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Archive for Blooming VIP

I don’t think that word means what you think it means

Aug06

Restaurant: Blooming VIP Restaurant [ 1, 2]

Location: 8118 Garvey Ave A, Rosemead, CA 91770. (626) 280-2288

Date: January 8, 2023

Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese

Rating: There are better

_

The latest Dirty Dozen white overlaps with Sunday Chinese. Truth is, I prefer just straight Sunday Chinese, but having a wine theme is ok. It was Champagne again this time.
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We went out to relative newcomer Blooming VIP — which has pretty decent dim sum – and a very over the top decor.
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This time around we needed white wine to begin, as Champ was the main event.
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Peanuts Yarom brought in from Sichuan Delicious. They were pretty good, nice bit of spice and Chinese flavor.
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Smashed Cucumbers. Very solid classic smashed cucumbers with garlic. Not spicy but nice crunch.
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Chicken Feet. Bleh. Only Yarom ate these as usual.
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Geoduck Sashimi. It looked good, but these were tasted like a bait and tackle shop. Not even close to the quality of Longo. I actually had a hard time finishing what I took. It didn’t taste unfresh, and this should have a briney quality, but this was too strong.
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Close up.
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Fried Geoduck. The neck fried salt and pepper style. Edible, but not really good, particularly in comparison to Longo (whose version of this dish is awesome).
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Walnut Shrimp. Excellent version of the gweillo classic. Large shrimp, lightly fried with the sweet mayo. Guilty pleasure.
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Ginger Scallion Lobster with Noodles. The lobster was tiny, very little meat, but it was juicy. Ginger balance was way too strong here. I also don’t love this kind of sloppy noodle, but it is typical.
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White Pepper Jellyfish. Someone in the kitchen accidently dropped an entire cannister of white pepper into the dish. It was disgusting and I like white pepper. Almost sneeze inducing and none of the vinegar thing that this dish should have.
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More wine (getting lazy).
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Roast Chicken. A very solid roast chicken. Not the best I’ve ever had, but nice and juicy. It was served with an odd “jus” gravy.
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Roast Quail or Pigeon. Solid 7/10 version of this classic dish and certainly enjoyable.
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Pseudo Peking Duck with buns. Thin Cantonese hoison and spring onions (no cucumbers, no pancakes). The duck itself was pretty tasty although this was like 1/2 a duck as it was on top of a huge pile of shrimp chips to make it look bigger. To find out more about Peking Duck, consult my Ultimate Peking Duck Guide.
1A4A2158
Thin Cantonese hoison.
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Yarom brought these carb free egg-white pancakes which actually served quite well as duck pancakes.
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Duck Lettuce Cups. Fine.
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The lettuce itself.
1A4A2146
Tofu with Mushrooms. I added to the order because we had nothing from the wok — Yarom has a thing for straight meat dishes. This tofu had that lovely soft egg custard texture. The mushrooms were nice but covered with a slightly sweet cornstarch sauce. There were not actually very many mushrooms however, and they were bulked up with a bunch of soggy iceberg lettuce underneath.
1A4A2153
Clay pot with satay beef and vermicelli. More vermicelli than beef. The satay sauce was decent and the beef was nice and tender.
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Roast Suckling Pig. Excellent 10/10 Chinese style crispy roast pig. Best dish for sure with awesome crispy skin and nice slightly porky flavor.
1A4A2180
Cremino al Siciliana Gelato — The base made with Galbani Whole Milk Ricotta and Sicilian Acacia Honey laced with house-made Bronte Pistacchio DOCG “Fudge” — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #ricotta #honey #pistachio #pistacchio #fudge
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The scores.

