Not an inexpensive choice for a family dinner, but all the dishes and appetizers were superb, their Pinot noir quite good, and the view a nice bonus! The desserts were also excellent… in all I’d have to put this restaurant in my Top 10!
Scott S.
Rating des Ortes: 5 St Petersburg, FL
Seriously awesome food, service, ambiance, the works. We had the good fortune to get an outside table at the corner closest to the lake. The four of us all ordered the duck which was very, very good. We shared a bottle of viognier from adjacent Quails Gate Winery that was excellent with the meal. Next time we are in the Okanagan, we will certainly return, Excellent job by the kitchen and service teams.
Simran M.
Rating des Ortes: 5 Vancouver, Canada
Old Vines is now my #1 go to restaurant in Kelowna! We had the most delicious dinner. I ordered the Carpaccio to start, the halibut for dinner and we ordered the vanilla ice cream dessert. Our server was so polite, and the other servers helping him serve us were just as nice. The 2008 CabSav wine was so good, we had to buy a few bottles.
Rick S.
Rating des Ortes: 1 Hermosa Beach, CA
Went to this this restaurant to celebrate a birthday last Wednesday. After reading the Unilocal reviews was really anticipating a great dinner. Unfortunately the service is terrible. It was so bad we were looking for another place to dine while waiting the 25 minutes for our drink order to arrive. Finally got the managers attention and the drinks arrived but no server in sight. This type of service transitioned throughout the 2 hour meal. When the food arrived an hour later by a different server the food was just ok. Had the rib eye steak and the size and side dishes were overdone and bland in taste. Recommend going to Mission winery and eating there.
Bernice G.
Rating des Ortes: 4 Edmonton, Canada
What a beautiful patio and view from the restaurant! We were a little late for lunch and too early for dinner but we were able to order off of their tapas menu which didn’t disappoint. You can choose from a variety of meats and cheeses as well as soup, truffle and parmesan fries, a seafood platter and crab cakes. We ordered the carrot ginger soup to start with some bread. The soup was absolutely delicious with a nice creamy consistency and the ginger and other herbs(I think nutmeg) did not overpower the soup. It was perfect for the cool rainy day we were having. Second we chose a charcuterie board of 2 meats and 2 cheeses to share. We had the Sour Tuscan Salami and the Duck Prosciutto which were both delicious. They were cut very thinly and cured perfectly. The duck prosciutto was my fave! For cheeses we ordered the White Grace Moonstruck which was a firmer cheese and the Blue Juliette Salt Spring Island which was a goat’s milk, blue cheese with some blackcurrant. It was very delicious as well. The board came with some crackers, bread, mustards and dried fruit. It was a really beautiful spread and it hit the spot for 3:30 in the afternoon. Of course, we accompanied the meal with some white wine from Quails’ Gate since this restaurant resides in it’s winery. It was also very enjoyable. The service was also very good and the view was fantastic. It was a great way to finish off the afternoon.
Shaun S.
Rating des Ortes: 5 Vancouver, Canada
Drove up from Vancouver and visited upon a friends recommendation. My girlfriend and I had an amazing evening! All around excellent experience, can’t say enough about the staff, everyone really does a great job! Our server Amy was outstanding! She enhanced the speactular food and wine we feasted on! Lindsay, our hostess, helped us book reservations 2 months in advance when we left! We will always visit Quail’s Gate everytime from now on!
Jes G.
Rating des Ortes: 5 Burnaby, Canada
If you are going to have a lunch or dinner at a winery on a hot summer day, Quail’s Gate is one of the very best. The wine selection is obviously good, but the amazing winery atmosphere, beautiful surroundings, and well-prepared food make this a must-visit place if you are going through Kelowna.
Kyla K.
