I have been here 3 times now. The food is fair. Excellent drinks but the food experience does not deliver. The shrimp-grits are okay but nothing exciting. The blue cheese beef sandwich is poor. No blue cheese flavor, minimal meat with alot of bread make up this sandwich. I prefer going to a sandwich shop, paying less and being more satisfied. The guest we brought along ordered the same sandwich and he had the same complaints. He ordered the fries which were good, I ordered the salad. Lettuce with dressing and that was it. I would go back for drinks, but would choose many other Boise options for dinner. Too expensive for food quality with no flare to menu. Will not go back for dinner. read more

I wish I could soften my comments but I just can't. My sister and I both had meals that seriously lacked flavor/seasoning (hers worse than mine -- we shared). Very bland. The mashed potatoes were so bland that the only aspect I can describe is the texture. So we tried salting and it mildly helped. Neither of us is overly critical but I just can't offer any positive words about the meal. Further, they seemed vastly understaffed and after waiting for quite a while for both wine and salt, we finally got up to ask the bartender. Perhaps they were short-staffed in the kitchen as well. Staff was working hard but I would never go back and never recommend the restaurant. read more

Found a hair in my wilty salad, server forgot our croquettes, long wait for drinks, underwhelmed by the food overall. They've got some kinks to work out. read more

If you love Idaho, this is the place. First off, what a tremendous addition to the 8th street market. The owner has taken initiative to bring what was the missing entity to downtown Boise in the fact that EVERYTHING here is local, food and drink alike. Enter the restaurant enjoying an incredible atmosphere, modern décor, and a terrific music selection. Service is friendly and accommodating, while you are here you will want for nothing. Do yourself a favor and experience Juniper. I have been here several times and it NEVER disappoints. PS, best chef in Idaho. read more

Only here for aps and drinks, but yummie stuff. Punch of the day was delicious, fried olives with mozzarella were over the top!! Fries and beans were good too. I would definately go back! read more

This place is amazing, the best Gin drinks i have ever had and the staff is some of the best i have ever experienced. My server was Darrah, she was knowledgeable and very friendly I will request her on my next visit. The Lamb Rubin was very good, i plan to explore the rest of the vast menu. read more

The food and the drinks were nicely prepared, but the best part of our dinner was the exceptional and attentive service! The beet salad was refreshing and tasty. The grill cheese and the bison burger (with a fried egg) were flavorful. It's a great place to hang out with friends! read more

Fantastic food and service. Amazing food for the price. Justine was awesome. My wife's birthday was a success.

After being seated upstairs, which was uncomfortably warm, when there were plenty of tables downstairs, it took at least 10 minutes for the waiter to come over and take our drink orders. Same thing with ordering an appetizer and placing our meal orders. The waiter was absent for most of the time we were there. After we got what we ordered for dinner, he was gone for 30+ minutes. The service was horrible and the food was too. I had looked online before making reservations to see what we might want to have for dinner. Then once we sat down at our table and the waiter showed up, he informed us that the entire menu had been changed that day. The salmon and the trout were very disappointing. The only thing that was good about this place were the cocktails. I brought my parents, who are visiting from out of town, to what we thought was a great, local Boise restaurant. Needless to say is was a huge mistake. read more

I love love love Juniper--beautiful relaxed atmosphere, really friendly and knowledgable servers, and (most importantly) surprising and delicious food and drinks. They're very accommodating to vegetarians which means a lot to me! The beet margarita is currently my favorite cocktail in Boise. The kale & egg salad is divine. read more

To start, just because there's a small plate and shared plate menu does not mean this place has a tapas style menu. The food at Juniper is wonderful. I have been coming here since it opened and the menu is delicious. Yes there are execution flaws on occasion, but overall the food is better than most of the "Boise's Best" restaurants in downtown. Unfortunately the rest is mediocre to pretty bad. The service is spotty at Juniper. It's not that servers make large errors such as incorrect items ordered, timing etc. It's just that the waiters and waitress at this restaurant don't seem to care or want to be bothered. I get the hipster and bohemian looks, but you just look lazy and dirty. Yes I'm detail picky but I don't like it when the person who brings food to my table has dirt under the fingernails, or the server's appearance is sloppy and disheveled, wearing wrinkled and untucked shirts. Great there's no policy on uniforms, but that doesn't mean servers can dress like stoner college kids, even if they are. I'm not a fan of girls wearing tights at work, I don't think it's professional at any job. I certainly don't need to be able to tell what kind of, or if any at all, underwear you have on. I'm also not sure about the guys with the janitor keys hanging off the side of your pants. It reminds me of a McDonalds manager or my middle school janitor. It's just annoying. My biggest issue with the service is that the servers don't seem to know anything about what Juniper provides. Yes, most of them have the standard speel down about the menu, but none seem to know what beers they offer, or that there's a beer list, any information about the wines they carry except that they're local, liquors available etc. A lot of them don't even know the specialty cocktail list and tend to answer questions with "that's my favorite". Most of the time the servers have to relay questions to the bartenders to get answers. A lot of the service staff tend to hang out at the hostess stand, or in the middle of the bar and gossip or talk (way too loud) about how much they drank the night before. Not very appealing to me. I'm not sure why the bartenders don't shoo them away. Almost all of the bartenders seem to be ahead of the curve on service and knowledge at Juniper. They know the beers and wine and seem to be able to execute drinks well and are able to recommend variations if you can't find something you like. Unfortunately, they spend a large majority of the time tending to the servers. The cocktail list at Juniper is pretty boring. It seems like there's only about 3 drinks on the specialty cocktail list with at least 2 versions of the same drink. Gin and grapefruit... gin and basil... nothing really to original or exciting. It's even worse that all of the "specialty" cocktails are made with rail booze, the lowest quality level of liquor in the house. The happy hour at Juniper is pretty confusing. It used to be discounted draft beer and wine, then it became $5 specialty cocktails, now it's just discounted cocktails. It probably wouldn't be so bad except that rail liquor is used anyway. The happy hour food menu is confusing also. Half of the menu is available during happy hour, but the second half is only available on Friday and Saturday nights, even though the menu says happy hour 7 days a week. Confusing. The restaurant made some interior changes to what it was previous. Windows have been revealed and the brick has been exposed. The decor is very visually appealing. The theme of the restaurant, again is confusing. The management has emphasized that they are not focused on craft cocktails or mixology, but then why the anti-prohibition paint job and the upcoming party celebrating the repeal of prohibition? Servers tend to make a point of explaining that the majority of items on the menu are vegetarian and gluten free and can be made vegan upon request. Then why the big chandelier made from antlers? Confusing and creepy. Because of the high ceilings and exposed brick, sound carries in the restaurant and it can get pretty loud. Personally I think the music is way too loud. It seems that the owners want a type of club scene, but it doesn't really fit with the majority of clientele. Besides being too loud, the music is pretty bad. Great you're from Seattle and you're cool, except that mid 90's grunge and alt rock do not make good dinner music. The ambiance is usually ruined because of some 90's "rocker" mumbling about depression, suicide or whatever blues you might have. When the music does turn to upbeat, it's usually some kind of house or techno beat to it. It wouldn't be so bad if it were at half the volume. I really do like Juniper and I hope it sticks around. Boise needs to upgrade the options of food available to customers in the area and Juniper does that very well. The rest of restaurant experience at Juniper needs a lot of work. read more

