Bloom Boutique Bar & Eatery, open in Albany since January, is a restaurant that is playful, irreverent and unafraid to have fun. The dining room delivers on that promise immediately. The food is working to keep pace.
When a restaurant leads with its personality, the food has to at least match the pace. The bang bang shrimp does. Each piece held its crunch under a sweet chile sauce that brings heat only at the edges. Between the shrimp, the unexpected addition of tempura sweet potato is the kitchen sneaking in vegetables in the best way. Peanuts and pickled red onion bring a tart, crunchy combo against the sauce.
If a menu has crab rangoon, chances are high that I am ordering it. Here it comes as a dip, a riff on the Chinese American takeout staple. Fried wonton chips have a light-as-air quality, sturdy enough to dip through a three-cheese blend with Maryland crab that is creamy and comforting. Scallions are scattered across the top but failed to cut through the glaze. After a few scoops, the sweetness was all I could taste.
The crab in the BALT sandwich — bacon, avocado, romaine lettuce and tomato — was mushy all the way through, and the avocado only doubled down on that texture. The bacon should have been the contrast, but it disappeared into the same mouthfeel. So did the garlic aioli. The ciabatta gave way under all of it rather than holding the sandwich together. The Caesar side salad did better, with a sharp dressing and good Parmesan, though house-made croutons were so big that each one turned into a commitment…