The Drink Bar and Waterfront Grill

Wow it’s changed! 8:00 on a Saturday night I brought my visiting family in for a drink and sat in the bar, completely ignored. Not busy, bar tender did dishes and talked to the regulars instead of offering service. We left instead!

The Drink’s culinary team wants everyone to gather around a table and enjoy their Caribbean cuisine. They offer delicious dishes you will rave about like their juicy oxtails, spicy jerk chickena and curry shrimp pasta. Check out their curry goat, curry chicken, kingfish, and much more. Ask for some mango lemonade that is sure to please. Vegitarians will enjoy their many pasta and tofu dishes. Finally, save room for their tempting Caribbean desserts, such as mango cheesecake, carrot cake, and bread pudding. They are a great place for a quaint date or a family outing.

I have gone to this establishment several times over the last few months, and have seen this establishment change ownership four times over the last ten years. I have never experienced such piss poor customer service as I have had at the drink. At this establishment I have seen waitresses and bartenders argue with customers, use foul language, make customers wait thirty minutes for drinks, complain about customers, and seemingly purposely go out of their way to be unhelpful. It is clear to me that their managerial leadership is non existent or lacking of the skill set required to operate a proper establishment. The food is mediocre at best and if you order a drink here make sure it is beer because you will be drastically disappointed with their mixed drink standards. The bar has a strange set up; it’s like they wanted to keep a fine dining experience but then right next to that room is an out of place ‘mechanic’ bar and a tiki bar next to it. The problem is that the food isn’t done anywhere close to the high level a fine dining experience requires. I really wish the show ‘bar rescue’ would come to this place and correct the business model and ‘shake up’ or fire the staff. The only good thing going for this bar is the location. Hopefully this place shuts down and reopens with better management. Until then, this place will continue to be the dumpster fire that never gets extinguished.

Worst bar/​grill in Boise, do not eat here! Terrible service and food. The food is gross, the shrimp I ordered was burnt and non-​edible, I am disgusted they even sent it out of the kitchen and attempted to serve it to me. The service is slow and the wait staff seems to just not care. It’s really sad because the place has so much potential. If it wasn’t for the paddle board demo on Sunday’s I would not waste my time.

Delightful setting dining right on the water, the drinks were song and inventive, and the double d ranch steak was tender and delicious. I had the steak with bacon and Bleu cheese sauce and it was tender and delicious. I believe they are under new management and working to really improve the customer experience and it shows.

Yuk! I was sorry that this was one of the restaurants my daughter experienced during her visit to Boise. I always rave about the restaurants here and we will never darken their doors again. This was the 3^rd and last try for me. At 6:00 pm last Friday night, you could have shot a cannon through the place. In spite of the lack of customers, we found a nice place outside and waited for our waitress who we found out had been there one week and was training a young man with her and it was his first day. Drinks were ordered and served, beer at a almost room temp and rum and coke ordered «tall» but served «short». Beer replaced with pretty bad wine and short drink made tall. Food ordered and I specifically requested that my salad be served with no dressing. Salad arrived with dressing and the waitress told us that is the way the kitchen does it… REALLY??? between long waits, multiple mess ups, the waitress said she would speak to the manager about comping my salad (which by the way I soaked the dressing off with my napkins). Enter at the end of our meal, the «service» manager, and I use the words in jest. After we explained our misadventures through our dining experience, she sort of rolled her eyes, did not express much empathy or concern and offered us a $ 5.00 coupon for our next visit. Hah, like that will happen. Place needs new management and a team that sincerely cares about their clientele or whether or not they want to stay in business. Really a sad waste of a beautiful setting. Very sad.

Worst bar experience EVER! What an embarrassment! Horrible drinks… gag worthy. No sense of customer service or serving in a timely manner. No compensation for unsatisfied customers. They dedicate a whole page to «tropical drinks». What a joke! My «blended» drink came out in a foamy melted mess… no ice, no slush, nothing. And this is just the beginning. Don’t waste your time or money. What a joke.

Very random place, but the atmosphere was great! We got the chicken quesadilla which was pretty good, someone in our table got the same and also loved it. I got the fish n chips and was truly let down. Tartar sauce was hot and had no flavor and chips were extremely oily.
Like I said I would come back for drinks but not for the food.

If you want to feel invisible this is the place to go!
The wait staff in the bar is very slow, some DO NOT know what happy hour is or how to make a Bloody Mary! How does one become a bartender without knowing how to make such a popular drink? What bartender does not not what happy hour is? Looks like they will fill the position with any warm body!
If you order food, expect a long wait and if they make a mistake on your order, don’t expect them to make it right. The manager on duty did not know how to treat customers, possibly another employee who was not trained for her job.
I only gave them one star because zero was not an option.

