Kickaboom — Restaurant in Sydney

Set in an old-school shopping strip at Glenbrook in the foothills of the Blue Mountains, Kickaboom is a café worth visiting. The small interior space is minimalist, utilising a mostly monochrome colour palette with long white bar lights, broken up with a splash of pale yellow neon and a few trailing green plants. It encourages you to look down onto the wooden tables, where pastel plastics and pretty plates create an eye-catching backdrop for colourful and flavourful dishes.

The menu is a cobbled together collection of wide global influences, each given a Kickaboom spin. The Brisket Sando ($16) takes classic Americana – pulled beef brisket and Cheese Whiz - and situates it in multicultural Australia with Thai chilli sauce (sriracha) and Sichuan onion rings. They’ve kept some nice texture in the brisket, which sings against a liberal application of chilli sauce. The sauce has been passed separately to appease those who hate chilli heat, and to make it easier to dip those crisply battered, juicy sweet onion rings.

Kickaboom also get their Korean on, with a Sticky Pork Bibimbap ($19) that arrives under a lightly fried egg with a clever tempura silverbeet leaf garnish. It’s a tasty dish with house-made pickles and ginger-enhanced sticky pork that you're meant to stir through. My dining companion is slightly put off by the porridge-like consistency of the rice, but I find this Kickaboom twist oddly comforting.

With owner and local Mountains lad, Dylan Johnson once heading up the coffee bar at the Paramount Coffee Project in Surry Hills, coffee is obviously a big focus. However despite eyeing off the Reuben Hill coffee beans, the unseasonably warm afternoon plonked right after two weeks of non-stop rain, had me craving something cold and refreshing. House-made syrups lengthened with soda were just the ticket. Kickaboom Cola ($6) is delicious and round, without the artificial colours and overzealous sugar you’ll find in other fizzy drinks. The sharper Lime and Mint ($6) has a very adult flavour palette; ditto their clever Liquorice Bread ($7). Under a pat of cultured butter, the house-made black bread celebrates the savoury aspects of liquorice, and may even appeal to those who have always found the shiny black candy straps a bit repulsive.

Now, if you’re a Sydneysider on a daytrip to the Blue Mountains, who'd like to team a Kickaboom visit with some other activities, just up the road the Glenbrook Rotary Markets meander randomly though Glenbrook Public School on the first and third Saturday of each month. Right next door to the café, there’s also the Anala Art Gallery which offers up the best collection of stuff you can hang on your walls I’ve ever seen in a tiny regional gallery. Artist Matthew Quick, who combines great technique with deceptively quirky subject matter, was my highlight of their current hang. And all three venues are within an easy walk from the Glenbrook...

We were heading up to the Blue Mountains and my little brother recommended paying a visit to Kickaboom, Glenbrook, at the foot of the Mountains. The cafe is a trendy little spot, just a small cafe with indoor and outdoor seating. The town has a good community feel to it and this was emulated through the warm and friendly staff in the cafe. Owned by locals, we’re sure they understand the demographic well. We appreciated they didn’t mind us sitting for a while after we’d finished, socialising with our family. Too often cafes these days are eager to fill your spot. Whilst they have a good range of food, it’s clear they’re all about the coffee. We even hear that owner Dylan once placed 2nd in the NSW Barista Championships and even worked at one of our favourites, the Paramount Coffee Project in Surry Hills, later als winnint the Australian Aeropress Competition! That said, we knew we were in for a coffee treat. I enjoyed a generous long glass of cold brew, a quality drop, whilst my family opted for the milk based coffees, the cafe using Rueben Hills beans and ethically sourced products. They have filter coffee, butterscotch lattes, chai, specialty teas and sodas too if you’re keen for something a little different. Food wise, we found the menu to be inspired and certainly interesting, though probably not the best for the waistline. Salt and Vinegar Lotus Chips, cheesy Potato balls, sticky pork bibimbap or banana bread and butter French toast all sounded extremely appealing! We tried a few other dishes; the Spam and Cheese toastie was pretty damn good and we really liked the house made spiced ham with “nana’s relish”, triple cheese on sourdough. We also had the beetroot and avo smash, poached eggs and also the sesame chia granola bowl. The chia pudding mix had a really lovely sesame flavour to it and it was topped with granola. I was expecting this to be a healthy dish, but it was a bit sweet for me with the tahini caramel and candied granola mix. The cafe do a special “liquorice Banana bread”, with the liquorice mix blended in before baking which we’d have to try next time. They sell baked goods like butter bing cookies and soft serve. A nice cafe to visit on day trip out. Be sure to appreciate the care that has clearly gone into curating an interesting menu with a lot of sodas, flavours and items made in house. NB I love the acknowledgement to country, prime place on the front...

The food is very pricey and average at best. The customer service was decent and food was served quite fast.

The spam toastie was the most generous in portions and well priced. The spam was homemade I believe, and had chunks of spam mixed with a homemade patty of sorts. I wasn’t the fun of that but the side of deep fried chat potatoes redeemed the dish. The potatoes aren’t very salty so I would recommend getting some sort of sauce.

The chicken burger was rather small and expensive.

The Reuben special (pulled corned beef and poached eggs with sauce) was small in portion and I wished there was at least some chips to go along with it considering it cost $20.

The chai latte had some gritty bits at the bottom but that is expected considering the fact that it was made with powder.

The lotus chips were interesting.. I was left wishing it was more crispy and more seasoned.

Overall, I think every dish should’ve come with a bit more of a side considering the price of the dishes. That would’ve redeemed it for me. In addition, the customer service could use a bit more work, possibly more welcoming to...