We spent the afternoon going ATVing and golfing at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler course, before capping off the day with dinner at Bearfoot Bistro. The menu offers a la carte, but I can never turn down choosing a Chef’s Tasting Menu when I see one being offered.

It started with Champagne and caviar. They made it seem like it was just a splash of champagne, but I thought the serving was great. You know you’re in for a treat when you start off with Veuve Cliquot. Overall I was really impressed with every single dish and pairing. I even had a new wine with the Stina Cuvee White. I will have to see if we can find that locally and revisit a bottle of that!

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It was a set menu at Home Block, and it changes every day. It was one of the best meals we’ve ever had there and glad that it was also marking the occasion of Justin’s birthday.

We always, always, always order the Burrata. It’s different every time we have it, so it’s a fun surprise each time. This last time, they served the Burrata with grilled wild garlic, wild mustard greens, and a few other things. Other than the time we had it with a mountain of Proscuitto and toasted house-made Foccacia, I really loved this particular iteration of Burrata.

Any time there is mention of fresh-baked bread, we are always on it. We didn’t need it really because the set menu is a ton of food for us, but we ordered it anyway. The bread and the butter were amazing. Their Foccacia is always a winner too.

Next up was their “wedge salad”, buttermilk dressing, blue cheese, and green apple.

Justin’s entree was a barrel stave grilled lemon and garlic chicken on potatoes.

I ordered the lingcod, it came on a bed of greens and olives.

And finally, onto dessert. Sticky toffee pudding with vanilla ice cream and butterscotch sauce. Normally, we never order late harvest or iced wine, but we decided that the dessert definitely also needed to be paired with it’s own wine.

Overall, it was a perfect evening to celebrate Justin’s birthday. We love that the menu leads with the wine. Home Block is also has one of our favorite patios to dine on in the Okanagan.

Happy birthday, Justin!

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Canlis touts themselves as contemporary Pacific Northwest fare in a midcentury-modern home. That description right there hits all of the marks for us. The restaurant is in the Queen Anne neighborhood, with views of Gas Works Park and the Cascade Mountains. It was built in 1950 by Peter Canlis and has remained family-owned all this time.

From the moment you arrive in front of the restaurant, everything is taken care of for you and you are made to feel pampered. It’s valet parking, and you are escorted into the restaurant. I can’t remember if we were early for our reservation, but we were likely offered a spot at the bar to grab a beverage before our table was ready. The cocktails were tasty, and we knew we were off to a great start. There was live piano throughout the evening. The views were stunning, and it was so nice to watch the sun slowly set through the evening.

As expected, our fine dining experience at Canlis was top-notch. The staff was amazing, everyone was so friendly and approachable. The food was absolutely divine, a feast for the eyes and stomach. I won’t go into detail for each dish, because there were too many to keep track of. And I’m sure the menu changes often to keep up with the seasons. So enjoy the pictures below!

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We didn’t feel like drinking much so opted to have a couple cocktails. They also always serve a selection of bread with an olive tapenade dish. It’s divine. As per usual, for all the restaurant recaps, this will be mostly a photo post. The service is pretty consistent. The pasta is always on the menu. They have this gigantic wood fire grill that I love to watch in action, so we would definitely recommend ordering any of the proteins.

We love dressing up and going for date nights at CinCin. The ambience is really nice, and it’s not too noisy for either the indoor or outdoor seating. The food is always really consistent and it’s a lovely experience dining there. It’s always a treat to go in the summers, because you can sit in the outdoor patio and enjoy dining al fresco.

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I love a good sashimi platter. This is just the chef’s selection of sashimi. The prawn was delicious, and they’ll fry up the head once you are done, so you can eat it!

Aburi sushi…. yum!! Aburi means flame-seared. It has perfectly seasoned rice, and thin slice of fresh seafood, with it being salmon here, and it’s topped with a signature sauce. They press it into a mold to form the shape, and then they sear the top with a torch that blows past a piece of charcoal, which I presume is used to give it flavour. Aburi is a nice change from a traditional sushi roll.

