Boom: Battle Bar, Wandsworth

If you’re looking for a low-key, quiet drink, Boom: Battle Bar in Wandsworth is not the place for you. The newest branch of the excitement-filled bar combines drinks with activities including augmented reality darts, crazier golf, shuffleboard and even axe-throwing.

When my friends and I arrived, we were greeted with good music and good vibes from the off, and the classic 90s, 00s and 10s tunes set a super-fun tone.

The premise of the bar is classic pub games with a twist, as we saw straight away when we began with augmented reality darts. Although that sounds very futuristic, it’s got nothing to do with the Matrix, and was explained well by the friendly staff. It uses normal darts and pretty much a normal board, but is fitted with censors to allow for interactive games of varying difficulty. This meant that, even though I’d never played darts before, I was still able to do pretty well in the easier games. Our favourite was Killer, in which you build up lives by hitting targets, but can also eliminate others by taking their lives. It is the perfect balance of competitive and fun, and was our personal highlight of the night.

Next, we moved onto crazier golf. This is basically regular mini golf, but harder. The loop-the-loops, steep slopes and small targets made this game more frustrating than ever – just how I like it. There are only nine holes which is a little short for me, but understandable with space at a premium and plenty more to dive into.

The reasonably priced drinks accompanied the fun perfectly. Reflecting the novelty of the venue as a whole, the bar puts fun twists on classic cocktails.  Their lighter version of a pina colada was nice and refreshing, their diablo margarita had a delicious spicy tang and the pornstar martinis were spot on.

Food-wise, they serve chicken wings, or fried cauliflower for veggies, both of which were crispy, nicely seasoned and accompanied with a range of sauces to fit all spice tolerances. I would’ve liked a bit more variety with the food, but the drinks are definitely the focus and what they do provide is good quality.

Other activities to try include American pool, ping pong, a basketball machine and even beer pong (which we were terrible at, but it’s still fun).

And we rounded off the night with a cute photobooth moment.

The staff had a great energy which made this an enjoyable experience all round.

Games are charged on a per activity basis with axe-throwing the most expensive at £120 for an hour for up to 10 people – by the way, you can’t drink alcohol before the axe throwing or during! Crazier Golf is £40 for around 45 minutes for four people. Note that it’s over 18’s only after 7pm.

Boom: Battle Bar Wandsworth would be the perfect place for a birthday party, work do or even a first date if you want to avoid the awkwardness of a dinner date, and I’m definitely hoping to return.