Dragonboat Pub — Restaurant in Penticton

We were on the water yesterday and called in to see if they could accommodate our boat to park for dinner. We were told yes and so we preceded to the restaurant. When we arrived we were told that the kitchen was behind and the wait for our food would be about an hour. We agreed and were seated. We were seated on the patio as we had our dog with us. We ordered our drinks and food together, hoping to expedite our meal. We received our drinks. At the 2 hour mark we received our appetizer. As the evening progressed we asked if we could have the heaters on because we were all cold. No propane. We were given blankets, but we were at 2 1/2 hours now waiting for our meal so this didn’t really help. There were several tables in the same situation as we were. We asked our server the status of our order yet again and we were told it was cooking so it would be out shortly. We told her we were in a boat and it was getting dark so anymore waiting wasn’t an option. After 10 more minutes we went in and asked for the manager, who came to us with a chip on his shoulder telling us they were busy and if we wanted our dinner he needed to go back to the kitchen to help. We told him to go back to the kitchen and wrap our food to go because we weren’t waiting anymore. No food to wrap up to go. After 3 hours!!!! We tipped the server, and told the manger, who was in a loud conversation with another angry customer, that he could handle our bill. My husband was told, “ya no worries man, I got ya”. No apology no nothing. And as we left hungry they were still seating groups of people! There are too many examples of things that happen that were miss management of time by staff and especially management to explain. The manger needed to support his servers or the excess servers needed to support the kitchen. At any rate, they had no business taking more tables when they were having the complete implosion that they were having. Awful!! We will most definitely never be back. I will NOT recommend this...

I'm surprised at the high ratings, when you read through the reviews, many of them say the exact same things I am, but give 5 stars anyway. Presumably because it's a beautiful location, but so is the entire beach! Talk about a location that can't fail, I'm not sure they'd still be open if it wasn't for the view. Alas, the beach is not what I'm paying for at the restaurant, and saying "the food isn't good but it's a nice place, 5 stars" won't inspire these guys to make better food.

Anyway. Nice looking little place, friendly staff, but food that is on par with or worse than Match, which I didn't think was possible from a non-chain location. Or in general, actually. Rock hard and dry fries, very dry pork, very dry quesadillas. I go at supper time, so not too sure why things are consistently dry or seem like they may have been cooked hours earlier. I did not have to wait hours, that issue appears to have been fixed, and the food came out both so quickly and badly that if you told me it was indeed cooked hours before and then just microwaved, I would believe you. If you told me none of it was made in house, and it all showed up as frozen stuff in a Sisco truck before being "pre-made" and then microwaved again for me hours later, I'd also believe you.

The sparse veg components were pretty good, which was almost off-putting - no flavour in the rest of the Sahara dry food, then you bite a pepper and get a mouth full of taste and juice and it's just a weird contrast. Makes you wonder why everything else was so bad. Pricing was pretty average for Pen.

It wasn't outright terrible, but it was pretty close. Been there twice. I'll likely try a third time as it's across from my house, but thus far, it's tasted more like stuff you'd get out of a freezer section that was then badly warmed up than an actual restaurant meal, and I doubt I'll go 4 times. There is nothing here you can't get a better version of at the Barley Mill or Shaugnassy's Cove, or basically...

To begin, this place cannot fail, even if they tried hard. They have a fabulous location at the Skaha Marina, a new building with lots of parking, plus indoor and outdoor seating that will carry them comfortably through the summer and the shoulder seasons.

But.

When the City mandated the closure of the old Marina that was home to the wildly popular Nauti Dog Cafe, they undertook extensive public surveys to determine what should replace it. Two results were resoundingly clear from that process.

1: Keep the Cafe.

2: There was support for a mid market and up restaurant, but not for a pub or a bar.

More than 2 years on, what do we have?

A Pub. Yes, they have food, and you can bring the kids, but the walls are hung with Sports TVs, the Muzak is blasting, and you have to dodge the wait staff hustling drinks. It's basically the Barking Parrot (no coincidence) with a couple of dollars added on to every item. And, it's usually very busy. As I said, they can't fail.

As for the overwhelmingly endorsed Cafe, This is not That. Not by a long shot. There is no pastry counter to choose what might suit your craving. The staff will bring you a muffin or a croissant from the back, but that's about it. There is no barista. There is a coffee robot, stuck in a corner, behind the bar. Staff will push a button, but the skill level peaks there. We ordered some cappuccinos that arrived in a tall mug. Kind of like serving draft beer in a soup bowl. The drinks were weak, cold, and the foam collapsed to the bottom. Total fail. The Americano was insipid, with no creama at all. Poured it out.

To be fair, it is possible to produce good coffee drinks with the automatic machine they have, but nobody seems to know how, and apparently,...