Rating des Ortes: 1 Vancouver, Canada
Shockingly negative experience at this restaurant this past weekend. 7 girlfriends and I were staying at Sparkling Hill in nearby Vernon to celebrate my 40th birthday. We hired a tour guide to plan a wine tasting itinery, including stops for lunch and dinner. The lunch he planned for us was at Old Vines Restaurant. Prior to our lunch at 1pm, we visited the Quail’s Gate winery next door, which has great wines and provided good service — no issues there. Unfortunately, the experience at the restaurant next door was simply awful. We were seated by a hostess, and the lovely server next to us poured our water. Some time after that, our female server(a redhead whose name shall remain unmentioned) came by to take our wine order. We needed a few more minutes to think about it, and then we didn’t see her for another 15 minutes. Got our wine, and another 45 minutes went by without seeing our server. As we were on a tour with a strict itinerary, I finally flagged down the lovely server of the table next to us, and asked if we could please order now. She looked shocked we hadn’t ordered yet since it was nearly 2pm, and shortly after that our server, looking pissed off, came over and took our food orders. A ridiculous amount of time went by again. We were hungry and our tour guide said we might have to cancel our next winery appointment. INTHEMEANTIME, the table directly to my right(being serviced by the server who we saw frequently), came into the restaurant AFTER us, got their food, wine, ate AND paid all before we had food on the table. I finally got up to speak to the manager, expressed my concerns, and she said she’d check on our food. Fine. She then approached our table and asked specifically how long we’d waited, and I said an hour before ordering. She responded, «That doesn’t seem unreasonable.» Word for word. I expressed that I disagreed and mentioned our server hadn’t been around for the last hour and a half, and she basically blew me off. She asked if she could do anything else for me and I asked that our bills be brought out along with the food as we were now in a time crunch. What happened next was what really set my table off. We WATCHED the blonde manager walk over to the bar where our server and another employee were drying glasses. We saw her tell them about the exchange we’d just had, they both rolled their eyes, made faces and shook their heads. I’ve never seen something so unprofessional by a manager or staff in a restaurant that likes to think of itself as a nice establishment. The food finally arrived, we wolfed it down, paid our bill and left. No apologies, no attempt to make things right, no «goodbye» even. Just sour looks from all staff towards our table for the rest of our time there. I’d like to thank the server next to us for being a decent person, and in all fairness, my dish was quite good, so the chefs know what they’re doing. Last complaint — our tour guide called ahead to advise we had two vegans in our party. When we arrived, they had NOTHING our two vegans could eat. They ended up eating bread and a side of vegetables with no butter. Seriously?! What a difference compared to Raudz where we ate later that night that easily whipped something up for them to eat, especially since they had DAYS notice of our visit. They just don’t give a shit. Would I recommend this place to anyone, ever? Nope. They need serious staff and management training. That was shocking. On the bright side, we went to Raudz for dinner and it was awesome. Perhaps they’d be willing to show this restaurant how to treat people.
Nancy F.
Rating des Ortes: 4 Calgary, Canada
We have been to this restaurant a number of times and it’s always good. Why do we go a lot? Because it’s the restaurant beside Quails Gate and we looooove Quails Gate wine/winery. This restaurant is very high class. Small servings but great quality. The Dungeness crab cakes are the best! Also the truffle French fries. Go here in the spring/summer…sit on the patio and enjoy the gorgeous view! Only complaint is that there were at least 6 empty tables and we were sat at the bar because they were«really busy». I thought these tables were reserved but after eating and drinking, all these tables were still empty.
Meel H.
Rating des Ortes: 1 New Town, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Worst experience ever. Poor service, cold food, rude assistant manager, very slow. The details are too many. Run, don’t walk, away from this place. Never again!
T K.
Rating des Ortes: 1 Sequim, WA
While the architecture is great and the food is good the service for such a fine establishment makes the whole experience unacceptable. Waited almost two hours for main course. And the wait staff cleared our wine before done, definitely bad form. There’s a point at which the best restaurant becomes mediocre, and unfortunately this restaurant is there and I’m not sure they cared.
Heidi K.
Rating des Ortes: 1 Sequim, WA
We had a good experience in 2014 so we decided to come back. Sadly we were soon forgotten by the staff. After we ordered the wine & bread with an appetizer we waited 1 hr and 45 mins for our meal. We were too tired to eat or even enjoy our meal we trekked over 2 days to enjoy. Two tables of 4 were seated after us and received their meals before us. We can understand waiting for a table of 10, but two tables of 4 were served before our small table of 2 persons which is unacceptable. Oddly after using the restroom, our carafe of wine with a glass remaining goes missing. No matter how well ranked a culinary restaurant is or esteemed it becomes, it can pass the point of no return when it’s too good to fail. And sadly Quails Gate failed tonight. Not worth the 2 hour roundtrip drive to receive a meal nearly 2 hours late. Failed miserably.
Maggie L.
Rating des Ortes: 4 Vancouver, Canada
Was visiting for the weekend and a few of my Kelowna pals said Old Vines was a must! Location: Can’t be beat! We were staying in Kelowna and the drive over to West Kelowna wasn’t far at all. GPS said it would take about 15 minutes and it was fairly easy to find. Lots of ample parking in their lot(but could use more lighting when it turns to evening). Gorgeous views of the water too! Food: Started off with oysters on the halfshell from PEI. Being an oyster-lover, I thought the oysters were sub-par and almost a bit fishy. I really can’t fault Old Vines though for this as oysters are are just that, oysters. They can’t enhance or fix something is natural. However, I thought it was super reasonably priced at $ 16. I ordered the duck and it tasted very fresh. I love a good duck and they delivered. Just wished they rendered off the fat a little bit more but it was still tasty. They paired it with some fresh corn as well and it was SO delish. Cooked medium rare and was true to it. Mr. ordered the 30 day 10oz ribeye. It was cooked medium rare and was true to it as well. Pairings were delish as well and I thought it had a good full-meaty taste to it. It wasn’t gamey, but it was very flavorful. We also shared the wild mushroom risotto which was… hate to say it… disgusting. Upon the first few bites, I noticed it was really SOUR. I thought at first maybe they topped it off with some sour cream, but turns out they had citrus juice in it(which we had no idea because it wasn’t listed on the menu). My guy has a minor citrus allergy so I really didn’t appreciate the lack of detail mentioned on the menu. I told our server(which he had no clue why it was sour…) and he got a new one made for us within 2 minutes. This alarmed me a bit because risotto does not cook within 2 minutes. and of course, when it came out the rice was still kinda chewy. At this point I just gave up and basically paid $ 24 for truffle oiled mushrooms. Service: Making reservations were super easy as they’re on Open Table and we got seated promptly once we arrived. We were seated right by the entrance to the patio which was fine as it was a bit chilly that evening to be outside, but we got best of both worlds with the view/breeze but still within the restaurant itself. Host was friendly and was told our server would be with us shortly. I have to be honest though, our server was pretty terrible. I felt like he really didn’t want to be there and it showed on his face and in his voice. There was no promoting of the food/wines/anything until we asked him and even then I felt he withheld information on specials/plates. He just didn’t make our experience as enjoyable as it probably should have been. Basing from the other servers that we saw, he really lacked the part. Long story short, the food was tasty(except the risotto), the restaurant is beautiful and for the most part the servers do love working there. except our server. I’d still recommend friends coming here despite our experience not being a 10⁄10.
