Cambo Beach Restaurant — Restaurant in Penticton

Absolute worst service I have ever received at a restaurant in my entire life.

I was born and raised in Penticton and do understand that the summer and especially holiday weekends are busy; however, I also know that most restaurants prepare ahead by ensuring they are staffed accordingly.

We waited for 20 minutes for a table (fair enough) and when we arrived our table had been seated by another family. We eventually were seated at a four-person table even though we were a party of 5. One of us had to sit on a corner. It took nearly 10 minutes to receive half of our drink order and another 10 to receive the other half.

When we were ready to order I inquired about allergens in the food. Our waitress said she would ask the kitchen and be right back. She turned around and waited the table behind us and did not return with an answer for 10 more minutes, holding up the rest of my group’s orders being sent in to the kitchen. She came back and let me know that unfortunately there is shellfish in what was seemingly the only fish/ meat free item on the menu other than a salad. I ended up ordering a grilled cheese sandwich off the children’s menu. From the moment we were seated to when we received our food was 55 minutes, far below industry standards.

I can appreciate that smaller mom-and-pop restaurants do not necessarily have the resources to offer an inclusive menu; however, the poor level of service combined with the un-inclusive menu resorted in a very unhappy table who was there just trying to celebrate a birthday.

I can suggest that on busy summer nights and on weekends this restaurant staffs more than three girls who each look younger than 19 years old with very limited serving experience.

The rest of the table’s food looked fantastic. I can only hope this establishment will in the future devote resources to a higher quality front staff rather than only a fantastic kitchen staff. The poor service really took away from the meal. I can also suggest more vegan/ vegetarian/ shellfish-free meals for those with allergies to seafood.

Keep up the great work with the quality of food! Please consider adding allergen-free options and scheduling a more competent staff when you know it is going to be a busy evening.

Thank you...

It's tough to give a local business a hard time but it's a bummer when you have all the makings of a truly great experience here. Such a great location and a great little patio with so much potential to create a special place that attracts year 'round business. I really wanted to be able to write a great review but I simply can't. I ordered a daily special which was chicken garden burger and I substituted fries with a Caesar salad and my wife ordered a wonton soup. The meal came out in good time and presented well. However my salad was bland and the garden chicken burger, although well thought out with fresh cucumbers and fresh tomatoes (i.e. garden burger) was completely tasteless. The chicken lacked any taste. The Caesar salad looked great too and was presented well with fresh Parmesan grated on top but was again, without much taste. Add to this the fact that (and I get it that it was body hot outside) but the Romain was not chilled at all. My wife's wonton soup was, we'll... Meh.

I'm no food critic and certainly the last person to criticize the hard work that is required to run a successful restaurant but I write this for the benefit of the owners and for the benefit of us locals wanting another option on the beach for a consistently great experience. I mean this is the kindest way possible but the difference between a mediocre tourist diner and a fabulous (taking names and people waiting to eat great food) beach bistro is nothing more than passion in this case. You guys presented the package well but fell flat on the most important part here which is the food. Flavour and flavour identity are not dirty words and I know that you...

Extremely poor kitchen service. Went out for a family day trip to Penticton and walked around to find something to eat, finally decided to eat at this restaurant. We asked about the wait time as we had to hit the road before it got too late and they said it would be about 30 minutes. We ended up waiting almost an hour and a half for some simple chicken strips and pad thai, even though we asked close to the hour mark how much longer it would be as it was getting late and they said another 10 minutes, but I suspect they forgot about our food completely as it took another 40 minutes for it to come out.

What irritated us even more was the fact that there was another family that had ordered just before us and got their food quickly (they seemed to only wait about 20 min). Not sure why we were just forgotten for so long and seemed that other customers were getting preference. Even though it was clear we were irritated we didn't even get offered a discount for such a long wait time.

If you're looking to save time and find a decent meal, this is NOT it. This kind of ruined an already nice day out with the fam...