I am going to try and be as nice as possible.
I have given this restaurant several of chances. My family is not very picky at all, and we really enjoy the water scenery that The Drink has to offer.
My family and I went this afternoon for lunch and drinks, and to enjoy the patio. Our waitress asked if we would like some drinks; I ordered a tropical drink, my fiancé ordered a Bloody Mary and our other party ordered a bloody Mary and an IPA beer. She asked us what IPA meant, then proceeded to tell us that they don’t serve that so we ordered a Mai Thai instead. About ten minutes later, she came back and said «I don’t know how to make drinks, I literally had to read our book the whole time so I hope they are okay.» The bloody Mary’s were horrible. Only tasted like V8, no spices and no vodka. The tropical drink and the Mai Thai also didn’t taste like they had any alcohol in them. For NINE dollars, I would expect to taste SOME. Our friend went upstairs to check the beer menu, and sure enough they had an IPA. My fiancé refused to drink his Bloody Mary so he ordered a Coke and was given a Pepsi.
We then became nervous to order food so we just ordered three orders of the pico appetizer with avocado. When they came to us, she forgot the avacado.
We let the server know what our concerns were, and she became snotty and snatched our debit card and didn’t take ANYTHING off of our bill to try and make things right. I feel like this business is a waste of a beautiful view, and a nicer restaurant should be placed there. Also, the server started bad mouthing us to customers at the tiki bar, and she was lucky that I was not in a bad mood. Don’t waste your time, money or sanity here. It’s dirty and a trashy wannabe club.

I literally got the Unilocal app just to write how terrible of a place this is.
Food took at least a half hour to come out. Meat was way too chewy on both of our sandwiches. Thinking back on our dinner makes me nauseous.
We were sitting on patio and it started raining nobody offered to help bring our food inside. We ended up moving by ourselves.
We waited so long for waitress to come with check. The only time she checked up on us was when we originally got there and when she brought us food. we ended up walking inside and looking for her and it took her at least 20 min to get us the check.
There was a band playing inside and it was way too loud even outside the door
There was a man that was served way too much alcohol he literally walked out of the restroom in his underwear and almost fell on top of us walking past us. I’ve never seen a man so drunk in a restaurant.
I will never go back there. They have a great location but the service, food, and atmosphere is terrible.

$ 2 Mondays means just about anything is two bucks. Nachos are still my favorite. Dirt is the best bartender/​manager there. They also have comedy shows and DJs.

Wow, I wish I could write a review about the food, but I can’t! Bought a Groupon for my husband’s birthday yesterday and to try something new. Called early in the day to check hours of operation, no answer. Just a voicemail with times saying they would be open that night. Checked the website, seemed decent and just before departing called again for times and if reservations would be needed, no answer. So my husband and I get there, completely pitch black with a sign on the door stating: «sorry closed for a private party.» This was not reflected in either the phone message or website just that they were open for business. Mad that we wasted a trip and by that point were starving, I left a message for someone to call me as I was very dissatisfied, and low and behold no return call, very unprofessional. Was willing to give a second chance, however, the management staff didn’t even bother to call with concern over ruining my husband’s night! And after seeing some of the crappy reviews, I glad I didn’t waste my husband’s time in taking him here! At this point I’m just going to get the Groupon refunded as I paid for services not rendered! Thanks again for ruining my husbands birthday, don’t bother trying to obtain my business at this point, I refuse to entertain unprofessional behavior, and I’ll be letting folks know where NOT to go if they make plans! Ugh, not amused!

Probably the worst service and experience I have had in a long time. It was dead there and the waitress took forever, the deck was filthy and there were cob webs everywhere. I ordered a specialty drink and it was gross after one sip I sent it back and ordered something else. Then the manager said we still had to pay for it, the food is way too pricey for what you get and the service is slow and the waitresses are unprofessional. The food was mediocre overpriced and the service didn’t make the first time experience there good at all! Then making us pay for a drink that was gross after she took it back full was a bunch of crap. I will never go there again.

The service was subpar, they did not know how to cook my steak, and the drinks were not that great. If you’ve ever seen the show «Bar Rescue», this place could be on that show. I wish they would have had a drink menu with cocktails and things like that for those of us you cannot get our drink on every weekend. The atmosphere was nice.

This place will be out of business soon. The worst food experience I’ve had in Boise in 10 years. Lobster Bisque and Asian Ahi salad were horrific. Not edible. Soup was rancid, tuna was frozen from Winco style, lettuce was brown. The chicken on our friends salad looked to have «pre grill» marks and looked like a human forearm. Mcrib pre pressed style. Waitress nice, didn’t know what the hell she was talking about. Mentioned several times they source local food. She didn’t mention local from Sysco. Manager compt out entire meal. They were embarrassed, you could tell. This place stinks to high heaven. Adiós The Drink.

