bardenay

great food.bardenayis consistently delicious! great atmosphere too.

gluten free menu not safe. my family and i tried this restaurant (eagle location) for the first time in august 2014. we seldom go out to eat because our daughter has celiac disease and there are virtually no restaurants in the treasure valley that take gluten free seriously.bardenayhas a gluten free menu, so we decided to give it a try. (the gf menu contains a disclaimer that "bardenay, however, neither guarantees nor warrants that any specific menu item will be entirely free of gluten even though it has attempted to exclude gluten from each menu item.") when we ordered, we asked the server to make note to the kitchen that the gf dish needed to handled carefully to avoid any cross-contamination. it took an extremely long time for our order to come (we almost got up and left), but we started eating, my daughter noticed after her first bite that they had given her the wrong sauce which was not gf. we didn't even get home before our daughter was sick from gluten poisoning. suffice it to say that bardenay's gf menu is catering to the gf fad -- it is not intended for those who have celiac disease or have serious gluten intolerance. we will never eat atbardenayagain.

bardenay's - coeur d'alene. three friends ate atbardenayin cda, yesterday, sunday 01/26 at 12:00 pm. out of 3 meals, all three had problems. the french toast was overcooked as with the chorizo sausage, my omelet was stuck to the sides (overheated) of the plate and friends poached egg was runny and not cooked. i have always liked bardenay's, but the last two times have been disappointing. do you have a new chef? not enough personnel to bring the food to table so it's not overcooked or heated under a heat lamp? once before the special chicken salad sandwiches two of us had was dry and not edible. we need to get our confidence back!!

dinner last night. i work at one of the local businesses next tobardenayin eagle. we decided to order some dinner to go. i ordered the grilled salmon. the menu said it came with a salad. very disappointed. even though the fish tasted good and was moist, the salad was just lettuce that appeared to have been taken right from the bag, sprinkled with some croutons, a small container of dressing and a lemon wedge. very disappointing. i have heard good things. big let down

on the basque block isbardenay(sailor term for cocktails) a restaurant and distillery serving up northwest inspired food and drink.  this is the first restaurant in the us with the ability to create handcrafted liquor on-site. 

my husband and i went to the downtownbardenayfor my birthday lunch today. it was self seating and we waited quit a while for service, once crystal came to our table she was passive aggressive with her looks and comments. i was not happy that much of the menu i saw online was not available, but ordered something anyway. the food took forever to come and the restaurant was only half full. if the food was good or if my order was even correct, i could have overlooked the long wait...but it wasn't good and it wasn't correct! our waitress rolled her eyes at us again saying she would fix it, but that is how it is, basically. no birthday cake or ice cream, no manager asking to fix anything, no discount for mistakes and bad food. we will not be back!!!!!

great sandwiches. large, open atmosphere. distillery tanks visible. nice bar. outside seating available. can recommend thebardenayclub and the reuben sandwiches. sandwich menu is extensive and varied. salads are delicious as well.

maybe i just dont get it?. i wouldnt consider myself a 'fine diner' by any means. i have a fairly simple palate, but when i got abardenaygift card i couldnt just not use it. all i can say is $100 doesnt go very far here. we got two appetizers, a cheese platter which was really hard to navigate around, and some kind of bread. shared one entree, and had a dessert. i mean the food was good, but i was left feeling very out of place as i didnt even know what half of it was! i feel i could have done a lot more with $100 in any other restaurant. not kid friendly either, by the way.

the black bean chimi - don't judge...its phenomenal. no 2 ways about it. it's in line with the truebardenayexperience, unique fresh and fun!

great food, drinks, and prices.bardenayis my husband and my favorite "go to" place to eat. that have a delicious salmon sandwich that comes with a side dish. my favorite being the salad, and my husbands is the mashed potatoes and gravy.
they are pretty much child friendly, and have a kids menu.
bardenay has a great drink menu. they make a great margarita. if you are feeling a little bold, they even have a jalapeno margarita.
we will be back for sure!

