Familiar comfort foods and dishes you’ve never tried. This might be your new favorite restaurant
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SWAN VALLEY — The new owners of the Snake River Roadhouse are bringing together local comfort foods with new flavors from around the world.
Janelle and Trent Denhof, who took over the business on April 1, say they’ve enjoyed bringing new food experiences to tourists and locals.
“We’ve revamped the menu a little bit, we really wanted to focus more on local Idaho cuisine, and using local ingredients,” says Janelle. “We have a lot of comfort food, really good burgers, and amazing chicken sandwiches, and obviously our empanadarogies.”
Speaking of empanadarogies, that was our first dish we were lucky enough to try, and it was worth every second of the 45-minute drive from Idaho Falls.
An empanadarogie, a Snake River Roadhouse special, is encased in a homemade crust similar to an empanada. It is filled with elk, mushrooms, potatoes, spices, and a more ‘pierogie’-like filling. The dish of three also comes with a homemade blueberry-huckleberry sauce.
“My husband and I are both Polish by descent, so pierogis growing up were always a staple,” says Janelle. “We also love to travel, and we love to go to Argentina. We’re really big fly fisherman, hence why we come to Swan Valley and why we ended up here, but we went to Argentina and we fell in love with their empanadas.”
The next dish we tried was the Firebrand Chicken Sandwich.
It consists of a chicken thigh hand-dipped in their homemade batter and fried, topped with pickles and drizzled with the house-made hot honey sauce on a toasted brioche bun.
“We hand-cut all of our fries as well. We use a local potato farmer up in Rigby,” says Janelle. “And homemade fry sauce!”
This incredible menu item had to have come straight from food heaven. They make it perfectly tender and crispy with a delicious hot honey sauce. The fries on the side are also cooked and seasoned perfectly.
The last dish we tried was something I can honestly say I have never had or heard of before. The Yak Gnocchi is made with fresh, hand-rolled gnocchi, Idaho russet potatoes, and meat of the chef’s choice.
According to the menu, “We leave it up to them with what to pair it with this evening. Ask your server for tonights flavor, or send in a request, the men and woman in the back love to show off.”
I was lucky enough to try Yak for the first time with this dish, and it was incredible. Tender and salty with a little bit of sweetness, and the gnocchi was ungodly good. The tomato-y sauce paired perfectly with the meat, and it might be my new ultimate comfort food.
“We take local Idaho potatoes, and we hand roll our gnocchi daily. It’s a labor of love,” says Janelle. “The yak actually comes from a local Yak farmer. We wanted to stand out and have our staple dishes so when it comes down to encompassing the area, and the food here in Idaho, we wanted to focus on that.”
Snake River Roadhouse exceeded my expectations, and I am counting down the days until I can return to fly-fishing country to try even more of their amazing dishes.
Make sure to try them for yourself!
The Snake River Roadhouse is located at 2998 Swan Valley Highway in Swan Valley. It is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
Take a look at their full menu here, and follow them on Facebook, Instagram, and check out their website.
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