Tavern At Bown Crossing — Restaurant in Boise

I don't even feel comfortable giving this place the default 1 star, anyone reading this just know my rating should be a 0. Had a big day planned with my mother, which was supposed to start on a positive note by grabbing brunch here. We wasted 1 hour of our lives before summoning up enough courage between the both of us to leave (first time we've ever done that). The service here was horrendous: slow, unfriendly, and forgetful. We still ended up having a good day together, but I will never forgive or forget this place for their service.

We were both VERY excited to come here, we were impressed by the pictures online of their modern interior design as well as the nice neighborhood the restaurant was in. We came in on a Sunday around noon, got seated right away (fantastic). Took about 10 minutes for the waiter to come by and ask us for drinks. During this time, we already reviewed the menu and decided what we wanted, so we ordered drinks AND food right from the start. The waiter came back in 5 minutes, said they're brewing a fresh pot of coffee, which I didn't mind waiting on. 30 minutes later, still no coffee. He didn't even come back to check up on us the entire time. We saw him carrying boxes around the dining area, and doing other housekeeping tasks, maybe he totally forgot about us? Regardless, this made us feel very unwelcomed, so we just continued to sit there and wait.

Coming up on 40+ minutes waiting, still no coffee (didn't even want coffee anymore, just forget it) and STILL no sign of food, not even a friendly checkup by our waiter. He literally never stopped by our table besides when he initially took our order. That's 1 hour in total before we left! Inexcusable.

We were both VERY unhappy (but we just quietly sat there), and a waitress from the bar area probably noticed the disappointed looks on our faces (looking back at it, nothing I can do but laugh lol), came over and asked if we needed anything. We told her we STILL didn't get coffee OR our food that we ordered 45 minutes ago. It was almost insulting, they weren't even busy! The dining area inside was at least 55 - 60% empty. I could potentially give a pass to this long of a wait time for food if this was a premium dinner at a fancy restaurant that's very busy on a Friday night, but not for breakfast at a place that's not even busy.

Part of me wanted to stay, I really wanted to know if the couple that got seated next to our table about 15 minutes after us would've gotten their food first (I'm glad I didn't find out the answer to that). I made a promise that if by the time I come back from the bathroom and the food is NOT here, we're done. As I left the bathroom I started laughing, I FINALLY saw food coming out of the kitchen. Maybe it was meant to be like this...? My smile quickly disappeared, as the waitress carrying the food went outside to the patio area. That was all she wrote...

Overall, the service here was straight GARBAGE, besides the young, friendly hostess that seated us and the waitress at the bar area, who apologized and told us to have a nice day when we told her we were leaving. I actually thought the modern interior design was very nice, and the overall dining area was kept very clean, but that wasn't the primary reason we came here (food obviously). I don't know what happened with our order (maybe everyone working in the kitchen left right when we placed our order, maybe our order got misplaced, maybe we were actually sitting at a completely different restaurant in a different dimension or in a parallel universe), but after an hour of nothing, we left. There's absolutely no way I'd ever come back here, and will neva, eva, EVA (Chris Tucker voice) recommend this place. It was such a huge disappointment for us, and these kind of negative experiences tend to be the things you remember most compared to the good times.

P.S. Don't forget to look at my food pictures here! It shouldn't take you too long... As you can see, the first picture is nothing, and the second one...

Thouroughly unimpressed. My husband took me on our anniversary in June to eat dinner before we went to the Shakespeare Festival. The server was very sweet and got us a more private area to sit at so things took off to a good start. My husband ordered the special which was some sort of steak and ordered it medium. It came out with tons and tons and tons of gristle and fat and was very well on the outside and pretty much bloody raw in the center. It was not an inexpensive steak and when I finally convinced him to complain ...which is not his style... the cook came out and instead of offering to cook something correctly he took it back and essentially re- fried the heck out of it on one side. The chef seemed offended and instead of treating us well told us that's how they cook things. The manager came out and after sharing our grievances about the same situation she surprisingly offered us a $40 gift card to come back. We were very thankful so we decided to give it another go. We went back last month on our way to the Shakespeare Festival again. This time we were just seated with everybody else and I have to say the atmosphere was not super pleasing. We were placed in the bar at a tiny two top with no place to even set my purse. Regardless we are excited to try again. It took over 10 minutes to get our drinks after ordering them We saw them just sit atthe bar until another server finally brought them. My husband tried a steak again and it was a giant ball. Literally a ball of steak. Again it was very very cooked on the outside and bloody on the inside. He decided it was not worth complaining and just ate the parts that he could. I ordered a bacon cheeseburger wrapped in lettuce instead of a bun with no condiments and no tomato. I did not want fries, mashed potatoes or any of the mentioned side dishes. I asked if I could substitute a salad and was told no, I couldn't even pay extra to substitute a salad. Ended up having to just order a salad on the side and not eat my side. It seems really silly that I couldn't just pay an extra charge for it like every other restaurant in existence. My burger first came out in a bun. Then it came out on top of a giant piece of lettuce cut in half with tomato on it and no bacon. Then it came back out with the bacon just crisscrossed over the two cut in half pieces. I cannot imagine in this day in age they've never wrapped a burger in lettuce. It was just completely ridiculous the way it was served. My husband was also not ever brought the bread that was advertised to come with his meal. We were so busy trying to get my food right we forgot to ask for it and then our server was absent so we could not. At the end of the meal I couldn't help but mention it and he told me that it only comes out if it's ask for. We were just not impressed. It appears that they cannot cook a steak or put out a nice cut of meat. I cannot imagine any reason I would ever...

I slept over night before writing this review as I write with a lot emotion when I’m angry and I needed some time to gather my thoughts.

We made dinner reservations at The Tavern (Bown Crossing) to enjoy the evening with our two adult children and their spouses who were visiting from other states. As a matter of reference, our children are in their 30’s and none of us are high maintenance. We chose The Tavern as we live in the vicinity and want to support our neighborhood establishments - we ordered takeout from them often during the pandemic and wanted to continue our support. We were looking forward to a great evening over dinner and conversation.

Our party of six was seated promptly at a table in the upstairs area next to a group of approximately 10-12 adult males – I estimate that their ages ranged from mid-40’s to mid-60’s and they appeared (by their attire) to have spent the day on the golf course. The waitress attempted to greet us and share the menu specials, but we couldn’t hear her (or any of our own conversations) due to the obnoxious behavior of the people at the next table.

Here are only a few words to describe how they ruined our evening, including but not limited to:

• Loud (exceedingly) • Boisterous • Rude • Disrespectful • Vulgar • Offensive • Sexist

I expressed our concern to the waitress but she just shrugged her shoulders as if there was nothing she could do about it. We tried to make the best of it but it didn’t take very long before it became unbearable. When their language became overly loud and offensive, we decided to leave the restaurant before we placed our dinner orders and I discussed the situation with the manager on my way out. He stated that it this group of customers are regulars and it was “unfortunate” that we didn’t bring the problem to his attention. I informed him that his employees were very much aware of the problem and that it wasn’t my responsibility to do his job.

Every day, small businesses make value judgements regarding the culture of their organization and the types of customers that they want as patrons. If the owners and management of the restaurant are going to allow this type of behavior in their establishment, they clearly don’t value me as a customer. I won’t return and recommend that others do the same. There are many restaurants in our area from which to choose, and The Tavern is...