190 River Road
Portage La Prairie
1.204.857.7203
Our trip to Horfrost in Portage la Prairie was a bit of an adventure all around. First, we had trouble finding the place. We recommend foregoing whatever your GPS says and just follow the directions on the restaurant's website. Horfrost is tucked away in a small strip overlooking the river.
Upon entering, the decor is an unusual mix of urban contemporary (the bar) and quaint country with a bright kick (the dining room). The first thing we learned about the restaurant is that their menu changes regularly. We had scouted out the online menu first, but were presented with a quite different menu. The selections, however, were intriguing and very different from most menus one finds anywhere. The service we encountered was average overall, but that will depend on your server. Ours was really engaging and informative, but that was clearly not every diner's experience that evening.
We ordered starters of the Maple Fries, the Saratoga Style Homemade Potato Chips with Roasted Garlic Dip and the Buffalo-Mango Spring Rolls. All of the starters were excellent, but especially the homemade potato chips. We were then brought an amuse-bouche of barbecued buffalo over more potato chips.
For main dishes, we ordered the rib-eye with morel mushroom sauce, the burnt honey chicken, the roasted salmon and the buffalo flat bread. Side choices included either mashed potatoes or rice. The mashed potatoes were served with a dollop of a cheesy sauce and were incredibly tasty. The rice was seasoned with cinnamon, but was otherwise a bit lacking in flavour. The main courses, however, were very well done, and we had a lot of fun sampling around the table.
During supper, we learned that Horfrost sources much of its menu locally. The pork and produce, specifically, came from right in Portage. The buffalo was also from Manitoba. The beef and chicken, though, are sourced from Alberta. Horfrost certainly pays attention to what is in season, which is one of the reasons for changing the menu regularly. It was a very nice change to find a restaurant so in tune with the freshness of produce and quality of meats, especially the fine offerings available right here in our own Manitoba.
We ended the evening with dessert, choosing the house recommended (and heavenly!) baked mousse, which was served with meringue, a poached plum and raspberry sauce, and the homemade raspberry ice-cream, which was simple, but spectacular.
It is certainly worth the trip out to Portage to visit Horfrost. It would certainly be worth another trip to see what the next menu has in store. This is more of a special occasion restaurant, though, with prices on the higher side than average.
P.S. Apologies for not having pictures this time, but I lost them off of my phone. The presentation was very lovely, though and we really enjoyed seeing how each course was presented.
