Shanaz

MMmmmm The food was amazing! I had the Roasted Red Pepper Jambalaya and it was by far the most flavorful and intense jambalaya I have ever eaten. MY husband had the fried catfish and loved every morsel!
As the other reviews have already stated, the service is very slow. Therefore I took away 1 star. Also, bring a sweater because it was quite chilly inside.
That being said, they do close for the summer (closed June 4^th this year) and reopen in November. Bookmark this place for the winter, I am sure we will be going back to try more dishes!

This place made me and, more importantly my tummy, so happy. Ordered the chicken and waffles and korean tacos. We ended up ordering another chicken dinner after my husband and I finished the first two items because this fried chicken is so. Freaking. GOOD. All this time we’ve been pining for Harold’s fried chicken in Chicago and we’ve had seriously delicious fried chicken right under our noses all along. The people who own this business love food and what they do, and you can taste it. They’re doing soul food right. And they’re awesome people to boot.
FYI — the owners leave to feed firefighters fighting forest fires for the summer, they leave June 2 and return in November. We’ll be back before you leave for the summer, without a doubt. Thanks for a lovely meal, Shanaz!

Where to start… This place is exceptional, and I couldn’t think of anything not to like here. You walk in, and the atmosphere says «Family Style, Home Cooked». The waitress was super friendly and the service was great (we heard later she is the daughter of the owners, thus reinforcing the truth that this is a family place). Ray Charles, Steve Wonder, and Ben E King are playing softly in the background, and sweet smells drift in from the Kitchen. We haven’t even eaten anything yet, and I love this place.
We started off with cornbread cooked in a little cast iron skillet. I have to confess, that I am a cornbread junkie, and fancy myself as quite the aficionado when it comes to this line of baked goods. This may very well be the best cornbread I have ever had. I’ve had other southern style cornbread that is dry and lacking in taste, and I know that some people love it this way. The cornbread at Shanaz however is sweet and buttery. It is soft and delicious, and I can’t wait to go back just for the cornbread. Yum, yum, yum!
I ordered the Jambalaya Stuffed Pepper, and my wife got the Fried Chicken & Waffle. We traded bites back and forth, and we both agreed that both dishes were delicious. The Fried chicken was cooked perfectly, and the Jambalaya was, well, amazing. The spices tingle on your tongue as you eat, and the sausage was soooo flavorful. I love it all.
I can’t wait to go back to try some catfish and gumbo, but beware; we were told that the seafood gumbo is only available on Friday and Saturday (as I recall).
So what more can I say. This hidden gem in Meridian served us up a perfect dinner, and we enjoyed every bite. We will be back.
[ One shouldn’t use big words when a singular unloquacious and diminutive linguistic expression will satisfactorily accomplish the contemporary necessity. ]

This is the best placeI have eaten in a long time and for sure best thing in Boise! The loco Moco was amazing and the sweet tea was made perfectly.

I would like to give 3.5 stars for our first visit, but that’s not an option.
The good:
Great cornbread, crispy, juicy fried chicken. Potatoes with gravy were a little different but good.
Friendly staff.
Not so good:
Waffle was soggy and bland, chicken was too salty for my wife, when I don’t have to add salt to something, it is probably a little too salty for most.
Greens were a little bitter according to my wife (she loves greens, I don’t). They did say that their regular waffle maker was down, and they were using a backup. We did notice another customer that seemed to have the same issue with the waffle.
We will try this place again, the good really did outweigh the bad. We checked out other items that other customers ordered, everything looked good.

This place is fantastic. A hidden gem in Meridian. It’s warm. It’s friendly. It’s family feeling. They play good music. It’s easy to bring good company, laugh a lot, and totally enjoy the experience. Their chicken and waffles is close-​your-​eyes-​and-​transcend-​heaven-​good. One dinner companion comes for their gravy. Says it reminds him of his (late) mother’s. And for a moment as he happily munches down dinner, you see the child in his eyes.
With dinner, you get a tiny little cast iron skillet of perfect corn bread (not too sweet, not too savory). Their seasonal sides are always good.
Do check it’s hours and do come hungry. I can’t think of finer soulish (there’s a very slight asian fusion vibe too) place in all of Boise.

