Louie's Pizza & Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Meridian

My wife and I were itching for some good Italian food after spending time up in Idaho City. We thought about Gino's or Luciano's (both really good restaurants!) But having eaten there decided on trying something new.

We decided against apps going straight to lunch food. She ordered the Fettuccine with pesto while I got the chicken parmesan (aka "chicky chicky parm parm"). She got a salad and I had the beef stew/soup. Her salad was nothing special save for the one pepperoni slice, my soup was lukewarm and had a "Campbell's soup" quality. Eh, whatever...move on dude. It's soup. Our garlic bread was exactly that...garlic bread. You know the kind, it was like garlic bread you make when you have no food in the house except for some two-day old French bread leftover from dinner, some garlic powder and butter. You don't really care how it tastes just that you get some food in your belly. It was like that.

Our meals took longer to be delivered than was necessary for the time of day and what we ordered. When they arrived, like my soup our meals weren't hot...they were warm but it was very clear they had been sitting out waiting for my chicken parmesan to finish. Funny though, while my pasta was cold and had the consistency of day-old refrigerated noodles (under-cooked as they were), my chicken parm was burned! Credit goes to the cook or whoever plated my food for having the decency to try to hide it by flipping the burned side down, and then cover the burned edges with an extra serving of marinara.

Now, if I had come for the marinara I would've been a happy camper! If the marinara would've been good, I would've been a happy camper! If the marinara didn't taste like it came from a can or bottle, I would've been a happy camper! But I didn't come for the marinara, I came for good food. And I was extremely disappointed.

My wife's food was bland...exceedingly bland. Pesto can be a delicious sauce filled with garlic and flavor! Not at Louie's. Here it's bland and in heavy need of seasonings. Speaking of salt, it's also clear the pasta wasn't boiled in water with salt or even olive oil. Strange choice for "authentic Italian cuisine." I digress though, what it did come with was a heavy dose of oil! Watch out Louie! Don't let the government know or you'll be "liberated" within the week.

So the food was bad. Bland, burned, cold, undercooked...you name it. Come to think of it, it's remarkable how inconsistent the cooks were with the food, almost as though they didn't care about what they were doing. In fact, that's exactly the problem: they don't care at Louie's. Case in point, they brought water with lemon for my wife and left the sticker on it. Did they wash the lemon? Probably not, but I'm just thinking logically. That blotch of sauce on the edge of my plate, you may be wondering how it got there. I didn't put it there, it was brought it like that. The servers didn't bother wiping the plate off before they brought it out.

You see, the details are obviously missed and they don't care. Other reviewers have said the same thing, in fact there's a clear problem at Louie's that isn't being dealt with. As of this review there were over 750 total ratings with a small handful of 1-star ratings. Each one of the 1-star ratings says the same thing: cold food, inattentive or uncaring servers.

Louie's could be good. I wanted it to be good! But I cannot recommend anyone eat here.

Unless you like bland, undercooked (or overcooked 😂) food...I guess enjoy to your heart's content. I won't be returning to this establishment unless a new chef/head cook takes the job seriously and starts putting...

Unfortunately we had a very poor experience at Louie’s. I had made a reservation for a large party - the reservation process was confusing and also a bit strange. I called and was sent to the manager who ended up going to voicemail. I called again, was advised to make a reservation online (the website is not clear on how to do this), and then sent forward to the manager again. This time she answered and shared with me that it was already going to be a busy night (I had called two days prior to the reservation date) and that if we each ordered our own meal, it was going to take awhile, but she was able to squeeze us in. Kind of a strange phone call and statement to make to me - either you can accommodate us or not - but I said OK that’s fine and we went ahead and confirmed our reservation. We showed up at our reservation just to discover that there was no reservation for my name at the time I placed it for. There was another reservation for the same number of people (which was strange since it was a pretty large party) at the time we scheduled it for, but it was under a different name at a different phone number. The manager who was at the desk (unsure if it was the same one who took my reservation over the phone) said she didn’t have my reservation booked and could do nothing for us besides for have us wait to see if the party she had scheduled for the same number of people we had showed up or not. Then she just left the desk and didn’t offer any other guidance for us. She was very short when speaking with us, did not apologize or take ownership once, and wasn’t trying to do anything to work with us or make it right (I tried to approach her again but was met with the same response). I checked the phone number I dialed just to be sure I had made the reservation at the right restaurant and I did confirm it was the right place. After essentially being avoided and left for us to figure it out, we decided to leave and see if another restaurant could accommodate our large party unexpected (something I hate to do but was left little choice). Overall, we ended up having a great night at Sockeye Brewery who was able to accommodate us unexpected (even though they were busy) and did all they could to get us sat our table and served quickly. Needless to say, this would have been my first time going to Louie’s after living in the treasure valley for almost 10 years, and I won’t be trying to go back there again after this poor experience. I will be continuing to take my business elsewhere - and I recommend Sockeye to everyone as the service never...

An unexpected delight! I received a complementary Birthday certificate from my Dental Office, All About You Dental on Eagle, Rd. They used to be my next door neighbor and they are truly, All things Dental at it's finest!!! My friend and I went to around 11:30am for lunch. We sat at a booth by the fountain inside!! It was quiet and with the trickle of the fountain very zen! We both had an entre' that came with an amazing salad served with toasted fresh outta the oven Garlic Bread that was perfection!!! It was so good I couldn't stop eating it even when my entre' came so I was forced to work on BOTH!!! I had the Lasagna and it was absolutely Spectacular!!! I ended up making 3 meals out of that beautifully perfected stack! A myriad of Italian flavors all blended together in one gorgeous Masterpiece!!! My girlfriiend had the Tortellini and said it was wonderful too!!! We both took home Doggie Bags from Lunch AND a Desert to try at home! To my delight they had Peanut Butter Pie!!! OMG! My tastebuds were in Heaven!!!! Truly a delightful surprise as this one is hard to find!!! If you catch it when it's not sold out you can also find, Peanut Butter Pie at, Boise Pie Company on Orchard where they’ve turned the Rice Krispy Bar into an Artform that's outta this world as well! Anyway folks, if you're lookin' for some true Italian cuisine or just want a beautiful surrounding to enjoy your next pizza be sure to check out Louie's in Meridian!! These folks have stood the test of time in our booming cities!! You'll be glad you went!!! We...