaurant leads with its personality, the food has to at least match the pace. The bang bang shrimp does. Each piece held its crunch under a sweet chile sauce that brings heat only at the edges. Between the shrimp, the unexpected addition of tempura sweet potato is the kitchen sneaking in vegetables in the best way. Peanuts and pickled red onion bring a tart, crunchy combo against the sauce.
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If a menu has crab rangoon, chances are high that I am ordering it. Here it comes as a dip, a riff on the Chinese American takeout staple. Fried wonton chips have a light-as-air quality, sturdy enough to dip through a three-cheese blend with Maryland crab that is creamy and comforting. Scallions are scattered across the top but failed to cut through the glaze. After a few scoops, the sweetness was all I could taste.
Two crabby dishes at Bloom Eatery in Albany fell short for reviewer Stephanie Gravelese. A crab rangoon dip, left, with wonton chips sounded promising but a sweet glaze took over the taste. The BALT sandwich fell to mush between crab, avocado and the ciabatta roll giving way.
Stephanie Gravalese/For the Times Union
Two crabby dishes at Bloom Eatery in Albany fell short for reviewer Stephanie Gravelese. A crab rangoon dip, top, with wonton chips sounded promising but a sweet glaze took over the taste. The BALT sandwich fell to mush between crab, avocado and the ciabatta roll giving way.
Stephanie Gravalese/For the Times Union
The crab in the BALT sandwich — bacon, avocado, romaine lettuce and tomato — was mushy all the way through, and the avocado only doubled down on that texture. The bacon should have been the contrast, but it disappeared into the same mouthfeel. So did the garlic aioli. The ciabatta gave way under all of it rather than holding the sandwich together. The Caesar side salad did better, with a sharp dressing and good Parmesan, though house-made croutons were so big that each one turned into a commitment.
Part of the secret to a good katsu, much like a chicken Parm, comes down to pounding the cutlet to an even thickness. Here it came out uneven, and my dining companion and I found different results from opposite ends of the dish: His pieces were dry toward the edges while mine stayed juicy. The coarse, craggy texture of panko was absent, the jasmine rice underneath was overcooked and soggy, and spicy mayo and a soy glaze were swapped in for traditional katsu sauce. The cilantro peanut salad on top, with its Thai-inspired flavors, proved to be a bright spot.
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One of Bloom’s salads includes compressed watermelon, arugula and Gorgonzola.
Stephanie Gravalese/For the Times Union
Arriving with a crown of arugula, the watermelon-Gorgonzola salad buried its namesake elements underneath. Compressed watermelon, vacuum sealed with lime juice, came out dense and translucent, and the technique made it taste and feel closer to the roasted beets beside it than to fruit. Shaved apple and jicama were sliced too thin for any crunch, radish did little beyond decoration, and the Gorgonzola crumbles disappeared against the larger chunks of melon.
Small plaques beneath the floral wall at Bloom use a playful verse to acknowledge likely temptation to pluck: “Roses are red, violets are blue. We’re not allowed to touch the flowers, neither are you!”
Stephanie Gravalese/For the Times Union
The bang bang shrimp appetizer sneaks in vegetables in the best way with the inclusion of tempura sweet potato.
Stephanie Gravalese/For the Times Union
Crab rangoon is served as a dip.
Stephanie Gravalese/For the Times Union
A BLT sandwich becomes BALT with the addition of avocado.
Stephanie Gravalese/For the Times Union
A private-event space that doubles as an overflow dining room is even more florally bedecked than the rest of the restaurant.
Stephanie Gravalese/For the Times Union
The banana split sprawls busily across the plate.
Stephanie Gravalese/For the Times Union
The menu at Bloom calls its Snap, Crackle, Pop dish “breakfast for dessert” and features dulce de leche creme brulee at the center, with crispy rice pieces.
Stephanie Gravalese/For the Times Union
Under development for 20 months before opening in January, Bloom was created with mission: “We wanted to make something that was beautiful, ” said co-owner and managing partner Rob Malkus.
