Not many are aware of The Bloom‘s existence.
You’d find curious passersby intrigued by the hotel it is housed in, sometimes stopping to take a selfie or two, but that’s about it.
After all, this quiet coffee hideout is tucked away on the 1st floor of the 3-storey Bloommaze Hotel in Bandar Puteri Puchong and the only clue that’ll lead you here is the bright red telephone booth on the ground floor of the hotel.
Turns out Bloommaze Hotel has turned their little space into a cosy hangout spot, which is not just reserved for hotel guests.
The café first opened its doors on August 5 but is mostly accustomed to guests coming in for tea or some light snacks.
“It’s a place where people come to chill,” Cadence, of The Bloom informed us.
In fact, we were their first group of guests for their dinner session.
During our recent visit to The Bloom, we were joined by our DiscoverKL readers, Vinothyni and Puvanes, a pair of aspiring food bloggers and foodies through and through.
“My camera gets to ‘eat’ first,” Vinothyni said with a laugh as she snapped a couple of pictures of our feast.
We had dishes which are part of The Bloom’s Christmas series, a menu specifically crafted for the festive season. From December 16-25, guests can enjoy one drink and one meal as part of The Christmas Brunch Box (RM23).
There are 3 different meal options to choose from.
The first is the Potato and Sausage Hash.
The potatoes, which were served in abundance, were not overcooked nor too soft. It also was not too oily either.
You’d find corn and sausages mixed in and while it might sound like an odd combo, the natural sweetness from the corn complemented the savoury potato cuts nicely.
Next was the Housemade Pancake with Mixed Berries Compote and Vanilla Ice Cream.
This, was hands down the star of the evening and we’d gladly return, just for this dish alone.
A word of advice though—enjoy this dish at the start of your meal because the ice cream, understandably, melts rather quick.
Noticing this, we jumped straight to desserts and enjoyed it while the ice cream retained its semi-circular shape, instead of turning into a warm puddle.
We found the berry compote to be rich but not too tangy and you’d be happy to know that there was a good ratio of compote to pancakes.
The final item in the brunch box series is the Scrambled Egg and Salmon Tartine, which was served on a single slice of thick toast, Korean-style.
The salmon slices were pretty thick and delicious, even on its own.
Having said that, Vinothyni would’ve preferred if the scrambled eggs had been more flavourful. While there’s nothing wrong with the dish as a whole, it lacked any wow factors.
Along with our meal, we took sips of ice cold Viennese Coffee and Viennese Chocolate.
The Viennese Coffee is a tad bit too bitter but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
As consumers, we’re far too used to coffees which are sickly sweet so it’s nice that we got to try a mildly sweet Viennese coffee at The Bloom because with the suitably Christmas-sy whipped cream it came with, the flavour is just nice.
As for the Viennese Chocolate, we collectively agreed that it missed the mark and tasted more like a chocolatey version of the well-loved Milo drink and as such, there isn’t much to shout about.
As part of their new menu in 2018, The Bloom will be featuring 4 new items.
There’s the Avocado Toast with a Sunny Side Up. The avo toast really outdid itself because the creamy texture mixed with the crunchy, sweet bell peppers made for the perfect combo.
It’s also officially my new favourite savoury meal on The Bloom’s menu. The sunny side up it comes with makes it a complete meal, rich with protein and vegetables and not one bit sinful.
Chicken of the Sea is a plain croissant with chicken paste, which has a tuna-like consistency. This was one of the under performing dishes for the evening.
Its saving grace though, comes in the form of bite-sized pineapple chunks. It gave the chicken paste much-needed texture, and turned the cold salad-like mixture into something more palatable.
What we liked about the Chicken of the Sea though, was the fact that the chicken was served on a solid croissant which isn’t soft nor soggy.
Puvanes noted that the croissant held its shape despite sandwiching the wet condiments. That makes it a good to-go snack.
We moved on to the desserts next and sampled the Peanut Butter Jelly Tartine first.
When Vinothyni tried the dish, she went silent and wasn’t her chatty self.
“This tastes familiar. I’ve tasted this before,” she said and later elaborated that she was momentarily overcome with emotions as the peanut butter and banana tartine reminded her of her childhood days.
“It tastes like something my mom would’ve made.”
Served on crispy waffles, the best way to describe this dish, is that it’ll evoke a sense of nostalgia. Hearty, creamy, chewy, it has all the elements that makes for a good peanut butter tartine.
The same, however, can’t be said about the jelly tartine. It was a bit too much and bordered on being sickly sweet. This could be attributed to the generous amount of berry spread served with the waffle, which quickly became its Achilles’ heel.
However, as the dish is meant for sharing, you can opt to slice each tartine into 2 instead and enjoy it with some tea.
The Bakewell Tarts are The Bloom’s classic offerings and you can’t come here and not try their signature desserts. And so we did.
It came in 4 different flavours: Blackforest, Raspberry, Chocolate and Nutty Caramel.
After a hearty meal, we pondered aloud how we would attempt to devour the desserts. We feared that the tarts would be too rich.
When we dug in, we were pleased to find that our fears were for nothing. The tarts weren’t as rich as its dashing cream cheese looks might suggest.
If you’re one to enjoy fruity flavours, opt for the Blackforest or the Raspberry, but definitely go for the Blackforest if you’re contemplating between the 2—it has a chocolate tart base.
As for the Chocolate tart itself, while lacking in chocolate flavours to start off with, it is not too rich and would make for a good after-meal snack.
The final tart—the Nutty Caramel—is surprisingly loaded with nuts, so much so that you’d enjoy a crunchy texture with just about every bite.
The Blooming Tea was the ideal end to our meal.
It has a citronella-like flavour and is meant to be taken with the desserts to cut through the sweet taste.
Overall, The Bloom offers meals which would be suited for breakfast or lunch and the clear winners for the evening were the Housemade Pancake and Avocado Toast.
If you’re keen on trying the dishes out for your own, The Bloom will be offering a special promotion.
From December 31-January 1, The Bloom will be offering a free flow of their light bites for all hotel and café guests. You can also enjoy 18% off all the foods and drinks on the menu with no minimum purchase.
Feature Image Credit: The Bloom
