October 9, 2015

Megavina's experts have visited this restaurant in the heart of Ho Chi Minh city, they tested different dishes and talk to staff like normal clients, our experts work anonymously, the best way to get real reviews because the staff and the managers don't know that we sent consultants.

Bloom Saigon restaurant is tucked away in a side alley beside a canal. The restaurant is a massive converted French colonial mansion so it's impossible to miss.

The food served is mostly Vietnamese style, before visiting this establishment, we checked online informations concerning the Bloom Saigon. It was known as "May restaurant" and it still appears with this name on many websites. Classified as "Refine dining" by many sites, we must rectify this appreciation because if the Bloom Saigon restaurant is quite nice, we can't classify it as "Refine Dining", it's impossible to compare it to La Villa French restaurant in Thao Dien district or Xu Lounge restaurant (District 1).

The best category is "Vietnamese cuisine" and if we are to improve the classification, it should be "Traditional Vietnamese Cuisine".

We ordered as main course, a duck breast topped with ginger and slices of red peppers. This dish was served in a rectangular Bone china plate with blue printings. Perhaps not such a good idea after all because the duck meat had a bland colour and the ginger made the all dish messy and not savory. The presentation was not refined, very basic like a dish that you serve during a family party. However it was tasty!

As a second course, we chose Bass filet chunks with a passion fruit sauce and served with braised mushrooms with tofu. Quite good but mushrooms were a bit too salty so as client, it left a bad impression.

It's a Training restaurant, The Bloom Saigon restaurant creates jobs for underprivileged youth in Vietnam, an interesting concept and a good opportunity for many people. The staff was smily and followed the advices of an efficient supervisor. The food is good value, but probably not if you're on a backpackers budget. We could expect a better presentation, more originality, something different that we can find only at Bloom Saigon and not family dishes that we can eat in many other restaurants and Quan An.

The manner in which Bloom Saigon treats the guests will leave a lasting impression upon them, either good or bad. Personnally we enjoyed our dinner, probably because of the general atmosphere, friendly staff and the concept.

Hospitality: 8.5/10 - Cleanliness: 8/10 - Atmosphere: 8.5/10 - Comfort: 8/10 - Staff: 8.5/10 - Service: 8/10 - Location:8/10 - Food: 8/10