Castle Ranch Steakhouse

Glad I didn’t read the reviews before I went; we would have missed a creative tapas menu, great wine & good service. We were staying at the hotel & went for convenience instead of Unilocaling first after a long day on the road.
They are all local & sustainable with a lot of variety, I had a hard time choosing. I must say I wasn’t expecting much from a hotel restaurant and it was quite a lovely surprise.
The caprese salad was great, tzatziki lamb was awesome and my husband’s vegetable risotto great. We were gluttons and also ordered the lentil hummus which was very interesting & good but we were so full we couldn’t finish. Recommend you give this one another try & ignore the older reviews.

Ate here once before and had a good meal so, decided to go again. It’s convenient to the hotel I stay at. Unfortunately, it appears I would have been better off to one and done this place.
To start, at $ 32 for a 14 oz ribeye, you need to bring your A game. I asked for it to be well seasoned but it lacked that entirely. Maybe they misunderstood my order because the nail thin asparagus was like trying to chew a chunk off a salt lick. The baked potato was a good half hour from being done. All I could eat was the cooked outer part around the hard center. When I mentioned it to the waitress she just said ‘oh, that’s not good’, giggled, and walked away.
Oh, almost forgot, I tried to order a cocktail before my meal and was told they were ‘shutdown on alcohol due to an ownership change’ which was also followed by a gee wiz giggle as she walked away.
I’d definitely stay clear of this place. For the price, there’s plenty of other options to get a better value.

My parents were here visiting. There were 6 in our group. We arrived at around 5:30 and were the only people in the whole place. We ordered two of the panchetta shrimp appetizer (9.95). What we received was a little dish of cocktail sauce and 4 shrimp for each appetizer. When I asked the waitress where the panchetta was, she said that she thought we ordered the shrimp cocktail… and we were getting a better deal because with what we ordered we got one more shrimp. So we said ok and ordered our dinner. We had two orders of the special — 12 — 14 oz prime rib, two flank steaks, one rack of beef ribs, and one order of tortollini. When we got our orders, one of the flank steaks was a prime rib. Instead of saying that we could get the prime rib at the same price as the flank steak (10.00 savings), our waitress offered to take it back and bring him out another flank steak. He said no that he’d eat the steak. The prime rib was cut extremely thin, was very fatty, and chewy. I would never imagine serving that to anyone. We had to ask for horseradish sauce and the waitress had to whip it up in the back because they didn’t offer it with the prime rib. Imagine that? The potatoes that were ordered were gummy and coated with cheddar cheese. The best thing about this whole dinner were the rolls. My daughter ordered the tortollini and it looked and tasted like it was frozen and put in a bowl and microwaved. Terrible.
I will never go back to this place. My relatives called me and said that the only thing good about our dinner was that it was so quiet so we could talk. YIKES!

The service was excellent. Our steaks were perfectly grilled, and the mashed potatoes were delicious. The chef got a little heavy handed with the anchovies in the Caesar salad, so it was distinctly fishy. To his credit, out waiter immediately offered to being me a new garden salad instead. The salad could have been improved by using a nicer spring greens mix, and it’s just a little hard to get past the outdated carpet and Perkins chairs. This restaurant is close… soooo close.

The worst «food» I have EVER had in my life. Downright disgusting. I wouldn’t feed it to my dog if I had one. This place is the epitome of Idaho at it’s worst. I can’t tell you how much I hated it.

This is the third time we’ve been to Castle Ranch and chose it for our anniversary dinner. Everything we had was wonderful, starting with the baked Brie appetizer, followed by the Osso Buco pork and salmon entrees and ending with the blueberry/​chocolate dessert. We don’t know why more people don’t know about this great restaurant but if you try it, you will love it!

Wish I could give it a lower rating. Every part of my meal was terrible. After paying $ 38 for a ribeye you should not have to coat it in pepper and pour on steak sauce just to give it some kind of taste. This place should be avoided by all means.

Easter brunch was horrible, at best. Poor service, cold, soggy food and rude wait staff. It is obvious that they no longer cater for large groups.
Water glasses went empty and coffee was delivered to the wrong people.
I could not cut the overdone eggs Benedict with my knife. The bacon was not fully cooked nor was it crispy. The «out of this world» potato chip with chocolate and bacon was rancid. None of the serving trays was even close to being the proper temperature. The rib hash was gooey potatoes and beef fat off of a rib.
We will not return to this formerly well run restaurant.
Not for anyone on a sodium restricted diet or functioning taste buds.

