An evening at In Ferno's Bistro

This year Winnipeg is doing a fixed price menu event, where some of the city's finest restaurants are offering three course meals. Last night we took advantage of this event and went to In Ferno's Bistro, a little gem of a restaurant in our city's French district.

Chatting over dessert

The restuarant itself is very unpretentious and quite small. Those of the fairer gender mentioned a few times that the place was "cute" (I don't claim to be an expert on such matters).

The appetizers were outstanding. I had the lobster cheesecake with mesclun greens and lemon thyme vinaigrette. The chef clearly had fun with this one and it's always good to eat something that somebody obviously enjoyed making. The presentation was excellant and they played off of the "cheesecake" idea by offering the lobster cheesecake in a small cake like wedge. The salsa that accompanied it played well with both the lobster and the mesclun greens. An absolute treat!

A good appetizer makes you anticipate the next part of the meal. In this case I was expecting a continuation of the fusion style, subtle touches and interesting pairings, but when the entrées arrived it was clear that they were showcasing some of their more traditional French Canadian fair (both of which the restaurant is known for). I had ordered the lambshanks with maple balsamic reduction and this came with a traditional baked potato and vegetable purée (as did all the entrées). The flavours were very robust and warm and the lambshanks were incredibly tender. I wasn't as amazed as with the appetizer, but overall it was still quite good.

With such a traditional comfort food style entrée, I was glad that the desserts which followed up were very simple and straightforward. Mine was the cappuccino crème brûlée, which was executed well and the perfect end to a wonderful meal.

If you draw any indication from the number of photos that were taken, you will notice that we were all too wrapped up in the great food and excellant company to fully document the event. However, we did take a few.