Vanilla Pod Restaurant at Poplar Grove Winery

This is the best restaurant in Naramata! The service, food and ambiance are fantastic. Try the Paella or roast duck — amazing! We will return here over and over. Be sure to make a reservation — the place fills up fast.

We are not a fan of this place. The food is small and expensive. When we ordered a glass of wine the pour was so small we joked with the waitress that we appreciated the saple but could we have a whole glass please.
Great scenery though can’t be beat. For visitors it is a great place to check out to enjoy the outlook of the lake and the North end of Penticton.

Pretty disappointed in our dinner here. We were really looking forward to it and had booked about a month in advance for a special birthday dinner. Things didn’t start out so well when they couldn’t find our reservation. Thankfully in the age of smart phones I was able to pull up our confirmation email and they were fairly quick to put together a table for us with a great view! The building is very modern and nice and we were in the outer room with huge windows which was nice.
Service was okay but a bit awkward. We asked for wine pairing suggestions for our meals and I think our server was new and instead of suggesting one option for each meal, he listed the 3 red wine options as being good for any of them. Especially when dining at a vineyard restaurant, we would’ve loved to hear exactly which wine matched each dish.
We ordered the rib eye, the duck breast, the paella and the feature pasta. For starters we had the tomatoes with bocconcini and the French onion soup (very thick and looked like gravy but tasted better than it looked). The starters were fine, but the mains we had issues with. The rib eye was fine, you really can’t screw that up! But the duck breast, we had to send the duck back as it was cooked medium rare instead of medium so we just asked them to cook it a bit longer and it was good. The paella seemed okay but there were comments of a bit of a burnt taste.
The feature pasta was where we had the most issues and of course this was my dish! The pasta that night was a fettuccine with a tomato sauce with artichokes and tomatoes. It sounded really good but when it came, at first I couldn’t find the pasta. There were a lot of tomatoes and artichokes on top. When I dug further, I found the pasta all clumped together, extremely thin (you could see through the noodles) and mushy. I am a huge pasta lover but this was definitely not al dente or even close and the noodles were so thin that they couldn’t help but clump in a big pile. I took a few bites and the other guests tried it too and it just wasn’t good. I hate complaining at a restaurant but couldn’t eat it so showed the server. He offered no apology but made a bunch of excuses for why it was that way… the chef made thinner fettuccine that day, the batch was just like that, etc. Anyways, he took it away and I asked for a new dish of the same thing, but just cook it less. He ended up coming back with more excuses and handed me a menu to see if I wanted anything else. By this point, the rest of our party was already half way done their meal so I just wanted to order the pasta again and hope for the best. Had to wait a long time before he came back to take my order. Ended up telling the Manager when he came by to see how things were going and he told our server. I basically got my pasta again by the time everyone was done eating. Again, not really an apology anywhere not that I need a big deal of it, but just saying it would have been nice! So awkward sitting there watching people eat with nothing yourself!
When the pasta came back, it was better. The fettuccine was obviously still very thin but they cooked it less which didn’t result in mush so it was fine.
Again, we were celebrating a birthday so we ordered 2 crème brulees to share and they put a candle on one of them. The crème brulees are very good but very tiny! Just to note.
When we got the bill, I was curious to see if they would do anything for the pasta mess up but was not surprised to see that no, they did not. Charged for everything including the desserts, nothing comped and nothing apologized for. It would have been a nice touch but I wasn’t going to make a deal of it. I still got my dish, I guess, it wasn’t perfect in the end but the way things were going throughout the dinner it was no surprise!
The restaurant and building itself and great and really beautiful settings for a nice dinner. Very disappointed with our experience but it seems like others fair better so who knows.

We had here wonderful evening and a romantic dinner for 2. The view, service, food and wines are outstanding. One of our top restaurants.

We had a great time at the Vanilla Pod last night and got the best seat in the house to watch the Snowbirds! The young waiter that is here on university break (sorry can’t remember his name) was excellent and made our night even more enjoyable. Food was fantastic as always we had lamb and halibut of course with excellent PG wine! If you haven’t been there it’s a must. Some of the best food, wine and views in the valley!
Only downside which had nothing to do with the restaurant was the groups that walked in and took a patio table some brought their own «red rooster» glasses and wine and sat in the restaurant area to watch the snowbirds. Takes a lot of nerve since it’s a private restaurant and not part of the tasting room.

We came here on our last evening of a romantic getaway to the Okanagan.
Staying on the opposite «bench» of Penticton this was only a short drive from town and also an excellent location if your wine touring takes you to Naramata.
5 stars for location, view, atmosphere… Breathtaking…
3.5 stars for the food: excellent soup of the day — 3 C’s Carrot Coconut Curry, OK Sockeye Salmon — a bit overdone, Paella — not the superb dish I expected following other reviews. Paired it with a glass of their spectacular rose (wanted to get a bottle on the way out but already had purchased too many bottles on this trip)
The price reflects the overall experience, not just the food…
5 stars for attentive and courteous service by our server Zack

We went to this restaurant because it has garnered great reviews. Imagine our surprise to find that it is one of the worst restaurants we have had the misfortune of visiting in years.
To begin with, we entered an empty restaurant, and were greeted by a waiter/​manager (or owner – who cares) who behaved like he was doing us a favour by letting us in. Then we were confronted with the dinner menu: a nonsensical assortment of ill-​considered experimental dishes. I was able to find one dish that appealed to me: it was not available. So I ordered the pasta of the day, which was supposed to be fettuccine with lamb and mushrooms ($ 24.00). What came was slop in a bowl; a greasy mess of overcooked pasta set with 4 or 5 strips of leathery lamb and heaps of black mushroom pieces. A few bites was all I could manage before I started to feel a bit nauseous. I managed to get our waiter over and pointed out that there was hardly any lamb at all in the dish. He added insult to injury by arguing with me – actually standing over me and pointing his finger into my plate.
Meanwhile, my dinner guest had ordered the Pork Rack Chop, which was so mired in grease that he couldn’t eat it. So he ate the vegetables. And felt unwell for the next 24 hours.
I ate the bread and butter. The butter was good.
Over-​priced, over-​rated, unappealing. And a pissy waiter. When you come across the Vanilla Pod, keep driving.

