fork

anyway, the food at fork was outstanding to look at and equally as good to eat! all of the forks in our place settings were different from each other. my son noticed this halfway through our appetizers. we asked our server about it and she explained the mission of the restaurant and what the “forks” actually represented. i believe she mentioned the phrase “farm to fork”, and local ingredients, etc… i am sure you have heard it all before: organic, local, sustainability. slow food type stuff. i love, and buy into, many of these concepts. i am just not very good at describing them without sounding like a bad advertisement for a whole foods market, or a “fresh, new, healthy” item on a mcdonald’s menu.

a bit disappointed. we heard about fork from some friends, so we decided to go today for a late lunch after the saturday market had cleared out. first impressions were welcoming! there were very few patrons , so we were easily seated in a comfortable horseshoe shaped booth. fairly promptly, we were presented with ice water accompanied by a latch sealed glass water carafe. our server greeted us and returned within 8 minutes to take our order. we waited quite awhile, probably about 20-22 minutes, for our food to come out. we felt it was too long, considering there were only 12-14 people seated at the time. we ordered a salmon sandwich and the bbq chicken sandwich. we didn't find the food to be anything above average, and we were disappointed that the kitchen couldn't conjure up honey mustard for the fries. what? they don't have honey & mustard in this
establishment? we decided to take a risk and order the mini
donuts off the dessert menu, to which brought more disappointment. when it comes to mini donuts, fork should take some lessons from the donut kiosk at the saturday market. all in all, the verdict is still out on whether we would ever return.

food okay, service not okay. after a few swallows of the initial service of ice water, my wife noticed a large lipstick print on the opposite side of the glass from which i was drinking. when i pointed it out to the server she perfunctorily apologized and joked that it wasn't my shade. a few minutes later i had a clean (or wiped clean) glass.

later, the manager brought our food and proceeded to instruct us on how difficult it is for the dishwasher to clean some types of lipstick. he told us the dishwasher water is 180 degrees, perhaps to indicate it was hot enough to kill any harmful things even while not reliably removing lipstick.

the officious response to the lipstick from waitress and manager leads me to wonder if this sort of service failure is so frequent that they are both cold to it and ready with technical details.

we won't be back to fork.

not impressed. after reviewing their menu online i thought the food looked great, i was excited to try it out. the space itself is great, very cool vibe with a big, open dining area. the bar looked like a great place to hang out for a few cocktails too. after ordering, one thing i noticed is nothing is served right away, such as something as simple as fresh artisan bread and oil. this is usually the mark of a restaurant that isn't too guest-centric i've discovered, in regards to the food. anyway, not a big deal but definitely noticeable to someone who's eaten in many excellent restaurants in quite a few cities. the first course salad was honestly terrible. i was in the mood for something simple, so i ordered their wedge salad. i got about half a head of iceberg with maybe 3 tablespoons of creamy blue, a tablespoon of crumbly, a few red onion rings, and a few grape tomatoes. none of the ingredients tasted all that fresh, and the salad had way too much iceberg and not nearly enough blue cheese. in short, it sucked. a wedge is a hard salad to screw up too.

onward to the entree. i came in looking forward to a ny strip or ribeye (like i saw on their outdated menu online), but they only had a filet on the menu that night. not the end of the world, i like filet as well. the meat came out on a skillet platter, which shocked me. why... on earth.... would you serve a cut of meat that's cooked to temperature on a skillet platter that's about 300 degrees and will continue to cook the meat long after it left the window? i can tell you why. stupidity. my medium rare filet was heading upwards to medium well by the second, as it sat there in front of me. i almost sent it back for being overcooked on arriving to the table (it was medium by this point) but decided against it. the truly terrible part was it was a quality cut of meat, the kitchen just overcooked it with the presentation. the sauce was pretty good. the polenta that it was served with was awful. overcooked and with little flavor. scale of 1 to 10 this place gets an 8 for ambiance and a straight up 1 for food. it's in no way a good value and not a memorable experience. at least not in a good way.

the filet was amazing!

great restaurant. we tried fork on a recent trip to boise. it turned out to be one of the best meals on the entire trip. the restaurant was busy and we grabbed one of the last bar tables available. we started out with the house chips which were good but i was expecting more seasoning. then we split the bogus bosc which was delicious! our entrée was the wild mushroom & local herb pesto ravioli. unfortunately we split the entrée because we were both left wanting more. the evening was finished off with cherry berry pie cooked in a cast iron skillet with vanilla ice cream. we thoroughly enjoyed eating here. the staff were attentive and knowledgeable and we left vowing to return.

