Avery Restaurant — Restaurant in Idaho

I went to The Avery for brunch with friends. I think Boise has a lot of wonderful places to dine. Unfortunately, The Avery is not going to make my list.

I must start by saying that the service was wonderful. I will give it that. The people working in the restaurant were friendly, welcoming, and attentive. I certainly hope that they are treated well and with respect and courtesy. I have not one complaint in that department. 1000/10

The brunch menu was sort of boring. It is your typical brunch fare with little imagination. I wasn’t moved particularly by any of the brunch items that were listed. I ultimately settled on the meatloaf sandwich as it at least sounded like something different to try. I don’t see meatloaf sandwiches on menus very often. It was ok. It tasted alright. It’s a very tall sandwich so I opted to eat it with a knife and fork, as I try not to unhinge my jaw in public until after 11 pm. The description of the sandwich seemed to really be patting itself on the back but frankly, with no side, it’s really just kind of boring and covered in an immense amount of French fried onions. It will not give you any feeling of nostalgia and I would venture many of you would find it doesn’t hold up to your mother’s or grandmother’s meatloaf recipe.

I was in the mood for a martini, very dirty. Because of this, I ordered a Ketel One martini, very dirty. When it arrived, it couldn’t be described as dirty. It seemed as though perhaps the bartender had merely shown the martini a jar of olives but didn’t let the two meet. It was cold though. I did drink it.

The Avery is very obviously attempting to squeeze as many tables and chairs as possible into its minimal space, without taking into account the architectural realities of the building. It being a bit cramped was a minimal concern when compared to the fact that The Avery has perhaps the most uncomfortable chairs in Boise. I realize that The Avery has put aesthetic over comfort and hospitality. However, just because the building is from 1910, doesn’t mean that the chairs need be an exercise in masochism. They must be encouraging their guests to come and go as quickly as possible.

Ubers seem unable to use the valet parking area for dropping guests off. This is hugely inconvenient for those who plan to arrive and depart a restaurant on busy Main Street.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t live up to its image. As my granddaddy used to say, “an ounce of pretension is worth a pound of manure.” Boise holds other gems at which to enjoy a meal...

The Avery is a hotel, restaurant and bar. This review is for Avery Brasserie, where my wife and I had dinner with another couple on Saturday.

Parking in downtown Boise can be a challenge, especially with all of the road construction. We ended up parking at the ParkBOI 2-1/2 blocks away.

The restaurant is a brasserie, so it's set up like a French cafe. The space is absolutely beautiful, although the tables are quite small and quite close together. We briefly considered moving to a table in the Bar, which is located in the back room, past the restrooms and the kitchen, but there was a lot more light in the Brasserie and it felt slightly warmer. Although we were seated between two occupied tables, both tables left before our food arrived, so we enjoyed a little bit of space from other diners.

Kim, our server, was excellent. She knows the menu and is very efficient.

First, we had cocktails. I was told that the espresso cocktail was good, there was a nice rosé cremant (aka a French sparking wine produced outside of the Champagne region) available by the glass and the bar had Lagavulin. I had The Manitou (Montenegro, Buffalo Trace, Egg White, Lemon, Simple, Bordeaux Cherry). It was served in a small rocks glass neat, just like the Lagavulin, and is quite tasty, if a tad bit sweet. I ended up switching to the rosé cremant for my second drink.

For an appetizer, we had a couple of orders of Crispy Baby Artichokes (white beans, shaved parmesan, baby arugula, artichoke vinaigrette). They're excellent.

For our entrees, two of us had the Duo of Beef special, which paired a braised short rib with 42-day dry aged ribeye eye cooked medium rare and mashed potatoes. It was excellent. One of our party had the Halibut special. But in my opinion, the standout dish was my wife's Cassoulet (lamb, duck, house made sausage, pork belly, grilled baguette) from the regular dinner menu. Every component of the dish was very tasty (yes, she lets me sample her food), although more white beans would have been appreciated.

For dessert, we ordered a couple of Pistachio Soufflés, which were served with tiny pitchers of crème anglais. What's not to like?

I'll definitely head back to Avery Brasserie during my next visit to Boise. I'm already looking...

I recently chose The Avery for our monthly "friend dinner," where it was my turn to pick the restaurant and cover the tab for all eight of us. Having had a positive experience here with my girlfriend previously, I thought it would be a great choice for this occasion. Unfortunately, the evening did not go as smoothly as I had hoped.

We made our reservation three weeks in advance and arrived promptly at 7:15 PM. Despite this, we were seated at a tall, rectangle tabletop in the bar area, which I wasn’t too thrilled about. In my experience, bar seating often leads to slower service, and this evening was no exception. Not to mention that the friends at one end of the table are far away from the friends at the opposite end of the table. When asked, they informed me that this was the only table that they had available for my party. being that I had made the reservation weeks in advance, I thought they should have planned out our seating a little better than they did.

It took about 20 minutes just to receive our first round of drinks, and follow-up drinks came out just as slowly throughout the night. However, the biggest issue was the wait for food. Although we arrived at 7:15, our dinner didn’t arrive until 9:15 PM—two full hours later. By that point, the long wait had really dampened the evening. Not to mention, one of our friends did not get their food until the rest of the party were finishing theirs. This made her feel rushed to eat since everyone else was finished. The food itself was decent, but the portions were disappointingly small given the prices.

To top it all off, at the end of the night, our waitress informed me that she had added a 25% gratuity to the bill. When I questioned why a $200 tip was being applied given the less-than-stellar service, she informed me that the gratuity was mandatory for groups of six or more. While I understand the policy, it felt frustrating to have to pay such a high tip for service that had been beyond subpar throughout the evening.

Overall, while The Avery has potential, the slow service and mandatory gratuity for large groups made this dinner far less enjoyable than I had hoped. After this experience, everyone in the group agreed, this would be the last time any of us come...