We went to Kelowna's "second best" restaurant on Saturday night for dinner. I'd made the reservations in April as I was planning this trip. When we arrived, the hostess says she couldn't find my reservation and asked me which app I used. I told her I used Guestful and she says, "We don't use that app." I told her I clicked on it from their website and showed her the confirmation email. THEN she says, "Oh, we used to use it, but we transitioned to a new app in April." Then she offers us the patio. I don't understand why she couldn't do that in the first place instead of accusing me of not making reservations. Then she went out to "check on the table" and came back saying the table is ready without actually taking us or directing us there. We walked towards the door to be stopped by a busser who abruptly asked if we knew where our table was and then took us there.
We ordered three appetizers to share - originally it was supposed to be four, but they ran out of the chicken wings. We settled for the Butcher's Paper, 7 Layer Dip, and Espanol Fries.
This is the 7 Layer Dip, which contained tuna pate, seaweed, black bean, and served with quinoa rice chips. The dip was very salty, but not to the point where you would feel sick. Paired with the excessively bland rice chip, it was a very well-balanced bite.
The Butcher's Paper comes with 2 oz of housemade charcuterie, bread, and picked grapes. The charcuterie lacked seasoning and tasted a bit like the deli meat you get from the market. The bread was burnt and bitter. We really enjoyed the mustard, but it wasn't enough to save the dish.
The Espanol Fries was basically potato cubes smothered in tomato gastrique, buttermilk vinaigrette and (a lot of) paprika. It is a lie to call these fries. Although it was flavourful with an interesting tinge of sweetness., it was overwhelmed with paprika.
As my meal, I ordered the Shafty Burger. I ordered this because I thought that this restaurant was opened by Kaila Klassen from MasterChef Canada and her dream was to open a burger place. Turns out she wasn't a part of the restaurant at all - I wasn't her fan, but the show made it seem like she can make a good burger. Luckily, this is a farm to table restaurant and they grind their meat in house so I was allowed to order my burger medium. The burger patty was quite juicy, and perfectly cooked. The chips that came with it didn't taste anything special. Overall, I wasn't impressed with the burger.
Two of the other people at my table ordered the Braised Pork Belly. I was told it was very delicious and tender. The Kale had soaked up the broth and made it very tasty as well. The only downside was that it was too large. I have been to restaurants (like Cin Cin) who offer half portions of food. Perhaps KRAFTY should consider this for the future.
Another two ordered the Octopus Tagliatelle, which was apparently "just okay" and also had too much paprika.
Of course, we had to have dessert. We had the Earl Grey Panna Cotta, which was more like a custard than a Panna Cotta - it didn't set at all. The flavour was good though, it tasted very strongly of Earl Grey.
Negatives: The hostess was really rude - she didn't even apologize for the mix up with the reservations. The restaurant running out of the chicken wings and housemade ceaser mix signifies how poorly managed it is. The mix apparently takes three days and they ran out the day before. My question is why they didn't make more when they started running low.
Positives: Our server was very nice and on the ball. We were there for about 3 hours and she never rushed us or anything. The food was decent - not the best that I've had, but decent.
Overall, a decent place. It gave the impression that it was overrated, so I probably won't return. I would like to try new places and if I were to return to a place in Kelowna, I had a better experience at Waterfront Wines.
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