We thoroughly enjoyed the gumbo, fried catfish dinner and the chicken and waffles. Coming from a family from New Orleans, I can’t say enough about the gumbo. The flavor is a incredible with the right amount of heat. It is nothing short of amazing. The fried catfish came out piping hot, perfectly cooked and crispy. The fried chicken and waffles was wonderful with exceptionally flavorful chicken, juicy and succulent.
If I lived closer, I’d come more often and crash their family reunions. Thanks for a memorable meal.

The food is amazing! Love the cornbread!

Oh my. … the cornbread is the bomb! Seriously worth coming for. The seafood Gumbo great too! Love this place. And the pork sandwich.

Fantastic all around! Courteous waitress, who is the daughter of the owners/​chefs. The food was so delicious and full of flavor. The Nu Flavor Rolls were so yummy and a great way to start the dinner. The gumbo was crazy good, but the cornbread was my favorite. I am a southern girl, so cornbread and I go way back, and that cornbread was awesome. My husband and I are excited to go back and try some of the other things on their menu.

Good soul food — not sure I could say great soul food. I had the chicken and waffles and they were good. But it just seemed like everything could be a little thicker.
I associate soul food with oversized portions. Big, thick waffles. Big chicken breasts. But they don’t sell those here. It’s sort of petite portions. I left satisfied — but not full, which I’m not accustomed to for soul food.
Just make your waffles more stout and use bigger chicken — i would even pay more.

My husband and I love going to Shanaz for dinner. Our food is always above par and our services are usually nice, although we’ve come to expect it to be slow (even in getting drinks to the table). I’ve tried (and love) things that I never would have tried– fried green tomatoes, grilled pb&j, seafood gumbo… It’s all drool worthy. The only thing I would recommend to make this place better would be a) getting better chairs/​tables: they are too old/​wobbly and uncomfortable and b) figuring out something about the draft/​wind problem. I never go here without a jacket because it’s always freezing.
Improvements aside– still a 5. :)

Stopped by here on our way from Seattle to Salt Lake City, and wished we hadn’t. My girlfriend and I wanted to eat somewhere nice because we ended up saving money on our hotel room. We figured, «Hey, might as well treat ourselves since we never intended on saving this money anyway.» Man, we should have saved it.
I want to preface this review by saying we did come an hour and a half before closing. This wasn’t during the dinner rush, so maybe they were busy getting ready for closing time?
We walked in and stood by the door, awkwardly, for a minute or two, because usually restaurants have a host that greets you as you come in, and then they bring you to your seat. This place didn’t have that… We had obviously never been here before, so we thought maybe this is the kind of place where you seat yourself; so we did just that. There was another family in the restaurant and they kept giving us weird looks, so I thought, maybe we’re doing this wrong. But after 5 – 10 minutes a server greeted us and gave us menus. My girlfriend and I are both very patient, so 5 – 10 minutes wasn’t too bad for us to wait. They DID only have one server. He said he’d bring us cornbread, and left us to look at the menu.
Almost 10 minutes later we order. I was disappointed because I was only able to order from the (rather small) dinner menu, but all the things I wanted to try were on the lunch menu, but I digress. We ordered, and although he took a while to take our orders, he was very friendly. When we ordered, we asked about the 2 sides that came with the dinner (it said 2 sides on the menu). The server told us, «Oh, it’s supposed to say one side. You only get one.» So we said that was fine, and asked what our choices were. He said corn… And then apologized and said that was our only option. Not being a fan of corn I was disappointed, but we didn’t really have a choice.
5 more minutes pass and I see the server bring a few loaves of cornbread to the other family in the restaurant. I was a little confused; we had been here for about 25 – 30 minutes and we haven’t gotten cornbread yet. This family already got some, and were completely finished with their dinners… They were just talking. I was okay with it though (maybe they asked for some before we even got there?). 5 minutes later we get our cornbread, and not gonna lie, it was delicious. 5 minutes later the server asked us how everything was (just the cornbread I guess?) and we said the cornbread was great.
We waited a little bit longer, but at this point they are about 10 – 15 minutes away from closing and we didn’t want to be «those people.» The ones that stay in an establishment as the employees are cleaning around them and cursing them under their breath until they leave. We asked for our food to go, and it was presented to us (he offered us both waters «to go», which was nice. I’d never been offered that before.)
At this point in time, the experience was not good, but we figured we’d reserve judgments until we tried the food. We got back to our hotel, and opened the bag, and realized he only gave us 2 forks. I got some kind of gravy covered pork chops, and had to eat it mostly with my hands because 1 plastic fork just wasn’t cutting it. My meal came with the corn (obviously) which wasn’t half bad for corn, and some kind of potato patty… I guess that was our second side? Either way, I probably wouldn’t have chosen corn or a fried potato patty as my 2 sides. The food was… good. Just good. It was salty for both of our tastes, but we had never tried «soul food» before so maybe that’s normal?
After we finished our meals we were both unsatisfied with the whole experience. After the tip, the meal came to about 40 $. Which is twice as expensive as the place we almost went to before.
I can totally understand all the reviewers (on Unilocal,urbanspoon, google reviews) who said they never got ANY service, their whole system is very weird and disorganized. Most of the 1 star reviews are from people who didn’t get service AT ALL. I can say though, you weren’t missing much. I definitely don’t understand all the hype for this place… I probably will never be in Meridian, Idaho again but If I am… I won’t be returning to this place.

