Kimson

8654 Lyndale Ave S
Bloomington, MN 55420
(952) 885-0230

Category: Vietnamese

Rating (Scale 1-10, with 10 being the highest):
Food: 6
Service: 3
Ambience: 2

Recommendation: Good. A nice option for Vietnamese food in the southern suburbs.

Having just returned from a 2 week vacation in Spain and France where we savored European cuisine, it was a no-brainer for me to pick an Asian restaurant when a coworker offered to take me out for a welcome back lunch. I’d heard of Kimson before but had never been, and was excited at the prospect of finding a good Vietnamese restaurant close to work. The surroundings at Kimson are unimpressive – not only is the furniture shoddy, the floor and carpet are dilapidated and something I tried to keep my eyes away from. The server didn’t greet us with any interest and after the first couple of unfriendly exchanges, I tried to keep my interaction with the staff to a minimum.

Kimson has a daily buffet, but on perusing the spread, it didn’t look anywhere close to authentic and so we decided to order off the menu. I’m addicted to Pho (Vietnamese Soup) and although it would be nice to have diversity in my Vietnamese gastronomic adventures, I’m on a sort of a mission to find the best Pho in the Twin Cities and use that as a valid excuse to order the soup whenever I can. The Pho at Kimson is pretty good – although the flavors in the broth aren’t pronounced, throw in the fixings (jalapenos, sweet basil, hoisin, sriracha, and bean sprouts), and voila...you end up with greater depth of flavor and complexity. And even though the beef slices are tender and flavorful, the texture of the beef meatballs is something I can’t get used to. The Crispy Eggplant with Lemon Sauce was surprisingly good – the vegetable rounds were fried to a crisp, and the lemon sauce was refreshing and not over powering. We could have skipped ordering the Spring Rolls and not regretted it – they weren’t bad, but nothing close to memorable. But we must give two thumbs up to the Vietnamese Coffee…it’s hard to beat strong chickory coffee with condensed milk, when it’s done right. And in case you’re wondering why I even gave service as high a rating as a “3” given the apathetic attitude and sullen expressions of the servers – it’s because the food was brought out promptly!

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