LeBaron's Honker Cafe — Restaurant in Nampa

Will forever be a mystery of how this place has 4.5 stars. I’ve never left a restaurant feeling more sad simply just from the food. This is the first time I’ve ever written a review on a restaurant… if you could even call it that.

First off, the restaurant atmosphere itself is, questionable at best, it feels very small and closed in with the first thing you see when you walk in is a wall separating the rest of the restaurant. Me and my girlfriend noticed how it was funny how one of the tables is literally just in the corner separated from the rest of the tables. Very dimly lit establishment with the “bar top” seating only having like 4 seats. Now I’m no interior designer, but I feel like there is definitely lots you can do to make this a more welcoming atmosphere.

Onto the food…. Yikes. We came into the restaurant already not with high hopes due to the previously stated atmosphere, and the little hopes we had for the food was ripped from our souls and stomped on the ground and smashed to a pulp. We had the following, chicken fried chicken with a “side” of a disgustingly big cinnamon roll, eggs, and hash browns that were only made better using ketchup… Prime rib, which I was most excited for as it was only 20$ and prime rib in other places is usually a lot more expensive. The food took around 30 mins after we placed the order, which I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt they did say they were short staffed. But when it finally arrived to the table, everything looked incredibly bland and plain, nothing really “wows” you when the food comes except wondering where they get those massive cinnamon rolls. First bite of the prime rib… oh my god. If you took the word “meat” and made it into a taste, that’s what it tasted like. It was flavorless and I didn’t even want to take another bite. It came out somewhat close to cold, as if they cooked it 15 mins ago and let it sit. My girlfriend who isn't picky about what they eat, took a bite and immediately had a frown on her face. As for the chicken fried chicken it was okay, very plain as was the prime rib. When questioned about the prime rib, our waiter responded with “People have allergies”. People have allergies to salt and pepper…? The side of French toast cinnamon roll was not bad, however we did notice after the fact that the bottom of the French toast was pretty burnt. The only thing that resembled even a fraction of the word “good” was the eggs… a very hard food item to mess up…

As for the service our waiter was friendly, no problem with her besides the strange response to my prime rib question. I’m assuming she told the owner about what I said because he actually came out, no introduction with almost a slight attitude in his tone/demeanor, just started questioning what was wrong with the rib, I told him it was kind of flavorless and plain, he responded “It is a applewood smoked marinade, people rave about it”. Mind you I’ve had prime rib many times and honestly was confused when he said that because there was definitely no marinade taste. He then asked “how would you like to resolve this?”, which is a strange thing to say, isn’t it YOUR job to resolve it…? He then offered me a different selection of meat, no offer to remake the prime rib or anything so I chose bacon as I like bacon. Bacon came pretty quick, and again immediately wished I would’ve just told him I don’t need anything to save myself from this bacon. Taste? Think microwave bacon. Yeah not what I was expecting from a 4.5 star establishment.

Price? 50$… 50$ for all that. Now usually me and my partner tip the waiter even if the food was not great, but we were so incredibly disappointed with the food that we didn’t even want to put any more money into anything relating to this place.

As for the people reading this, please take your 50$ and go literally anywhere else.

As for the owner, please take our 50$ and invest into better product and recipes. And maybe redesign the place while...

I wanted to like this place more than I did but I'll give it 4 stars bc there's lots of positive and the negative might just be me.

Day/time: weekday, 945-1030a.

Prices: standard for cafe (which is good). Good options for small plates and sides (I usually just order sides of French toast and eggs.)

Food: this is where I wanted to like it more than I did. My F.toast and eggs had a weird taste I can only guess was the butter or margarine they used. It just overpowered the food and I really didn't like it. I still ended up eating most of the food but by far not my fave. Coffee was tops tho and they bring you your own carafe which is my fave!

Service: 5 stars! They wait staff was not only very nice and attentive, they were considerate of what I was doing. I spent half the time on the phone (work) and they came by once and just nodded at me (like, "everything good?") and then left me be. Didn't bring the check until after I was off the call. I just found this very very considerate. Lots of wait staff would be on autopilot and either be more disruptive or totally ignore you. This was perfect.

Atmosphere: okay. I did notice it started to get really loud later in the visit (mostly kids), which I attribute to the restaurant openness.

Overall: I won't be going back personally, but I wouldn't necessarily dissuade others. It's a fine cafe, worth trying.

Note to the chef/owner: You're wait staff is wonderful! Just ease up just a little on the butter and/or clean the grill better. (I had a piece of hash brown in my eggs, which IDC but mention bc of that odd aftertaste. Wonder if it could be just not wiping the grill enough...

Can be fun if you come alone or with a small group. Not good for a family, and frequently has bad service. They cram tables together awkwardly on one side of the restaurant so their servers don’t have to cross back and forth. So it’s packed and loud, but an entire side of the restaurant is completely empty. We were seated at two differently shaped tables, and one of the tables hadn’t been fully cleaned yet. One of our tables was also so tilted the crayons rolled from one side to the other. We waited at least five minutes for menus, and another fifteen minutes for them to come get our order. Then another fifteen minutes at least before our food came. A group of three came in after us, ordered, got their food, and left before we got our food. We ordered five meals, three kid ones. I had to ask to get our order in. By the time we got it, we had a grumpy baby because I hadn’t foreseen the wait. Near the end, I noticed three women waiting to get into the bathroom. It was an employee in the there for at least fifteen minutes. She came out upset and said to another server, “I was taking a **,” because apparently another employee knocked on the door. One of the customers finally left without using the bathroom. Our server was friendly and kind to our kids and apologized for the wait. The kids also like their coloring pages, and the...