Central Kitchen + Bar — Restaurant in Kelowna

First impressions are everything. Kyra greeted my girl and I at the host stand with such genuine cheer and politeness. She sat us at our table and happened to be our server as well. We found out it was her first day serving here, which was a shock. She hit all the marks of an excelent server, giving us world class service, prompt check ups, a warm and friendly personality. Service here is exceptional.

Now lets talk about food. The menu reads so nicely. Making a choice was pleasantly difficult. Too many awesome menu options to look at for a first time here. Which is a huge plus, because I will want to come back here to go over the entire menu over the next year.

My girl ordered the burrata bruscetta. The presentation was beautiful. Like art, full of color from pesto, peaches, tomatos framing the beautiful white cheese. I am not usually in to burrata but the presentation had me second guessing why I never order this. My girl loved every bite.

I ordered the "french dip" burger. A side of au jus next to an incredibly delicious burger. The mushroom component was on point! Delicious garlicy and herbacious medly of wild mushrooms with arugula and a dijon aioli that was clearly made in house. The flavors were so good, I barely used the au jus. The fries were so perfect. Nice dark golden brown, salted so perfectly. The in-house made ketsup was fantastic. Again, the presentation was bang on.

We were in for lunch so we did not endulge in the impressive coctail list. I had a coffee, and the service was consistant. No waiting for a top up or extra cream.

We had as good a first impression as it can get. Big thank you to Kyra for doing such a spectacular job today! Keep up the good work kid!

To the management that trains here, great job! You earned a regular customer today.

I look forward to many more expreiences here. I will update this review with more feedback as I...

I am only giving it 1 star because our server and the service was great. Too bad everything else wasn’t. I have never disliked the food at a restaurant to a point that it needed a review, but this one needed it.

We wanted to go out for food and beers and this place was disappointing. I had ordered the Spicy Korean Chicken sandwich, it was 🤮. I couldn’t even taste any of the flavours because it was SMOTHERED in sauce. It felt as if I was eating out of a jar of korean sauce that it came with. I tried salvaging it by wiping off the sauce with the knife that the sandwich came with, but it didn’t work. The bread became soggy with all the sauce, it is not worth the $21. Only good thing about that was the fries. Disappointing is an understatement.

The wings. My husband ordered 3 flavours of wings. It was wing night. When the wings came, they looked delicious. My husbands first bite, the wings were cold. We thought maybe it was just the one wing, but it was all of them. 🙈 The worst part was the flavours. When you order 3 flavours of wings, you’re supposed to taste 3 different flavours. Not in this case. All the wings tasted the same. The Jamaican Jerk did not taste like Jamaican Jerk at all. My husband thought it was in the breading and asked our server if we could order them with no breading, but apparently it comes pre-breaded? We did not even finish the wings. Our server asked if we wanted a box to bring them home, and she seemed confused as to why we said No Thanks.

Honestly, it was so disappointing. As we drove home, we were hungry and upset that we even bothered getting a baby sitter to go out and eat for this terrible experience. Spent $90 to go home hungry. Beers and service was...

[Update:] Second visit to Central months later and things have gotten better! Staff was very friendly, the food was good. Food and drink options have improved... quite a welcome improvement. Its not how you start, its how you finish and Central is proving that. I'm looking forward to another visit very soon!

Honestly, underwhelming after the relaunch. I believe there was a lot of work that went into the relaunch of Central but based upon my last visit, it was a "Joeys" or "Cactus Club" vibe without the quality to back it up.

The overall food quality was not adequate of what you'd expect when walking into this beautifully renovated location. For the most part the staff was very friendly and accommodating. The manager was approachable and understanding... but the food just didn't live up to the "posh" vibe Central is chasing since their relaunch.

I've visited this place several times prior to the relaunch when it was just a small quaint pub with a very local vibe (Which it lived up to time & time again in the greatest of experiences) and yet I was very excited for its upgraded relaunch.

Unfortunately that comes a different level of expectations. I'm giving 3 / 5 stars (To be re-reviewed in the near future) because I do believe this place has the potential since the relaunch to become exceptional and nothing great is born overnight.

However, the mark was missed in my last visit. A beautiful renovation doesn't mean that food quality can suffer and still get the gold star. I will be back... but I' m going to give it sometime for the kinks to hopefully be worked out and maybe we can see an elevated version of Central...