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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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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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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