OAK + CRU Social Kitchen & Wine Bar — Restaurant in Kelowna

Been looking forward to do the luminescence experience for a long time. I booked it tonight with my friends for my birthday dinner. Underwhelming. I know servers are just human too and maybe ours was having a bad day/time. It just felt like the whole night, it was a hassle to serve us based on his voice tone and demeanor. But I have expectations if the minimum order price is $250 with a required 18% gratuity. The prices of the menu items and drinks were on the higher end so you’d think they’d be good. I barely tasted my cocktails, pretty generous with the ice in it. Beef stew wasn’t anything special neither. This is only my personal experience. But I should’ve went somewhere else.

2 years later I gave this place a try again. I brought my mom in for their Mother's Day brunch. First, I felt like the greeter/hostess at the buffet had a dismissive demeanour, or maybe I took it the wrong way? Nonetheless, the interaction did not feel welcoming. Furthermore, She proceeded to lead us to the ballroom for a table. I saw they had tables outside set up and I asked to sit there as it was nice out. There was no issues there but after we sat down, she did not say a word. I was just confused because do we like start now and get our food? or are we waiting for a server? I don't really care if there was a server or not, just was not sure what to do. We decided to just get up and started going to the buffet then a server did come and said he was serving our table, I would've waited if I known but yeah, the hostess did not say a thing. Now the server. Since it's a buffet, it seems like our server was there for our drinks for the most part. We were there for 2 hours and during that time, our waters were only refilled once and I only got to have two cocktails when I was planning to have more. Every time I tried getting the server's attention, what I received was a hesitant glance back and he seemed unsure the whole time if he should come or not. We did not even have utensils set up on our table. Now please don't get me wrong. I would've been honestly fine getting my own water, my own utensils, and my own cocktails if they had like maybe a self serve area somewhere. I mean it's a buffet. I was not sure if there was but nobody told us if there was so I assumed the server would take care of the drinks. The biggest reason I'm leaving this review is the 20% mandatory service charge on top of our bill I was presented with at the end of our meal. That was just the cherry on top. Honestly, I felt offended at that point. Maybe I missed it when I made the reservation online that it was mandatory and I always tip when I eat out but based on everything I said, I absolutely do not think that the "service" deserved 20% on top of my bill. The buffet was 80$ per person before taxes. Personally, if it was mandatory to charge a 20% service fee, at least make it feel like it was worth giving you that money.

Management left a reply to my first review before saying that it would be better if I ever gave it another chance. I'm open to the possibility too that maybe I got lucky again and got a server that was having a bad day but to me, if you are going to charge that much money and have mandatory services charges, make it feel like it is worth it paying that money. There was one staff there that was walking around smiling and greeting everybody, she had a welcoming presence. Maybe she was that manager? I wished we interacted with her instead the whole time and it would have felt like it was money well spent. I would not bother leaving these reviews if the prices matched the experience, which was...

Went to the luminescence dome with my family. First of all, it’s worth noting they charge a $250 minimum with an additional 18% gratuity.. before you even sit down. This would completely acceptable if the experience and food were good… however, let me paint you the picture of our experience:

Arrived Before our reservation and we’re seated promptly.. we commented on it being a cold evening and we’re offered some blankets. Ended up just eating with coats on. Ordered drinks and bread ($32 for salted focaccia and 4 jalapeño cornbread muffins) which did not come with butter, olive oil & balsamic or any condiments… Literally just some bread.

Ordered the popcorn shrimp next… oh boy.. this may be a taste thing, but honestly, these were soggy breaded shrimp absolutely drowned in Parmesan cheese (the powdered variety from what I could tell too). Let me pose a question: what do you think shrimp covered in smelly Parmesan smells like? Now what do you think it smells like being served to you in an enclosed tent? Not great. It smells not great.

Following this we had a roughly 45 minute wait for our mains. Keep in mind they have a specific (and terrible ) menu for this outdoor experience. It is skillet themed for some reason. We had 3 beef short ribs (admittedly reasonably priced). Here’s a summary of what this dish is:

A mushy, poorly seasoned pile of yams at the bottom of the skillet, with a massive unwieldy pile of brown bone in meat on top. No sauce (that I could tell). Poor seasoning. Served in a luke warm skillet. At this point I think it’s important to understand… you cannot possibly slow braise a short rib like this in a skillet. So the ribs were previously cooked and transferred to the skillet of yam mush. Then served. All 3 were sent back because the meat was cold and my wife just asked for a burger because the dish frankly sucked. It did not taste good or look good. My beef bourguignon was a small skillet of beef stew with 2 halves of a carrot added and 6 pearl onions. No bread. No mashed potatoes. No sides or garnish. $36.

Lastly they let my father in law order a steak … however you must pay extra for sides with your $46 fillet lol. What ever.

This place has been renowned as a scam among locals for a while. This took the cake though.. they are charging and advertising a very very premium experience… while letting some idiot design a gross, over priced menu and then letting some 18 year old kid cook it poorly. This was probably the worst meal any of us have had in Kelowna. They want so desperately to look like a fancy Vancouver restaurant… and they sure have the prices to make you think it will be a fine dining experience.. but this menu and food is a...

Our experience was one of a kind and not in a good way. When we showed up at 8:30pm for our reservation we were forgotten about as we requested a patio table if possible. After standing off to the side for 10 min my sister in law asked if our table was still ready and that we are willing to sit anywhere. She quickly sat us outside on the patio where a few empty tables were. After ordering our drinks, the server came out to inform us that they didn't have the ingredient for a chocolate martini and also didn't have a house Merlot. We thought... oh well, its been a weird start but we're here now so lets make the best of it. Soon we became unsettled as we felt forgotten again as our drinks took 20min. FINALLY the drinks come out. Soon after a man comes up to our table to inform us that the cola drink my 14 year old nephew was drinking had ALCOHOL in it!! I was absolutely dumbfounded! How could a minor get served alcohol. By this time, we are all now hangry, frustrated and just wanting to eat and go. We ordered the charcuterie board although its not called that, its the meat and cheese shareable appy. To our surprise it came out and was served with bread. Not a baguette, actual sandwich bread. It was the strangest thing! He informed us that they ran out of crackers and had to give us bread instead when he delivered it to the table. Not 5 min later we watched the table beside us get served a dip of some kind with crackers. The cherry on top was that our dinner didn't come out until 10:10pm and our reservation was 8:30! This dinner was with my 14 year old nephew, sister and brother in-law who were here from out of town. Not a big group, not a complex order and it wasn't busy. After telling our server that I felt like the restaurant underperformed and is leaving my family from out of town a bad taste in their mouth, he proceeded to do nothing. He thanked me for my feedback and walked off. There is no pride in great service here and very sloppy delivery. Two thumbs down...