Had a very good experience Saturday evening, Steak was cooked perfectly, wait staff was on their A game, quiet enjoyable night, don’t be in a hurry, if you are in a rush this is not the place for you. If you like lingering over cocktails and good potato rolls this is for you.

I have some mixed feelings about this place. It’s located in the lobby of the Boise Hotel and Conference Center, so it made for a convenient breakfast location, especially when we had to be ready to go fairly early… or so we thought. We gave it two tries, and both experiences were roughly the same.
We walked in the first time and were seated right away. The server –Tracy?- was very friendly with a big smile. She brought us coffee with flavored creamers (yay) and took our order. About 20 minutes later, we realized that at that point, there wasn’t enough time for my boyfriend to eat and get back to the room to get ready in time, so we flagged her down to ask if we could get it to go. She apologized for the wait, passed the to-​go message along, and my boyfriend eventually had to leave to get ready for a meeting while I waited for the food and the bill. I finally got the food, but still no bill. There was then some confusion about who to bill it to (we were there with a group) and she tried very hard to work with me, even though she was very busy. I went upstairs to get my credit card since they couldn’t find our master bill, and when I returned she wouldn’t take it from me, assuring me they’d figure it out. I went back upstairs and ate my breakfast (my boyfriend didn’t have a chance to touch his until a few hours later). My granola and yogurt parfait with strawberries was *awesome*. There was exactly the right ratio of fruit, yogurt and crunch, and everything tasted very fresh and flavorful. Later, Tracy knocked on our door so we could sign the bill that was to be routed to the group. So she did take care of it!
The next day, we were in no rush. That said, we weren’t prepared to wait half an hour to even get to order our food. They were very busy again, and short-​staffed… but it’s hard to understand not even taking the order. Tracy again was our server, and she was apologetic at every turn. I overheard some other angry tables, and her explanations and apologies (new chef, new dishwashers, poor scheduling?) but that table walked out. We finally ordered, and I got the parfait again and it was fantastic again. My boyfriend’s eggs (I think it was an omelet) looked great too.
Both days, no matter how busy or stressed out Tracy obviously was, she was so polite and friendly that we could hardly blame her for the issues. And, the food was great. The downside is obviously the wait, and probably the restaurant management.

Best steak in Boise! The quality of the beef here is about as good as it gets. The atmosphere isn’t like some other high end restaurants I’ve been to but I came here looking to find the best steak in town and left thinking I have. The rib eye was delicious and cooked to a perfect medium rare… most places I’ve been to in Boise ALWAYS overcook medium rare for some reason. Next time I’m trying the tenderloin!

Nice dinner but new york steak was ok not great. Very hard gristle along the whole side of the steak. The four of us enjoyed the evening but will probably head back downtown next time. The bang wasn’t worth the buck so to speak.

WOW! A surprise find from an Internet search. My friends picked me up from the airport and said they had a very close surprise for dinner. Everything was perfection. I had the filet that honestly the butter knife would have been sufficient for slicing. Staff very attentive and helpful. My friends had the ribeye and couldn’t put their forks down until it was gone. So didn’t lick the plate just to save room for the homemade cobbler. You HAVE to try this place!

Went here because I had a Groupon. The ambiance is nice, its quiet. The salads– although they don’t come with our $ 30+ entrée steak– were pretty good. The meal didn’t come with any bread, which I found a major let down. The steaks have a funny sugary glaze on top. The top and bottom of my steak was well done, and the middle was medium-​rare. I asked for medium well. The steaks also didn’t have a lot of seasoning and quite frankly could of used some steak sauce. The service was slow– but hey with a packed house of 5 people total in the dining room, who could blame them? The ambiance and salads were a high point, the steaks sucked. So far between all steak houses of various price ranges– outback steakhouse can’t be beat (which I find quite sad).

The short version: They deliberately added a 19% tip to my to-​go order, but they removed it after speaking with a manager.
Slightly more verbose version:
I called to order a cobb salad to go. Although the gentleman sounded a bit surprised at my call, he was pleasant. I arrived about 5 – 10 minutes later and was told it would be another ten minutes or so since the chicken had to be cooked. So I walked around out front and returned in 10 minutes to find my order waiting at the host stand, although I waited another 5 minutes or so for someone to see me.
When I received my bill, I noticed a 19% gratuity had been added. When I asked about this (it said nothing about this on the website or menu, nor was it mentioned when I called.) The gentleman explained that this is company policy. I asked why a tip on to-​go orders might be standard practice since there has been no service provided that usually calls for a gratuity. He then went on to explain that this charge covers «the expense of the take-​out supplies.» «Why would this be considered part of a tip?» I asked. Again, he explained that this is just the way it was and there was nothing he could do.
So, I told him I wasn’t interested in the salad if he insisted that I pay the 19% tip. He decided he would talk to «her.» She came, apologized that the tip was added, stated that this should not have been added and adjusted my bill accordingly without any reluctance. PROBLEM SOLVED.
The salad itself was quite tasty, with fresh bacon, avocado and chicken of very good quality. The taste of the food is five stars.
I would have given it 5 stars overall if not for the deception, and I gave it a 2 instead of a 1 since they did rectify the issue for me. I am just concerned that this practice of charging gratuity on take-​out orders is standard.
Visited March 2014

