Blossom brings authentic, tasty Vietnamese flavor

After opening a location in Downtown and a second one in Silver Lake, Vietnamese restaurant Blossom has brought its beloved beef noodle soup to Chinatown. The restaurant replaces Via Café, and the takeover is more of a renovation — the owner of the Blossom Restaurants is actually the oldest son of the owner of Via Café, so the new location was a family affair. The menu has also been revamped with new vegetarian options.

The menu is a trimmed down version of those voluminous, pages-long menus that diners typically find at a Cantonese or Vietnamese noodle soup. They stick with the most popular dishes of Vietnamese food amongst non-Vietnamese. Blossom’s signature dishes are pho and spring rolls.

For the uninitiated, pho is a Vietnamese soup noodle, with a relatively light, clear broth and thin white rice noodles. Usually some sort of meat is also added, and bean sprouts, lime and Thai basil also make frequent appearances. Traditionally, diners are also given fish sauce to pair with it, but this is typically forgone in most restaurants north of Westminster, California because it has a very strong taste that non-Southeast Asians are not used to. Instead, jalapeños are frequently the pairing of choice.

The pho tai, or pho with rare beef is a well-executed Vietnamese classic. The servers bring a plate of Thai basil, bean sprouts, Jalapenos and a lime wedge. The pho broth itself is very light and mild, even for pho broth. It is flavorful, but not overwhelmingly so, and complements the noodles and meat very well. The beef itself is quality beef, thinly sliced. The beef is usually placed raw in the soup while it is still extremely hot, then brought out to the customer while it is still rare, in a process similar to how shabu shabu cooks beef in boiling water. The cut of beef they use here is also much higher quality than the stewing meat one usually sees at pho places, and it shows. The rice noodles are on the softer side, but by no means overcooked, which feels more like a stylistic decision to do so, providing a sharper contrast between the softness of the noodle and the crisp crunch of bean sprouts. It makes for a mild version of a classic Vietnamese dish, the perfect light lunch meal.

Blossom also serves an excellent Vietnamese iced coffee, which is basically coffee mixed with condensed milk and poured into a glass of ice. It has a very unique flavor, and here, they serve a concentrated dose of the coffee in a shotglass with a mini metal coffee filter over it and condensed milk on the bottom of the glass. Diners can watch the coffee brew and, once it’s done, take off the filter, stir the coffee and condensed milk together and pour it into the accompanying glass of ice.

Upon walking into the restaurant, the new open windows are immediately noticeable. Tables are placed in outdoor seating right next to the windows, and on the inside, there is a long bench as seating as well as several small tables on the interior. It’s a beautiful example of indoor-outdoor design, with daylight filling most of the interior. It makes the window seating amazing during the daytime. The floor is now exposed concrete, and it matches well with the Asian/industrial mixture of décor going on in the room.

Asian restaurant service is meant to be hands off — servers bring diners food and refill water quietly without much explanation or fanfare. This approach is intended to keep from interrupting diners’ conversations.

Only chopsticks and a standard Asian soup spoon are provided with diner’s meals, so those without good chopsticks skills might want to ask for a fork.

Located in the Chinatown Plaza in the heart of Chinatown, the newest Blossom location is just down the from Starry Kitchen. Noticeable for its bold colors and modern design aesthetic, it’s a beautiful area. Parking nearby isn’t too difficult, with free street parking easily available if you’re willing to walk a few blocks.

Portions here are fairly large, and more than enough to sate the vast majority of appetites. Meals here are cheap as well. Though a bowl of pho might cost a dollar or two more than at Pho Tai, the meal is still generally affordable. The beautiful open windows and generous amounts of daylight pouring in, and the lightness of the food they serve there make Blossom a perfect lunch spot in a quickly growing Chinatown food scene.