2 nights in a row. in town for business for the week andbardenayis around the corner form my hotel. last night was chorizo and red bean stew, two different satays one beef and one chicken) and was a terrific dinner. tonight was not as impressive. the bruschetta was basically average and the calamari could have been used for spare tires. i again had a satay (a garlic chicken) that was good and an average mediterranean beef gyro type sandwich but the meat was tough. servce was very slow this evening. food gets a "b" forthe combined effort. take off the appetizers that you cant do a great job with. dont put food out there that is only average and instead focus on what you do very well.

never disappoints!.bardenayis one of our favorite places to go. the food is always fresh and delicious, drinks are always perfect and the service is great!!

best restaurant in boise, period.. i've been eating atbardenayfor years now and it's now become a staple in my boise night life for myriad reasons.

first, the food is outstanding. i'm yet to be disappointed by anything on their menu, and i've had just about everything they offer. my personal favorite was a dinner special at the boise location - a ginger/sesame seared ahi tuna steak with rice and veggies on the side - a meal i'll probably remember for the rest of my life. i also love the steak sandwich with bleu cheese, the salmon entree and smoked trout spread with pita and capers. best appetizer you'll ever eat....and if you're feeling a bit drinky, check out their mojitos and their ginger rum cocktail.

second, their boise and eagle locations are top-notch. the boise location is in downtown boise in the basque block, with pedestrian-preference roads out front and a huge, lodge-like ceiling inside. it's a bit loud at times, but that only adds to the feel of the place. the eagle location has a huge deck, usually with live music, overlooking a heavily landscaped river/canal that usually has ducks, geese and birds everywhere, and the restaurant is tucked well away from eagle road so you aren't hearing traffic noise if you choose outdoor seating. and inside they have a similar cabin-like feel with floor-to-ceiling glass walls so you still get the outdoor feel without the wind/music, if that's your preference.

just writing this review makes me want to eat there immediately...so i guess that's a testament to their tastiness!

when did it get bad?. i hadn't been tobardenayin a few years, but i swear it used to be good.

first, the whole open seating thing can work, but servers and bussers have really got to be on the ball. i don't mind having to wait a bit for a table on a friday night, but it creates an awkward sort of mood when having to scramble and rush to tables, and inevitably there's always that one jerk who's willing to do anything to snake a table from you, and personally if i'm a restaurant owner or manager i don't want random aholes be the ones dictating the first impression of a place.

so, finally find a table and stand next to it for nearly 10 minutes as a bussers and servers pass us multiple times (like 4 times for the busser alone). i finally had to go request someone bus the table, asking her if she could send someone to bus it, and got a snotty response from the server as if i were demanding she herself do it, god forbid!

again, open seating can work, and i understand friday nights can be busy, but they seemed severely under staffed (our waitress was literally running between tables at times) and it took us forever to get a table, get it bussed, and then on top of that we sat for a very long time waiting for water, then waiting for menus, then waiting for our order to be taken, then waiting for drinks, then waiting for food. friday night or not, it was not very impressing.

okay, something good: drink from the bar was excellent.

and....

fish and chips. fish was a dark brown, looking like hunks of bark. flaky fish is good, crunchy and craggy, not-so-much. not convinced beer battered and bread crumbs is good for frying fish. makes the batter so heavy and get overly crunchy that it becomes a chore to eat, but shrug, their restaurant.

mashed potatoes weren't bad. not doubting they were 'garlic' mash, though, as it was more garlic than even i, an avid garlic lover, could stand. i could see many people being overwhelmed by so much garlic.

the tartar sauce was said to be spiced up with chili powder, which was true, to say the least. i love spicy food, and it was way too strong even for me, and felt very out of place in a tartar sauce.

lamb and beef meatloaf sandwich. seemed like a good idea. it was a favorite of mine at bittercreek before they took it off, so i was hoping for something as tasty. it was remarkably bland. worse still, it was mushy. mushy, tasteless meatloaf.... didn't know that was even possible when using lamb! and wasn't very exciting otherwise. carmelized onions were a nice touch, but the fixing of cheddar cheese, mayo, green leaf lettuce and sourdough were underwhelming. and seriously, the meatloaf felt like oatmeal in my mouth, and didn't taste much stronger.

the french fries tasted okay, basically fresh from the freezer... kind of like the fries you can get in a cup from one of those french fry vending machines. yawn.

the mango 'bbq' sauce is pretty good, though. next time i might just order a bowl of that.

overall it was very disappointing because they used to be good (i think). and i can forgive terrible service on a friday night (but seriously, when it's more busy, maybe have more people working?), but can't forgive bland, uninspired food on top of that. or worse, over-inspired food where instead of just making something good, they tried to 'spice it up' when it shouldn't be necessary.

i can't tell if i'm just getting higher expectations as i get older, or if the 'good' spots in boise have just shifted, but this is another case of a restaurant that seems to have stopped trying to get better, and seems noticeably worse that it was a few years ago.

visiting boise we visitedbardenayat noon on a wednesday in july and found the menu selection well-balanced, creative, and pleasing to the pallet. the wait staff were efficient and friendly, and we enjoyed our lunch on the patio. i wish bardenays was closer to where i live - i'd go often! thanks to all for posting reviews on urbanspoon - a real help to travelers!