One of our favourite restaurants in Penticton/​Naramata area! Nothing beats the view and the food, service and wine selection are outstanding! We took my elderly parents there for a Friday night dinner and the staff was super accommodating to their meal and seating preferences. My husband and I have also been there for a romantic dinner for two — and we were not disappointed!

We ordered the Paella, flatbread pizza, and Crème Brûlée. Everything was amazing. The smoked flavour in Paella was awesome. Good service, good ambiance, awesome view. Good wine.

We went for brunch for a special family gathering. The food was very good, well presented, and the service just right: attentive but not annoying. The setting is stunning. Our group of five ordered a wide variety of items and none disappointed.

Good food $$$$, great service. Wonderful view of Okanagan Lake and Penticton.

Top notch.
Paella is awesome. seafood was very fresh, cooked and seasoned well
Flat bread was delish. the dough is the best we’ve had on the trip
Soup was just ok. mainly for the little one
All in all it was good.
Had an idiot manager come over to take a chair from us in a passive aggressive way.
«If you don’t mind, i’m just gonna take this chair right here».
— ah. yes i mind. that’s why there’s the car seat and 2 bags on the chair. i need it (is he blind??)
(a little shocked that he didn’t just get his way the first time. geez).
«oh well i need it for a customer.
I’m look around wondering if he really is blind. there’s like 10 tables empty outside with chairs all over. he had to come take the one that is being used?
so he replaces the chair with a smaller one from inside and takes the one we were using. by the time we finished our meal and left there were still 6 tables outside empty with chairs galore.
To that idiot manager dude: If you don’t mind, please go get a clue.

Great food, spectacular wime. Wonderful hilltop setting. Highly recommended.

Fantastic glass of Wine, servers were great, food was spectacular, the view breathless. Make time to stay here longer that a quick glass. Eat among the living fields.

I should have wrote this review sooner but better late than never.
We celebrated our anniversary at this beautiful location overlooking the South End of Okanagan Lake and Penticton. The wine we drank was the 2007 Poplar Grove ‘The Legacy’ and it was the perfect blend with both of our meals (We had to order a second bottle). Our sever was a friendly gentleman, hard to make him smile, service was great and extremely knowledgable. Food was sent out looking fresh and tasted better than it looked. I highly recommend this restaurant for a night out. I will be back… no doubt about it.

Beautiful quaint restaurant on the bench. Enjoy some wine tasting before dinner and enjoy the paella and crème brûlée. Service was top notch!

Excellent spot for a light lunch or tapas. Tapas portions are quite big, we had the two bread platters and a chickpea salad to share between two which was more than enough. With three glasses of wine the bill came to $ 110.
Nice setting, excellent service, great view, and a modern airy building. Reminds us of Australian wineries /​restaurants like Lamonts in Margaret River.

I had to laugh when I read in my Okanagan wine literature that Popular Grove was a «garage» winery, since this facility can only be described as modern and majestic, so let’s assume things have changed (or funding has improved) since their garage wine days. This is a far cry from a garage –swank is more like it.
Popular Grove is one of the nicer settings and facilities in the Okanagan to taste wine, and they have a small restaurant tucked beside their large tasting room with a unfortunate name and using a lot of grey in the décor, but with food and view that look to be worth a visit.

On a 3-​day wine tasting/​buying trip to Penticton, my husband and I ate at the Vanilla Pod twice it was so good. We had a lovely dinner on the patio to celebrate my birthday the first night. The tasting room staff, hostess, and waitress were all so friendly and helpful, but the food didn’t need any help. Delicious duck and salmon dishes were amazing, and the Poplar Grove Cab Franc was so good. Not cheap, but still more affordable than a similar meal in Vancouver, and the view was unbeatable on a warm summer evening (no sweater required).
The next day when looking for lunch on the Bench, we both wanted to come back to Vanilla Pod for a flatbread pizza and the recommended potato pancake. Wow, am I glad I didn’t leave without trying the potato! Again the staff was super friendly, remembering us from the night before and offering more great recommendations.
After reading about the sushi pizza, I was disappointed to learn that they don’t serve it during the busy summer months, but if I’m back in the area in the fall, I’ll be sure to stop again to try it! Reservations are recommended, but we did okay at off-​peak times without.

This place is a Must See. I have been to the Okanagan on and off throughout my whole life, and this is one of the best views. If you go here, make sure to bring a camera or a decent smartphone.
We went here for dinner and I’m really glad we made a reservation. They take open table which is nice. We got a great table in the corner surrounded by windows. The views were spectacular. We ordered and then went in and out taking photos of the valley as the sun set.
Our food was pretty good. My duck breast was served with both lighter and dark meat over a bed of kale. My husband enjoyed his lamb chops. My cousin’s paella was absolutely huge and quite tasty. The chocolate cake was decent but not something I’d get again. Most of the desserts were just ok.
The only annoying thing (and it was really annoying) was the number of flies. We sat inside but the doors were opened and closed over and over allowing many flies to buzz around us. They need some very discreet fly killing thing, like one of those blue lights that zaps them dead.
The reason to come here is the view. Amazing outdoor seating with fantastic views. Atmosphere + service = 4 stars.