I was traveling in a group of 6 to Renton, WA, and we stopped by Blossom Vegetarian as our first stop in the Evergreen State. One member of the group is vegetarian, hence a reason why we ended up going to a vegetarian restaurant for our first meal during our trip.
Blossom Vegetarian is located on the southwest corner of 3rd and Burnett. We came in three cars, and the lot immediately in front of the restaurant can only hold about a dozen cars. The adjacent lot has more spots, but all three of us were able to find spots easily when we arrived. That's likely because we had arrived a few minutes prior to opening, so the door was locked when I tried to open it.
Right at 11 AM, an employee came out with a signicade to place in front of the front door. Shortly afterwards, we entered and sat at a table for 8, which I found kind of odd because they had tables of 4 and 8, but not 6.
Our table had a sign advertising a limited time special, which was Hanoi Beef Fried Rice at the time*. However, we were interested in the lunch specials, which were available weekdays from 11 AM to 2 PM. Knowing that our schedule wouldn't have allowed for a lunch special any other time during our trip, we went for lunch specials, which mainly consists of rice combos.
Rice combos at Blossom Cafe come with rice, either jasmine or brown, the latter of which would incur a $1 upcharge. The combo also includes an option for a juice or coffee, and if you choose either, you get $1 off. With plenty of rice combos to choose from, two of them chose the same lunch combo while the rest of us went with different lunch combos, but shared family-style with one another.
I chose the Blossom Rice Combo, which consists of shredded "pork", tofu pie, "beef" skewer, and vegetables alongside a lime vinaigrette dressing. I'm not too certain of the other combos, but I do know that the Cashew Chicken was another combo, and that's because one of my groupmates heard it was their most popular dish.
Since I prefer brown rice over white (jasmine) rice, I opted for the $1 upcharge for the brown rice.
Between the coffee and the juice, I went with a coffee since I was needing some after a long morning of traveling. They have four choices of Vietnamese Coffee: Cheese Cafe, Cafe Latte, Dalgona Cafe, and Cafe Sua. I went with the Cafe Latte, which consists of both condensed and whole milk. The coffee drinks can come either hot or iced. For whatever reason, everybody else ordered the iced drinks, but I went with hot knowing I'd have to brave the pretty chilly weather outside.
It took about 13 minutes for the kitchen to prepare our orders, and then we feasted! The coffee was ready about a minute before the main dishes arrived.
Everything tasted good, but I wouldn't say great, though that's probably because I'm not vegetarian. However, rest assured that all their meats aren't real meat, and this is indicated by the use of quotation marks encompassing the meat names. You can definitely tell these meats are truly vegetarian, though it took a few bites for me to discern the vegetarianism of the "beef" skewer.
The brown rice tasted kind of odd. I don't quite know how to describe it, but it was way different than the brown rice I'm used to e.g. Flame Broiler. The rice tasted pretty meh by itself, but exhibited a much more elevated flavor profile after adding the lime vinaigrette, which I'm thinking was actually a fish sauce.
But that Cafe Latte was smoooooooooooth. Just what I needed after not getting enough z's the previous evening. Since I ordered mine hot, my coffee came in a mug while the others who ordered iced coffee got theirs in a wine glass. These coffees supplemented the glasses of water we were given when we placed our orders.
Service, unfortunately, was quite slow, so exercise patience! We were the first customers to eat there, and there were a few others who came in after we did. We stayed there for over an hour even though I think we could have gotten in and out in much less time. They didn't really check on us even though there were very few other customers inside as well; I guess we were supposed to proactively go up to the counter to let them know when we were ready to order as well as pay.
2026 calendars were available for purchase at a cost of $20, cash only.
I don't know how many people would constitute a "large" party, but we were considered one, which resulted in an 18% gratuity fee that was already added to our individual bills. One of our groupmates, who was fluent in Vietnamese, needed to let the server know prior to paying.
So overall, Blossom Vegetarian is a decent spot for vegetarians; I just wouldn't recommend for a quick lunch break since service is nowhere near as quick.
* My visit was back in November. I waited until January to post this review as I took a brief hiatus from posting reviews upon traveling to the Pacific Northwest. read more