Big Juds

Big Juds
1289 Protest Road
Boise, ID 83706
208) 343-443

Spur of the moment decision brought us to this hole in the wall burger joint. It's been around Boise for a while now and we both been there before, but since we never went there together and we had a list of requirements that had to be met in the hurry this is where we ended up.

List of requirements:
-fast
-inexpensive
-family friendly (fussy baby must be welcomed)
-food to go option in case we needed to leave in a hurry

Hurry for Big Juds!!

On a early Friday evening, we arrived to a nearly full parking lot and nearly full joint. It might be because there was the high school graduation taking place all over the city so there were extra visitors, but I'm sure it's actually the great food and great staff that attracted to people to return.

We were able to find a booth fairy quickly, was promptly greeted by a staff member who was cleaning up a table near by who said she would be right with us (and she was), gave us the menu and the time to look it over. At this small cafe you would think that they'd want a high table turn over, but never once did we feel rushed to finish and be on our way.

I was tempted to order the 1 pound burger which they were so famous for. They have a wall of fame for customers who actually finished it. While it was impressive in size I guess my stomach was doing the thinking instead of the brain, I saw it and I WANTED IT! Luckily my friend was with me and she has a good firm grasp on reality. I downsized to the double. The menu was fairly simple but offers quite a lot, thus the horrors of ordering was eliminated.

The Order:
Mushroom Chicken - spicy,
Hickory Burger - double,
Small tater tots,
small onion ring,
2 Diet Soda
The Bill: $21 and change

Don't let the word "small" fool you, there is PLENTY to go around in a small order. I overheard the staff explain that a large order of fries is about 1 pound. Everything here is "hearty", even the plastic ware that our soda came in was larger than usual.


Pictures being better than words when it comes to food of this sort. I now present you some fuzzy photos of our trip! (I was in a hurry and didn't spend the time to properly study how to use the point-and-shoot camera my friend loaned me on the spot so a lot of photos came out blurry)

I was so stunned by how tall my burger was that I immediately tried to squish it down to jaw-opening size before was reminded to take photos. Notice the finger marks. heh.

A closer look into my burger

an array of ice cream to finish off the meal (if you had the room) which we hadn't, too bad. I'll come back next time just to order their ice cream.

I'll let my friend comment about her thoughts on her spicy mushroom chicken. For my Hickory Burger, it didn't begin to fall apart until towards the end where the sauce/size/parts became too much for the bread to hold. I enjoyed the way the make this burger because they didn't try to smother the meat with BBQ sauce. Instead, they just barely dabbled it so the flavor is still there without you dripping all over yourself. This also allowed the bacon to stay nice and crispy all the way to the end.

The onion rings were nice and crunchy on the outside without the batter being overwhelmingly thick. Just the way I like it. I can't say much for the tater tots, they remind me of all the tater tots I've had throughout my secondary school years except much crispier which was nice. I wonder if there is a cafe somewhere who serves tater tots of a different variety, that would be fun to try.

So, our thoughts:
Family friendly: Check
Friendly staff: Check
Clean tables/table ware: Check
Stroller room: doable, but I don't recommend it on a busy night
High chairs: Check
Fair price-to-quantity ratio: Check!
Yummy: Check Check CHECK!!!! (Even the toddler liked the burger meat)