BLOOM Restaurant — Restaurant in Seattle

BLOOM is a new food spot between downtown, SLU, and Capitol Hill. Tucked around the corner from SBK/Seattle's Best Karaoke (an longtime hangout of mine), BLOOM offers healthy Japanese-inspired, vegan-friendly, bento boxes to-go.

When you arrive, you go to the counter and either order a Curated BLOOM Box or a Build Your Own BLOOM Box. Each comes with a base (such as rice or salad), a protein, 1 hot side, 2 cold sides, and a choice of pickles. There were at least 5-6 choices for each section, and each included a seasonal option.

The menu is a dream for anyone vegetarian, vegan, or health-conscious. A wide variety of different plant-based food options! All of the packaging is sturdy and compostable, too.

The decor inside BLOOM is pretty and minimal with a Japandi natual-wood aesthetic. It's really just the food on display and a register. Note that all bento boxes are to-go only -- there is minimal seating with 2 benches inside the restaurant and 2 more outside.

I ordered the Build Your Own BLOOM Box with:

Base: BLOOM Grains (wild rice, brown rice, quinoa, scallion, lemon, coconut aminos) Protein: Miso Alaskan King Salmon (+$3) Hot Side: Dashi Braised Greens (mushroom, onion, red pepper, kombu -- so flavorful!) Cold Sides: Miso Curried Cauliflower (with picked raisins) and Seasonal Charred Corn Salad (bell pepper, red onion, watermelon radish, cilantro, lime-jalapeno dressing) Pickles: Seasonal Pickled Blueberries

For those of you who are like me (carnivores or big eaters), you'll be pleasantly surprised to know the Bloom has a couple of meat options and that the cardboard bento boxes are surpsingly deep! Every one of the veggie options I tried was bursting with flavor. I left full and content.

After my bento, I was in the mood for more Japanese-inspired food, so I walked 2 blocks over to Nana's Green Tea (Japanese dessert cafe). What...

For those of you who think eating healthy means losing flavor, Bloom is going to surprise you! This is aesthetically pleasing food that packs a lot of flavor and really fills you up in a healthy way. You might even question how it can be so good!

The food is flavorful, colorful, and delicious. The make your own bento box ordering style is an experience in itself. If you are trying to eat healthier you have a lot of great options here at a great price. My land box is around $15 and the miso salmon is about $3 more.

Have you ever heard of pickled blueberries? They offer new monthly specials at BLOOM and these pickled blueberries are a flavor bomb to your taste buds. The chicken I ordered was very juicy; it was the last in the batch when I came in so I knew that one was sitting in flavor longest. It was out of this world and beyond my expectations.

Flavor is the name of their game here and even the Bloom potatoes were by far my favorite. Basic and yet doesn't taste...

I am always on the lookout for dishes which are free from gluten and red meat, so was happy to find this place. I was stuck in my hotel room for the day, so I ordered lunch online with their delivery through Doordash. Ordering was super easy, and my food was delivered quickly - impressively faster than quoted. I ordered the curated Pride Box. I couldn't figure out if the chicken was supposed to be warm or cold - it was somewhat lukewarm and appears was cooked previously and stored, but still seemed fresh and had good flavor. Gochujang carrots were a bit too spicy for my liking, but they were fresh and had good texture. Purple potato salad was good. Pickled blueberries were weird, would have been nicer if they were just plain fresh berries. Their custom packaging was great, and I enjoyed side add-ons of taro chips and nut mix. Overall, the concept was cool and no major complaints - I just wasn't wowed...