Top 5 Spots
Diablo and Sons Saloon
10 Barrel Brewing
KIN & ART HAUS BAR
Yoi Tomo Sushi and Grill
Luciano's Italian Restaurant
Diablo and Sons Saloon
We absolutely love Diablo and Sons! I always order the Diablo Burger and add bacon to it about half the time. Just depends on the vibe. The burger patty is ground in house and cooked on a wood fire. The wood fire gives a great flavor, but just try to avoid sitting in front of it. One time we sat in front of the fire, and although it was a spectacle, we were sweating up a storm during dinner. Their fries are a beautiful golden brown. Both the burger and fries come with Drive-In Sauce which is a tangy, mustardy, mayo based sauce I presume. I'm a big sauce guy so I always get 1 or 2 extra sides of it. It's incredible! My wife typically orders one of the tacos. She's loves the tacos that come with some kind of spicy salsa or chimichurri. She also gets a side of fries with Drive-In Sauce because who doesn't love fries and this is our favorite dipping sauce in town.
10 Barrel Brewing
10 Barrel is a mainstay for us when we have friends or family in town and we want to show them downtown Boise. It is located across the street from Freak Alley which is always a fun attraction. Typically, on the drive in, we pass the Idaho Capital Building which is also a good photo op for visitors. 10 Barrel has a great vibe with a big open space with standard brewery aesthetic. Some great options to start come from the appetizer menu. We love to order the Warm Pretzels as an app and it always pair nicely with a drink. The bacon jalapeño ancho pepper cheese dip they come with is to die for! Another great app is what I like to call a Pro-move. Order the Steak Nachos, and substitute the chips for fries. The nachos normally come on potato chips that are made in-house. I am not the biggest fan of chips, and I think most would agree that fries are always better than potato chips. It is a little known secret, but so worth it! When it comes to the main entree, one of us always orders the Pubhouse Burger. It's a thick burger with crispy onions strings, A1 Sauce, and bacon. What is not to love? We also like to order the Fried Chicken Sandwich. The fried chicken has a nice crisp to it and the sauce will end up dripping down your face. This meal is sure to make a mess (in a good way).
KIN & ART HAUS BAR
My wife and I recently discovered KIN and we loved it! If you are looking for an awesome date night with an extremely elevated dining experience, this is the place for you. KIN has a menu that changes every 5 weeks. It is a 5 course pre-fixed menu. I personally love giving chefs the reigns and just going along for the ride. KIN focuses on extremely high quality ingredients and unique ingredient combinations. It is a true fine-dining establishment. They explain each dish and the inspiration and thought process that went into crafting it. If you like watching cooking competition shows, this is an experience that you will truly enjoy. The thing that separates KIN form the rest of the places on this list is that is provides a dining experience. The other spots on this list are great, but KIN is unique. It does come with a hefty price tag of $95 a person for food and beverage pairing for the Saturday Night at 9:00 pm. All other days and times it is $95 a person just for food and the beverage pairing is an additional $45 option.
ART HAUS BAR is the cocktail bar that is attached to KIN and is also a great date night spot if you are looking for something more casual and affordable compared to KIN. We got the Ramen last time we went and it was great. The real star of the show is the Potato Salad. I never would have expected potato salad to be so good, but it all comes down to the creativity, quality ingredients, and incredible flavor combinations that KIN and ART HAUS BAR are known for. They also have plenty of great cocktails to choose from and different board and card games available to play which makes for a fun date night.
Yoi Tomo Sushi and Grill
Yoi Tomo is an absolute staple for me and my friends. My last season playing football for Boise State, we had a group of us that went to Yoi Tomo every Wednesday after practice during the season. Yoi is by far the best All You Can Eat Sushi spot in town. We usually will start by ordering a bunch of apps to share with the table including Shrimp Tempura, Egg Rolls, Steamed and Fried Gyoza, Crab Tempura, Calamari, and Jalapeno Bombs. I highly recommend asking for a side of spicy mayo and eel sauce, then mixing them together to make a dipping sauce for the apps. When it comes to rolls, Yoi has a huge selection! The staples for me are the Anger Management, Man on Fire, Last Samurai, Inception, and John Wick. I order all of my rolls with no cream cheese. I find that the cream cheese can distract from the flavors of the other ingredients in the roll and it is heavier on the stomach. A pro-move is to order the John Wick with no Sriracha and not baked. The Sriracha is too overpowering in my opinion and not baking it leaves you with raw salmon on top and it makes this roll a perfect blend between nigiri and rolls. If someone is afraid of nigiri, I highly recommend giving them that roll to try first. On top of rolls, I order Salmon, Tuna, and Yellowtail nigiri. Salmon nigiri is my favorite thing to eat on Earth. It has such a great flavor, texture, and butteriness to it thanks to the high fat content in salmon. I order Tuna nigiri strictly to mix in between Salmon nigiri to remind myself why I love the Salmon nigiri so much. Tuna nigiri is good, it is just leaner and thus more dry. Yellowtail nigiri has a much stronger fishy taste, but also has some of the creaminess to it thanks to the fat content. The beauty of All You Can Eat is you can order a bunch for the table and get to try a bit of everything until you really find out what you like.
Luciano's Italian Restaurant
Lastly, we have Luciano's because who doesn't love a nice Italian dinner! The bread with oil and vinegar is always a hit. The bread is large, fluffy, and has the perfect amount of salt on it. The Brie appetizer is incredible! It comes with apples and honey and never disappoints. It is the perfect combination of sweet and savory. The Calamari is another great appetizer option. The breading is seasoned to perfection, it is light but crispy, and the dipping sauce it comes with is amazing! When it comes to entrees you really can't go wrong. Portion sizes are large so this is a great spot to load up on bread and then take leftovers for lunch the next day, even if you're a big eater like myself. Some of our favorite entrees are the Clam Linguine, Agave Chicken Penne, The Gabriel, and Veal Picatta. The menu is large so there is always something new to try. Next time I'd like to try one of the pizzas.
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