Campo Marina — Restaurant in Osoyoos

Not all of these comments are complaints. This is the short version of my visit this year: -We arrived with reservations (which were needed) with a group of 15...5 of them under 10 years old. -They asked what else we wanted to drink instead of water, my family of four just kept with water. I asked for kids cups but they had nothing. Full sized open glasses for my 2 and 4 year old. -We had two big spills through out the meal. We had to ask for extra napkins both times instead of them helping. They also took too long to replace the kids' water and we had to ask. They filled the kids' adult glasses to the top both times. -We were given garlic bread for the table while we read the menus. -The next time the server came she asked what we wanted to eat, not if we were ready to order. -We weren't ready but we ordered anyway. -I have lots of allergies and asked about gluten free options and cow dairy replacements. She only acknowledged the gluten free options before running off. -I flagged get down a little later and asked if I could have some hot sauce with my meal. She asked if I wanted Frank's or Tabasco. I said Frank's. -Food arrived 40 minutes after ordering. -My food was one of the first plates to arrive. It was made as I asked which is great when you have allergies... Except for the hot sauce. -I waited almost 10 minutes for the rest of the table to get their food. My two kids got their food at very different times in the process. -When I got my food I realized I want given the option of a half or full size of the meal (typical for this restaurant). I asked the server which size I got. She said half. -One of the servers put a couple dishes on the big table without asking who they were for. She just placed and ran. We had to pass them down to the end of the table ourselves. It was that same lady that gave me my plate. It doesn't give me faith that my plate that requires attention (for my allergies) got the attention it needs. -My hot sauce didn't come. I eventually asked a passing server for some Frank's Hot Sauce. She came back with Tabasco. I asked her for their other brand and she said they only had Tabasco. -The food was good. And water was always getting filled up. -Everything they did was really rushed. You could tell it came from the top... But they never pushed us out the door when we were done eating which I was grateful for. -When it came to pay the bill, I notice I had the full sized price on my bill even though I was told by another server it was a half size. I brought it up with the server and she avoided the confrontation by saying it just looks small because it's gluten free pasta. I eat gluten free everyday of my life lady... Come on now.

Anyway, good food, meh service, rushed experience. I'll go if invited but I'll have to be really hands on...

This is without a doubt the worst system of organising a restaurant I have ever seen.

The new organisation of seating people is ridiculous, time consuming and nonsensical. Everyone arrived at 4:45 or earlier, waited outside in the sun to be funnelled into a separate room to wait to be seated, the owner, who took our name seemed angry that we were trying to eat at his restaurant, we were lucky and managed to get seated at 5:05, the luck ran out as our meal finally arrived at 7:30, after our appetisers were wrong and drinks took a lifetime. Why they have stopped taking reservations is beyond me, this new system makes no sense for the customers and the staff. The whole restaurant was seated at the same time, all the orders taken at the same time and our food then took 2 hours to come out because the kitchen was tackling the whole restaurant at once.

Our server was stressed and over ran, which I blame entirely on the new way of seating customers. The other servers and waitstaff made it clear they do not like the new system as it overwhelms them and the kitchen.

The food is average, it feels like a meal from Olive Garden, my sauce was watery and tasteless with the noodles over cooked and frozen peas thrown in on top. The rest of my party found their food fine, but have agreed it wasn’t anything special, and were reluctant to come here in the first place.

As a family we have been coming to Osoyoos for 20 years, even with the limited restaurants available here, we will not be coming...

It wasn’t the clink of the wine glasses or the lake breeze caressing us through the front door. It was Shelley. Our waitress. A woman of poise, precision, and the kind of grace one usually only reads about in long-lost Parisian letters or sees in a black-and-white photograph from the Amalfi coast.

She moved like a seasoned diplomat—warm, efficient, and unshaken—even when the neighboring table’s patrons (clearly auditioning for a revival of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) attempted to sour the air. Shelley, unfazed, gently swayed the situation with the deft touch of a concert cellist. Not a note out of place.

And then, the food.

Snapper. Not just snapper—snapper as it was meant to be experienced. The kind of dish that causes a temporary, almost religious silence at the table. Firm, flaky, kissed by the sea. The prawns? If Poseidon hosted dinner parties, these would be served on golden platters—juicy, tender, touched with garlic and olive oil like a whisper from the old country.

Campo Marina is not merely a restaurant. It’s a memory, already rich with nostalgia the moment you leave.

Ask for Shelley. Order the snapper. Stay a little longer than you...