Stephanie Gravalese/For the Times Union
Bloom’s decor balances lush, statement-making flower displays with a calming dark color palette and rich textures. A massive installation covers one wall of the dining room from the pink upholstered booths nearly to the top, while exposed ductwork and black overhead keep the maximalism grounded. On the bar side, brick walls and purple accent lighting behind the bottles set a moodier tone. A private dining room in the back pushes the theme further, with ceiling flowers trailing over burgundy wallpaper. This is the second review where a bathroom deserves a mention, as it did for Standard Fare in Saratoga Springs, and while I will not spoil it, I will say that if you go, press the red button.
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The maximalist floral decor at Bloom in Albany is grounded by darker palettes on the walls and ceilings.
Stephanie Gravalese/For the Times Union
Our need to make it an early evening meant sticking with sparkling water, but the beverage menu keeps the same energy. Cocktail names like Street Corn Named Desire and Banana Bread Old Fashioned set the tone. The wine list covers ground from Italian pinot grigio to Napa cabernet sauvignon, the draft beer list is mostly Northeast breweries, and four mocktails and three zero-proof wines fill out the list.
Bloom Boutique Bar & Eatery
Address: 563 New Scotland Ave., Albany
Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 3 to 10 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, closed Monday
Price: Starters, $8 to $19; handhelds, $16 to $23; mains, $22 to $39; desserts, $12 to $13; cocktails, $14 to $18
Info: 518-507-4706 and bloomalbany.com
Etc.: Street parking. ADA-accessible.
Dietary considerations: The menu flags gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan and dairy-free options throughout.
The manager who sat us mentioned that it was the first day of their spring menu. He turned out to be a social acquaintance of my dining companion, and from the look on his face, he was not aware we were there for a review. We were the first seated for an early dinner, and as the dining room filled, everything continued to come out without gaps. At the end, he comped our espressos, a gesture unconnected to my being there as a critic.
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Ryan Jankow and Rob Malkus, who founded City Line Bar & Grill on Western Avenue in 2011, partnered with chef Ryan O’Shea to open Bloom. The restaurant occupies the ground floor of The Rise | Midtown Square, the mixed-use building Jankow developed on New Scotland Avenue, where one-bedroom apartments start at $2,100 a month. It sits across from St. Peter’s Hospital.
Bloom calls Snap, Crackle, Pop its “breakfast for dessert,” served in a bowl with a dulce de leche creme brulee at the center. The bruleed surface had crispy rice pieces embedded in it, and Pop Rocks scattered across the top crackled against the caramel custard. Creme brulee usually shows up in a ramekin; eating it out of a cereal bowl with Pop Rocks was a welcome detour. Strawberries tucked alongside played off the concept, though they could have been sliced thinner. Mint as garnish did not need to be there.
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Bruleed sugar played a role in two desserts at Bloom Eatery in Albany: Left, the Snap, Crackle, Pop includes a dulce de leche creme brulee at its center. At right, a churro banana split.
Stephanie Gravalese/For the Times Union
Bruleed sugar played a role in two desserts at Bloom Eatery in Albany: At top, the Snap, Crackle, Pop includes a dulce de leche creme brulee at its center. Below, a churro banana split.
Stephanie Gravalese/For the Times Union
Spread across a full dinner plate, the churro banana split included a bruleed banana, a scoop of salted caramel ice cream, four dollops of whipped cream, frozen churro pieces and cookie crumble that I barely registered. A bowl would have kept those flavors together, especially with ice cream melting fast. The banana was fine where the brulee caught, but the proportions between the ice cream and everything else never came together. Mint garnish made another appearance on an already crowded dish.
Bloom is a restaurant with a clear vision and a kitchen still learning where to stop. The best version of this place is already in there. It just needs less on the plate.
Bloom is across from St. Peter’s Hospital in the mixed-use The Rise | Midtown Square and is co-owned by the property’s developer, Ryan Jankow.
Stephanie Gravalese/For the Times Union