Tom Sweenys Dutch Oven Cafe

Daddy love. Hands down the best diner in Boise. The Dutch Oven is a house turned into a restaurant off Fairview and Orchard serving breakfast M-​F (6am to 11am) and all day Saturdays, and lunch M-​F (11am to 2pm). Closed Sundays.
Breakfast is two eggs, country hash browns, sourdough hot cakes, and either bacon or sausage (regular or smoked) for $ 10 (includes a drink and canned fruit).
Lunch is the biggest and juiciest burger along with all the freshest fixings for $ 10 (includes a drink and cottage cheese and canned fruit – no fries).
Quality/​tasty food always. Fun and friendly staff. Daddy always comes back for more.

It’s a great start to the day when you’re really hungry. Love the no menu style. Sometimes when there is too many options, it just gets overwhelming when your hungry. Cannot complain about the food. Everything was delicious.
The staff was friendly and nice.
The atmosphere feels like a coastal rustic breakfast house.

Very friendly service, I only wish they served breakfast later, but I understand their reasoning of not wanting to mix lunch foods with breakfast foods on the grill. We are just late sleepers usually and it took us forever to be able to make it in for breakfast.

What a gem! Delicious homestyle food and plenty of it! The specialty is sour dogh pancakes but everything was great! The staff is friendly and efficient. Even though this was our first time, this place has been around for a long time and for good reason.

Great place! I purchased their Groupon for 4 breakfast plates and it was delicious! Lots of food, great wait staff and the sourdough pancakes are the best we’ve ever had!

Good restaurant. Large orders. No menu but the features are explained and half orders are available
Orders done quickly and are hot.
Early hours are convenient for morning workers

If you’re looking for real sourdough pancakes, this is your place. No menu. Breakfast is hash browns, 2eggs, fruit cup, 2 sourdough pancakes, and breakfast meat. You can substitute toast for cakes, or today they had biscuits and gravy. I had smoked sausage that was delicious. Bacon was also thick and perfectly cooked.
Don’t be in a hurry. The help was busy on this Saturday but very friendly. Just a tad slow but was worth the wait.
May have to come try lunch. But the sourdough cakes were spot on.

Wife inks up on a groupon discount and thought we should try another new places so I read a few critiques and wonder what made her pick this place. So we arrive on Sunday around 10:00, me with an opinion of this place and it wasn’t good. First it’s crowded, and the friendliest gal meets and said she would get us seated. We explained we needed space for 5, and she said maybe 20 minutes. Listen, she check on us at least 3 times while we enjoyed the wonderful day on the porch. Then our company for breakfast stands us up after she put us at this wonderful table only to back out to alloy another big group opportunity to utilize this table. Well she checks on us no less than 3 more times offering us coffee or drink, and soon had a different table which suited us perfect.
This is where the weirdness starts. They offer their house special which had some choices but this is why I had hesitations, my wife was on a stringent eating regiment and she had even smaller choices… lucky for me. I got her sour dough pancakes, the BEST I ever had, the smoked sausage also topped my list as best ever. The service is a well tuned machine, everybody doing their thing, bustling about taking care of us, the customer. I’m not kidding, pick this place, it’s not the Taj Mahal but you’ll be treated like royalty and fed a kings meal.

Don’t go for lunch unless you want an oversized burger with cottage cheese and fruit, because they don’t have a menu and it’s the only thing they serve. I know I won’t ever go back.
I hear the breakfast good, but it’s the same thing for breakfast. They don’t have a menu, the just make the same thing for everyone everyday.

Loved this place. Had a half breakfast with bacon. The coffee was delicious, and the hash browns were excellent. I think there were only three employees there at the time and they were all very nice. I am excited to go back for lunch sometime.

This is the place we love to take our out-​of-​state guests for breakfast, but only if they say that they like sour dough pancakes. Nick, the chef, is super friendly. If not too busy he makes the rounds of the folks and chats and even takes your photos if you wish.
Right, there is no menu, but one can order a half breakfast or a whole breakfast. A half breakfast is plenty for me. One can also include the meat, then choose what kind of breakfast meat you would like. The sourdough pancakes have received raves from our friends. In fact, one couple insists that we go to the Dutch Oven Café whenever they come to town.
Once we arrived late for breakfast. No breakfast available. It was time for the burgers. Yummy, but I was a bit disappointed that I could not have sourdoughs. 8-)

Good food, relaxing. Options are limited with only a couple items you can change out for breakfast such as choice of pancake or toast. Lunch is apparently just a burger with fruit salad and cottage cheese. So if your going, expect just those items. Felt like we were sitting in someone’s home which was cool. All in all, I want to go back and try the burger.

