The Boom Boom Room — Restaurant in Brisbane City

As we are huge fans of Blackbird, I was so excited to celebrate my birthday dinner at Boom Boom Room. We arrived early, was greeted by a lovely male, we sat in the bar area, he took our cocktail orders, and the cocktails were fabulous. Great start.

Dinner - we had a table of 5 booked, we were taken to the side room, no atmosphere at all, we were all alone, with curtains closed next to us. Felt a little odd, but that's ok. I suspect having children was the reason for this.

I'm sorry to say, perhaps the Monday team do not reflect the positive reviews you have. Our waitress (red hair) was allocated to our table, we had to constantly top up our Champagne, our plates weren't cleared, our consumed bowls of edamame sat their for the entire time and service was extremely slow. No atmosphere whatsoever.

The food - it was ok, quality ingredients, however the skewers were so tough they were not enjoyable. The crab hand rolls were nice. The wait times between courses was unacceptably long, perhaps she forgot to place the next order? There was no communication, apology, nor explanation of the food when it arrived. It was just placed on the table with a quick exit. The service was so underwhelming and is in stark contrast to that of Blackbird where the staff genuinely show an interest, are engaging and true professionals.

My husband had organised something for my birthday and this surprise was spoilt when our waitress placed 5 plates on the table (in a stack) and then walked off.? I could see his disappointment and then after waiting another 10 minutes we decided this was no longer acceptable and left. We approached the hosts desk and requested our bill.

The host was not interested in hearing us, just responded with my husbands request for the bill with "but it's at the pass now"..my husband was not interested. We arrived at 5pm and by 7.05 we still had not had our dessert, which i believe he had preorganised.

We had a show at 7;30pm at QPAC so we had advised that we had to be out by 7;15pm. The host clearly assumed that eating cake and celebrating my birthday in 5 minutes is acceptable. This is where one would expected the host, to at the very least apologise as she could sense how disappointed and frustrated he was, (& he told her how substandard our service was) however she was not interested. She was rude, and was only interested in defending that that the cake/desert was at the pass. Our bill $650. I'm not sure if the dessert he had preordered & was included in the bill.

And not once could they say "Happy birthday" just a little touch you would expect. A real let down considering how excited I was to dine here.

We paid our bill and left.

I understand the importance of good staff as we employ over 60 ourselves, so I write this as constructive feedback for senior management. I really wanted to love the experience, but to be honest it spoilt my birthday dinner. We'll go back to...

Absolutely terrible. The restaurant seems to have no understanding of what “omakase” means. If you don’t know what omakase is, please don’t use this name. This is outright cultural appropriation. Moreover, the hygiene is extremely questionable.

Disadvantages: The so-called “omakase” here is a fixed menu. Omakase is supposed to be a chef’s choice menu that changes based on the day’s ingredients. There was no sushi in this omakase. It started with a big bowl of edamame, making me feel like I was at a cheap izakaya. The tuna, served with a wild pepper sauce, still had a fishy smell. Every dish was predictable in taste, with zero creativity. The miso soup was as bland as water. The grilled chicken skewer was served cold, with thick chunks of chicken and a bit of not-so-crispy skin, reminiscent of a roadside kebab. The meat was even a bit tough. I asked for a replacement, but it came back burnt and bitter. The most outrageous part: midway through the meal, I saw a small flying insect. Shortly after, a cockroach appeared on the wall. The wagyu beef was disappointing — uneven marbling with thick fatty edges, overly greasy, and extremely salty. I don’t understand why they offered three dipping sauces and still added so much salt. The cocktail was served with a small piece of mochi — still in its plastic packaging. When the server brought the wagyu, they placed the plate on top of the menu, with half of it hanging off the table. If the dish had any sauce, it would have spilled everywhere. The miso ice cream was overly salty and aged. With so much miso available, they should have put more in the bland miso soup.

Advantages: The oysters were quite fresh, and the accompanying sauce was refreshing and balanced the richness. The cocktails were well-made and creative. The coconut milk wash didn’t have much coconut flavor, but it was smooth.

Final Verdict:

I can’t even call it a case of “all show, no substance” because other fine dining restaurants at least offer better decor, hygiene, and service.

This is the first time I’ve ever felt utterly hopeless halfway...

Absolutely overrated place.

Tables are too close to each other, left no comfortable seating space.

Because it's a basement, the acoustic was awful and echoes a lot, which makes it extremely noisy that I struggled to hold a conversation.

I can never accept it when the waitstaff fail to: Clean the table when they take dishes away. Provide fresh plates between dishes. Top up your water glass. Unfortunately at here, the waitstaff are only work as a food deliverer, they failed to introduce your food to you properly (plus it was too loud to hear them properly anyway); also you have to always hail and remind them so you get the service you need, while attending the table and paying attention to you was not part of their service. I don't see what's the point coming here when the staff performing like they work at MacDonalds. While the service is the spirit of Japanese food culture.

Food was absolutely overrated, fusion food with no balance between flavours. They asked you to try their fried duck after salmon roe, while salmon roe was overly marinated and extremely salty, while the duck became tasteless for under seasoned.

They also serve miso soup in a tea cup, while anyone who know anything about Japanese food culture would find it ridiculous.

Most dishes are either too salty or not salty enough, apparently when they were trying to add the so-called Japanese elements in, they didn't think of the balance between the flavours.

Plus, the yakitori, aka the chicken skewers we got were cold upon served to us, which was ridiculous since yaki in Japanese means burn, and it supposed to be served while freshly cooked.

So the restaurant apparently is conducted by a western cook who might never tried authentic Japanese food and whose interpretation of Japanese food is a total joke.

Funny that I thought Honto was desperate enough with their service, but compare to here I'd rather revisit Honto.

In other words, it's a hypocrite place where I will...