The Bench Market

While I enjoyed some r and r with my wife, we dropped by this little café for lunch and breakfast. It’s nestled on a hill in the middle of a residential area. If you don’t use google maps you will not find it.
This place has ample seating outdoors but it’s kinda cramped inside. You have to navigate through its cluttered layout of shelves filled with organic preserves and grocery items. Once you take a look at their menu your mouth will salivate.
Their array of sandwiches are well thought out and a decent size. I got the Sicilian with a side pickle. It was tasty and filling. I washed it down with this amazing organic root beer.
The next day we returned for breakfast because I wanted eggs Benedict. Great stuff.
Overall this place is really cool. It’s a happening spot that many locals visit. The price is good for what you get. The only problem I have is the lack of space inside. Too cluttered for my taste.

Delicious breakfast burrito. Chilled yummy breakfast, good prices. Casual atmosphere, would go again!

Food is ok. Forgot our order but were apologetic. Outside seating is very old and tired looking plastic chairs with tons if scratches and sun damage. Tables are tired and worn looking as we’ll. Overall a poor experience sitting outside with just ok food for pretty expensive prices. They seem to have a good following though.

Visiting Pentiction and stopped in for Saturday breakfast (arrived around 10am) and it was comfortably busy with no wait time. The place is super cute– a little market with local and house made products on shelves surrounded by tables and seating for the counter-​serviced coffee shop. The portions are small, yes, but the quality is large and I, for one, would take quality over quantity any day. The breakfast sandwich is delicious. The regular breakfast is delicious, all served with local organic products and you see it and taste it in the food. The coffee is tasty. I will be back next time around! Thanks!

We had the eggs and sausage and bench waffle. Super yummy. The portions aren’t huge but the quality is there. Cute, but busy, little café with limited seating. A must stop in Penticton.

The weekend and weekday wait times are ridiculous, and the quality of service really suffers from there inability to cope with the added demand.
This is actually a pretty cool place, they have essentially added a gourmet kitchen on to the side of a hipster café and the ambiance is county dinner. Reminded me of many such places throughout the wealthy communities of the rookies.
The eggwiches are pretty good, the salmon eggs Benny are amazing.
The greatest contribution to humanity in recent decades are the fresh baked scones, which come in vanilla pear and mixed berry.

We all enjoyed a fantastic take away lunch. We returned for a coffee a while later and we certainly weren’t disappointed!

Very warm, welcoming atmosphere, even on a miserable rain drenched day. Lovely, smooth cappuccino and great local apple juice in a jar. Food is fresh and hand made.

Lovely coffee from Backyard Beans. Super-​tasty burrito; added the chorizo for fun. Delicious gluten free bread for a salmon eggwich. And shopping too… what? Love it. So thankful for this place.

Cute café and nice patio. Excellent iced chai latte and raspberry lemonade.
Only downside to this place is the price is a bit expensive.
The Bench Benny’s were delicious. Worth checking out!

On our way up to the Naramata bench, we decided to make a stop here for brunch. It’s also a small market where they carry all your local food and picnic needs. Local cheeses from Upper Bench Creamery and Poplar Grove Cheese, bread, cured meats, crackers, honey and more; I basically wanted to buy everything. Order up front, grab a number sign for the table and pick a seat, then the food will be brought to you by one of their friendly staff.
They have a lovely patio out front surrounded by flower planters. It also gets lots of sunlight. I got the smoked salmon benedict. This was delicious. I like the addition of spinach and capers, and their hollandaise was perfect. It comes with a side of roasted yams and potatoes, topped with some homemade tomato sauce. You can also get your coffee fix here as they serve coffee from Backyard Beans.
The next day we came back for lunch once again, and this time I had the breakfast burrito. It’s one hearty wrap, full of eggs, asparagus, fresh tomatoes, and a side of that delicious tomato sauce.
There’s lots of street parking out front, and it’s a great casual stop before you start your day with the wineries along the bench!

Food is good but overpriced. 3.25 for a minuscule side salad. 6 dollars for a breakfast muffin with a little bit of smoked salmon. 11 dollars for a sausage po boy which didn’t contain enough sausage to satisfy you. Great outdoor seating. Friendly staff. I expected to find these prices in Yaletown where I live.

