Statesman Restaurant Reviews
Restaurant reviews Guy Hand has written for the Idaho Statesman, Idaho’s largest daily newspaper
Cucina di Paolo, Boise
Mary Jean Wegner is not so much a restaurant owner as a tousle-haired force of nature. She twirls around this tight cluster of tables and chairs scattering greetings, menu suggestions and meals like a benevolent, if slightly mischievous, typhoon. (To one table of regulars, she says she’s adding “a shut up and eat it... »
Shige’s Red Carpet Fine Dining on the Terrace, Boise
The fresh scallop appetizer at Shige Matsuzawa’s new Japanese/French fusion restaurant is flat-out stunning: A mound of sliced and shimmering raw scallops are ringed by red rose petals, a fan of sliced shiitake mushroom and clusters of tobiko caviar glowing both translucent orange and luminous green (tinted with wasabi). The $12 dish, assembled with a... »
Baguette Deli, Boise
I bet we Boiseans will eventually start munching on banh mi, or Vietnamese sandwiches, with the casual regularity of the once exotic taco, pad Thai or pizza (yes, pizza was once exotic). In larger American cities, eaters are already arguing over the virtues of rice over wheat flour banh mi bread with the gusto... »
Taj Mahal, Boise
The new Taj Mahal restaurant in downtown Boise serves Indian food in Hi-Def. Blame that metaphorical leap on the flat screen TV hanging from Taj Mahal’s far wall. Eating while facing a digital swirl of Bollywood musicals naturally blends food and pixels in my head like coconut milk and curry. TV and Indian food, I... »
The Front Door, Boise
This little room is all dark wood, sepia prints and raw brick – the rich, rosy tones of good winter ale. Top it off with a big artisan beer selection, good tunes and enjoyable food, and you’ve got the ingredients for what my Scottish wife calls a “local.” By that she means an unpretentious... »
Cafe Vicino, Boise
I don’t pretend to make a subtle statement when I choose lunch at Cafe Vicino over Guy Fieri’s “Kulinary” road show, scheduled for later the same day. I love T-shirt firing bazookas and Metallica blasting over fat speakers as much as the next guy, but Food Network’s Fieri and his cooking-show-on-steroids... »
Manila Bay Filipino Restaurant, Boise
Manila Bay won’t please every palate. And that’s why I like it. Too many ethnic eateries round off their idiosyncratic edges to please a wide audience. Not so here. At least, not yet. The Sinigang na Bangus, a tamarind based stew at this new Filipino restaurant on Fairview is not only aggressively sour, there’s... »
Darby’s at the Market, Nampa
A restaurant that kicks off its big-city high heels and slips into more comfortable small-town shoes is one way to describe the refashioning of Nampa’s Market Limone into Darby’s at the Market. Where Market Limone was all high-style and aspiration, Darby’s is low-key and casual. Even the name above the entrance seems to proclaim... »
Jerry’s State Court Cafe, Boise
What I remember most about the original State Court Cafe isn’t the food. It’s the sound. In its heyday, that shoebox of a State Street diner was filled with the clatter of plates and silverware, shouts of “Order up!” and the constant hum of a clientele packed belly to counter and shoulder to shoulder.... »
Le Cafe de Paris, Boise
I’ve been slightly haunted by an heirloom tomato salad I ate at Le Cafe de Paris a few weeks ago – haunted because an early freeze likely killed my chance for another taste of that beautifully composed appetizer until next summer. That’s the downside of seasonality: That tomato salad – with its diced,... »
