Diamond Steak & Seafood House — Restaurant in Osoyoos

Let me preamble this by saying I very, very rarely write reviews. I'll comment on the Facebook wall of one that I really enjoy, but I never actually write reviews. This place is your basic 'family style' Greek/Seafood style restaurant.

I was part of a group of people that went to this restaurant for dinner, and I can honestly say the food was the most disappointing I've ever had. My boyfriend had the escargot (not bad), and then we had the souvlaki platter. The chicken was dry and bland, and the dolmates were dry, hard, and totally flavourless, and generally everything on the platter was lacking real flavour. I've never (before this) had Greek food I didn't enjoy. The highlight for me was the pita and tsaziki! Even the rice was bland.

We ended up packing almost everything up (because, just because we didn't like it, didn't mean someone else wouldn't!), and neither the server nor the woman who I presume was the owner/manager asked me how my meal was. I paid $100 (plus tip!) for a dinner I barely touched.

My boyfriend also ordered a caesar and asked that it not be spicy. The first one was fine, but the second one he ordered was extremely spicy.

It's worth noting that of the 8 of us at the table, only 2 of us really enjoyed the food. Everyone else was sorely disappointed. I also felt that the price tag for the quality of food we received was absolutely ludicrous. Perhaps we caught them on a bad night, or perhaps because it's a smaller town, the general perception is you can get away with putting less effort in because they are fewer options, but I definitely felt ripped off when I left.

It's worth noting that our first choice that night was going to be a winery restaurant, so the price tag of the meal isn't my issue. I have absolutely no problem paying for an excellent meal, but I definitely feel that based on what we paid, the quality was not there.

The service...

My kids used to like coming here but that was about twenty years ago and my mother decided we should drop in for a dinner. It was early and we were able to come in for their early happy hour specials which was 10%off on Greek, pizza, pasta and some chicken dishes. Being Friday evening there was also the prime rib which my mom ordered the small size medium rare. I ordered the BBQ beef ribs, the big bone ones that is part of the Prime rib section and mine was nice and tasty. There’s something about gnawing on a big bone that I like. I got the rice and veg and a side of soup. Everything was tasty and the style of food brought me back to how they used to remind me of dining here back when my kids were just babies. Now here is where it gets good. My mom was just pecking at her prime rib. She ate the soft fatty parts of the meat but the majority she just poked at and when we asked she said it was too dry and hard and over cooked. She kept asking us to try it but we were all too full. But I did get a bite and agreed it wasn’t medium rare at all. More like that dried out roast beef at the school cafeteria from the 70’s. We mentioned it to our server and she became my mother’s heroine. She showed it to the chef and got us a fresh plate from scratch medium rare and nice and soft and juicy! Wow! Such a wonderful person. Thank you. My mom kinda beamed inside because this made up and it reminded of when they used to frequent this place when they lived in the area. I remember dad coming here and they all remembered him. So this gave her good memories to add. Thanks for this nice evening. Stuffed bellies and sauntered out and...

After hearing so much about this restaurant, we finally got in to try it. Sadly, the experience was not as advertised. Firstly, making a reservation was simple and seamless and calling in to let them know we were running 10 minutes late was well received. That said, when we arrived there was not a table ready for us even with the restaurant not overly busy. The staff were friendly, however our server was not very professional. Initially our server did not deliver the daily specials and stated "whatever" multiple times. Our server did not write down our order, as she walked away she stated "I hope I remember all this, I didn't write anything down". Ultimately our server made an error, though minor, the server mistakenly brought potato instead of rice. The server made it right, but stated "she didn't care, it was the kitchens issue", again not professional. After informing the server that one of us was celiac, accommodations were made in terms of food, the server brought out gluten food and gluten free food in the same hand increasing the potential for cross contamination. The food unfortunately did not make up for the poor service. The Greek salad was significantly under dressed, the prime rib was tough and the horseradish was bland and tasteless. The bus-girl was fantastic, topping up water and was far more attentive then our server was, checking in with us multiple times. It definitely felt like the business was resting on its laurels and riding...