The fried prawn head! I’m not a very picky eater, and seeing things like fish or prawn heads doesn’t freak me out. I love chomping down on the fried prawn head. It’s crispy and flavourful, and a really fun way to eat.

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Location

Kettle River Brewing is in like the craft breweries district near Knox Mountain. It’s around the corner from Vice and Virtue, and Red Bird Brewing (read about Red Bird visit here). There were a lot of cars parked around when we arrived, but we realized they belonged to the auto shop beside the building. It looks like they have a pretty nice patio set up for the summertime.

Beers

You definitely want to get tasting flights when you hit up craft breweries! It killed me to not get one myself, but I haven’t been drinking much lately and didn’t want to overdo it. Justin got a flight, and as a consequence, I got to taste each of his. The chocolate milk stout caught my eye because they served it nitro-style. And Justin got a variety of IPAs and a Saison.

Tasting Room

The tasting room at Kettle River Brewing is dog-friendly! We saw a few people come and go for growler fills. When you go inside, there are a couple of couches near the entrance, and then a bunch of seating in the corner behind the couch and runs along the wall. The place wasn’t too loud and if we had stayed later, it would’ve turned into Trivia Night. There was a bunch of really beautiful art on the wall, and it turned out the artist was working behind the bar!

Overall Thoughts

We really enjoyed visiting Kettle River Brewing Co.! The tasting room was a good size. Their beer selections were pretty good, and they also had an extensive food menu to choose from. We had eaten earlier, and only come to enjoy their beverages. But we definitely want to return to check out the food. And it’ll probably be one of our regular haunts come the summer and their patio!

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Miradoro at Tinhorn Creek Winery

We weren’t sure what wine to order, so we let the restauranteur, Manny, pick out a wine to surprise us. The only parameters were that we wanted red and from the year 2011. It was a 2011 Syrah and it was a stunner.

The food menu at Miradoro at Tinhorn Creek Winery is big on “farm to table”, with a Mediterranean influence (our fav!) and bringing in food from around the Okanagan area. It doesn’t make sense to go into exactly what we ordered, because the menu is always changing. It’s all amazing. They also have nice lunch and dinner features, so just go with an open mind and see what piques your interest. Miradoro also makes the best thin-crust pizzas, so that’s definitely something to keep in mind for an afternoon of wine tastings in the Oliver/Osoyoos area!

Miradoro is the perfect for lunch or dinner. You can order a pizza at lunch, and create a nice base for yourself before heading out to do wine tastings. Or you can do what we have been getting up to recently when we hang out in the Oliver/Osyoos region. We like to do a tasting at Black Hills, since that can be at least a couple of hours. And then we head to Miradoro for dinner, before driving home to Kelowna.

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You know the jig with happy hours! Reduced prices on wine, and a selection of food items as an accompaniment. At Quails’ Gate, you can sit in the bar, or at times you may also get sat in the dining room. There’s not really a bad place in the house. The bar area offers views of a little courtyard style area and looks out onto their new expanded patio. I can’t wait to check that out in the summer. The dining room offers views of their show vineyard as well as the lake.

The Wine

There are 2 price points for the wines. You can’t go wrong with any of your choices and sometimes they put some really nice vintages on the happy hour menus. I enjoyed my 2018 Rose, and Justin enjoyed his Merlot.

The Food

We ordered cauliflower, the beef carpaccio, fresh sourdough bread, and oysters. We also got the charcuterie platter, without the terrine since it has pistachios in it.

Overall Thoughts

Winter and a Quails’ Gate Happy Hour is one of our favorite things. It’s a little quieter as it’s the off-season, so the vibes are more laidback and relaxing. The wines are always so good and consistent. And the views from the bar and restaurant are stunning. Who wouldn’t want to gaze out into greenery and lake views after a day?

What are your favorite Kelowna Happy Hours?

