Rupe's Burgers — Restaurant in Blackfoot

Good. Not great and I'll tell you why..

I am a burger loving guy. I love a good, greasy, fresh beef hamburger. Not dripping with grease, but good-greasy, greasy-ish, if you will. I love fresh ingredients assembled in a clean, well-presented burger. I enjoy melty cheese (I'm even ok with American cheese, although it's not my favorite). I had the Reno burger ( basically, the critically acclaimed All-American Burger with pastrami instead of "Canadian Bacon" -see the irony in that ingredient?). Itvwas a decent burger but failed to live up to the hype I had read about. I'll get to that in a second.

The service was exactly what you'd expect from a drive-in with an eclectic dining room decor. Its was decent. The server, a young Latina girl with a nose piercing, did a good job describing specialty drinks and suggesting them. The food was delivered quickly and was presented well. The dining room was pretty clean and well-kept.

The menu was a simple, half-page-sized tri-fold with simple, but delicious sounding menu items. Typical "greasy spoon, drive-in" fare. It was obviously drafted and printed by their food vendor, Sysco because it had the Sysco logo on the front page.

Now, the food. I ordered the aforementioned Reno burger. I had read a few articles from nationally published sites and magazines so I was expecting to get a good burger...and I did. But it was touted as "the best burger in Blackfoot" so I could have expected more. Should have expected more.

The bun was a standard, pre-made sesame seed bun, common to chain fast food restaurants across the land. The produce (pickles, onions, lettuce) were fresh and crisp. The mustard was standard yellow mustard. The pastrami (one of 3 options) was warm and tasty, not too salty like some pastrami is. The only problem with the burger was the burger party itself. It was a previously frozen party. Nothing really noteworthy about it. No special seasoning. It was good enough...just not great.

You may be wondering how this gets a 4 star review if everything was ok. The onion rings saved this place from a 3 star review. Crunchy, hand-breaded with panko, they stole the show!

The burgers are good, not great and definitely don't make Rupe's a destination spot for a burger. But the history, the speedy service and those damned onion rings make me feel like I'll come back, therefore making Rupe's worth the visit. And have a Scotch and Soda,...

Last two visits have been underwhelming. I live in Blackfoot within walking distance of Rupes, so we visit fairly often. The owner of this place really just needs to work with the employees on quality control and customer service skills. Most of the employees that work here appear to be 16-18 year old kids, which is fine. The first to last visit I ordered a root beer float and only received maybe an inch of root beer at the bottom of my cup. I understand this is probably because the soda foamed up with the ice cream. I asked the girl who brought it to me to please fill it to the top. She just gave me a blank stare, took it and walked away. She brought it back filled up. I'm glad I noticed or I would have been essentially cheated out of a root beer float. The second time we ate here I ordered a spicy chicken sandwich with no bun and just asked if they could wrap it in lettuce instead. The girl said, "Let me check if I can do that." ...came back a few seconds later and said she could. When the girl came out to bring us our food I checked it and there was no lettuce in it. Just a chicken patty with mayo squirted on top and a few slices of onions and just the saddest half dollar sized tomato on the side. I told her this was supposed to be wrapped it lettuce. It turns out they don't have lettuce leaves apparently, only shredded lettuce. When we come to Rupes usually we don't order burgers. We will just get milkshakes or side orders like fries. I asked the girl if I could get it wrapped in lettuce and she responded, "Um... I don't know what to do." I asked if she has lettuce. "Um... I dont know if we do or not." You don't know if you have lettuce or not? I opened up my burger i ordered and showed her the lettuce. I told her you guys have lettuce and I would like some on my chicken sandwich please. She took it back and they put literally the most generous amount of lettuce on the chicken patty that the lid to the styrofoam box could barely stay shut. Next time I visit I'd just like to see an improvement in service and quality. I get these are kids and it's their first job blah blah blah. It's Idaho... everyone just loves their meat and potatoes like everyone else and doesn't really have an idea of what good customer service is. But at least...

We love to try new places. Those small town restaurants with mostly good reviews especially call to us, and so last Friday evening we ended up at Rupe's. If you've got a sense of humor it might be worth it just for the experience... The place was packed, which is usually a sign of great food and we were excited, but things got weird after that. Our server was noticeably put out by having to wait on us. I kind of felt for her, the place was so busy she was probably exhausted. The service was really bad though, she was so non helpful that I checked for a hidden camera. It honestly felt like a scene from a sitcom. Unfortunately for me I have celiac and need to eat gluten free. While I already felt like I was really inconveniencing her by being there, I had to ask about gluten free options, to which her reply was a flat, "I can't help you with that." Ok, sorry to have bothered you I'll take the bun-less hamburger if it's not too much trouble. I guess it was though, because when it arrived it was severely undercooked... My sad little excuse for a gluten free hamburger was very pink inside, like not just a little rare, but raw hamburger, cold in the center, pink. So no burger for me, my husband and I ate our French fries which were alright, and laughed at what a weird experience we were having. We thought someone might come and check on us, but no, we were on our own waiting patiently for a bill for my inedible burger that would never come. Finally we went to the counter, I told the attendant that my hamburger was seriously undercooked and that she might want to let the the kitchen know (you know so they don't poison anyone), she rolled her eyes and asked for our money. So we left poorer, still hungry, but a...