Serv-A-Burger — Restaurant in Sandpoint

Apparently, taste buds are an endangered species in this area. Either that, or folks here just really enjoy chewing on cardboard and calling it cuisine.

Let’s start with the service. Haile — the employee who “greeted” me — stood behind the counter like she'd just seen the void and it winked at her. No hello, no smile, just deadpan eye contact, like I was interrupting her existential crisis. I half expected her to ask me if I believed in life after death, not if I wanted fries with that.

After I ordered, she didn’t thank me. When she brought the food, still no thanks. When I left? You guessed it: nada. At this point, I'm convinced she's in a personal vendetta against gratitude itself. Maybe she’s just playing a long game of silent protest. Against what? Unknown. But it's powerful.

Now, the food. "The best hamburgers in town since 1979!" Really? According to whom? Nostalgic ghosts? The overly under-thankful Haile? This burger was a solid 3 out of 5 — and that's only because I'm generous and didn’t want to emotionally scar the cow that gave its life for this bland tribute.

And the fries? Sweet mercy. They were so tasteless, I started questioning if I had COVID again. I added salt. Nothing. More salt. Still nothing. At one point I think I was just eating warm beige sadness. These fries were the Switzerland of food — completely neutral, no flavor, no opinion, no personality.

Ambiance? If you've ever wanted to dine inside a DMV with a deep fryer, congratulations — your dream has come true. The decor screamed, "We gave up in 1993 and nobody noticed."

So, if you’re craving uninspired food, spiritual apathy, and the warm embrace of emotional detachment, this place delivers. Otherwise, maybe try literally...

Our family has loved Serv-A-Burger for ages, generally we've had delicious meals and shakes nearly every visit.

Unfortunately, the wonderful experiences have been lacking our last couple visits this summer. We have come to expect thick, creamy, tasty shakes. My wife and I are unsure if it was because of the late hour of the visit, the young staff, or "off" ingredients... But the visit this evening was very poor. The shakes were like water. Flowed more quickly than the Pack River after a weeklong deluge. There was no richness to the shakes either, perhaps the ice cream was swapped with non-dairy oat milk ice cream?

In all fairness, the kids that were manning the shake machine were working hard, likely excited for the end of their shifts. We were within 30 minutes of closing time. All this being said, the shakes were horrible. The fries and onion rings were delicious however. Definitely up to the wonderful standard we have come to expect from this establishment. But perhaps, some review of the directions/recipe for the youth working the shakes should...

Saturday Night 10/10/20 around 7:30pm. The two young blonde girls talked and talked and talked before they even noticed we were there waiting. We had to repeat our order 3 times before she seemed to get it right. But no, guess not, it was still wrong. My husband ordered more fries because the double burger combo is only for 1 of them you order not for both of them apparently. After about 20 minutes on a large fry, my husband went to see where it was. He gets an, " oh we were wondering what those were for." We were the only ones in there when they were ordered. They had shoved the fries to the side out of the heat lamp because they had forgotten in those 20 minutes that the one table out in the dining room ordered fries. But the girl gladly handed the cold, old fries to my husband with a smile on her face. Ice cream is the cheapest mix out there. Not cream by any means. I would definitely suggests skipping this place and go to Burger Dock or even McDonald's. Worst service ever. Young kids need a night supervisor or this owner is going to go out...