Prominade Brasserie

Promenade Brasserie

130 Provencher Boulevard

204-237-6414

https://www.promenadebrasserie.ca/

May, 2026

Living in St Boniface, you cannot help but see this institution at the corner of Tache and Provencher often. Its prominence means that we’ve been here a lot and enjoyed many great foods, including a memorable burger, which I’m sad to see no longer appears on their menu. This is our first visit since their reformation, and the dining room looks a lot more “sleek” than it was.

I understand why the burger no longer belongs with the current menu, focussing on “an Indigenous Feasting Style…[looking] to explore a variety of dishes inspired by French, Canadian and Indigenous traditions.” The menu looks very tempting, and even though they recommend three or four dishes to share among the two of us, enough food came that I couldn’t finish just one dish.

The Wild Rice Risotto comes with the option of adding smoked trout for $6, which is a ridiculous bargain for the generous amount of fish. From the menu, the dish comes with edamame, squash, pickled beets, corn, toasted seeds and feta (pronounced fay-tah). The beets and the corn have a punch of sweetness that augments the savoury rice well, and balances the sweetness of the trout beautifully. As the most prominent seed, pumpkin seeds add great texture and nutty flavour, and the arugula provides a bit of a spicy punch. I wonder why they don't offer the trout add-on with any of the other dishes. I would love to try one of the salads with this protein extra.

 

The rice itself tastes very creamy. I love cooking risotto and ideally, I boil and blend the rice for 22 minutes; I suspect the rice sat in the pot for considerably more than 22, since it leans towards the mushy side. Despite that, the flavour tastes wonderfully rich. The trout only has an edge of smokiness, which is fine because you wouldn’t want it to overwhelm the delicateness inherent to the fish. I would like to see a bit more wild rice blended with the arborio rice to add back some of the al dente texture.

Talking about al dente, that’s how the pasta in The Chicken Pesto Fettuccine comes, perfectly cooked with a slight bite on the pasta. The noodles swim in a basil, pistachio cream sauce, with tomato, ginger salsa, parmesan and chives. The tomato salsa tastes insanely fresh and I would eat this alone, by the cupful. The chives add some nice colour to the presentation but they’re so finely minced, they don’t add any flavour to the rich sauce.

This pistachio-based pesto packs a whack of flavour and explodes with zest on the pasta. As a less pricy alternative to pine nuts, the pistachio does not sacrifice any of the umami of the pine nuts. Big chunks of chicken cap this lovely main course.

Prominade outsources its desserts and today’s variety comes from a local dessert bakery. This sampling presents four entries and a rich dollop of whipped cream. The delicate Crème Brûlée is a bit thin, meaning the caramelised sugar somewhat dominates the soft custard below. 

The weakest entry on the menu, the O Henry wedge has a rich, chocolate topping but the base tastes a bit stale: think Rice Krispies Treat made from cereal from the box you forgot in the back of the cupboard.

The triple chocolate tart blends a nice melange of chocolate, but the texture breaks apart a little too easily; a bit more moisture would help the consistency and balance. I’m not sure what the last time is: chocolate ball? By far the best entry on the dessert tray, this dulce blends the sweet with coarse salt very nicely.

I love the new direction of the restaurant with the melding of French, Indigenous, and local concepts and ingredients. While the restaurant designs the meals to be shared, the portion sizes are a little too large--they feel more like individual meals. This is often a North American mistake where people try to copy the Spanish tapa or Chinese dim sum concepts, but there’s just too much on the plate. I would reduce the size of the servings and prices accordingly to encourage people to order more dishes. Since I couldn’t finish my meal from the “Medium” menu, I would never order more than one selection.  

 

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Ray Yuen, Pit Master / Grill Master

Certified Kansas City Barbecue Society Judge – Badge #97736

Certified Steak Cook-off Association Judge – Badge #7788

Canadian Barbecue Society Member