My first experience with Shanaz and I have to say I was quite impressed. I have been wanting to try this place ever since they opened and since my favorite soul food place that was on Broadway closed. Shanaz is kind of tucked away in a strip mall off of Main Street in Meridian across the street from Meridian Speedway. Careful because if you are not looking for it closely you could easily pass by it and that would be a shame.
I came at the tail end of their lunch hours but was greeted nonetheless with a warm welcome. Bob Marley music was at a nice volume and really set the mood for what would be a really nice experience. I mean who doesn’t like Marley, right?
I ended up ordering a Korean taco which I know sounds strange for a soul food place. And a shrimp Po Boy sandwich with a salad instead of fries and their house sesame dressing. Topped it off with a sweet tea.
The Korean taco was really good and even better was the jalapeño sauce that came with it. The meat was flavored just right and if I didn’t have a sando coming I could’ve easily had three more.
The salad was one of my favorite things traditional but has crunchy fried onions on top and with that house dressing I could’ve seriously just dunked straight veggies in it, it’s that good.
The sweet tea is very sweet and was missing the traditional lemon wedge on the top to make it truly southern in this humble gal’s opinion but no worries ask and you shall receive! I was brought a couple of wedges on the side. I am sure if I would’ve added more ice it would’ve been perfect!
The Shrimp PO boy sandwich was great and served with a lemon wedge but was missing hot sauce to add as an option when I asked for hot sauce options I was offered tapatio or cholula… what? Which would be my only real criticism. A soul food place should have either a signature hot sauce or a wall of hot sauces that are typical to the style of cooking. Not to worry I always make the best of what I’ve got. I had some of the jalapeño sauce left over from my taco and tried it on the sandwich and BOOM! It was awesome! So with another side of that sauce it transformed my shrimp po boy from good to the bomb! Yeah I think I’ve said it before I like my stuff spicy. ;-)
Curtis was an amazing server! He refilled my drink at the right times, answered questions to the best of his knowledge and checked on my status often. I will definitely be returning to Shanaz for some more of its soul! Yes!

Don’t come here if you’re hungry or thirsty. And especially not if you have a child.
We waited for half an hour for anything… something… not even an offer for water was made.
Thought we’d try it for the Gumbo and fairly decent prices… WRONG! Prices wen’t up on average $ 2 from the website to the menu in the restaurant.
Oh, they might want to put a time limit on the Lunch portion of the menu as well, It just said «Lunch Menu». No cut off time was given, so when I inquired about the Po Boy, the waiter said «we’re no longer serving lunch»… well THANKS FOR LETTING ME KNOW ON THE MENU!
Unilocal needs to offer «negative stars» because 1 is more than this waiter and establishment deserve.