So we went for the groupon and seeing the menu online you are expecting a nice place considering steaks are in the 30 dollar range.
We walk in and there is no podium or person to greet you at the front. The room is a conference room that has lazily been transitioned into a restaurant.
We finally get seated after some awkward stares by the staff. We decide to order the wings as an appetizer and they came out pretty quick. The wings were microwaved with some soggy vegetables on the side along with some super watery ranch dip.
So after eating our appetizer they finally decide to bring out the bread which is super thin sour dough.
Finally we get our main entrees. My girlfriend got the salmon cakes and I got the new york cut. The salmon cakes without a doubt were frozen before and a step below what you can get at costco.
My steak came out looking pretty good but without much seasoning or flavor. It came with a baked potato that came out with microwaved cheese on top of it.
So if you like subpar steaks that cost 30 dollars, and stauffers salmon cakes, this is your place to be. Go to a real steakhouse like Texas roadhouse if you want value and flavor. Ripoff and gross! Even with the groupon.

Disappointing. We went there only because I got the Groupon. The best things about this place was the staff — they were all very freindly — and their policy of buying local and using grass-​fed beef. Aside from that, I don’t have a lot of praise. The bread before dinner was basically bland white bread — and the meal wasn’t that much better. We got the ribeye (recommended by the waitress — of course, it was the most expensive thing on the menu) and the sirlion steak sandwich. They were both ‘o.k.’ The sidedishes were o. k, as well. For the prices they are getting, I would’ve expected it to be much better. I think I could make a better meal at home. Plus, they leave the front doors open (into the hotel lobby) so you definately are aware the whole time you are in a hotel and the t.v. from the sports bar next door is blaring into the room — so the dining experience was less than pleasurable or elegant — not what I would want from a nice steakhouse.

Great surprise here. Don’t let airport hotel setting fool you, the food, wine and setting are up there with the best restaurants in town. We have been back three times since new management has obviously focused on making fine dining a hallmark of the hotel’s transformation. The steaks are terrific, but there is an creative menu of excellent local offerings. Great new addition to Boise fine dining scene!

–Food: **2.5 stars
–Atmosphere: **3.5 stars
–Service: **2 stars
I just got a Groupon’s $ 20 for $ 40 deal couple days ago and was excited to try out this place and make it our Valentine’s day dinner.
–Reservation:
First thing is their reservation system was weird. When I called their number at 7pm on Thursday, I guess because they are part of the Boise Hotel and Conference Center, the Hotel front desk will then transfer me to the restaurant. And nobody was picking up the phone, so I get a voice mail saying to leave the details for the reservation, without any opening hours information, I picked Sunday night, then they called me and left a voice mail because they are closed on Sunday night. So I call them again and nobody answered so I left another voice mail, we finally got reservation settled on Friday night. I would recommend the restaurant to 1) Have a direct line to the restaurant 2) Have people take reservations, or 3) In the voice mail say what the hours are
–Meal:
This restaurant is inside the Boise Hotel and Conference Center for those of you trying to find the place, for some reason, Google navigate sent us the wrong way on Vista.
Other table got served bread, not our table, which isn’t a big deal.
I ordered the bone-​in ribeye medium-​rare, and my wife had the salmon cake. The ribeye came medium-​well. I was going to sent it back, but my wife convinced me that it wasn’t necessary. To be honest, I can make a better steak on my grill than this $ 29 steak. The highlight of the dish was the side squash and potato hash, I really like the squash and my wife really liked the potato hash.
Service wise, our waitress was nice, it was kind hard to get her attention to box the left over steak (which they never give me the steak back, which I don’t mind too much about, so I didn’t even ask for it.) It took forever to get her to give us the bill, I had to ask the manager, and then wait again for her to take the bill, which another waiter took it in for us. For a steakhouse at this price range, I would expect a better service.
Before we left, they give us a coupon for either a free appetizer or a bottle of wine the next time we visit. Would we go back again? I think I have to think really hard even with the coupon.