KEN HUNTS FOOD: Blooms Restaurant @ The One Terrace Plus, Bayan Baru, Penang.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Blooms Restaurant @ The One Terrace Plus, Bayan Baru, Penang.

Since my office is at Bayan Baru area, this entire area has been my “usual place” during lunch hour, many new restaurants are mushrooming and Blooms is being one of them. The word hanging outside of the restaurant caught my attention, it says “offering fine dining at affordable prices” where they are having this lunch promotion from Rm 8.30. Diners can choose their own desired main course from the menu and simply top up Rm 1 for a cup of Honey Green Tea or Peach Tea or Kam Quet Tea. It should be easy to locate the place if you are familiar with this new place- The One which is strategically located at Bayan Baru, right beside PISA or opposite to D’ Piazza. There are limited tables in the restaurant and would require a short-wait during lunch hours. Parking has never been easy for this place but you may park your car right beside the road (not advisable as you might be caught for traffic summons). Service was okay and the foods were okay too (although there are rooms of improvements) during my visit but do note that their serving portion will be a bit small but it should work fine for small eaters.

The meal kick started off with a plate of Chicken Salad (Rm 6.50). The portion was just okay and the vegetables were flooded with Mayonnaise. They were very brilliant to squeeze some Lime Juice over the Mayonnaise making it appetizing enough but unfortunately, I am not a Mayonnaise-kind of person and I thought the salad was miserable. As for the mixed vegetables, they had included Purple Cabbage, Cherry Tomatoes, Canned Peach, Sliced Capsicum as well as some Shredded Carrots. As for the Chicken Breast, I like the fact that they have been well marinated with herbs but in fact, a little over-marinated and more to the salty side.

As for main course, my friend had this Baked Chicken Thigh with Framboise Sauce (Rm 10.90). The sauce has a hint of sweetness and it tasted something very jam-like. Well, some usual aroma/flavor we could get from berry jams. The Chicken was well marinated to my liking. Extra marks for the side dishes as well as the thoughts where they are not serving the boring French Fries and Coleslaw. The stir fried Broccoli was over-cooked but the Baked Potatoes were alright, with the extra touch of spices to further enhance the flavors.

I had this Grilled Chicken Thigh with Tropical Vinaigrette (Rm 11.90) which comes with Baked Potatoes, Fried Rice and Stir Fried Broccoli as side dishes as well. As the name suggested, the sauce was sour-ish but it was too watery and it has affected my side dishes, making them soggy and sour. No, not that sauce tasted bad better if they could make the sauce slightly starchier. The dish was slightly oilier than I thought it would be but fortunately, the Chicken was well marinated and grilled to perfection. It seems like they are very good in using herbs for the marinating of meat.

Blooms offer two types of dessert only, Crème Brulee and Chocolate Volcano. We had opted for this Espresso Crème Brulee for Rm 6.90 and it comes with a small scoop of Raspberry Ice Cream with some crushed Chocolate Cookies as garnish. It was a huge disappointment to find out that the Crème Brulee has some un-melted Brown Sugar on top of the dessert. The texture was bad either; it was mushy and does not possess the egg custardy flavor. Both of us did not enjoy the dessert. This could be the worst Crème Brulee I have ever had.