The Refuge Restaurant & Lounge — Restaurant in Boise

Horrible al the way around. Went here with my wife one night for dinner. I bet we waited between 10 and 20 minutes after being seated for anyone to take a drink order from us. Strike 1. The waiter shows up to the table with a full beard. Strike 2. I wish I would have trusted my instinct at that point and walked out, but i.e. as thinking with my belly and just wanted to eat. I a chicken dish that was un-memorable ( thank god). My wife ordered a steak and a salad. The salad took an incredibly long time to come out, which given the initial drinks, I just chalked up to being par-for-the-course. Then a minute later someone shows up with our main courses. Wow! The steak looked like it had been frozen, krylovaced, unthawed, tossed into a microwave, then served to us. When the waiter came by to ask how our food was, and give us our bill, my wife couldn't help but express her disappointment. Seriously, a 12 year old could do better. He then got the manager, who my wife repeated her disappointment too. As such the manager removed the steak from the bill. After all this, my wife wanted to leave the waiter a decent tip. (Obviously the steak wasn't his fault). With that said, he was now totally avoiding us. When my wife called him over because she wanted to let him know that she didn't blame him for the steak. He said "I really don't want to talk to you right now". Seriously, the full bearded waiter, who at best slacked all night regarding our table told us "I really don't want to talk to you right now". Unbelievable! This was easily the worst dinner and service we...

We went because there were pretty good reviews. There was a sign outside that said lunch specials 11-3. Happy Hour and a couple of other things. As we walked in (there were 9 of us) the folks behind the bar started counting us and looking at each other like "who's going to deal with them". A very unpleasant fellow came and the first thing he said was "is this going to be all on one ticket". We explained we would need 3 tickets. It was 1:30 in the afternoon and he gave us the dinner menu. I asked for the lunch menu and he said "that's only M-F". Hmm. Ok, your sign sitting by the door says lunch specials 11-3. No problem we don't want to put him out anymore so we order. The staff at this establishment seemed completely put out dealing with ANY of the 13 customers in the eating area and were only concerned with the 5 sitting at the bar. The food: nothing special. I had a grilled chicken sandwich that had been grilled in a pound of butter. My husband liked the burger. Someone got the finger steaks that looked really good but he said the looks were deceiving and they tasted like bland deep fried meat. Would we go back? No. Much better places...

My boyfriend and I came in tonight and sat at the bar. Very friendly staff and they have Mack n Jacks which is a huge plus for me. The ambiance is the feel of a classic/classy homey sports bar minus the smell of old cigarettes. It was very comfortable. ID’s were checked well, beers were poured. The first thing I noticed were the prices which were decently cheap. I usually judge a Boise restaurants price range by how much they list their finger steaks, and these ran about $11. That’s very reasonable in the valley. We ordered mozzarella sticks for an app which arrived at about the right time. The bartender was super quick with any requests we had. Food came right when we finished our appetizer. I had the prime rib dip and my boyfriend had the prime club. Both were awesome!! The bartender easily talked us into another beer and we had an all-around very pleasant experience. I can’t wait to try this place again,...