I don’t usually write reviews but I felt compelled because of our terrible experience. I went here with my husband and our 2-​year-​old based on great reviews and what a disappointment. I can’t say anything about the quality of food but I can tell you the service is bad. We didn’t eat here because we ended up leaving. After sitting for half an hour, we didn’t even get water. No apologies for making us wait. What kind of restaurant doesn’t offer something to drink while you sit there? I understand they only have one waiter but come on, if you’re going to charge such high prices for food at least be courteous enough to give us water!
I saw the staff taking care of a large table because that meant more money. I watched the waiter take a phone call and a to-​go order when someone walked in and he took care of other customers but us. Seriously?! It was like we weren’t there. If someone offered us something to drink and said, «I’m sorry we’re really busy tonight» perhaps we would’ve stayed and tried the food people are raving about.
They also need to update their prices on the website because it’s different from the restaurant menu. We spent $ 50 somewhere else where the service was excellent. If you’re hungry, do not come here because the service is poor unless you want to wait… you’ll be thirsty and starving!

We ended up here the other night with three other colleagues. Two had been here before, and two of us (including me) had not. I didn’t really know what to expect, but the two who had been to this place before described it as a Polynesian soul food kind of a place. Whatever that means! All of us eat out frequently for work, and therefore we know a thing (or two) about good food or at least, we think we do.
One of the dangers of traveling (and eating out) a lot is you run out of ideas on where we should go to eat. For my friends and I, anything different is good, and different, delicious and friendly is like hitting the trifecta.
We didn’t exactly order our meal but instead instructed the waitress to bring us whatever she thought we would like. Complete chefs choice. Like keep bringing the food and we’ll tell you when to stop. Many dishes later, I had somewhat forgotten everything we tried, but for sure it was all somewhat unique and all delicious. Most of it was in the style I would call comfort foods (like smothered pork chops and black tea pork with sesame seeds and rice). Other dishes were on the fancier side. But mostly I had the impression of honest, delicious, memorable home cookin’.
I can tell when I’m in a place where the owner cares about their food and this place had that vibe.
All of us had a great time, eating, drinking, and laughing. We ended up closing the place down. Never did we feel Ike we were being rushed out the door.
Great food, friendly people, unique choices. It was such a pleasurable experience that I’m sure i’ll be back!

That I know of, Shanaz is the only full blown Soul Food restaurant in the area.
Sure, there’s a food truck that touts itself a soul food sensation.
And, yeah, there’s yet another food truck offering Southern inspired eats (some of it bordering on Soul food).
But, a full blown – sit down, here’s a menu, and some corn bread for you to munch on while you wait – Soul Food joint?
This is your one and only option.
Thankfully, it’s a good one.
Bring them your tired, your poor, your huddled masses and Shanaz will feed them fried peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and mac & cheese balls fit for the tattered prides of kings. The powdered sugar dusted, waffle batter dipped, fried peanut butter and jelly has the indulgent taste of stuffed french toast. The decadently rich mac & cheese balls will have you moaning during their consumption and sighing with satisfaction afterwards.
This is a sort comfort food that will leave you feeling fat, sassy, and with the inexplicable urge to hug the chef.
My one and only complaint was that the menu is a bit limited and left me wishing for a few more options.
Other than that small complaint – a fine meal that will leave you feeling as content as your grandmother’s cooking always did – will be enjoyed by all.
Get to it!

This is not your typical restaurant food. Taste just like home cooked. Cornbread with ever meal. Super good. We tryed the fried green tomatoes just because we saw the movie. And they were as good as a chick flick. Not sure I’m supposed to say things like that. Anyway the spicy ranch dip was very tasty. But the star of the night goes to the fried chicken and the gravy was Awesome! I would actually drink the gravy. :) The is a small neighborhood restaurant with good service.
The downside… The sweet tea is good, but a big beer or a glass of wine would be better. Or even 2 beers. Just sayin. Chicken this good should be offered as takeout.

I have driven by this strip mall 10 times and kept noticing the sign for this restaurant. My friend was in town visiting and we wanted to try something different and I remembered this place. The location is very unassuming and you might even pass it by because it is in a strip mall, but that would be a mistake.
If you are in the mood for good southern cooking with a flare, then you need to give this place a try. They deep fried pickles and macaroni and cheese balls are a must and if you go on a Friday night, they have Gumbo — the good stuff you can get in the south.
The service was great — the chef even came out to check on us a couple of times! They also do catering.