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Overall, it was a fun evening, but the food was really hit or miss. Blooming is good at roast birds and pig, but all the seafood was really meh, almost bad. Not “really bad”, still better than a westside Chinese, but not up there with the good Cantonese seafood places. The wok dishes were decent but not outstanding. But again, the birds and pig were excellent. So they know how to BBQ. Service was great and we had a nice private room.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Happy at Happy Harbor
  2. So Many Palaces, So Few Sundays
  3. Derek moved to China Red
  4. Dirty Dozen semi Grand
  5. Big Night at Capital
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Blooming VIP, BYOG, Cantonese, Chinese Food, Dirty Dozen, Gelato, hedonists

DimSumQuest – Blooming VIP

May20

Restaurant: Blooming VIP Restaurant

Location: 8118 Garvey Ave A, Rosemead, CA 91770. (626) 280-2288

Date: October 7, 2022

Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese Dim Sum

Rating: Solid

_

This was sort of the first of a new series we called DimSumQuest, in which a bunch of us actively hit some of Southern California’s vast array of Dim Sum places in short order (1-2 a week over several months) in order to suss out their relative merits.  Technically speaking, at the time of this visit we hadn’t yet conceived the nefarious plan, but it was the same crew and in the same timeframe so this was pretty much visit (ground) zero.

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Blooming VIP, horrible name aside, is a recent opening of a typical Cantonese palace. It’s even helmed by our friend Ben who used to be at Grand Harbor.
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I’m not sure if it’s brand new or took over a previous Cantonese Palace but it has some serious (overwrought) build-out.
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Who doesn’t love a dragon medallion.
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And the main room has to be seen to be believed.
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The highlight are these video screen Chinese columns! Animated seafood scenes roll around them continuously!
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The manager, Ben and Yarom.
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Le menu.
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Honey BBQ Pork.
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Five Spices Beef Shank.
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Imperial Cold Chicken.
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Roasted Duck Hong Kong Style.
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Seafood Pan Fried Noodle.
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Chicken Feet with XO Sauce.
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Short Rib with Black Pepper Sauce.
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Bean Curd Skin Wrap.
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Steamed Beef Balls.
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Shrimp and Mushroom Sui Mai.
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Beef Rice Noodle with Green Onion.
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XLB.
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Shrimp Chives Dumpling.
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Har Gow.
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Pan Fried Chives Pastry. I love these when I see them.
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Tofu with Thai Sauce. I love these too, kind of a guilty pleasure.
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Shrimp Egg Roll.
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Deep Fried Shrimp Ball.
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BBQ Pork Bun.
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Salty Meat Sticky Rice Wrap. A bit of an unusual look to it, with lots of filling.

Overall, I remember that this was solid but not amazing Dim Sum. Now don’t get me wrong, if you aren’t jaded like I am with SGV Dim Sum, it might be the best you ever had, but in that rarified world, it’s just “doing a good job.” They have a great classic “Palace” setting, they have a full menu of all the usuals and a few less usuals, they have the BBQ meats, they allow you to order off the bigger “dinner” Cantonese menu if you like (not so recommended during the day), and they have awesome service. So, yeah, it checks all the boxes. Specific Dim Sum execution was just good, not amazing. Unfortunately, not only was this the zero’th DimSumQuest visit but I didn’t take the ultra-detailed notes that I did on later visits, so not much (almost no) commentary on which dishes were specifically great.

When the rest of the DimSumQuest crew returned (without me) in Jan 2023 (due to their incessant zeal) they thought “Blooming VIP in Rosemead was solid. Everything was good… but nothing stood out as excellent EXCEPT… the fresh live steamed Norwegian Langoustine/Scampi….so sweet & delicious! But off course, fresh Norwegian Scampi is not really considered DimSum!” — for me the biggest standout was the giant column TV screens, never seen that before.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Derek moved to China Red
  2. World Seafood is Elite
  3. China Red by Day
  4. Too Tony at Chef Tony
  5. Not all Dim Sum are Created Equal
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Blooming VIP, Cantonese cuisine, Cantonese Palace, Chinese cuisine, Chinese Food, Dim sum, DimSumQuest, Lunch Quest, SGV
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