Bloom Sushi : An Honest Review of Vegan Sushi

On our first proper night out in the heart of Montreal, we decided to try Bloom Sushi, a vegan restaurant by chef Christian Ventura. My partner and I had already tried Sushi Momo (several times, we’re big big fans!) as well as Casa Kaizen. We spotted this beautiful-looking restaurant with minimal and elegant Japanese-style décor. We eyed the name of the restaurant, not recognizing it. My partner did a quick internet search and that’s when we found out who owned and created the restaurant. The decision was instant, we went in and asked for a table. 

Chef Ventura and Vegan Eating

A quick note for those who have never tried Chef Ventura’s restaurants, for one, you are definitely missing out. Second, his restaurants are entirely and completely vegan. For those a little skeptical of hopping onto this way of life or diet style for fear of everything tasting like grass (*ahem* my thought process a few years ago *ahem*), eating at Chef Ventura’s restaurants will convince you that nothing else can taste so good!  

The Bloom Sushi Restaurant 

For a Saturday night, we were lucky that there was an available table for two. The atmosphere was ethereal, yet as a weekend evening, it was charateriscally loud. Our decision was pretty quick. We were going to try the omakase to be able to try different items from the menu to get an idea about the restaurant. This Japanese-style table d’hôte included a miso soup, gyozas as well as 16 pieces of sushi, chosen by the chef. We also added to this a Haiku mocktail with a distinctly grapefruit flavor.

The Bloom Food

The miso soup was definitely a win! The marinated shittake mushrooms made the soup stellar, I could easily have downed a gallon of it.

The gyozas were stellar and served at the right temperature! They were served with a sauce that was a mix of almond butter, ginger and apparently kimchi. The sauce was a wonder for our taste buds. If it wasn’t considered rude or improper, I might have considered licking the bowl clean. 

Sushi Platter at Bloom

Instead of writing a lengthy paragraph about the sushi eaten, I feel like it would be much simpler to organize the info in a list according to the sushi tried. Do note, I tried them with soy sauce and without and feel that to get the proper feel and taste for these sushi, they should definitely be tried as is without the sauce.  

• Queen (consisting of tofu, shiitake mushroom, carrots, asparagus and spicy sauce): meaty mouthfeel and acidic
• Rock’n Roll Spicy (made of crisp tempeh, green onion tempura, green apple, avocado, tempura and spicy sauce) : tasted good, yet normal and lacked that “wow” factor
• Kamikaze saumon (compromised of avocado, konjac salmon, tempura, spicy sauce, cucumber): super impressed by the konjac salmon mouthfeel that was super close if not identical to real salmon!
• Kimbap (composed of avocado, shiitake, oshinko, green onion, kimchi, almond kimchi suauce, oba, almonds): aromatic, almost perfume-like fragrance
• Tropical (made of soybean sheet, fried tofu, mango, cucumber, avocado, yuzu sauce, smoked konjac “salmon”, strawberry and grilled coconut): distinct smoked cheesy taste associated to this sushi
• Avocado hosomaki (avocado, spicy sauce) : definitely best avocado hosomaki I’ve ever had, however I was quite disappointed that 6 out of the 16 pieces per person were small hosomakis

Final Bloom Verdict

If you’ve tried Sushi Momo, this would be a fun addition, but if you’re looking for only one place to try, I’d definitely go for Sushi Momo instead. The price to quantity of food served is top notch. Not only are all the sushis served futomakis, but desert, miso soup and another starter are also included. Price to quality is also more interesting at Sushi Momo. Their flavors of futomakis are more varied and therefore one gets to try a wider range of food. 

I will note that the server told me people tend to prefer Bloom when comparing both restaurants. It is possible that our omasake mix was different or didn’t allow for a wide range of flavors as it usually might. Sushi Bloom is beautiful and we might definitely go back (especially to try their “salmon” sashimi, made of konjac).

Interested in how we discovered this restaurant? Be sure to check out my previous article here!