CaJo C.
Rating des Ortes: 5 Toronto, Canada
Amazing food and remarkable wine! Outstanding view and location! Staff are extremely accommodating! We have dined globally and this is one of our favourite spots in the world.(I am not sure if the locals realize what Quails’ Gate has really created.) We dine here every time we are in the Okanagan Valley. Old Vines is a must stop for us. They book up quickly so I recommend a reservation. From my view the prices are exceptionally reasonable for the quality of food and wine you are enjoying. Can’t wait till next time!
Richard C.
Rating des Ortes: 4 Los Angeles, CA
To be fair I have not tried the nearby Mission Hill’s counterpart restaurant, and I’m sure these are often compared, but Old Vines delivered a fantastic dining experience. We had a beet salad, farm greens, spring salmon, farm crest chicken, and butcher’s cut and all were delicious with particular attention to detail. The service was traditional and phenomenal.
Lilly S.
Rating des Ortes: 5 Vienna, Austria
Had booked a table here well before our holiday even started after a colleague of mine recommended the place. It was one of the best dining experiences we had during our holiday. The food was excellent and prepared with care and respect for the great produce. Also the presentation was very pretty. We tasted some of their wines before the dinner and so had a pretty good idea which ones we liked in particular. The service was most professional. And on top of that you get to sit on the yard with a great view over the vineyard.
Jennifer H.
Rating des Ortes: 4 Vancouver, Canada
We had lunch here and the food was excellent. We were just at mission hills restaurant last night for dinner and if I had to pick one place I will still pick Mission Hill. I found the food quality very good but the value at mission hill was better. We ordered the charcuterie and the tuna tartare(special) as the appie. The tuna was amazing but quite small and the charcuterie was quit disappointing. For main we got the halibut and the tuna. Both was amazing! We cleaned the plate. We sat outside and the view was pretty. Service was a tad slow but beside that it’s a good restaurant.
Clayton L.
Rating des Ortes: 5 Vernon, Canada
Probably one of the best restaurants here. I’ve been there repeatedly and can’t recall anything negative to call out. Their wine is incredible, and the sophistication of some of these dishes is pretty impressive… I don’t know of another restaurant here that produces dishes at a level that I can’t figure out, but even something as seemingly simple like the lamb stew stumped me – there was just so much subtlety and talent in that food that I couldn’t dissect how to make it myself. To me Quail’s Gate is the real thing. It doesn’t fall victim to some of the more vapid, shopworn Okanagan winery cliches you sometimes find, like adding goat cheese to everything. If you haven’t gone there yet, you need to!
Amy T.
Rating des Ortes: 5 Vancouver, Canada
If you’re in the area, you probably want to stop by Old Vines to have lunch. They have it all here. You get a spectacular view overlooking Okanagan Lake. The staff are terrific and the friendliest service I received in Kelowna. And lastly, food is delicious. I had the Spring Salmon with potatoes, olives, pickled beans, quail eggs and kale. The salmon was moist and perfectly cooked. The only thing to keep in mind is the portions aren’t very large, but that’s expected with find dining. Try to get a seat outside. If the patio is full, the dining room will still be fine. There’s something about Old Vines that’s incredibly relaxing.
Mike P.
Rating des Ortes: 5 Mississauga, Canada
My 3rd visit to the restaurant which is attached to the Quails Gate wine tasting centre. Stopped in enroute back to Kelowna while on business in the Okanagan. There’s no way that you can miss a sampling of vino while in wine country. I did a little wine tasting next door, prior to sitting down to an early dinner. During this particular week, the restaurant was offering a three course dinner(any selections from their menu) for $ 45. Of course, factor in a glass or two of wine and a slightly more expensive appetizer(minimal charge for upgrades), and my dinner came to $ 78. Still not bad considering where you are. I had the Q U E B E C F O I E G R A S T O R C H O N with rhubarb orange jam, almond & apricot granola and toasted brioche to start. For my main, I chose the M A P L E H I L L F A R M C O R N I S H G A M E H E N with smoked paprika, lemon, black olives, herb gnocchi, pan juices. Very nice and paired with a glass of Chenin Blanc.(I prefer white) Definitely worth stopping here for a sampling of wine from the region, or for a nice lunch/dinner. Highly recommended and worth the indulgence.