I genuinely hate leaving negative
reviews, just look at my Trip Advisor, and I don’t think I’ve written many, if
any, on here. Which is why I’ve put off writing this post for so long. It was
over a month ago now that I celebrated my 30th birthday at Blossom
Room, and I told them of the occasion in my booking and on the night itself. We
obviously just went at a bad time.
Blossom Room is a fairly new
cocktail bar and restaurant at The Hub. The decor is Instragrammable and it’s
on the platform that I saw so many photos and reviews on stories following the
soft launch when they started serving food. I was also sold by Sophie’s blog post,
despite her mixed experience. I have to say, after being so excited for so
long, I was left disappointed.
It started when we arrived. It
wasn’t clear where we needed to go or who we needed to speak to about the booking
so we made our way to the bar. After five minutes we got someone’s attention
and it transpired, our table had been given to someone else. Luckily, there was
another free one in that lounge area. Our waiter came over and apologised – apparently,
the manager wasn’t in and they were short-staffed. He had been drafted in from
the Indian restaurant next door. Of course, that filled me with confidence and
bode well for the rest of the night...
The menu is small plates and
platters – not Asian-inspired like the decor, more a mixture of all different
things. I’m a grazer and love sharing boards, tapas and that kinda thing, so I
was in my element. The menu doesn’t specify how many people the platters serve
and it just has a per person price – our waiter said the listed dishes and
price were per person, so imagine the shock when two of the girls ordered the
fish platter and only one arrived at the table – and to then be told that each
platter serves two. Neither were impressed they were promised four prawns each
and now would only have two.
Maxine and I decided to share a
number of dishes – two to three were recommended per person for the individual
plates. I’ve ranked the dishes in order too, so here goes. Sourdough & artisan bread (£4.95) – a bit sad, two pieces of
bread and what resembled cheese on toast. The olives were good though. The rest
of the party commented on their disappointment too. Halloumi fries (£3.95) and vegetable
tempura (£4.95) – both were good, but you can’t really go wrong with
halloumi fries. The batter on the vegetable tempura was light and crisp, and I
enjoyed all the vegetables apart from the baby sweetcorn (not a fan). Chilli squid (£6.95) – delicious, the
squid wasn’t too chewy, but there wasn’t enough for me. I also don’t think the
dipping sauce matched what was described on the menu. Chilli lamb meatballs (£7.95) – a portion of four would have been
more reasonable, especially as sharing. But the meatballs were huge, well
cooked and so flavoursome. This would have been my favourite dish but we also
ordered the lollipop chicken (£7.50).
Two chicken drumettes shaped like lollipops, with the most beautiful spicy,
crispy coating. Fried chicken everywhere, eat your heart out. One pop each
was surprisingly filling, but I reckon I could have easily just gorged on
chicken and halloumi fries all night long!
We weren’t able to order dessert,
as when we ordered our mains (at around 8:20pm), we were told the kitchen shut
at 8:30pm (quite early for a restaurant, in my opinion). Instead, we asked to
have our drinks package brought out. I had booked the silver package for the
celebrations - £200 for two bottles of prosecco (we had rose, rather than the
standard), a bottle of spirit (pink gin, obv) and unlimited mixers with the
services of a VIP host all night. Our host went awol halfway through the night,
never to return and we really weren’t looked after. We had to ask about three
times for more tonic waters, as we were only given about six-eight bottles to
begin with. I worked it out afterwards, using our itemised bill – and the
bottles of prosecco came to £56 and we had about £30 worth of mixers (the
lemonade was just a carafe of soda gun, so I’m mainly counting the Fevertree
tonics at £2 a go), meaning we basically paid £120 for a bottle of gin. If I
don’t laugh about it, I’ll cry.
Don’t get me wrong, the decor and
vibe is spot-on. Blossom Room have only just started doing food as well, so
there’s bound to be teething problems to begin with. But the service was just
so bad, and it was mistake and neglect and repeat. Service charge isn’t
included, and it’s safe to say, we didn’t leave a tip. I feel as though it’s a
place that most go to for the bar scene, so wonder if it’s best they just stick
to that, especially when the Asian-inspired tag just covers the decor, rather
than the culinary offering. There are so many restaurants at The Hub, so it’s
great to have somewhere decent to go drinking, especially as most people I know
like a nice wine/gin/cocktail bar. I would go back for drinks, to see what it’s
like at the bar, rather than the lounge. But thank god for company!
Love, Lucy xx
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Love, Lucy xx