CRAFT Beer Market Kelowna — Restaurant in Kelowna

My wife and I recently attended a work Christmas party hosted at Craft. Initially, I was quite excited, as in the past I remembered the restaurant having a half decent chicken burger and a distinct brewery-aesthetic. However, upon arrival I found the event was catered. Still, I had relatively high hopes.

Unfortunately, what we received was quite lackluster. Before the main meal, “appetizers” were served, which was just a series of salamis, cheeses, and vegetables. While they offered a decent selection, I was hoping for some of the in-house appetizers which in the past I remember being quite good. What we received instead was basically a Costco charcuterie spread.

The main meal provided was tacos. They had several options, including chicken, beef, and tofu. Although I cannot speak towards the tofu as I did not try it, the chicken was very dry. The beef was better, especially with the provided sauces and salsas, but nothing special (comparable to Old El Paso taco seasoning packs). The soft tortillas were admittedly quite good, but the ‘hard’ shell tortillas were spongy and fell apart almost immediately.

As a side to the main meal, fries / poutine was the only option. Usually, I am a huge fan of poutine, but my-oh-my were the fries salty, to the point that I could not finish them and I spent the rest of the night chugging water.

The desert was an assortment of mini-donuts with various toppings. No complaints.

As far as drinks go, although I was DD, I was told by others that the cocktails were extremely weak. My wife, who is a notorious light-weight, had several rounds of Lemon Bomb shots and was still fully coherent. So just a heads up if you're trying to maximize bang for your buck.

In terms of the space itself, our group was in a roped off area on the main (bottom) floor of the restaurant. Although we took up about ⅓ of the entire space, there was nowhere near enough seating for everyone, meaning that a lot of people were forced to stand (often right next to the buffet). The tables that were available were not evenly spaced, making some spots unnecessarily cramped. I heard several people in our party complaining about this.

Although most restaurants of this style get quite loud, Craft seems to have especially bad acoustics. The place was packed by 8pm, which already made it difficult to carry on a conversation with someone across the table from you, but at some point they also chose to turn the music up, further exacerbating the problem. Take this with a grain of salt, as I am sure some people would like this type of atmosphere.

TLDR; Craft is a fun place if you're out with friends and plan on getting a decent meal and drinks off the menu, just don't expect to be able to carry on a conversation or find a comfortable speak-easy. If you are an employer looking for a place to host an event, I say look elsewhere. The space simply is not designed to host large parties, and the catered food options are simply a let down. However, a few bonus points for...

I called for a reservation 3-4 weeks in advance for a bachelorette party of 13 people and requested the patio. A few hours before our reso, I received a call from Craft advising me that due to the weather, they have to close the patio, and cant seat my group up there. Upon arrival, I was informed that there is an enclosed patio that seats 100+ people, and was full. I was told that there was no room upstairs & that it is first come first served- Which defeats the entire purpose of making a reservation. When I expressed my disappointment that out of 100+ seats, 13 weren't able to be reserved upstairs for us, I was met with arguments and attitude by a blonde girl, who claimed to be the Manager- Hannah. Her exact words were "Love, I know you wanted the patio but it's not the end of the world". She also told us "Its inside or nothing at all". This is the short of a 20-25 minute conversation. I would also like to make clear that I did not come in guns blazing. I was looking to have a conversation to see what could be done. Having worked in service over the past 14 years and managed numerous businesses I have been in Hannah's exact position, and I was absolutely thrown by her lack of customer service/care/communication. I have never received such poor service from a manager. It was even more disappointing to see that half of the bar & tables inside were unseated when we walked in. Finally, the regional manager Riley stepped in and offered our table a round of free shots. He was kind and communicative, but in all honesty- after the hassle at the front door - this was the absolute least that could have been done. Having been to the Calgary Craft location numerous times and others, I have had excellent experiences. However, this one was horrible to say the least. Maybe it was just our luck having the pleasure of interacting with a manager with zero hospitality skills, but I would highly recommend offering a management/ hospitality course to Hannah. Needless to say, the entire group was appalled at her "version" of customer service. As everybody was feeling frustrated and didn't want to spend more money here, we quickly moved onto BNA. When we arrived at BNA (early for our reso) and shared the story of what happened at Craft, they immediately shuffled tables on the patio to accommodate us. Highly recommend checking out literally anywhere else if you are a...

We recently had our wedding reception on the top floor at CRAFT. I cannot say enough GREAT things about our experience. Liane who did all the wedding/event planning with us leading up to the big day was terrific! She is super accommodating and lovely to deal with. She really did make sure that all our requests came true. With that said the ENTIRE CRAFT team are so hospitable and unreal to deal with. There were many occasions leading up to the day that I would pop in and ask "Can we see the upstairs venue?" And everyone was always so helpful and accommodating. The servers and all the managers (Matt, Riley and Caelen) at CRAFT are seriously the best to deal with. They are so nice, so helpful and just make you feel totally at ease and taken care. The day of also couldn't have gone better. Again the team went above and beyond and ended up giving us the entire top floor to have as our reception. THANK YOU! They made sure that every last detail we had planned with Liane was perfectly in place. The amount of people that have told me since our wedding how awesome the venue, the views, the food and service was is remarkable. I had two different guests say to me "this is the best reception venue I have ever been to!" My guests continue to send me texts saying comments on how much they enjoyed the food, the views, and that the servers were "on it" with everything. Truly I am THRILLED with my decision to have my wedding reception at CRAFT. It was the best decision and I would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone. There really isn't anywhere else in Kelowna where you can have a reception with views like this, top notch service and a place where the atmosphere is so fun and welcoming. If I was to make one recommendation it actually might be to do the entire wedding, including the ceremony at CRAFT. We did our ceremony at a park, which was lovely but it would have been just as beautiful all on their balcony. Thank you again. We are...