Jakers Bar and Grill

My wife and I stopped in for a healthy soup and salad bar since we were randomly in Meridian… aaaaaand it’ll be the last time we stop in. I ate here way back in the day so I must’ve forgotten how mediocre olé Jakers really was. Another Sysco restaurant… Everything out of a bag. Salad bar was depressing, wilted bag lettuce. Spinach already pre dressed /​drenched and all the veggies and toppings straight out of a can or bag. There wasn’t that much to choose from And nothing went together, so random. Soups tasted like Campbell’s. Take some pride in your food and your restaurant and scratch make something. $ 25 for soup and salad for two, 30 with tip. We got ripped right off. Adiós Jakers.

I continue to go back again and again. It has a very reliable and excellent menu. Neither you nor your guests will be disappointed.

$ 16 salad bar?! I didn’t understand why this was priced so high and when I asked, the explanation I received was less than compelling.
Went with an $ 11 burger instead and was super disappointed with the dry hockey puck received. Fries were good, fry sauce tasty. But this was not worth the price.
We also ordered fish and chips ($ 17), the fish was dripping with water after every bite. Yuck.
Waitress was overly friendly and fake, wore way too much perfume.
Don’t know why they think they can charge what they do.
First and last time here.

Food was good. Atmosphere was good. No free refills on soda was really a turn off for me. We paid a lot for pretty good food and I had to pay for refills. May not come back just because of that. It was just average experience.

I’ve eaten at other Jakers restaurants (Missoula, Idaho Falls) etc and always had good experiences. At the Boise one, not so much. Disappointing service.

Four stars and great food, but it’ll cost you! Jakers is a place we don’t go as often as we should due to the price of many of the menu items, but man, when you’re looking for a delicious meal, excellent service and a romantic environment, this is a great place to go.
Food: We typically ONLY go for happy hour, so I will only speak to the appetizers here. The prime rib sliders are where it’s at! They’re like a French dip with the tastiest sliced prime rib in the middle. Oh yum, they’re good! The salads are also really reasonable, being just perfect to add to the side of the meal. I have ordered the lobster bisque, and while the creaminess and taste is there, I wish the chunks of lobster would be bigger. Also, MAKE SURE TO GET the scones and honey. Those little dough balls are MONEY!
Drinks: Great cocktails, especially if you can score them at happy hour prices. I like the lemon drop and wines.
Atmosphere: Very dimly-​lit and cozy. This is a nice place to take a date if you’re looking for an upscale spot. They also have a self-​serve salad bar, which impresses me because it seems so different from the dark, cozy atmosphere. We also like their bar area and the fact that happy hour is served throughout the restaurant, not just at the bar.
Service: Fast, friendly and reliable. They know how to take care of you.
Happy Hour Offerings: $ 3 off appetizers and drinks daily from 4 – 6 and late happy hour, too. Enjoy it throughout the restaurant, not just at the bar!
Healthy Hack: Order the appetizer salad with a cup of gluten free vegetable soup. Healthy, filling and delicious.
Tips: Enjoy happy hour from anywhere in the restaurant. Score!

Our experience tonight here was absolutely terrible. Cold soup (how does this happen?), WAY undercooked hamburger– it was raw in parts, my steak and asparagus was not only not cooked right but it was inedible due to the temperature and toughness of the steak, another steak was purple inside and it took AN HOUR to get all of this food. We also had no refills on drinks and the waitress wasn’t really around at all. Do not go here.

Clean restaurant good service but honestly not anything exceptional especially for the price not my cup of tea but my date took me there so I guess free food and good conversion made it OK.