This place is AMAZING!
If you have the appetite of a truck driver and don’t mind having someone tell you what you are going to eat (There is no menu, it is one set meal for breakfast and lunch) then this is the place for you!
I kind of like going in and not having to make a decision. (But you can choose if you want meat with breakfast and they have a few options. I HIGHLY recommend the bacon!!)
Usually for breakfast they feature their sourdough pancakes (YUMM!!) and perfectly cooked eggs (the chef, I believe his name is Nick, makes the BEST eggs. I always get over easy and he does it just right) … On Saturdays they shake things up a bit. I had French Toast and excellent hash browns last week and today was biscuit and gravy day. There was A LOT of food! 2 biscuits and gravy, a pile of hash browns, 2 eggs over easy, and bottomless coffee for $ 7. My mom added bacon (enough to share with me!) and her meal was $ 11. Tax included.
WOW! It was DELICIOUS (as always! But my mom doesn’t like sourdough so she isn’t crazy about their pancakes. I love them. It reminds me of when I first had them in Alaska.)
Also, try the chef’s killer homemade hot sauce. A little goes a long way and for those that like the heat, it is so good. It is a perfect condiment for the hash browns and eggs.
I REALLY (really) LOVE this place. I would give 5 stars but when they are busy, the wait staff doesn’t know how to handle it. Today for example they were working hard, but not working smart. They were like a chicken without a head. A family walked out because they didn’t even have drinks after 10 minutes. I asked for the hot sauce and instead of just grabbing it for me (or looking to see which table it was sitting on) she started completely doing something else. (It is a very small place.) I know she was busy, but it would have taken seconds. After a few minutes I had to go ask the chef for it. (He is proud of his hot sauce and won’t give me the recipe even though I keep asking for it.)
The chef (Nick?) Is a very friendly guy. He loves talking with his customers (but not today — they were REALLY busy!) It makes me like the place even more! It is like an old time diner … Just a great place. BUT IT IS NOT THE PLACE YOU GO IF YOU ARE IN A HURRY. I can’t stress that enough. It is a laid back kind of place with ONLY ONE cook!
BUT YOU HAVE TO GO! The food is AMAZING!

These are the best sourdough pancakes I have ever eaten and I seek out sourdough pancakes when I travel. The atmosphere is great. You can tell the grill captain and the wait staff know their customers and engage in familiar and sassy banter. I found myself chuckling repeatedly at their give and take. The smoked sausage was a very good addition to the cakes. Be careful about the house salsa. It’ll rip the top of your head off if you are too reckless. Looking forward to my next trip to Boise just for another stop here!

This is a very unique but strange place. They have about 3 options for meat, eggs and some pretty decent pancakes. I am told but have never been, they serve hamburgers and fries for lunch. There are no other options so don’t go asking for a menu as you might piss off the owner. He seems to get upset if you don’t finish your food also. I had to step out to handle a situation at my house down the street and I didn’t get to finish my pancakes. I was told when I returned that he was very upset I didn’t eat my pancakes. So I suggest you bring a very large appetite or a ziplock to fill up with uneaten food.
The food is simple, so if thats what you’re looking for. Take a test drive although I prefer 5 other places for simple breakfast in lil olé Boise.

This seems to be a converted house, although I don’t think it is. It is fairly modern with a fake fireplace and has no real character. The bar seating has junky old metal chairs that aren’t suitable for commercial use. They are tilted forward as if to say, «get out». Not comfortable at all and they sit way too low for a tall guy like me. Which, puts the counter at your chin.
The place has a set menu which is one dish and no other option. They do allow you to choose your meat (if they don’t run out)… Otherwise, you are eating the one dish.
I sat at the counter with a view of the kitchen where I saw the dish washer bullshitting with his friends and checkin his phone. All the while he could have been helping the only server with coffee, water and bussing. Instead, I got to watch him stand around or sitting on the counter while my coffee cup sat empty.
I really like the idea of this place but, for Christ’s sake, buy some more sausage. And, I don’t like pancakes nor French toast. Maybe offer 3 plates and be done with it.
The owner and staff were very friendly. However, I don’t know how they can survive with this model.
I it were me, I would do the following:
1. Offer more options
2. Make the dish washer help out with coffee, water and bussing tables
3. Spend the money and therefore charge more for high end breakfast meats.
Automatically serve water and don’t make customers ask for regular unsweetened cream.
4. Buy some decent chairs!
5. Don’t show people that you are using SQUARE to run credit cards. It seems half assed and SQUARE has a bad rep anyway.
Y’all are super friendly and I hate to see this place close but ya gotta step it up.
Good luck!

Best breakfast ever! Great service. Love this place.
The sourdough pancakes are so delicious in combination with bacon and hash browns… (I’m drooling as I’m typing this).
Don’t expect your food to come out super fast. Nick takes his time, and so should you.

Just went here today, for the first time. We had talked about going here a long time ago. A friend came to town and we decided to try it. Holy cow. It was GREAT.
As others have said, they serve one thing. Eggs, hasbrowns and pancakes. On the weekend, they also have the option of french toast instead of pancakes. You can also add meat (bacon, sausage, and ham) to the meal, if you want. (The bacon was delicious)
These were THE best pancakes I have ever had. The strawberry/​rhubarb syrup was amazing as well.
I will definitely be eating here more. It was amazingly good.
They now take plastic, so you are covered there. I am glad they do, since I would not have had that much cash on me.
UPDATE: My wife and I visited this place a second time. Again, delicious. She ordered the french toast this time. It was very delicious, but I would still vote the pancakes. This is the first time I have EVER recommended pancakes over french toast.

Get the facts before you go here. If you walk in expecting a full menu, you won’t get it.
It’s a «Good ‘ol Boys Club» where you get what they are cooking that day. No short-​order cooks here. It’s fresh, homemade, personal, and quality food. You just need to understand that they won’t bend over backward for any of your personal requests. It’s kinda like the Soup Nazi… «NO CHEESE FOR YOU» on your burger, and no special requests. It’s the quirk and novelty of the place.
It’s great food… just go in understanding that they run it different than any place else. Get that premise, and you’ll be great! Enjoy what they offer you… you might love it!

This is probably my favorite place to grab breakfast. The food is unbelievable. The atmosphere is wonderful. Don’t plan on leaving in a hurry however, the cook takes his time and only serves one table at a time. Worth the wait though. Best sourdough pancakes and biscuits with gravy I’ve ever tasted.
The place did move to a new location, they are at 1621 N Orchard street now.