McMenamins Boon’s Treasury

A nice McMenamins, in a big open space. It is filled with the kind of art I am used to seeing at bars of the chain. According to the chatty waitress the building was originally a treasury for the State of Oregon. Then a general store. Its been a bar for a long time now,
The menu is basic McMenamins but the food we had was better then usual. The service was better then usual as well. Eating at lunch time the place was a comfortable and a good place to talk and hang out with a friend.
Tip: The signs advertise that there is live music in the evenings.

We love the spinach and artichoke dip, always so fresh and the chils are nice and hot also. They even have RC cola! Night time is crazy busy and we got bad service the first time but the food was delicious! This time we came for lunch, service was a lot better but we got ignored for the first 10 minutes after ordering our app and drinks. Like always the food was delicious! We will come back for the lunch hour again!!(:

I adore McMenamins establishments. Ruby and terminator are always great, they often have specialty beer and wine for the season which I’m always happy to try. Cajun tots, Wilbur or something similar is usually my go to meal. But happy hour is always fun to go to as well and get lots of tots and beer and I even enjoy the terminator stout veggie burger. Oh so good!

This place is just ok. The staff is nice, but expect to wait a long time for your beers or food.

Friendly service, great food… potato leek soup was delicious. Portland wrap was great too… not to mention the beer. Will be back.

Last Sunday place is ¼ full about 1pm. Waited 20min for water. Waited another 50 min for food. Greasy blob of cheese and dripping bacon (yeah I know I shouldn’t expect healthy in a ‘bar’ but this was on the level of the heart attack grill.
Waited another 20 for the check. This was in the middle of my workday with two employees. Will not be going back. Very frustrating experience.

My wife and I decided to drive down from Portland and stop in Salem to get our stamps for our Passports. Cortney was friendly, informative, and thoughtful! She gave us great tips for our experience. She made our day! :)
Thank you Cortney. You rock!

Kinda disappointing. The waiter said the «house» specials were good. So I ordered the 11.00 dollar nachos. It came in a little cereal bowl. Yup 11.00 worth of nachos in a little cereal bowl. They were disappointing to say the least. Service was slow to boot.

I think they might have a problem with racism. I’m not one to call people out on this but I can’t think of any other reason we were treated so poorly by all but one employee there. Sat down and ordered, food and drinks were prompt then nothing… no one ever came back to check on us, inquire about refills, etc. We had to request our bill twice by going inside to get it. All the while I watched servers come to the other table outside several times. The only different about us is my husband is Indian. Too bad since I have raved about my experiences at other mcmenamins to him. Epic fail boons treasury

Definitely incredible food, sometimes service can be not as incredible as other times, but the staff is always so nice and down to earth! Scenery and deco is eclectic and beautiful!

Boon’s is my neighborhood joint — love it! Good food, great booze, lovely people! Leslie is fabulous. The live music is consistently fine. Food specials are yummy and the ambiance is comfortable and artful. Four stars instead of five just because sometimes service is a little slow, but always friendly. My friends and I will keep coming, especially during the summer to take advantage of the great outdoor seating. Love you Boon’s.

I drove by this place many times as a kid growing up in Salem and I didn’t know it was now a McMenamins until my most recent trip. They have burgers, sandwiches, wraps, salads, soups and hot dogs similar to other McMenamins, as well as their delicious beers! They do $ 8 growler fills on Mondays. The outdoor brick patio is adorable and you’d never know you were in between two busy downtown streets. They make their own veggie burgers and actually have two varieties on the menu. But their French fries are my personal favorite — hand cut and perfectly salted. It would be fun to check out their live music offerings. There’s a great old tale about John Fahey peeing in the parking lot of this place long ago and I bet there are even better stories I haven’t heard yet.

I Gave this place another chance. Even more horrible than the previous experience. Had my 2 year daughter with me. We waited (literally) over 50 minutes before our food arrived and that was after asking several times. They finally took us seriously when my daughter said, «yummies, eat, hungie (hungry)». The food was great but as usual mcminnamins failed to deliver good customer service and timely food.