I am from Texas, so I love a good Chicken Fried Steak. Problem is that so far, I have yet to find one in the Boise area.
When I brought my family here. I saw a Chicken Fried Steak (CFS) on the menu, so I thought, why not try it.
You never know, right?
The steak came out and I could tell right away, that it was not a real Texas style CFS, but I tried to keep an open mind. I did not take long for my open mind to close up.
I could see the grease swimming on the top of the steak. Still, I wanted to believe that it was possible to northerners to cook a CFS. I was not going to give up just yet.
A good CFS should have a very crispy coating on it just like Fried Chicken, and it should not be greasy. I have talked to a lot of places on this and so many of them say that its not possible to fry without being greasy.
I tell each that this is because they dont know what they are doing. It is certainly possible to fry without the food being greasy. You just have to know what you are doing.
The coating on this CFS was was soggy and it looked awful. The gravy was not a good flour gravy, but it off color of white like they used way too much grease to make it.
Some of the CFS meat was tender, as it should be. But about ¼ of the meat was so tough, I had to spit it out.
The flavor of the CFS was pretty non-​existant. The bottom line here is that Jakers has no clue how to fry. I had the same bad experience with their Steak Fingers.
On a scale of 1 –10, I give it a –2. If I were to judge it based on a real Texas Chicken Fried Steak, I would give is a –5.
On the upside, I tried some of my daughters Sirlion steak and it was good. I would say it was as good or better than the one had Texas Roadhouse.
Of course here, the sirloin steak is quite a bit more expensive that Roadhouse. So, If you have been searching all over Boise for a good CFS like me, dont waste your time with this one.

Perfect Cedar Plank Salmon, service was amazing and the ambiance was awesome. What a perfect yummy welcome to Idaho!

Great Lobster! Great Wine!!! Our waiter was wonderful and even brought a snack tray of veggies for the kids.

Our new favorite brunch spot! We took our crew to recover from a long day at the Boise Music Festival… You can’t go wrong with Brunch, Bloody Marys & Bottomless mimosas right?
They have several buffets… Breakfast, dessert, Bloody Mary, salad. Sooo many things to choose from. The breakfast buffet offered delicious mac and cheese, scrambled eggs, hash browns, omelets, French toast, waffles, biscuits and gravy, bacon, sausage, fresh sliced ham.
The desserts were probably my favorite part right up there with bottomless mimosas for $ 4. So many choices from chocolate silk pie, cheesecake, crème brûlée, etc.
I’m also a fan of salad so I loved the salad bar. They have four different salad choices as well as loaded baked potato salad, fresh fruit, yogurt, etc and of course homemade croutons.
For being a warm day (already sweating by 11am) it was the perfect place to cool off and unwind. Our server Kayla was a rockstar and kept the mimosas flowing! It is quiet and cool so our group of friends were the loudest bunch in there.

It’s time for me to do an updated review on Jaker’s. We hadn’t been here for awhile and as it was on our way to another event last evening we decided to give them a try. We were joined with two friends and the dining experience was good for all.
Having smaller appetites we all opted for the Smart Plate Menu. This is a really good bargain because the portions are smaller but also include a soup/​salad plus a choice of a side. There are many choices including trout, calves liver and onions, sirloin steak, braised short ribs with mashed potatoes, almond coated chicken breast, and salmon. Quite an assortment for a limited menu and something for everyone.
Two of our party chose almond crusted chicken breast — -very tender, tasty, with a crunchy coating. I had trout — it’s offered two ways — chargrilled with lemon caper butter or pan fried. I chose the grilled, lemon caper version and found it to be nicely cooked and flavored. One in our group had liver and onions — two large thin slices served with crispy bacon, sautéed onions, and two large onion rings on the side. He said it was tender, very tasty and ended up taking some home there was so much!
For dessert, my husband and I shared a white brownie sundae, topped with caramel and chocolate sauces. It was good, but a bit sweet. Our friends split the silky chocolate cake and said it was delicious. The four of us expressed disappointment that Jakers no longer offers Mud Pie, which was this incredibly delicious coffee ice cream in a chocolate crust, drizzled with chocolate syrup! Maybe one of these days we’ll convince them to bring it back!

The service my girlfriend and I got was excellent, very friendly, polite and had a great sense of humor. We received our food really quick. We were in and out in about an hour and a half which was faster than I expected. I ordered a rare steak, and received a perfectly cooked rare steak, warm and juicy that literally melted in my mouth. With a excellent seer on the outside. My baked potato was delicious. The calamari I had was very delicious as well.
It is a bit spendy In my opinion but you get what you pay for. Highly recommend this restaurant. And will be going back.

