Sunday, June 05, 2011

Riverview Café

(In Lower Fort Garry National Historic Site)

5925 Highway 9, St. Andrews, Manitoba

Breakfast Special - $4.99 with purchase of beverage, Mon-Fri 8:00-11:00am. On weekends, breakfast is served until noon.

The Riverview Café really impressed us with their emphasis on locally sourced food. They had a great selection of breakfast food including a Prairie Fire (tortilla, spicy scrambled eggs, beans, corn, three cheeses and fire roasted salsa), omelettes (three cheeses, one protein [meat] and two vegetable options, with hashbrowns and toast for only $8.00!), and the wild rice and potato pancakes. Man, were those good!

But let’s back up a bit. The décor inside is what we dubbed “noveau-historique” with old wood boards used for the ceiling, and shiny wooden furniture throughout. The inside didn’t feel like 100 years ago, but we did get to watch peasant girls hoeing (see picture, you with the dirty mind).

Back to the food. The coffee was dark and delicious. The farmer sausage was made locally, and was possibly the best I’d ever tasted. The breakfast ham was real and thick-cut. The bacon was cut thin, and cooked perfectly. The potatoes were chunkleted, cooked thoroughly and served with green and white onions. We got a side of bannock, which was delicious, and though we didn’t try it, the cherry butter was tempting.

Where was the home-made jam? Seems like an obvious thing to have – kind of like at the Buffalo Stone Café, where they didn’t have bison for breakfast, and they really should have.

That contributes to why this place wasn’t a 10/10. Also, the décor was a bit cheezy, the coffee was tasty but weak, it was bloody far from Winnipeg and our server was completely anti-smile. Other than that, the food was delicious and inexpensive.