Winery Restaurants

[vanderb]

BigDaddy, if you're looking for lunch I'd head up to Hawthorne Mountain Vineyard at Okanagan Falls. I know they were doing lunch last year and I'm hoping they still are this year. Otherwise you can always try and get a reservation at Burrowing Owl in their excellent dinning room. I know there are more restaurants in Oliver but I've not had a ton of experience with them.

Not sure how much driving you want to do but Naramata Inn in Naramata (d'uh) has an excellent formal dinning room as well as a very good patio lounge/bar with a wide variety of plates. Their hearth breads with dips/cheeses/meats is my first choice.

Enjoy

[Foodie in Vancouver]

If you are in Oliver, you must go to the Sonora Room at Burrowing Owl - for lunch, for dinner - whichever you can manage. As for the other options in Oliver. Hmmm. Jacques has a wonderful wine list but can be extremely uneven in terms of the quality and originality of the food. The Toasted Oak is an interesting location - an old service station which opens up completely onto Highway 97 so it can get a little noisy. But they also have a wonderfully varied wine list. Their food however is very pedestrian running to wings and burgers and such. Personally, I would head to the Cellar Door in Summerland before I went to Hawthorne Mountain or I would try the Naramata Inn. Bottom line is that no matter what, you will be driving to your meals, or at least some of them, if you are staying in Oliver. The fare in Ossyoos (I am sure I have misspelled that) is also on the dull side but I know Sandra and Kenn Oldfield have a list of favorites, especially Indian food in both Oliver and an Italian/Greek resto in Osyoos. If you get up to Westbank or Kelowna there are lots more options but that is a long, long way to drive for dinner. I know we have done it more than once. Let us know where you end up eating.

[bigdaddy]

The folks at Tinhorn Creek were wonderfully hospitable. We visited as many other wineries as we could manage in a very short (1 day plus) period (Blasted Church, Kettle Valley, Hillside Estates, Poplar Grove, Burrowing Owl, Mission Hill)).

Dining was a definite "hit and miss"...

Toasted Oak (in Oliver) is in an old firehall that also houses a VQA store. Apparently the entire project is part of the town's attempt to promote the local wine industry, etc. We visited on a Monday night and the restaurant was experiencing some severe difficulties. Suffice to say, the service was comically inept and the food was generic (rib-eye with bar-b-que sauce,etc).

The Hooded Merganza (newish place on the lake in Penticton) - menu looked promising... but the only good thing was the view.

Mission Hill Winery (Kelowna)- lunch on the terrace was excellent and the winery is the most architecturally-amazing facility. Acorn squash soup with cured trout, duck breast on spaetzle with chocolate jus, wild boar sausage with apple/cabbage, bacon/oyster mushroom ravioli in tarragon broth, and panna cotta - all delicious!

(I remember reading that Michael Allemeier is behind the food)

Really impressed with the 2002 S.L.C. Merlot that I enjoyed with the duck.

The server (Shelley, I think) was simply one of the most attentive , perceptive and personable professionals that I have ever encountered. Highly recommend a visit. (Only small quibble is the problem of the food cooling so quickly in the wind on the terrace dining area).

[McTee]

In mid-August I had dinner at Quails' Gate's Old Vines patio, and lunch at Mission Hill Family Estate the next day.

At Old Vines, the meal was excellent, but the setting was, in a word, unparalleled. Nothing like sitting on a patio at a location like that with a glass of great wine and the love of your life beside you. Unforgettable.

At Mission Hill, the lunch was very good, my gf had the tomato gazpacho, which was great.

I enjoyed that they offered Library selections. Neither served wine from another winery, nor did they serve beer. To me, the highlight was the jar of Vanilla Pears that I picked up in the gift store at Mission Hill. Superb.

To make a potentially long story short, I would highly recommend both to anyone going up there for the first time. The service at both was extremely knowledgeable, friendly and unpretentious, while still very professional. I only hope that one of these days, a resume from one of these people crosses my desk, I would hire them in a heartbeat.

[fud]

We got back from the Naramata recently...

The best meal I had actually wasn't at a winery restaurant but instead was a result of collecting stuff from different places:

- Pick up a pie and bread at ... [edit] Just Pies! This is a house in penticton with a little bakery in the back. Amazing pie and great bread! For those interested (609 Vedette Drive Penticton BC, 490-3341)

- Bought some cheese at Poplar Grove Winery

- Bought some crabapple dessert wine at Elephant Island

- Apples/cherry tomatoes/tzatziki from the farmers market in Penticton

- Wine Slurpy from Kettle Valley (yes you read right - Gwertz slurpy!)

So good! The crabapple and blue cheese made for an amazing combination. We also got a lighter bie-like cheese (some kind of harvest moon) which was mild and tastey with the olive loaf, BUT the falvours just jumped out when eaten with apple.

I heard hillside estates has phenominal food but the wine is ok. Anyone tried staying at the new winery - Therapy? I bought some Therapy, it's for my own good.

Edited September 20, 2005 by fud (log)

[Daddy-A]

Mission Hill Winery (Kelowna)- lunch on the terrace was excellent and the winery is the most architecturally-amazing facility.

<SNIP>

(Only small quibble is the problem of the food cooling so quickly in the wind on the terrace dining area).

At least you got to eat there! The three days we were in Kelowna we had the only foul weather of our vacation and the Terrace was closed each day. The view from the Terrace is pretty nice though

I heard hillside estates has phenominal food but the wine is ok. 

We were in Naramata as well and ate at Hillside. Pretty good, but we've been told that Lake Breeze was better. Unfortunately Lake Breeze's kitchen was closed the days we were there.

Best meal of our week was at The Sonoma Room - Burrowing Owl.

Details of our week in wine country can be read HERE.

A.