V Rating: Super V
Where: 187 Ninth St, between 21st and 22nd St, Chelsea, New York
When: Lunch: Fri - Sun only: 12pm - 3pm. Dinner: From 5pm.
Tel: 212.627.1144
Price: Appetiser (entree): $7 - $10. Entree (Mains): $16 - $21.

Valentine’s Day (VD) brought us, by prior appointment, to Blossom, a popular vegetarian restaurant in Chelsea. We landed ourselves a spot in the 8 o’clock sitting, wedged between the early (6.30pm) and late (9.30pm) diners. Clearly, this place didn’t want to let any of its loyal patrons short of a meal.

We were lucky to be seated right away when we arrived about 40 minutes before our appointed time, fresh from the “ice storm” outside that had seen temperatures drop to eight below Celsius.

The restaurant was romantically decorated with dark wood and sensitive lighting. We ordered from the Valentine’s Day fixed price menu which offered choice of two appetisers, two main dishes and three desserts.

To be honest, even adjusting for the high expectations that we had of Blossom, both of our appetisers were underwhelming. I ate a South East Asian lumpia which was described on the menu as curried seitan and potato wrapped in a crispy chickpea crepe served with mango onion sambal. I thought it resembled a Chiko Roll (a ubiqutous Australian fried fast food item for those readers who have not had the pleasure) with a mushy vegetarian filling that was monochromatic in flavour.

Kate chose the black-eyed pea cake (”a crispy cake of yukon gold potato and black eyed peas served with chipolte aioli”). This dish had more flavour than my lumpia, helped along by the aioli, but despite its impressive sounding name it was not much more than a pleasant, homely pattie.

Mains were slightly better. Both were seitan (the US term for gluten) dishes – mine in the form of seitan scallopini in a creamy white wine caper sauce with basil mashed potatoes and sauteed greens, Kate’s grilled and served over roasted fingerling potatos, buttercream leaks, shitake mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, and asparagus in a light mustard sauce. The seitan was deliciously tender and both meals had a comforting “home cooking” feel to them.

Despite being very full, we still found space to try a Blossom sweetheart puff pastry, and cheesecake. These dishes were remarkable for the fact that they were both vegan without any compromise on taste.

The meal did not justify its $46 price tag, but, on balance, and taking into account the pressures that the restaurant was under to cater for three sittings of diners on Valentines Day, sneaks in as a Super-V.

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