Restaurants in West Kelowna

Led by a husband-and-wife team, the expert kitchen crew at The Patio Buffet beckons patrons to take unlimited culinary journeys through a buffet spread brimming with classic comfort fare and homestyle brunch cuisine. Hash browns, bacon, and scrambled eggs form edible mountains atop limitless plates, and diners can raise their opera glasses to marvel at chefs as they transform custom ingredients into made-to-order omelettes. Customers venture to the hot bar to break from breakfast fare and sample the savoury flavours of meat loaf, brisket, and chicken. Rivers of gravy cascade over potatoes as eaters devour handmade cabbage rolls between sips of apple, orange, and cranberry juice. Meanwhile, televisions spring to life to add sides of hockey, football, and basketball to meals. Many buffet options are gluten-free, and patrons can break from balancing brunch-loaded plates atop their heads to ask staff members which foods match their dietary needs.

The chefs of Edo Japan Westbank speedily dispense delectable Japanese cuisine and sushi rolls concocted in traditional Teppan style. Steady, skilled hands flip morsels of meat and other delectables on the 450-degree Teppan grill until they sport a seared outer crust, sealing in the kitchen’s authentic flavours. Raw and vegetarian dishes such as a selection of maki and nigiri sushi sate palates stag or as part of an extensive platter, while an abundance of original teriyaki dishes arrives kissed in sweetness and salt by Edo Japan Westbank’s signature teriyaki sauce. Bento boxes supply diners with a diverse sampling of eats precisely packaged for busy feasters to easily whisk away, be it to a business meeting or to an evening glow-in-the-dark book club.

Chronic Tacos, whose tacos and burritos were voted some of the best in Vancouver in 2011 by readers of Georgia Straight, culls its recipes from the salsa-splattered pages of a family recipe book filled with three generations of Mexican delicacies. Chefs marinate and grill juicy morsels of steak, chicken, and pork several times a day, then tenderly tuck them into preservative-free corn and flour tortillas. To add extra zest, dollops of housemade salsa and sour cream perch atop tacos and, in the event of an emergency, rain from sprinkler systems.

As night falls on Fridays in July and August, live jazz musicians serenade diners at 19 Okanagan Grill + Bar. The music drifts across the massive outdoor patio and onto the adjacent Two Eagles Golf Course before blending with the sound of the wind rippling across Okanagan Lake. This elegant scene suits the year-round kitchen's upscale steakhouse cuisine, which includes made-from-scratch soups, steaks, and grilled tiger prawns. While bartenders pour wines by the bottle or glass and garnish martinis with errant golf balls, they chat with regulars about the day’s round.

When Buy The Sea Seafoods opened in 1992, its goal was to vend fresh, sustainably harvested seafood through employees with a keen knowledge of their trade. Now operating from two locations, the company accepts almost daily shipments of local fish and shellfish as well as more exotic swimmers including swordfish, ahi tuna, and tri-lingual oysters. Fresh salmon burgers, crab cakes, and seafood salad chill out in a frosty deli case, and a menu of cod 'n' chips, fried prawns, and seafood chowders are prepared in a small kitchen for dine-in or takeout orders.

The savoury scent of sauces and charbroiled steaks waft through the air as Kevin Rodden and Frank Sham hand-stretch pizza dough in La Cucina Ristorante's open kitchen. With 40 culinary medals between them, the duo uses their gastronomic expertise to fashion local ingredients into authentic Italian specialties. They whip up pastas and housemade soups during the day to accompany the lunch buffet's daily entrees, top pizzas with smoked salmon for dinner service, and cook rainbow cheese tortellini whenever storms clear. To help wash down those hearty portions, Kevin and Frank keep the restaurant stocked with hand-selected local and Italian wines by the glass, half-litre, and bottle. Meals unfold in an intimate dining room and on a cozy patio, though the chefs also supply frozen sauces and soups for take-home feasts.

A pink ‘59 Cadillac flips on its headlights and a waiter strides to the window. “What’ll it be, Mac?” This was the golden age of carhops, when root beer cost a nickel and Roy Allen and Frank Wright—A&W themselves—were in the midst of expanding what was once a simple root-beer stand into an international chain. Today, A&W continues to slake thirsts with their signature root-beer floats, accompanied by an expanded menu of classic American foodstuffs to inspire both hunger and nostalgia for the sock-hopping, roller-skating days of last week. Now, icy treats share space with hot dogs made from American beef, fried cheese curds of creamy Wisconsin white cheddar, chicken strips, and single and double burgers.