This is one of the worst restaurants in Boise! The service is terrible; the food is worse.
My girlfriend and I met there because they have a lovely patio on the water and we will never go back. It was not a crowded evening, but our waitress took 15 minutes to do anything (take our order, bring back the drink; take our food order); she couldn’t answer direct questions and seemed on drugs; the food tasted bizarre; and their website advertised different information than the restaurant acknowledged.
Not worth a visit until a new owner does an overhaul. This restaurant has great potential, but unfortunately it is currently disjointed and poorly operated.

I’m very confused about the bad food reviews on here. I have never had ANYTHING bad here, in fact, everything I’ve had has been exceptional! Overall, its a beautiful place with a fun, friendly staff, a great place to eat, and afterhours, a fantastic place to have a party! If you want something special for a party, or just a night out with a date or friends, just ask!!! I can almost guarantee they can and will accommodate!
I read a comment about a coupon a consumer had that was good during «lunch hours» but weren’t open until 3, and I imagine that would be frustrating. However, did you ask someone on the staff if they would still honor it under the circumstances? My bet is they would.
I’ve been coming here since they opened under new ownership (I HATED Montego Bay) and it has turn around 150% for the better! I will continue to come here as long as I am able!

While searching for a location to party a little closer to home, some buds and I stumbled upon this place when it was still Montego Bay. Good times were had, including my annual Mardi Gras parties here. However things began a steady decline in terms of service just prior to its abrupt sale and subsequent closure.
Fast-​forward the tape to the late summer. I learned that this new place called «The Drink» was taking over the former Montego Bay location. Curious to check it out, I took a date there on a Sunday evening — the host asked us where we wanted to be seated, and we both requested out on the dock. On the way outside, we were given a brief description of the new management’s plan for the location.
What really impressed me about the experience was the prompt effort of the staff to go out of their way to accomodate the customers. My date was allergic to dairy products, and almost all of the food items contained some kind of dairy. When I mentioned this to the server (I believe his name was Travis), he said he would look into the situation. A short time later, the chef came out and explained to my date about the changes he could make to help her out and offered some solutions. Travis came back and checked with her to see if things were worked out. So we decided to share some shishkabobs, which were as delicious as if they were cooked over a campfire.
The experience with this staff gave me the impression that we were not just doing business at a restaurant, but hanging out with great friends who just happened to work there. It felt like we were free to have a casual conversation on a one-​to-​one level without being looked down upon as «just customers». That is the mark of great service in my opinion.
UPDATE: My gang went here for their New Year’s Party to welcome in 2013, and the staff continued their daytime tradition of quality service. It was almost difficult to tell who was an employee because they were so fun to be around. When one of my friends had a problem with a credit card transaction, the management staff promptly worked to correct it and offered a free drink as a token of apology. Excellent job, we will be back!

Discovered this place through an IdaDeal today. It is so tucked away (used to be «Montego Bay» which I also had not heard of being pretty new to Idaho) that you can easily miss it. We asked our server Amber about it, and she said it has been open for about two months under new management. I hope word gets out, because we want them to stick around. The location is quite convenient to us in the foothills– it’s about a half mile or so east of Pierce Park Rd. First of all the setting is amazing, right on Silver Lake. There are a couple of docks with tables and chairs and the tiki bar in the middle. Wonderful ambiance, esp. when the sun goes down– nice lighting all around. And that’s just the outside bar. There are two other bars inside. One is an attractive sports-​style with several TVs, and the main bar also has at least one TV and very comfortable tables and chairs spaced nicely apart (I think that’s the one they call the Blarney Stone).
The food was excellent. We ordered the coconut shrimp appetizer (jumbo shrimp wonderfully crisp and non-​greasy) with a tangy dipping sauce. We split the steak/​veggie skewer over rice which was also very satisfying. The beef was amazingly tender and cooked to our specification — medium (I like mine more rare, hubs likes his more done, so this compromise came out perfectly).
We can’t wait to come back and watch a BSU game while grabbing a bite, and maybe we can even catch a Redskins game on a Sunday if we become regulars and can sweet talk the manager into tuning in sometimes, as well as a Sprint Cup race. :-)
We were wowed by everything: location, mood, service, food quality…
Oh, and I almost forgot: the ducks! «Aflac» is the dominant male. Additionally, there were at least three male Mallards, and several females hanging about wanting to be fed. Amber gave us some duck food (croutons) to feed them. We gave about half to the «bevy of beggars» ;-) and then handed the rest to a young couple with a little girl who also appeared to be there for the first time, so they could delight in feeding the duckies.
It was a wonderful overall experience. Good job, Drink! We will be back.