Portneuf Grille & Lounge — Restaurant in Lava Hot Springs

You walk up to the Riverside Inn in Lava Idaho. It looks a bit like an old school or hospital. As you step into the barely descript midget door, you are welcomed with the smell of yesteryear: musky thick dark wood beams and railings.The creaky stairs give way to a homey lobby with a black & white glimpse of what Starbucks would look like in 1892. After checking into the non-homogenized cozy room with creaky floorboards that track your every move like today's smart phones; you enjoy the privacy of Non- sulfur smelling private hot tubs. Soon it's the long awaited dinner time. Reservation was at 7 & as you stand there wsiyimg, you witness the frazzled 3 blondish older ladies trying to create a pleasant dining experience amid 15-20 square tables with crisp black tablecloths. The dining area rolls outside to eat by the river in the crisp fall air. Of the 10 tables in your view, not one have food. Your stomach drops. It gears up for a fight. You purposely waited the 3 hour drive to be hungry enough to eat this "expensive restaurant food". Being seated front and center didn't do well with your introverted personality but when shyly asking if outside was available, the stern answer was "no." Later you would silently thank Miss sternly because it got cold outside REAL fast.

You decide quickly on the pork because of a previous review which insisted the pork was the 'only' good thing on the menu. But as you watch every table revive their food and have their orders taken, you look at your husband who's birthday you are celebrating - with eyes that say the same thing: "should we leave and try our luck at pizza?" But despite the brand new busboys first day on the job- he gives you hope in humanity, decidedly filling your water 3 times before ordering. Alas.......a human with a note pad ready to inflict more pain to the already stretched staff by trying to care about filling another stomach. We decided to live life on the edge & order salmon in 'inland Idaho' ( although the salmon is plentiful on the Snake River I believe) & the bison burger which Mr Pork Reviewer had said was pretty good. Already gearing up for the negative review I was going to write as soon as I got back to the granny bed with the white iron heater by it; soon my mood changed as Mrs Stern brought me a little treat in the form of her secret family recipe. Delish!!!! And so soul-filling. One gesture of kindness. Of offering. One women's incredible talent- as I soon found out she was the Chef! She was German and polish and 2 others I can't remember, the first was reason enough for me to interpret as "stern". She wasn't stern. She was focused. On her craft. Like a surgeon who is extremely talented in the OR but not as much at bedside. I WANT quality over fluff. I can't tell you how yummy our dinners were and for a price that even cheapo ME was Delighted with. We have eaten at fancy places in towers and in basements and yes they were fabulous but you go home with a sick feeling of your budget crashing.

You can read about the salmon & burger elsewhere in these reviews but my review is about giving credit where credit is due: to Gigi & her staff who work in a thankless industry where people expect everything to perfect & love to find the negative. Thank you staff at portnrif grill and also to the 2 hardworking people the next morning at the cafe upstairs at Riverside Inn. That food was also exquisitly yummy, despite Mr Pork reviews' thoughts.

I almost left them a $100 tip accidently but I sure wish...

My husband and I had dinner last night and we were blown away with how yummy and filling the food has become. We have been coming here for 6 years starting in 2019. We have noticed the menu go through so many changes through the years. In recent years the food became smaller portioned with huge prices that we would find disappointing and we walked away hungry from the table to go look for something else to eat. We were not planning on coming back again but due to a mistake on our hotel reservation (our fault) we had a voucher to this restaurant so we decided to come back to the restaurant and use our meal voucher. The manager was our server. He recognized me from coming down earlier to look at the menu. I have recently acquired a dietary restriction to Dairy so I wanted to see if something could be dairy free easy. I was planning on ordering the cheeseburger without cheese and asking for no butter be put on the bun or beef. I told him this but he was well aware of dairy intolerance and how to make a meal without dairy and told me he had my back and how I could choose any option. I don't know if I believe truly in the any option but the first item was a pasta dish and I have loved pasta so much in the past and I wondered if there was a way to make it dairy free. His explanation rolled off his tongue like a very experienced dietary planner. It was nice to have a restaurant manager know what he was talking about with dairy restrictions because for lunch we had had to educate another restaurant completely. I ordered the pasta and my husband ordered the cheeseburger. My husband has no dietary restrictions lucky him. My pasta came with olive oil sauce, zucchini, peppers, onions and capers. It was spicy but it was so delicious that I downed it all in no time. My husband burger was very big and he remarked that even the bun was very delicious. His fries were round medallion shaped that were covering most of his plate. I stole a few of his fries (hoping they were cooked in oil and not butter) first to taste one of his fries and then to calm down the yummy spiciness of my own pasta. I should have ordered bread but I didn't know if I could eat it all. My husband did have so many round fries and they were seasoned so perfectly that of course I had to steal a few more of his fries. We did not walk away hungry but we did walk away with some of his fries in a to go box. I didn't give it a 5 star because my husband ordered no onions on his burger and it came with onions that he had to push off. Also It took awhile to bring the check. We sat for awhile waiting for the check and when it was brought it was someone else's check who had ordered more expensive food. The check situation was...

Me and my husband are visiting lava hot springs on our honeymoon, so I decided to reserve a table here for a fancy dinner to celebrate getting married. Unfortunately it was a massive mistake. To start, our server who never introduced himself, all but ignored us the entire hour we were sat down. Instead he was more focused on a football game than working his job. We ordered the Caesar salad, nachos, primavera, and filet mignon. The salad was glorified watery lettuce with parmesan cheese. The only good thing about it was the croutons, but it’s really hard to mess us a crouton. The nachos were made with over cooked, under seasoned, bottom of the bag potato chips. The cheese sauce on top almost immediately got chunky and greasy after being sat down on our table. The primavera was absolutely completely flavorless, no matter how much salt and pepper I added it was a struggle to swallow each bite I tried. We ordered the filet mignon to be medium well, and it came out burnt on the outside and still completely red and bleeding on the inside. The mashed potatoes on the side were dry, flavorless, and disappointing for my mashed potato loving husband. Ultimately a night I’ve been looking forward to for a few weeks to celebrate getting married, was dulled by sad, flavorless, mediocre, and heavily overpriced food. I would never ever recommend this restaurant to anyone, even my greatest enemy who id wish to see suffer in any way possible. Do not go here! Cross the street and go to the brewery & bistro because at least you’ll be treated with respect and served food that has amazing flavor. If eating disappointing food and awful service is your thing, then you’ll love it here.

Update: it’s the next day and both me and my husband have food poisoning. And we know it’s from this dinner since we had a very light lunch in anticipation of great food. Unfortunately we were let down in...