Blossom's Vietnamese Food For Hipsters | Silver Lake, Los Angeles
Blossom hits Silver Lake with new dishes, beer and wine
"Hipster Vietnamese" is an increasingly familiar restaurant genre.
The tables are invariably of blond wood, the walls gleaming white, and an alt-top-40 playlist of indie rock hits plays over the speakers, loudly.
Blossom has been effectively plying this trade on Main Street since 2006, and has now expanded to Silver Lake with its new outpost at Sunset Junction. The bright upper floor recalls Blossom's Downtown location, but only when descending to the cavernous basement is the genius of the new location revealed: There is a bar.
And you'll want a glass of wine to accompany the new Blossom's selection of oysters: We lobby for the tart, dry Weingut Riesling. There are a number of other raw options here, but the steamed Fanny Bays ($4 each), topped with a dab of umami-rich black bean sauce, are the most exciting. The savory sauce accentuates the meaty flavors of our favorite bivalves.
The other menu newcomer is the hearty egg-noodle dish Mi Trung Thit Kho (pictured; $11), that sports three large chunks of tender braised pork belly and a seasoned boiled egg for good measure. (You want a Koshihikari Echigo ($8) with this plate.). The chewy noodles, slicked with sesame oil and scattered with scallions, benefit from a few spoonfuls of house-made chile paste.
Blossom, 4019 W. Sunset Blvd., Silver Lake; 323-953-8345 or blossomrestaurant.com