Boheme — Restaurant in Houston

WASTE OF MONEY-I am disappointed to have to write this but save your money and go to another Drag brunch in the city. I have been here before and had a really great experience, but this visit did not meet expectations.

This time, I went with 3 of my friends and one of us booked the reservation just over 2 weeks in advance. When we get there we are sat in the back patio area that really doesn't have a great view of any of the show or Drag Queens. We get our food (the only good thing about this place), 2 friends order alcohol and 1 orders a coffee, and we eat before the show begins. The first Queen comes out to do her routine and spends majority of the time in the main area and only comes over to our section of tables for maybe a minute before the song ends. Mind you there are at least 50+ people sitting in this area.

This happens again and I am starting to get a bit irritated that we seem to be in the less-optimal area, with almost no view of the Queens during their routines and I am wondering what I paid for besides an overpriced buffet.

Eventually we've been here for almost an hour and a half and I'm ready to go home. We get our server to close us out and we discover that a brunch for "$39" per person is now $247. 1 $5 coffee, 1 $10 mimosa and 1 $13 cocktail. Where did the rest of the charge come from? The 20% auto gratuity.

I’ve had it so I ask to speak with the manager. She comes over, in my opinion “ready to argue” and I simply say, I’m not sure how I feel about the 20% auto grat and the experience we had today. I tell her I’m not happy that we sat in the back section and had a minimal view the entire time. She asks when I made my reservation and she sees that it was a bit over 2 weeks ago. Then she pulls up a reservation that has 10 people, that is a bachelorette party, and says that if I wanted a better table or view I should have booked in advance like them, on December 22. I visited on February 9. So you’re telling me I need to plan out a Drag Brunch with 4 people over a month and a half in advance to ensure that I have a better view? I don’t think the average person is doing that, so that seems like you prioritized the big groups having a better view/experience because you know you’ll generate more sales from them versus a table of 4.

I then say that I’m not happy with the 20% grat charge, especially since all I had was water and the buffet. I am not new to hospitality in any sense and have worked as a server for many years in the past, but having auto gratuity for a BUFFET and when all our server did was take our drink orders? I don’t think that is right. I wasn’t aggressive or overly rude about it, and honestly wasn’t looking for any money back, I just wanted this concern of mine to be raised to the manager.

However, the manager took this as a personal attack and started getting very defensive and aggressive to me. I told her I wasn’t looking to argue, and she just got more upset. At this point our tab had been paid, so I stood up, and said I’m done talking about this and started to walk away. I literally have a degree in hospitality management and can tell you this is not how you speak to a customer. I told her I won’t be ever recommending this place to anyone who may be inquiring about Drag Brunches (as a Houston native I tell a lot of friends/people about good/cool places to try) and am going to leave a review so others can hear about my experience and how overpriced and disappointing it was.

I was not the only one of my friends who was unhappy, I was just the one who wanted to say something. I also read another review that said this place swindles you in to pay for an overpriced brunch with the “ruse” of it being a Drag Brunch, when very little of it is actually Drag, and I could not agree more. Sad I wasted such a large amount of my weekend on this, and also the money that I won’t be getting back. Overall, save your money and go support a place that has Drag Shows that aren’t trying to...

BEWARE. This was one of the worst brunch experiences of my life- as an actual group of gay men (and trust me, we were one of the only groups of gay men at this establishment), and from out of town, we had high expectations for Boheme on our last day in Houston which was recommended by several friends. We attended the Sunday Brunch for a birthday party. Unfortunately as the gays do, several of our group of 10 were too hungover to join, but we mustered 6 to attend.

Slightly weary of the “buffet breakfast” idea, we assumed at $50 after tax and forced gratuity, the cost of a filet mignon at a nice restaurant, it would be an upscale buffet? We arrived to everyone lining up as soon as they arrived to a huge snaking buffet line, but figured we’d wait until the line dies down. Surely at $50 a pop, they’d have plenty of good food to go around? NOPE! After getting in line with our first drink, we arrived to the front of the buffet line to find empty bins full of unwanted food. They were completely out of the biscuits and gravy we’d all said we most wanted. The rest of the food was ill presented, cold, and something out of a continental breakfast at a Day’s Inn. The pictures speak for themselves. I guess this explains the mad rush of the locals for the buffet line, but as out of towners with no warning, we were left to the scrapyard.

