Boomshack

Caveat #1: This review is in reference to Boomshack’s food at the HK Food Truck Festival, held the first week of May 2016 at the PMQ.
Caveat #2: This review is in reference to roughly 3 bites of the insipid, greasy, and mushy cheesy chicken sandwich on a limp, room temp waffle. At a certain point, food crosses the line between pleasure to simple sustenance. In this case, I decided a pleasure devoid bite of food wasn’t worth the caloric intake so I binned the rest.
Caveat #3: This review was written in an emotionally compromised state. My tiny sandwich cost $ 90 (which works out to about $ 30 per bite) and recalling that shitshow of a sandwich makes me incredibly fucking angry.

The wonderful Tracy suggested heading to Boom Shack in our burger adventure. After having the song «Boom Clap» stuck in my head for longer than usual, I agreed.
We headed down on a Saturday lunch time and it was easy to get a spot. The venue itself is a good size with comfy tables. Well, low tables which is a change from the usual high seats I’ve seen lately in the burger joints around central.
Ordering was easy — Tracy did it at the counter. There is an array of drinks to choose from and I was delighted to enjoy a Dr Pepper — such a treat.
I selected the tuna burger as, to be honest, having a burger served in a waffle was something I needed to warm up to. I’m a bit OCD with mixing my sweet and savoury. The tuna burger was so so. It was a dense slab of tuna (yeay), but I couldn’t taste the wasabi mayo and the only flavour that came out were the pickles. We also shared a side of beetroot fries. O M Geeeee. These were scrumptious. I love a good beetroot and I have roasted them at home. Frying them. So much better!
I won’t be back anytime soon — though if I do venture to Boom Shack () I will only be beetrooting it all the way!

Stumbled onto this joint while walking through LKF. Was craving some Tex Mex and decided to see if Boomshack packs a punch. I went crazy ordering the Beef Ceviche, water melon salad, Fried Oyster Tostada, Kung fu Fish tacos and Chicken waffles… i was kindda surprised with the relatively bad reviews which were given but the price of food is still way cheaper than dinning in the states with tips. Really savoury and authentic tasting tex mex with an asian twist.
I really enjoyed the beef Ceviche, its savory and really well marinated with Yam chips. Their beetroot fries are really innovative and a healthier option to potato fries.
Their Kung fu fish is one of the best fish tacos hands down… the mango and orange salsa was really refreshing and the sesame slaw with a slice of avocado with a piping hot fried fish and spicy sauce really hit the spot for me. I would have orderes afew more dishes if only i had a bigger stomach. All in all… this is one of the best tex mex joint in Hong Kong. This little Boom Shack certainly packs some dynamite

Had the chicken n waffles sandwich & the Mexican corn and I must say the chicken n waffles was the
! The tender fried chicken comes with delicious gravy and cheese in between 2 soft rectangular pieces of waffle. I would have liked it if the waffle was more crispy in the outside, but otherwise the flavor was good!
The Mexican corn was also pretty good and had that Tex-​men flavor to it! It’s sweet, savory, sour, and has a hint of spice with chipotle! I will have to try the tacos and other food here sometimes.
The servings here are a little small though for the price, but that seems to be the norm here in HK with foreign foods.

I would go as far as giving Boomshack a 1.5 if there was the Unilocal option. It takes a lot to push my easy going, super friendly husband over the edge, but Boomshack, I congratulate you on this achievement.
We first tried Boomshack at a food fest of sorts in Quarry Bay a few months back. We bookmarked it on Unilocal to try at a later time because we liked the Tex Mex items we tasted and thought it would be worth a try.
So I went with my husband and it was just the two of us on Sunday around 7PM. The place was not busy and actually many other spots along this very tourist hopping area are closed on Sunday. We are locals just looking fora bite to eat.
My husband had the chicken and waffle and I had the mahi mahi fish tacos. We ordered as well their happy hour special of «Buy One Get One Free» and we chose their margharita. Portion size is not big (of the meal itself or the drink), so make note if you are super hungry, but the quality was good and I would say before the end of our dining experience, The margharita was frozen, served in a plastic cup with a straw and was absolutley one of the best frozen margharitas I ever had (not only because the mix was good, but the booze in it was ample) I was Unilocal trending in my head about a 3 while still at the restaurant… maybe a 4 if the waiter did or said anything special before we left. Other than the margharita, nothing particularly stood out, but it was good. I think 3 is average and nothing at this point was better than average, drink excluded.
The critical mistake of Boomshack made though in the last 5 minutes we were there that warrents a 2 in my head an no higher are as follows:
1) BOGO Special is kind of Trick: So when my husband went up to pay the bill, the server (who is now behind the counter settling our bill at the cash register) says «Let me get you your two other margharitas.» The BOGO special is for a single person. So instead of my husband and I both ordering a margharita and expecting one to be free, the special is per person. So Boomshack gets the revenue for two people. So when we leave, they hand us two more margharitas and we have to pay for BOGO X 2 on our check. So we end up walking home with two margharita cups that are now in my freezer to enjoy another time. Being a Happy Hour attendee of 25 years, I have never heard of BOGO that would not accomodate a married couple having each one drink and one of those drinks is free.
2) Our bill came to $ 411. When my husband went to pay him cash, the server stated «We have no change. You are going to have to pay with a credit card.» There was no «I’m sorry, we are having a challenge getting change. This might be a huge inconvenience and I am sorry I did not alert you earlier, but would you mind paying by a credit card?» What kind of restaurant in a busy area like Lan Kwai Fong cannot not only make change for a cash paying customer, but does not inform of this prior to eating. Now we have no problem paying by a credit card, but have you ever heard a restaruant advertise. What establishment turns down hard cash?
Boomshack is probably not designed for locals like us. It is designed for a young crowd or drunk people who probably have lower standards and don’t care. Well, we live in the area and eat out probably five nights a week for dinner and probably 4 days a week for lunch. We would not reccomend Boomshack and we will not be back.
I repeat myself for the 100^th time… restaurants are notorious for dropping the ball and not earning our busines because of small crap like this. These are easy fixes… usually rooted in customer service.
I hope the owner of the restuarant reads this review. At one point in the Boomshack company creed is the customer not the most important thing. What owner has not heard the statement that goes something like «With one good experience, you tell your brest friend. With one bad experience, you tell ten people.» Well, with this review, I know at least 50 people following me who have now heard my bad review.

