Leku Ona — Restaurant in Boise

Worst restaurant meal ever and over $90 for two

My husband and I are not picky eaters but the meals we had here were the worst ever which is saying a lot since we're both over 60 years old! Entrees are basically $30 but then we added one drink each and one appetizer and for some dumb reason even left a small tip. (We felt the bad food wasn't the server's fault but after leaving, we realized the server was part of our horrible experience as well.) This restaurant needs to go out of business and allow someone else to take over the beautiful brick building and prime location. We actually wanted to go to the Basque Market next door but they weren't serving so we went in here. HUGE mistake. I urge you not to make the same mistake. Go somewhere else - anywhere else! The only good thing I can say is we didn't get food poisoning.

We started with the red bean & chorizo soup since it sounded very Basque. In fact it was disgusting, basically boiled red beans, a couple tiny pieces of chorizo, no vegetables, broth or spices, not a soup. I couldn't even finish mine. Next came the drinks "highly recommended" by the server: huckleberry sangria. I expressed that I don't like sweet drinks and asked about regular sangria or something else but she insisted this was a must try so I went along. Again, disgusting. It tasted like soda. Okay, appetizer now - yes after the soup. The server recommended Basque style peppers. I asked if they were hot and she said no. They were. Also it was simply a plate of pan fried peppers, nothing else with them to compliment. Cheese or olives might have been good, actually anything might have helped a bit. The server explained these were special peppers - the seeds were brought over from Spain and grown here. Apparently we got the last of the crop - in early April. When I asked how this could be the last of a summer crop in April, she had no idea. The biggest mistake after coming in at all was not to walk out at this point, before we spent the full $90+. We waited for the "highly recommended" main courses - roasted chicken with paella and lamb shank. Again, gross. The lamb shank was served with a huge amount of mashed potatoes with everything swimming in some sort of red gravy. My husband tried to slice the lamb but the gravy was spilling everywhere. Flavor not good. I ordered the chicken because the server said it was "surprisingly good" since they had a rotisserie, and it came with paella. The chicken was not especially good by any stretch. The paella was terrible and definitely not authentic. We ate a tiny bit of our entrees and asked for the rest to go. The left overs (basically our entire dinners) came back in those dreaded white foam containers that no one sensible uses any more. All we wanted to do was get out of there as fast as we could but after bringing the check, the server completely disappeared. We had to go into the bar to pay which took forever even though the dining room was empty and the bar sparse.

This was supposed to be an anniversary dinner while visiting Boise. What a complete disaster. It was painful to have our anniversary ruined and also throw so much money down the drain. We work hard for our money and don't go out often. After this experience we never want to...

UPDATE: The general manager, Travis, contacted us and apologized for over charging us. He explained that it was an honest error and my card accidentally got used for another customers meal who was completing their transaction at the same time, hence the $67.84 charge. To remedy this issue, instead of just crediting me back the difference between the two bills, Travis fully refunded my card the complete amount of $80.03 and said the meal was on the house for the mistake. I wasn't wanting or asking for a full refund. I always expect to pay a fair price for a good meal. Mistakes happen. We all know that. How someone fixes their mistake is what really matters. This was handled better than expected and I applaud Travis for the way he took care of it.

Original Review: BEWARE! The server at the restaurant was very dishonest. Four of us stopped by to have a nice lunch. The total bill before adding a tip was $55.65. When the server brought back my credit card I noticed that he already ran the card for $67.84. (Additional $12.19.) Okay, maybe they built in a 22% tip without telling me. A little weird and a little steep, but, whatever. So I didn't leave an additional tip on the $67.84 charge. I wrote on the receipt that it appears the tip was included and that is why I didn't leave anything more. When I reviewed my bank statement the restaurant ended up charging me $80.03! (An additional $12.19.) This made the tip a whopping $24.28 on a $55.65 meal. This is a 44% tip! Very dishonest. I contacted the restaurant and no one wanted to help. I will be contacting my bank and getting those charges reversed. I won't be coming back. There is nothing worse than a dishonest establishment, even during these struggling times when fewer than normal people...

We had some out of town guests who wanted a good meal at a Basque restaurant so based on the reviews, we chose Leku Ona in downtown Boise. What a mistake for our party of six. We should have be alarmed by the lack of patrons at the restaurant at 7:30 PM. Hardly a soul there compared to the Bardenay next door. The highlight was our hostess, Molly. Top notch person. Very professional and personable. Our waiter seemed disinterested and confused about the menu. We had to ask for silverware and napkins, and had to scrounge salt and pepper shakers from an adjoining table. The waiter brought the bread to the table but we did not have silverware or bread plates. Dinner included a choice of potatoes but had to settle for baked tiny red potatoes, the portion of salad was not enough for six adults, and there was not enough soup for the six of us. Our waiter recommended the trout which turned out to over done to the point of being a consistency of sawdust. My wife ordered roasted chicken and quite a while later, she was informed they were out of chicken. Two of our party had New York steaks which were chewy and tough. Two soup bowls were chipped. On the brighter side, the lamb stew was good as well as the hake and lamb shank. After dinner, the waiter asked if we would like dessert, but they were out of three of the four things we asked for. A horrible dining experience. It felt as though we were interfering with our waiter's and chef's evening. This place is highly NOT...