Upon asking if the biscuits and other food would be restocked (sorry, they’re out! Shoulda got in line sooner), they brought out a few extra unwanted dishes and made “special” appetizers just for us (fries with sriracha squirted on top and what appeared to be a sub from White Castle - see pictures). At $50 a pop we were all left feeling completely taken for, and it ruined our morning.

We decided to close out early and head elsewhere as the drag brunch was not really for gay men (we felt like the only group there), it was more of a bachelorette party kind of place. Upon closing out, (and mind you we also spent about $200-300 additional in drinks and pitchers), we were informed that they would be charging us another $200 ($50 each) for the 4 people that didn’t show up!!! OUTRAGEOUS. We had tried to change the reservation earlier but they wouldn’t let us within 24 hours, but figured with the buffet running out of food they couldn’t possibly charge us for people that didn’t even attend it.

The manager Saylie came over after asking to speak with her, and she was downright rude and condescending to us, refusing to not charge for the 4 people that didn’t show up even after our experience and how much we’d spent on drinks. Her words? “If we do it for you, we’d have to do it for everyone” - yes Saylie! I would expect good food and if expectations aren’t met for you to make up for that, for everyone. After persistence she only charged us for two additional people, but we still left feeling swindled and she glared at us menacingly until we left the brunch, we did not feel welcome. Don’t forget service is not optional and brunch ended up costing close to $150 each.

Sad that we have to give at least one star, but I’ll say it was for the Frozen Mojito pitchers which were great, but not worth stomaching any of this food or the service.

If you’re a group looking for your fun delicious Sunday Brunch, AVOID! Be aware that if you book this place on a whim, you’re locked into $50 a person no matter how many you show up with 24 hours before. Go patronize one of the many actual gay establishments in Montrose that isn’t using drag queens as bait to take advantage of unsuspecting customers with a cheap...

Know Before You Go: There’s a $28 cover charge, which includes the buffet, bingo, and the drag show. A 20% service charge is automatically added to your tab. They do have someone on site with singles available for tipping the performers which is convenient since the place is otherwise cashless.

The Performers: The entertainers were incredible absolutely the highlight of the day. If I could rate them separately they’d get a solid 5 stars. Honestly, this place wouldn’t survive without them. The two divas Tess and Reyna if I caught the names right were born to be on stage. They brought energy, talent, and charisma!

The Facility: I came here with a group of ten girls. I had never been before but chose this spot after giving it the benefit of the doubt despite mixed reviews. Unfortunately the bathroom situation was embarrassing. It’s a single stall setup that smelled horrendous like a back alley or a stadium bathroom that hadn’t been cleaned in weeks. I felt secondhand embarrassed because I was the one who suggested the place and the smell really bothered everyone in the group.

The Food: The staff serving the food were friendly and visually the food looked decent but the taste didn’t match. Everything tasted bland, watered-down, and artificial like frozen, processed food that had been rehydrated. The only thing I could eat were the fries just to feel like I got something for the buffet I had to pay for. It felt like we were all forcing ourselves to eat something.

The Drinks: If the drinks had been decent I might’ve bumped up my rating at least one star. Unfortunately they tasted awful. Regardless of what the menu or the hostess claimed, it was obvious they were using the cheapest alcohol. Most of the drinks tasted like someone tried to mask the bad booze with lemonade or sugar but it didn’t work. On top of that, there was only one bartender so getting drinks took forever which might’ve been a blessing in disguise because all ten of us left with headaches. That’s usually a sign of low quality alcohol and none of us felt like we got what we paid for.

Would I Recommend It? Only for the show. The performers are worth seeing. But I’d recommend eating and drinking elsewhere beforehand. Would I go again? No.

Final Thoughts: This place has potential but it desperately needs a deep clean (especially the bathroom) better quality food and real drinks. The entertainment is awesome but the rest needs serious work to match that level.

My tab alone was about $110 and that was 3 drinks, buffet and their 20%. Another friend’s tab who LEFT EARLY was $55 for one drink, buffet and 20% service. Definitely...