Instead of salsa, pollo and cabeza, you expect to see extra tender and juicy roasted beef short ribs and cheese on your tacos. Being a die hard tacos lover, I have to say it really impresses me. Everything else seems good to me, crispy tacos, good salsa and guacamole… Highly recommended in the LKF area

The innovation feeling started from our entrance… There’s an obviously blocked entrance where buckets and bags of stuff are laying on the steps to the glass door. Feeling curious as there are people inside I looked around for a while when a cheerful «gwai lo» slide open the door which I thought was a «French window» (red faced) Before I ordered I was attracted by the lofty décor, and the kitchen counter decorated with a half food truck, which was really cute! As for the food, it’s not especially outstanding but I would say there was an innovation element in it which I appreciate a lot. Say the beet fries, who could imagine a healthy super food to be made as a devil snack?! However it tasted good. The Classic burger was not very classic too, all the burgers were made of special «bun». The beef and cheese were classic though… My friend’s Pretender (veggie burger) was unexpectedly juicy, maybe the because of the Portobello?! Anyway it’s a great lunch experience.

Was a pretty fair place to eat. Had the holy kimchi. Was pretty good over all. Wife had the tots they were NOT tasty, funky texture. My daughter had the chicken waffle sandwich which was very tasty and prolly the top pick.

The interior design of the place is spot on, guess it helps when one of the founders is an interior designer. The place is a tribute to the American food truck culture, which is obvious since there is a food truck inside the venue; and the food is fittingly so; They serve mainly burgers, tacos and other fast food items.
Prices here are quite steep for fast food. A soda alone can set you back 30 bucks, my taco combo was HK$ 148. I usually don’t rant about price if the food was actually good. Not sure what’s wrong with the kitchen or menu, but all the mains I had were sub-​par, whilst the sides were all pretty decent. As reference, we ordered Lamb Taco and Chicken Waffle for mains, and sides of kale & quinoa, beet root fries and tatter tots. I wouldn’t mind coming back for happy hour drinks and some small bites, but the main items are quite a disappointment.
Also, as a side note, I think they should re-​design their menu. While I was eating, I saw a lot of people come in, saw the menu, and then leave (no they didn’t conquer anything). So that might say a thing or too about the menu design or food choices.

This place looks good from the street. Oh how it stops there, the burgers are soggy and tiny. In fact a slider burger would look at it and say it was its bitch!
The tatter tots are oily and small, menu shows a lot they deliver a few.
Don’t bother with this place waste of time and money.

Was excited to try this new joint out as there was much fanfare on social media, however it was proven to be disappointing. The décor and set up is a very Chipotle meets hipster vibe– really enjoyed it. The staff was great, service for a fast food joint was excellent and who I suspect was the manager/​owner greeted everyone and explained the menu. 5 star service on that.
Where it fell short was the actual food. They offer 2 lunch specials, the kung fu fish tacos and the kimchi burger, choice of side, a soda for $ 110.
I had the kung fu fish tacos which had a great tortilla, however everything else was a bit bland. The taco lacked acidity and that punch that I crave from fish tacos. The side dish I chose was the Kale salad topped with fried quinoa. This was actually the highlight of my meal. I would eat a huge bowl of it. Topped with fried quinoa bits, grapes, onions and carrots tossed in a garlic-​hummous type of dressing. Delicious.
My coworker got the kimchi burger which all went downhill. The burger was the size of an overstuffed slider however it packed a huge sodium punch. The beef was quite salty as is, however when combined with the grilled kimchi it just ended up too salty to eat. We separated each item and each element was salty as it. Tasted like salt on salt. The side dish was tater tots which were extremely oily and looked sad in the tray it was presented in. They were soggy hash browns that had no real taste and a strange texture.
For $ 110 lunch combos, I was expecting a bit more. Only $ 10 more I would be able to grab a prime rib dip lunch down the street.
Perhaps its opening month jitters and they are working out the kinks– which I hope. I really wanted to like this place, but for now, I will wait awhile before I try it out again.