Love this place. We went there last year on our last day before leaving for Vancouver. And went there a couple of times again this year when we were in Penticton. Awesome place. We saw several deers around this café during our trip. Good coffee, good food, and decent sitting.

The Bench Market has a cute patio, and some indoor seating. It is quite packed with interesting and unique products to buy. If you walk to the back you can order sandwiches, baked goods, and beverages. The sandwiches are very flavorful, and have a lot packed in. I loved that they had unique soda flavours such as vanilla peach. Despite feeling somewhat claustraphobic when trying to order, the experience was good. I loved that you could order a pickle with your sandwich too!

First time for me, went with my friends who have all been before and highly recommended. Wasn’t disappointed, food was very good. Had their tomato soup for lunch and sat outside in the sunshine. One of my friends tried their gluten free bread and she said it was one of the best she’s tasted as well as having a true bread texture.

Twice in 2 days
The bench club is a grilled panini without the extra layer of bread. Just the way I like it. Add a raspberry lemonade and it was the perfect hot day lunch.
The next day for brunch was a latte and the best bacon & egg breakfast sandwich I have had.

Very nice freshly made food, but overpriced for what you get.
Besides food to eat right away, there is a fair selection of fresh food and bottled sauces, oils, vinegar etc available for take away.
The outside seating always seems to be busy, so it’s luck if you can get a seat outside on the patio.

Love this place! Thanks to Unilocal,we found the great reviews and they were so right!
We happened in when it was super busy day (BC day long weekend) but we were still able to find a table inside. There is both indoor and outdoor seating. Order in the back at the counter and then you pay. There are a bunch of delicious snacks you can purchase along with your hot food. It’s a perfect place to pick up picnic supplies along with some delicious sandwiches.
The egg salad sandwich was fantastic and must have had a dozen eggs inside of it. This is a seriously hearty sandwich! My chicken panini was WOW good. I could eat that every day. Because it’s a grilled panini, I think it’s not going to be as good if you take it to go and eat it cold. The Thai salad was also a hit. We ordered the fresh squeezed lemonade and it was seriously strong!
Parking is tough. If they are busy, you’ll have to search a bit for parking, but it’s worth it.
Something I would improve is the clarity in the ordering process. It wasn’t clear where to line up or where to order. When it gets busy, everyone just looked confused.
If you do go, check out the cool map by the bathrooms of some of the local wineries.

Good good, or small-​town good?
I confess, that is the question that plagues me whenever I read the glowing reviews of a small-​town operation like the Bench Market. And I am here to report: GOOD good.
The pulled pork sandwich: a religious experience. I briefly thought about knocking my husband out so I could eat the entire thing, and not just the bite he shared with me, but then I thought, any guy who would give me even one bite of a sandwich this delicious is a pretty great guy, so I should probably hold off on the physical assault.
The Thai noodle salad: very tasty, but honestly, I had major food envy over that pulled pork.
The kids’ yogurt and granola parfaits? Their favorite EVER, though that may be due to the fact that they were actually whipped cream and cookie crumbs and not yogurt and granola (my faulty/​wishful assumption, and not deceptive labeling). I’m afraid that was the only thing I could get the kids to eat, since the kid menu skewed toward the more sophisticated side (i.e. deviated from burgers, hot dogs and pizza, which are about all the kids can be relied on to eat. More fool them.)
An EXCELLENT peanut butter cookie, or so my son told me before devouring the entire thing without offering me so much as a bite. I believe him, because he ate a second one even after it fell in a river and was totally soggy and gross-​looking.
Delicious, not-​too-​sweet lemonade. And their homemade granola, which I brought home, was truly excellent too. Worth stocking up when you have the chance!

* Decent sandwiches and coffee convenient to Naramata *
On the way out of Penticton up to the Naramata Bench and its nice variety of wine and cheese tastings, this café/​market offers up some decent sandwiches and coffee.
I had the pork sandwich, which turned out to be a riff on the flavour profile for a Vietnamese banh mi. It had pickled carrots and cucumbers, some cilantro, some fish sauce (a mild amount), and some grilled pork that had a bit of a Vietnamese flavour profile to it. Overall not a bad sandwich, although I would certainly take a banh mi from a good Vietnamese bakery any day rather than this interpretation that is priced double and is «just close» in flavour. Photo:
The espresso was nice and smooth with a proper crema. Photo:
Overall a good stopover spot on the way or way back from the Naramata Bench!