Merritt's Family Restaurant — Restaurant in Garden City

I don't normally write reviews even if it wasn't a good experience, but this qas hands down one of the worst service experiences I ever received.

My partner and I wanted to go for breakfast so we chose here since we've heard good things about it. Right off the bat our server was super inattentive. It took her about 10-15 minutes to place our order. Not a huge deal, I dont expect good service now a days from any place I go. We place our order, got some scones, coffee, and of course breakfast. We get our scones and my partner and I haven't even reviewed our coffee yet. It was already like 10-15 minutes since we had ordered. The other server was like, "did you get their coffee?" And our server goes, "Oh, I forgot" we get our coffee. Again, everything is alright, we notice she's not attentive. Whatever. We get our food. And she says my toast will be up soon. And my partner ordered French toast but realized he was never asked what meat or how he'd like his eggs cooked. She comes back around maybe 5-10 minutes after saying my toast would be up. She says, "still haven't gotten your toast? It should be up soon" and my partner asks about his sides. She said, "you didn't order any sides" and he said, "Well I ordered this, it should've come with it" and she said, "Oh I thought you just ordered the french toast." Whatever, she gets the order of meat and eggs in. 10-15 minutes. I still didn't get my toast, he never got his meat or eggs. We finally decided to say screw it and just ask for the check. I asked to get the meat and eggs taken off and she said "i never put it on the ticket" and i said, "well he ordered it afterwards" to which she said "i put it on a different check." But we never noticed her put anything in. She asked if we wanted to take it to go since it was "almost ready" we said no, forget about it. Food was fantastic. Service was terrible. I work in food service myself. This was completely unprofessional and unacceptable. Both waitresses were getting snappy with us and rolled their eyes at us. This was the first time I did not leave a tip. We also noticed one of the tables went up to the front asking for service. Mind you, they...

I'm not a writer and I certainly don't write restaurant reviews. That said, my overall experience with this place has never "left a bad taste in my mouth", it is, indeed "family owned", the previous "owner" was a "spendthrift", and what she was spending wasn't to improve the restaurant in any way!!! Her brother, on the other hand, has more realistic expectations for what he can expect to earn as the "owner" and is doing what he can to improve the place, as he can AFFORD to! I also don't "inspect" the "food joints" that I buy from, and yes, the place looks overall like a "dump", as most "comfort food" places do!!! The employees are all, or almost all, smokers, and as such, yes they are almost constantly taking "cigarette breaks", usually just a quick dash out the back door, a couple of drags on their latest "butt", and a "mad" dash back inside to see what else needs doing. They're not going to win any awards at Merritt's for cleanliness, or the appearance of the joint, but the food is really good quality and the only other "mom and pop", in Boise, that served a bigger meal, Manley's Cafe, over on Federal Way, has been closed a long time, the building has been removed, (presumably torn down), and the land it used to sit on is being "re-farmed" as something else, which is a real shame, Boise could use a "re-born"...

So I've been coming here periodically over the last 15 years. First and foremost because as a kid my mom would make me scones before school and this place is the only place I've ever known to make them exactly as she did. However, I stopped coming because I began to become disappointed in the quality of the rest of their menu. I decided to give them another shot after a year or so and glad I did. Whoever their current cook is today, is a keeper! Today I was served utterly the best breakfast I've ate in years. I honestly dont recall any restaurant experience that even compared. Everything was so delicious, fresh, perfectly cooked, homemade from scratch. Over the top! The best thick, big, evenly cooked through bacon ever! Never will find a biscuit more scrumptious unless your in your great granny's kitchen! I'm very picky with my eggs (ask my kids) and I'm always dissatisfied anywhere I go with my OM eggs, not today! They were perfect! the good portion of hashbrowns with their homemade gravy, cant beat it! and their scone of course was award winning with their homemade honey butter! Server was very detailed, friendly and made you feel like he was honored to be serving you! Thanks Team Merritts!! whatever you're doing behind the scenes to provide such great service, keep it up and know it doesnt go...