Since opening in November 2019, Blossom Room has been a very popular independent addition to the Milton Keynes nightlife scene. With an extensive cocktail list and something for everyone, the Japanese-inspired venue is truly a stunning bar to visit in central Milton Keynes perfect for date nights, or drinks with friends.

As well as an impressive drink selection, Blossom Room offers a food menu made up of Asian-inspired dishes. I recently visited to try out this year’s Christmas offering from Blossom Room alongside other Milton Keynes bloggers, to sit alongside the Christmas (blossom!) trees.

Atmosphere

Inside Blossom Room is an Instagram dream. The pink cherry blossom trees that cover the ceiling are incredibly striking, with various other murals, and Instagramable props around the venue - it’s easy to see how it’s become such a popular location.

For our Christmas preview evening, we took over two tables and it was a great atmosphere with everyone mixing and socialising. The service we received was a little mixed I felt; while the servers were very attentive and friendly, it was quite slow, taking a while between each course to bring out our food and initially bring over our drinks. However I’ve visited on other occasions for drinks and they have come out fairly quickly, so I feel this was a one off.

The Menu

For the Christmas preview we were dining from the set Christmas menu, which is available from 15th November until 24th December, offering two courses for £24.95 or three for £28.95.

Within the Christmas menu, there are 5 different vegetarian/vegan options available. If you have any specific dietary requirements it’s worth mentioning when booking, as I know there were other people attending the Christmas preview event that were dairy or gluten-free and had their requirements easily accommodated.

Our Order

When we first arrived we were offered a welcome drink, and with so much choice it was hard to know where to start on the drinks menu. Blossom Room is popular in Milton Keynes for its cocktail menu, providing a variety of gin, whiskey, rum, vodka and tequila-based cocktails. If cocktails aren’t what you are looking for there’s also a wide selection of spirits, wines, beers, ciders, champagne, mocktails and soft drinks.
During the evening I found myself sticking to two favourite drinks; Zen Garden, a gin-based cocktail, and the Lychee Martini, which has a lovely fruity twist. Alongside the Christmas menu offering, there are also various drink packages available for the Christmas season, including deals on prosecco and bottled beers.
Next came the exciting part of the evening - the food. Although I’ve visited Blossom Room a few times before, I’ve never actually eaten here so I was looking forward to trying out the food offering. I’ve previously heard mixed things, but the Christmas menu looked right up my street.

To start with I ordered the Tempura Vegetables which were described as “Tender-stem broccoli, sweet potato red pepper, asparagus with sweet cranberry sauce.”
I was really excited for this dish as I love tempura, however I don’t think Blossom Room quite got this right. The vegetables themselves were lovely and fresh, but they didn’t have the right crunch that you would expect from tempura, and I would have preferred them a little more crispy. I really enjoyed the sweet cranberry sauce that accompanied the dish, but felt the batter of the tempura let this dish down.

For my main course I decided on the CFC, Christmas Fried Chicken: “Karaage Japanese fried chicken served with festive seasoned fries”.

I love fried chicken so I was really excited for this dish, and it did not disappoint. The outside was perfectly fried and crispy, while inside the chicken was very tender. The festive seasoned fries were nice, but to me they didn’t seem very well seasoned, and I would have liked a little more. Overall I really enjoyed this main, and I secretly hope it stays around on the menu after Christmas!

Churros filled with a chocolate and hazelnut sauce

Churros are my absolute favourite, so I had to order them when I saw them on the menu - and wow were these incredible. Hats off to the chef because these were perfectly crispy on the outside, fluffy inside and filled with the most incredible chocolate and hazelnut sauce. It’s worth mentioning that the majority of us around the table had these and we all loved them, and I’m very happy to see these as a permanent fixture on Blossom Room’s menu.

Allergies I don’t have any allergies myself, but a few others attending mentioned they were gluten or dairy free and their allergies were accommodated by Blossom Room. They also had a range of vegetarian and vegan dishes, and I wouldn’t hesitate recommending Blossom Room if you had any food allergies or intolerances.

City Girl Rating

★★★★ - 4 stars.

Based on the amazing atmosphere, amazing food and drink, being worth the money, and on point with allergies, I would give Blossom Room 4 stars for the City Girl Rating. For me what let it down was the customer service. As I mentioned earlier in my review, it was a little slow getting out our food and drinks during the evening, which was a little disappointing. The servers however were all lovely, so I wouldn’t let this put me off returning. I was really impressed by the food, and feel just a few tweaks are needed when it comes to dishes like the tempura and then it would be perfect.

The City Girl Rating system ranking system ensures that we recommend the best places to eat and drink. We take into account the atmosphere, customer service, value for money/ worth the spend, allergy awareness and of course, the quality of the food and drinks served.

Written by Lisa Bollins

Instagram | Blog

DISCLAIMER: Food and Drinks were given to us for free in return for an honest review.

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