The Cornerstone Bar and Restaurant

I finally went here for the first time last night and im so upset that i didn’t think to come sooner!
I was only going for drinks with friends but we decided to get a couple apps to share. We ordered the flatbread to start. it tasted really fresh and crisp. We finished it so fast so we decided to take another look at the menu. The mussels caught my eye and i was mentioning to our waiter that i usually prefer a red sauce as apose to a cream sauce (which is what they had on the menu). He told us that he would ask the chefs if they would be able to substitute the cream sauce for somethig else, which i thought was so nice of him to even offer! The chefs said they would be able to do something for us, and i will say with all my heart that the sauce they made for the mussels was the best sauce i have ever tasted in winnipeg.
I was so pleased with the service and the fact that the waiter went out of his way to please us.
I wish i hadnt eaten dinner before we went out so i could have tried more of the food!
Im sure this place will be 5 star worthy once i try a few more dishes, but for my first experience it was a home run for sure!

Excellent food. Great service. Not a single complaint about my meal. Atmosphere is nice, wasn’t too crowded, but wasn’t empty.

To cornerstone eat
Is worse than giant plate yeast
So don’t plan on feast
This Twas a defeat
Because no cornerstone meat
Could counter the teat

Had the most confusing and haphazard cheese plate ever complete with pickled onions. Cheeses on the plate we’re not the ones named when ordering.
$ 14 flatbed is unreasonably priced. On the upside the old fashioned here is not bad.

I have no idea why this place has an average of only 3 stars because we had dinner here tonight after the women’s World Cup and it was great!
They got slammed by visitors coming from the game but we were able to get the last open table. Drinks took a bit to show up because again, it got busy all at once. But our waitress was wonderful — attentive with refills and friendly.
Food was great — I had the halibut special and husband had the pork belly. Unusual and interesting food combos for their dishes. Also had a great wine — a carmenere, love when there are more than just the typical varietals.
And I loved the atmosphere too — modern and fresh. Everything about our experience there was enjoyable!

I enjoyed The Cornerstone. I went here after an evening at soul night and had the most awesome steak bites with my buddies. The service was also good. I would recommend The Cornerstone for any time of day.

Our food was good both times we went but the service was amazingly bad. The first time the waitress avoided eye contact the whole time and stared out the window while we (5 of us on a meal break) ordered, and also rolled here eyes and made an annoyed face while still right in front of us when we were ordering. Sh3 also. dodnt tell me the kale salad she offered up to come with the meal was more expensive. The second time was before a show at the gas station. Our waitress was pleasant but disappeared after our order was set on the table, despite asking for drinks and refill. Discouraging.

Went here for lunch with a couple of girlfriends and had a really nice lunch. To start, the décor is awesome. The chairs are comfy, tabletops are nice, local artwork on the walls, and a nice open feeling overall. The space is smaller than I thought it would be but they utilize it well. Service was very friendly and helpful. Never felt ignored but she wasn’t overbearing which is super nice. Hard to get that balance.
I had the papa gorgeous burger with fries and a side of their spicy chipotle mayo. The burger itself was a little greasy but the pickled onions and lettuce cut the grease, so it really was a good balance. The Tzatziki was really nice and the bun seemed super fresh. I was impressed with the burger. The fries though, super good. Obviously homemade, they came out piping hot and SEASONED PERFECTLY. I know it seems weird but lots of places have a hard time seasoning fries well. They are just potato, they do need salt to bring out the flavour but they don’t need tone doused in salt. The spicy mayo was really good but a tiny side was 1.50 which seemed a little excessive to me. Let’s hope they’re making their own mayo?
I’ll be back to try some apps and desserts!

It’s a bad sign when you enter a restaurant in a happening part of the city and find it is deadly quiet. I went for a work dinner when in Winnipeg and I can faithfully say this was some of the worst food and drink around. Winnipeg has a competitive dining landscape, so if you’re eating here, you’re missing out on some far better options.
I tried four times to order a beer – only to find out each time they were out of my selection. Out of beer? Strange. At 5pm? Stranger. The beer I did get was a mediocre facsimile of beers I’ve had before, and had the slightly bread-​and-​fish taste that comes from not cleaning your beer lines.
Food was adequate but veered toward the salty. Portions were decent but plating and presentation was pretty unappealing. Most dishes were large slabs of protein without any meaningful side or garnish, making the dish more monotonous than delicious.
What you’re really paying for at Cornerstone is location; a prime spot on Osborne, walking distance back to the Leg or to Corydon Avenue. My advice: keep walking.