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Home Block

We’ve been to a few member events at CedarCreek, and have always enjoyed the food prepared by their Chef, Neil Taylor. Consequently, we had high expectations for the food at the restaurant, and we were not disappointed. The menu is constantly changes. We love that they have this huge wood-burning grill in the kitchen like they do at Ox in Portland and CinCin in Vancouver.

This post will be mostly photos. Home Block is just past the new tasting room. The restaurant feels pretty big and has high ceilings. The side of the restaurant that faces the lake is all floor-to-ceiling windows and has a giant gas fireplace on the terrace. It’s spectacular. When we arrived, we were offered a choice of where to sit in the restaurant, “view or no view”. It was the early evening and quite dark out, so we opted to sit in the part of the restaurant “without a view”. It felt like we had the whole place to ourselves.

I was pleased to see that there wasn’t a huge markup on bottles of wine at the restaurant and chose a Meritage as it’s one of Justin’s favorites from CedarCreek Estate Winery.

We were mindful with what we ordered and decided to share an appetizer with the hopes that we would be able to make it to dessert and have enough room for a sweet treat. We started out with the wedge salad to share, and it was out of this world. Never had anything like it before. We think that it was the hit of buttermilk that gave it the balance and tang that we really loved and enjoyed.

The Menu

I forgot to take a photo of the menu, and because it changes so often, our entrees are no longer listed. Rookie move! Justin’s entree was pork chop on a bed of potato, with long red beets and pickled onions. I’m pretty sure mine was cod. It was served on spinach leaves, and under a mix of capers, raisins, and cauliflower. I remember thinking of asking the server to omit the raisins (because why put raisins on savory food?!) but decided to trust the chef. I’m not usually one to modify the entree ever, unless it’s a food intolerance or allergy. Glad I didn’t ask because the dish was absolutely perfect! For some reason, I was expecting the raisins to be punchy and be big hits of sweetness and that was absolutely not the case.

We managed to save room for dessert and ordered the Sticky Toffee Pudding. It was delicious, and not too sweet. The butterscotch sauce was lovely. We thought we could taste the brown sugar and a little bit of fire.

Overall Experience

Everything was absolutely amazing at Home Block. The food was cooked beautifully and seasoned really well. The service was good. The Executive Chef does such a wonderful job with the menu. The food is creative, spiced well, with a Mediterranean influence. We really enjoyed the ambiance of the restaurant as well, and will definitely be back.

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Botanist

You can enter Botanist through the hotel, at the Fairmont Pacific Rim. I came in from their street entrance, on Canada Place near Burrard. Up the stairs, you’ll come up the doors and the entrance area is all lush and green with vegetation.

The area we sat in was this beautiful lush little sunroom. I loved the live ceiling, and the greenery spilling out everywhere. There was a lot of attention to detail. The chairs were upholstered with a cute floral brocade fabric. The side plates were made of stone with an etching that I can assume is their logo. The menu had this gorgeous rose gold clip.

There was a set menu for lunch, which sounded phenomenal, but both of us ordered just a single entree. They brought us bread, which I assume is their house-made brioche. It was really nice. Though the bread would have been perfect if it was slightly warmed.

I could barely finish my entree, it was incredibly rich. I ordered the vegetable ragu, ricotta salata, pine nuts, basil, on house-made cavatelle. My lunch date ordered the pan roasted halibut, because it was served with the most insanely delicious mashed potatoes.

As we were wrapping up, our server let us know that they also have experiential drinks at the bar. I cut her off and asked if any of them had smoke in the glasses, and she said yes! Hubby and I love that kind of fun cocktail and tableside sort of thing, so now I’m definitely coming back for a dinner date. I know I won’t have to twist his arm.

Overall, our experience for lunch was great. I loved the decor. The menu selection was diverse, and offered a lot of different options. I loved the plating. The flavours were great. I’m highly recommending the Botanist.

Food: Excellent

Service: Excellent

Value: Excellent

Ambiance: Excellent

OVERALL: Excellent

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