Oh Juniper, I wish I could rate you better. Visited a few months ago with high expectations.. I love that Boise offers progressive food and decor concepts, so I was thrilled to finally try Juniper... I also love the name. Unfortunately, the food was sub par, over salted soup and kale salad. I ordered the steak and what came was about 3/4 fat to meat ratio. Took about two bites and asked my server to come over... explained there was just too much fat on it and I wasn't very excited about trying to fishing the little bits of meat I could cut around. He took it away, never offered to get a menu for me to try anything else.. When the bill came I was surprised to see the entree still on there! This either makes me think that a. he didn't inform the kitchen/manager I sent the food back or b. he did and they aren't great at guest experience satisfaction enough to come over or relay that it would be taken off the bill. I mean, you want repeat customers right? That is the point, right? Anyway, cocktails were good, my friend enjoyed their food they ordered (which is why 2 stars are given) and if they could get their service on par with the cool concept I think it would be a place I would frequent. Ill give it another try sometime... with high hopes for improvement! read more

Skip it - I found this place on Zagat as highly recommended - got here and it's empty at 1 pm on a Saturday with the farmers market in full swing right outside the door. That was the clue I missed - I should have run away! The bar tender couldn't recommend a crisp white local wine - although I found a good one on the list. She proceeded to not know if the salmon was farmed (turned out it is farmed, which is disgusting for a restaurant billed as serving local food), and she spent her time texting her friends rather than serving customers. She poured me the dregs from one old open bottle of wine and topped it off with wine from a new bottle - never ok although I didn't complain - and it took her 5 minutes to open the bottle because clearly she didn't know how to use a corkscrew. THEN the hostess and the bartender had a whispering discussion right in front of me and gave me the side eye the whole time ... so uncomfortable - note that I hadn't done anything more than order the wine and turn down making a food order when I learned the salmon was farmed. So - I can't speak for the food since I won't eat farmed salmon - but the service was uneducated, untrained, rude and all over awful. Skip this place!! read more

We enjoyed a really nice dinner here when a friend visited last November. We all liked our meals, and the ambiance was great. Low-key but hip. Nice lighting. I was excited to bring extended family back for Easter brunch. There were 8 of us and we were seated upstairs, which was nice, because we had some grandparents who like to hear each other talk. Mimosas and bloody's were good and creatively made. It went downhill from there. First, they give you a drink menu with a full and yummy-looking brunch menu on the back. Then, they tell you you can't order from that menu, only the few-item Easter brunch menu (so their small kitchen doesn't get overwhelmed, which I get, but then they shouldn't put a larger menu in front of everyone). Server seemed really rushed and harried. My mother-in-law wanted to order an extra brioche french toast for the table, without an egg or meat side and, even though she was already ordering another full entree, she was told she could ONLY order the full entree, not just the brioche part. They forgot one of my kids' fruit plates and then charged us for it. My daughter had a very long hair in her dish, which I gently informed the server of--I hope she told the kitchen staff to don their hairnets. My poached eggs over Brussels sprout sweet potato hash was good, as was the sourdough toast. Two people ordered the chicken/biscuits/gravy and thought the biscuits were very dry, even after pouring all of the gravy on them. The other plates ordered were passable but not what I was hoping for for our out of town guests. I'd like to give them another try ... we'll see. read more

Worst experience ever, sever was very rude (best word for a review). My wife has some dietary restrictions, eating out can be difficult. We always check menus online and make sure she has a handful of options to choose from. Upon arrival we were given brunch menus, I didn't realize they only served the brunch until 2 pm (it was 1:30 when we got there). We asked the server a few questions who was less than helpful and clearly didn't know what was in the food he was serving. So we asked for the regular menu, the server told us we look at the menu but would have to sit and wait for thirty minutes before we could order. I had ordered a drink, and only took one sip out of it. When we decided to leave due to the lack of variety in the brunch menu and dietary restrictions. The server rudely said you are going to have to pay for the coffee,it was all i could do not to slam $2.50 in change on the table and walk out, I calmly handed him cash and walked out. read more