I have been to Jaker’s many times but have never written a review. It is really an unremarkable restaurant but I have a few things that I enjoy like the salad bar which is why I come back every so often. Last Friday evening my son and I decided to go for a late dinner. We got there 15 minutes before late night happy hour. The host seemed really insistent on us seating ourselves at the bar lounge. When saw the high tables I said I would rather a regular table but again he said that the seats were comfortable so I figured okay maybe we will get better service there an agreed. Unfortunately that did not turn out to be the case. It would be 10 minutes before a server would come and ask us if anyone had helped us. When I said no she said she would be right back with menus and water. It would be another 10 minutes before a different server would come by with menus. It was okay because other than being hungry I was not in a hurry and was really waiting for happy hour to start.
So $ 3 off Tapas menu we decided to order from it during happy hour. We got a garden salad which was basic but good. We also ordered the calamari, baked potato and the prime rib sliders. The calamari was terrible… tasted mushy like they were not fully cooked but over fried and full of grease. The baked potato was good but average. The prime sliders were delicious and melted in your mouth. I would get that again but that is how all the food is here either a hit or miss.
Through out all of this our server was AWOL. We needed a bit more ranch for our salads so got tired of waiting and just went to the salad bar for more dressing. Little things like that. We had to get a different server to let her know that we were interested in dessert. She asked what we wanted (we had no dessert menus) and my son requested an Oreo milkshake. When our regular server brought the shake he said it was quite a production to find Oreos to make the shake. I didn’t know if that was supposed to make us feel good or bad? We were appreciative regardless and the shake actually tasted pretty good.
I wish I could give Jaker’s more stars but 3 stars is how I left feeling for the price, service and food quality. You just either make your peace with it or you don’t.

I’ve been to Jakers many times but I haven’t strayed from getting the French Dip sandwich. With all but one experience, the meal turned out very well and I cleaned my plate.
The scones are also super tasty. Have to hold back from eating other dinner guests’ share.
My friend loves their potato soup (that’s saying a lot because she makes amazing potato soup).

Their French dip is what I will measure all French dips against for life. The prime rib was tender, juicy and melted in my mouth. The scones to start the meal with a honey butter was amazing and then I can a chocolate brownie a la mode that was also ridiculously good.
My server, Tasha, was an excellent server. Great experience.

This was our first time to Jakers. My husband and I came in for lunch.
First décor… not over the top but cozy.
Our server was excellent, his name was Justin. He explained everything to us and was right on point at the right times.
Second…food. I had the French dip sandwich. It was one of the best I have ever had.
My husband had the prime rib and believe me he is picky… and has has over 30 yrs experience in the restaurant business. He loved it!
Third…desert YUMMMMM cheesecake!!!
Ok…we are new to the area and have tried many local restaurants so far. We will be regulars.

MERIDIAN, ID: Jakers is an institution in this part of Idaho. Just a terrific all-​around restaurant that delights the senses. The ambience is fancier than a neighborhood grill but not stuffy, ideal for a business meeting or a casual night out.
They have amazing scones that come with every meal.
FOOD
Lobster Avocado Sandwich (5 stars); This sandwich rocked. Spicy queso, lobster, and generous portions of avocado atop Texas toast.
Drunken Noodles (4 stars): Good, flavorful noodles with a sweetish sauce.
Burgers (4 stars): They are good restaurant style burgers, served up big and a little dry.

We walked in here during a Friday happy hour and sat ourselves down at the bar stools. We JUST got in after driving 7 hours and were thirsty and hungry. Our bartender was wonderful from the start. They were really swamped but she took the time to tell us what the happy hour was all about. She was patient with our special needs when it came time to place our drink and food order. She followed all special instructions and even told us to order an item that was less expensive and we would not be sorry. On top of that she brought us over some of their honey rolls right out of the oven.
Our salads were amazing, huge, fresh, and tasty. We ordered the crab and avocado salads. They’ve got tons of dressings that they make and she suggested miso vinaigrette and so glad she did as it was perfect on the salads.
It was Jake and you know I mean it when I say that!