Manitou Bistro — Restaurant in Renfrew

My husband and I went to Manitou Bistro for my birthday. We absolutely loved it. The atmosphere was quaint and welcoming. The service was impeccable. Suzette, the owner was on point. She was friendly, attentive without being too attentive, and had great recommendations. All in all, the food was very good. The menu has wonderful options and there were a few items we wanted to try. I had the blackberry margarita which was one of the best cocktails I've ever had and Scott had a tasty ceasar. We had the truffle fries, red roasted pepper soup and bison rice soup for appetizers. All 3 were incredible. The truffle fries, the best I've ever had. The soups were full of fresh flavors. I then had the orange duck and my husband had the Powwow taco. My duck was a little over cooked and the skin was not crispy, therefore, I simply removed it. Although it was a bit overcooked, the breast was clearly an amazing quality because it remained moist so it was still very good. The sauce and side were absolutely delicious. My husband ordered the wrong thing. He wanted the Wild tacos. Although it wasn't what he wanted and wasn't really his type of food, the bannock was too much for him, he said it was good and ate it all. We forced a light desert in, although we shouldn't have because we were so full, and had the homemade preserve with ice cream. It was creamy, lightly sweet, and very refreshing. Really enjoyed that. I decided to have an after dinner cocktail. I had the expresso butter tart martini. It was OK. I could taste the expresso and the Kahlua. Slightly the the buttertart maybe. Couldn't taste the frangelico at all. It tasted more like a light whipped americano with a bit of kahlua. One thing that we were very impressed with was how the owner spoke to everybody and wanted our input on the duck. Welcomed our comments with open arms. This is sincerely a repeat restaurant. We will go back and I will bring visitors back. Very unique menu with lots of options with reasonable prices. Great job. I look forward to going back and trying other foods. Thank you for a wonderful...

We stumbled across this little gem on our RV trip across Canada, and Manitou Bistro is a rare find. The moderately small restaurant offers an impressively large creative menu for cocktails and food, featuring Canadian indigenous cuisine.

Located at the corner of Prince Avenue & Ragland Street in Renfrew, Ontario Canada, the red brick exterior houses an inviting atmosphere inside. Dark walls and natural wood everywhere, and complete with dream catchers, attractive antler chandeliers, and native bark on the interior walls.

Founder and Chef Suzette happened to be out front when we arrived assisting with host & server duties and greeted us with a warm welcome. Later she mentioned some of the traditional medicinal and other indigenous ingredients like chaga, sweetgrass, cedar and pine.

The tablet menus offered a variety of not-your-usual cocktails. We enjoyed the Canadian Ceasa and the Pineapple Rum Punch, but the Black Moon Bourbon and Blackberry Margarita also sounded great.

The food choices included grazing boards, poutines, salads & power bowls for starters or light meals. We wanted to try the soft taco selection including chicken, wall eye and wild tacos made with bison wild rice pilaf. Native slow cooked bison chili and homemade bannock (fried bread) made up the Powwow taco. Bannock and bison were featured with a number of dishes including herbed stews and the Anishinaabe Pie, which I missed on the menu this time but cannot wait to try next time.

So many mouth watering options made it difficult to choose, but we eventually settled on the Cream Portobello Chicken & the Pistachio Crusted Salmon. Both were served with a green salad, garlic roasted baby potatoes and maple butter carrots—and were exceptional.

For a sweet finish they offered several desserts including bannock donuts and cheesecakes. We had the Geronimo’s Cinnamon Sugar Bannock which was outstanding. We have one more day in the area and are going...

First time I felt hungry after eating a meal at a restaurant. The meat portion was ridiculously tiny, and I’m a woman, and a small eater to begin with. French fries were of extremely poor quality. I ordered Bannock with a SCOOP of ice cream to help fill me up. The Bannock was so dry, and it didn’t help that the ‘crème de leche’ was barely poured on it, which contributed to the dryness – which helped to make it taste ‘flat’. Moreover, there was no ‘Scoop’ of ice-cream, I was shocked to find 2 tbsp. at MOST of ice cream on the dry Bannock. If this is Manitous Bistro's idea of fine dining I'll pass. I felt cheated when I got the bill, considering how poor the food was, and I had to get walk over to the waitress to order, as she was busy staring into her cellphone. Such a huge disappointment, we will never go back. I have a close, Indigenous friend who made me Bannock, at her off-grid home (with no electricity), this year - in the bush of Renfrew and it was so delicious and moist, freshly made. It was outstanding and didn’t even need anything supplementary, as it was that great!!

The staff and owner don't seem to care, from what I can tell; and have an overly defensive attitude about any comment made, which also hit a sour note.

I’d give it “0 stars” if I could. Moreover, the side of fries was overly salty, and I was told they can’t serve them without 'salt', because it’s a ‘pre-mix’ of seasonings, served for the fries. There was no mention of serving them without the 'pre-mix', for a future visit, there was just a very poor attitude unfortunately, all around. As mentioned above, my company and I, who went - won't...