they definitely weren't exaggerating the fork tender part, i didn't have to reach for a knife once the entire meal. as far as flavors go? wow. i've rarely come across a dish with such bold flavors. of course the concern becomes are those flavors balanced, do they work together, etc. i'm not gonna lie, the sauce was a little strange to me at first, but as i kept eating it trying to decide exactly what i thought of it, it grew on me. i'm a big fan of dishes with a lot of different components like this, where no two bites really taste the same.

soooooo delicious!. what a great restaurant! i visited for saturday brunch, and had the chicken and waffle sliders. they were delicious--fluffy little waffles, flavorful orange butter, juicy fried chicken. i paired this with the b.o.g. martini--a fragrant basil concoction perfect for spring. my friend had the fork eggs benedict, and she loved it. i will be returning!

went for the 1st time about a month ago and thought i was just okay. service was a bit slow and the food was over priced and the taste was mediocre. my nephew ordered the onion rings and for almost $9 appetizer they brought out 3 medium sized onion rings. wtf?? then about 20 minutes later they apologize and bring out another 3 medium onion rings and said that should have completed the order. still almost $9 for 6 onion rings? wow!! my husband ordered the grilled artichoke appetizer and it was either undercooked or a bad artichoke. they mentioned they had a new chef cooking and that he is not very good and bring another that was only slightly better. my daughters vegetable takes 45 minutes to arrive and is not very good. seriously how do you screw up vegetables??? so today we decide to give it one last chance. the experience was even worse!!! my husband asks if the artichokes are any better. the waitress says that she has had at least 6 orders returned in the last week. and she says that they are just not in season. hello!!! if this is the case then why is it still on the menu??? she says to try it and if its not good she will take it back. fair enough. the service is über slow today, so much so that we are there for 2 and a half hours. before our food another waitress drops plates and food next to me on the floor. broken plate shards fly all another and i end up with a cut on the back of my leg. lady in charge (i don't know if she is the manager since she never introduces herself) asks if i am ok and brings me a bandage. sees that i am bleeding and is kind enough to bring me an extra cloth napkin. through out this whole thing i am calm, nice, and appreciative when they move us to another table. i am thinking i am sure they are going to comp the meal or at least part or at least drinks or at least a free desert or something, right??? well the bill finally arrives and the only thing taken of was the returned artichoke appetizer. really???????? now i am pissed off and just want to get out of there!!! i was prepared to tip the waitress 15%, but i am soooo royally pissed off that i leave her what i hope is the worst tip of her life!! and i leave a note on the back of the receipt that mentions how poor and slow the service was. not that it mattered since we leave an not one employee says goodbye, hope you come back soon, sorry about the experience...nothing!! i work in a customer service job and i would be horrified if i ever gave that kind of service. i will never patronize fork again!! and if you decide to go there after reading my review when then you must enjoy paying for over priced, average food and terrible service. i could have mentioned so many other things about this experience that were bad but i am tired of writing this. beware!!

good, but not enough choices. fork was a really fun stop at the end of our day downtown. it was very lively and a good atmosphere to enjoy eating. the menu was pretty sparse, but i must say the food was very good. the service was mediocre though, our drinks weren't refilled promptly and the waitress seemed to be annoyed at something.

fork is a great restaurant! i love eating here, it always makes me happy! cocktails choices are very good, and i love that a lot of the food it locally sourced!

love this place. we travel often and always make this a stopping place. highly recommend the pork nachos. they are packed with lots of flavor and a meal in themselves.

staff is very friendly and will address you by your first name. a must stop in boise.

this is one of those highly recommended places downtown and a group of four of us dutifully reached for a mid week dinner having booked a table etc. clearly it's extremely popular bursting at the seams and with good reason as well. the drinks were superb and the food was good too. definitely a good option downtown.

awesome atmosphere. high quality local food. delicious unique flavors. definitely will come again & highly recommend. everything was outstanding from the appetizers to the dessert!

passing thru boise. sales clerk suggested fork for lunch. beyond delicious and so reasonable! a memorable meal on our trip. service was excellent also.