First proper visit was tonight. My girlfriend had seared Duck breast which she loved and I had the pasta with lamb sausage and asiago mushroom sauce. Both were incredibly savory and beautifully prepared. We’ll be regular patrons, well done!

Lovely interior and very good service. Soup was excellent but the entrees were below average. The veggie burger was bland and just plain weird. My husband had the chicken melt and was left feeling a little sad. Fries were cold and the ketchup comes in barbie serving size. Stuff looks good on paper but lacks in execution. If your menu is small, make sure what you do is solid.

I was pretty pumped when the old Papa George’s finally opened into a new restaurant. It’s quite cute inside, but kind of has more of a café feel than a restaurant and bar feel. The menu was quite small, which does guarantee freshness, however it really limits choice. Especially when we were informed that they had run out of chicken and the two dishes I wanted to try both came with chicken.
The server was really helpful though and offered some subsitutions to make the meal still work. I had the chicken melt, sub sausage and my friend had the grilled cheese with chick pea soup.
The menu is fairly healthy and pretty well priced for how fresh everything is. They like to make most things in house which is nice. We went for lunch on a Sunday and it was fairly busy, but we got decent service and our food came out in good time.

This place is a GREAT addition to the Village! Thank goodness a franchise didn’t get this location. I was so happy to hear that the owner of the Grove (which I enjoy) decided to open in the former Papa George’s location on the corner of River & Osborne. It’s only been open since Feb 2014 or so but from my one lunch visit, it feels like a well run restaurant. This space has changed so much since Papa Georges — the whole place was likely gutted and replaced with a very open space with lots of light, gray and white tones, a large bar on one side and the open kitchen on the far end from the dining room. I really liked how you can see all the activity of the village from inside the restaurant.
The menu is not large but it serves it’s purpose. Menu is less diverse than the Grove with mostly burgers & sandwiches $ 10-​$ 17 and a few mains $ 18-​$ 24. There’s a lot of kale and quinoa sprinkled through the menu — those ingredients are like what beets were a few years ago as every place is now touting them on every dish. I really loved the «Papa Gorgeous» $ 12.50 beef burgeri, tzatziki, feta, lettuce, tomato, pickled red onion and comes with fries, kale salad or chickpea soup. It’s a nod to the former owner and it’s very good. Burger was juicy and well seasoned and complemented by the pickled red onion and tzatziki. The fries are great here — reminds me of the food court New York Fries. The «middle eats» $ 13 is a chickpea patty, tahini, pickled red onion, radish and greens. Not a fan of this one as the patty was really greasy — it was either deep fried or pan fried in a lot of oil. The patty was crunch and almost reminded me of a greasy falafel. Not a ton of flavour in the patty so I wouldn’t order this one again. The side kale salad is not baby kale (which is what I prefer) as I find regular kale a little too bitter for my palate. If you don’t like kale — get the soup or the fries instead.
Drink menu looked pretty interesting and lots of good offerings that I look forward to trying. Vibe was great as the place is welcoming enough for everyone — there were students, families, seniors, and just people living in the neighbourhood. Great vibe and serves to be a good place to meet friends for a drink that has a good vibe. Service is really friendly and welcoming.
Go support this local business and thank them for opening up a place and saving us all from a Tim Hortons, McDonalds or Harveys from opening there.

The group I was with came to drink and to talk. As a result, my review lacks the meat that some of my other ones have (I couldn’t resist the pun). The menu contains a range of burgers, appetizers, and a few mains. The menu is quite short. I promise I will try the veggie burger sometime in the future, but for now I will confine myself to the two things I did sample: the cheese platter and the drink section of the menu.
The cheese platter:
This is an idea I have seen at a few restaurants now. I love it. My group had wine and cheese and enjoyed paring the food with the extras the platter contains: figs, candied cashews, strawberries, tomato jam, and bacon jam. There were crackers and toasted baguette to put the cheese on. The server told us that they change the cheese every week, which is a great idea!
The drink menu:
The main focus is the drink menu, which is sizable. Their list of beer on tap is good and there are a few more bottles. They have a fairly sizable wine collection ranging in price from just over $ 20 to over $ 60. I am not detail oriented when it comes to wine, so I cannot comment on the quality of the selection, only the quantity.
I enjoyed myself immensely and we even had a good conversation despite the moderate-​high noise level. I will be back.