Bardenay Restaurant & Distillery | Boise — Restaurant in Boise

We really enjoyed date night at Bardenay. We went downtown on a Tuesday night thinking that was obscure enough that we’d be able to find a place to eat easy enough. Boy were we wrong.

I am a wheelchair user and we went to 6 or 7 restaurants downtown that had several steps to get into their establishment. I was feeling incredibly frustrated. I called Bardenay and was ecstatic to find that not only was their restaurant accessible, they didn’t have a wait list either!

We rolled over and found the place pretty accessible. I had to scoot a few chairs out of my way to get to our table in the back but for the most part it was like a breath of fresh air.

We ordered the steak satay as an appetizer and I could have just eaten those for dinner. The steak was tender and juicy. It fell off the skewer and I had very little fat on mine. Normally I am the slow eater but I gobbled this down.

My boyfriend ordered the pork sandwich and I ordered the sea bass with gnocchi.

I have to say, I’m not a very adventurous eater, and I was nervous. The nerves were unwarranted. That fish was one of the best dishes I have ever eaten. The lightness of the fish paired with the dense gnocchi, all balanced with a creamy garlic and Parmesan sauce, was the perfect blend of fat and protein. Even though I thought it would be heavy, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was full but not too full, and I didn’t feel heavy or bloated after. This dish was a real winner.

My boyfriend’s sandwich was much larger than his mouth and he spent a few minutes contemplating the best way to eat it before squashing it a bit and diving in. He was a huge fan. I didn’t taste it all together because, like I said, not an adventurous eater, but I tasted the pork and it was tender and very flavorful. He was in hog heaven with this sandwich.

We both had canned beer and skipped desert as the portions were hearty.

Overall I would recommend this restaurant to anyone. My only drawback and the reason for a 4 star rating is the price of certain items seems disproportionately overpriced. They do seem to have an awesome happy hour that we would likely try to go for next time.

Well...

Our experience at Bardenay was a bit disappointing. We reserved a room (by email — I have all emails to substantiate the details) for a baby shower. When we arrived, we were told that our reservation had been an hour earlier and that they had sent the server home. Yes, there had been a change in time due to the restaurant’s mistake, but I had emails with the manager to substantiate the change. When the hostess checked with the manager on how to handle the situation, we could see him shaking his head “no”, but when he came over, I showed him the emails to show that we were on time, and they prepared the room. Nobody apologized, just took us back. The new server was clearly annoyed at her assignment to our party, because it was obvious to all our guests for the duration of our reservation. I was also told we would have access to the full menu (in the emails, by the manager), but after arrival, we were told we had to wait until an hour after our arrival to have the full menu. Furthermore, we had another server accidentally spill a drink on one of our guests. At the end of our reservation, we asked to split the check and nothing was split correctly. We were also told the $50 room charge had to be split amongst all the guests, since we split the check. We wanted the host to pay for this charge. While we did resolve that issue — it was somewhat of an argument to achieve that objective. The food was good. The service was not. Not once were we ever apologized to for any of the mishaps during our event. We were not a difficult party and really didn’t require much attention. We tipped 20% and paid a $50 fee for the room. I truly don’t understand why we were treated like such an inconvenience. I have no intention of recommending Bardenay to anyone or going there in the future. I definitely expected more after reading...

Congrats! The WORST food I have had at a restaurant in 2023! 🎉 Have you ever been so starving that you are overwhelmed by food choices? You say to yourself I would literally eat anything right now, help! Well that was me about an hour ago and I was told by a local that this place was really good. I had ordering paralysis and couldn’t decide what to order so I chose a warm filling option The Chimichanga. Are you saying to yourself- “No don’t order the random Mexican food item at an American restaurant!” Well that thought only crossed my mind after I took one bite…..at best this tasted like something I could have purchased at a store and microwaved at home (FYI Amy’s makes a better frozen meal than this). Filling was extremely dry, flavorless, the sauce on top was also flavorless but it had some spice so I guess that’s something. Could not eat it. I was so hungry I forced myself to eat parts of the fried tortilla outside because it was kinda ok. Did I also order a Caesar salad as my side option? Yes. Did I also think that was horrible? Yes! No cheese, the dressing was bland and oily but I did pick out the croutons for sustenance. Don’t worry, it gets better…. I also made the Mistake (capital M) of ordering a piece of carrot cake when I ordered the chimichanga, I believe it was old/stale and I was was afraid to take more than one bite. Disgusting! The cake might have been decent 5+ days ago.

I wish I had not ordered take away because I would have sent this all back and asked for a refund, and I have never done that! I really hope I run into that super nice local guy who recommended this place and ask him 1. Are you okay??? And 2. Give me $25 because I literally threw that money in...