Tonics Pub & Grill — Restaurant in Kelowna

I am writing this review to share my recent experience at TONICS and to highlight the unprofessional and discriminatory behavior of a front door Security staff member!

Having visited this establishment over 50 times in the past, I have generally enjoyed my visits; however, I was taken aback by the incident that occurred.

My friend and his family, have over 25 years of experience in the food and beverage industry, have been previous owners and operators of multiple establishments, was denied entry due to his physical disability resulting from scoliosis and mobility challenges!!!

The doorman, a dark haired caucasian male in his mid-20s to early 30s, judged my friend's walking style and wrongfully assumed he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Despite my attempts to explain my friend's physical condition in a respectful and cordial manner, the doorman remained closed-minded and did not seek further clarification from management or someone above him.

Consequently, we were all barred from entering TONICS due to this staff member's discriminatory actions. It is particularly disheartening to note that my friend has never faced such issues in any other establiahment in Kelowna before, but experienced similar discrimination on 2 previous occasions at TONICS.

I urge potential visitors to consider this experience carefully, as you may encounter profiling and discrimination at TONICS that could leave you feeling devalued.

Kelowna has many more food and beverage establishments that will show you respect and value your patronage, you may prefer to attend one of those locations.

Think again before you...

I'm not one for sports tv's but theirs kinda don't bother me. I like the interior. It's not cramped. And I like that it's on a corner so accidental feng shui, maybe? A whole wall of windows is a big plus. Real life is plenty of interesting to me. I only went there a few times because i prefer staying home. But it's decent. Probably the nicest atmosphere as far as pubs go, but I haven't been to any that opened since lockdown. Lots of wood inside. Wood is cozy. No complaints. It used to be Judge R. Bean coffee...long time ago. The front half was. I'll probably just always be fond of it just for that. Good people working there too. Drinking establishments require a certain type of finesse. Not just anyone can deliver the right amounts of charm, tolerance and deflection night after night. Be nice. For every one person it actually ends up affecting several. Watch for it if you can. The ripple effect is cool to witness. And places like this make it easier to witness that little bit of common magic. The building has history. Even though it's a bar now, you can actually still feel it when you go in. Look at the floor and the big doors and notice the things that have been there forever because I think that's honestly why petite feel so comfortable there. Especially the South side on Leon Ave. That's a good spot for our introverts. Enter then...

Our experience here wasn’t great. Service was surprisingly bad yesterday. We were sitting at our table for probably 15 mins with out anyone checking in to see if we wanted drinks to start. Every time I tried to make eye contact with the servers, they would fully ignore me and quickly walk by. I had to ask one of the hosts to get us service. Once that was accomplished, we ordered some wings and fries to start. Wings came out fast but they were missing our starter fries and some of the wings we ordered. We wanted to let our server know that we were missing some of our food but she wouldn’t make any eye contact or even check in. After 20 mins of trying to get her attention, she finally came around to grabbing empty plates which at that point I let her know we were missing food.

Setting that aside, the wings were really good! They were big wings and had good flavour. Unlike other bars in town, they wings were fresh and steaming hot when they came out. The only complaint was the Greek wings over salted. The lemon pepper and sweet chilli was very good though!

I was told by my brother that service here normally was always very good, he found it surprising that they were that bad yesterday. I’m willing to give them another try as the food...