Standard McMenamins service and food. Had a good lunch today with friends. I got the Thai chicken sandwich which was pretty good. Chicken was a bit dry but had nice flavor. The salad was crispy and fresh which went great with the sandwich. Not a bad meal.

Leslie rocks! She’s the only reason left to go to Boons. And if she went somewhere else, I’d go there instead. But that being said, she isn’t, and I’ll miss her. The same tired bands, the same tired food, the same pitifully tired staff. It ain’t the 90s anymore, and Mcs didn’t get the memo.
Cold food and warm beer. McMenamins has 99 problems but my cash ain’t one.

Love the free music! Great beer and music for free is great. Good quick service tonight. Cheers!

I’ve been going to Boon’s since before it was a McMenamin’s. The recent decline is making me question my desire to ever go back.
I went there for dinner at 7 last night and the place was a mess. All of the empty tables were covered with dirty dishes both inside and outside the restaurant. When my table was finally cleared by a sweat covered wait person, we were told that food orders had just gone from 30 to 45 minutes. We ordered drinks and they came relatively quickly but we were told food orders had gone to an hour wait. We didn’t hear from a wait person for another 20 minutes. She came to get our order and apologized. We were told that she has asked the manager to call in additional staff but he had declined. Not having 2 hours for dinner and getting pretty hungry, we declined to order food. It took another 20 minutes to get the bill and pay.
Over the years, I’ve seen district managers come to this location and heard the staff complain about their heavy handed approach at trying to solver their problems. It’s clear there is a culture of fear in the organization that is causing it to rot from the top down. The chronic understaffing isn’t fair to customers or the staff. It’s not that hard to predict. When the weather is nice, they are one of the few locations in town where you can take the kids, have a beer and food, and sit outside. On these evenings they get slammed and simply don’t staff for it. The mangers are either unprepared or afraid to ask for staff to come in.
An organization that treats their employees and customers this way simply will not get my business any longer.

Boon’s is my favorite McMenamins Pub. My husband and I stop by for beers and food probably 1 – 3 times every week. While service may be hit or miss, it’s never been bad as I’ve experienced at other McMenamins locations.
We tend to sit at the bar when we visit if their is a seat available. This has allowed us to get to know the staff as well. We love that their is free live music during the week and have seen some great acts come through.
Being Passport holders has allowed us to visit many different McMenamins pubs. I’m probably just playing favorites but I think the Cooks at Boon’s know how to make a burger how you want it (thank you Sabrina!). We were totally jealous when we visited some of the Portland pubs with their extensive menus. Some of the burgers we had in a few Portland pubs were well done and overcooked, some totally dry even though we asked for «a little pink».
Here’s hoping Boons will be able to add some additional sandwhiches and other choices to their menu real soon.

The service was awesome! And the food was quite good too. I tried one of the special menu items, which was a Thai-​style burger with pickled carrots and peanut sauce. I chose the corn chowder as my side item. The soup was a bit watery and I didn’t enjoy it much but the burger was a solid choice. Perfect medium rare, fresh bun and flavorful peanut sauce.
I had a beer to accompany my meal — I couldn’t decide between two and since I could only have one beer at a time, the server suggested I mix the two. Apparently the two beers I wanted to try are often ordered that way. Glad I went for it because it was probably my favorite beer I’ve had on awhile. Don’t recall the names but one had hints of grapefruit and the other was an amber ale.
I sat on the patio since I had the pups with me, and there were two other parties that did the same. So glad we found a dog-​friendly place.

I’ve been making the rounds, visiting the far reaches of the McMenamins empire as I try to fill out their passport. On a Saturday evening, I ended up here around dinner time so I decided to have a beer and a sandwich. As usual with McMenamins, the beer was great and the food was fine. But the service was soooooooooooooo slow.
Let’s be clear, I’m not knocking the service in general. Our server was actually really friendly and knowledgeable. It just felt like the whole joint was desperately understaffed for how busy the place was. My beer-​and-​a-​sandiwch experience ended up taking nearly two hours from the time I was seated until I was able to pay and leave.
I’m aware that this may have been a one time thing, so I won’t go lower than A-​OK (after all, the food, drink, and atmosphere were). But I’m also not going out of my way to return and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who is in a hurry.