The Nest — Restaurant in Penticton

Now I know why everyone has been raving about The Nest. We were in Penticton for two days due to Anita’s teaching. We dropped in to The Nest on a Wednesday evening for dinner and Owner Randy greeted us and said we could sit anywhere. We were immediately impressed with all the art on the walls and walked around for several minutes before finally sitting down at a table. Randy is a talented mixologist and has an impressive cocktail list. As tempting as they were, we were in the mood for an IPA so decided to split one prior to dinner. I was very impressed with their wine list and decided to start with a taste of the CODE Pinot Noir (very cool with the genetic code for that variety on the label).

The hardest thing here was deciding what to order. After a lot of back and forth, we opted for the Lamb Dinner for Two. This began with two salads, one Nest Greens, and one Roasted Pear and Gorgonzola. We can recommend both. Very fresh and tasty. The half rack was done perfectly and came with sweet potato puree, honey glazed carrots and green beans (perfectly cooked), chimichurri and house focaccia bread (yum!). All were impressive. I tend not to be a fan of sweet potato, but decided to give this a taste and wow! My mind was changed. Virtually everything is made in house and is very fresh. Prices are reasonable. We enjoyed a 6 year old Malbec from Second Chapter with dinner. How nice to have an aged wine on the menu.

Randy is very passionate about service and providing his customers with the very best experience possible. He is a fountain of knowledge about all the wines on his list. Be sure to ask him for recommendations.

For the first time ever, we bought one of the paintings on the wall before we left. It was a night to remember. ...

We were made aware early on that the ownership of The Nest had recently changed (about a month ago from our visit), when we asked about the menu on their website. As of this review, the new owners do not have access so the menu will be slightly different than what you see during your visit.

We had reservations for 11AM, and were very kindly seated early—in a back room with the only air flow being a single standing fan during the high heat weather warning. This would have been manageable.. if we hadn't also waited 1.5 hours for our food to arrive. We arrived at ~10:30 after checking out of our hotel, knowing we would not be served until 11, but didn't leave until a little after 1PM.

It was probably 45-60 minutes from the first plate to arrive until the last plate arrived. Many dishes were lacking in one way or another: missing ingredients, dry meat, overcooked eggs, cold food/partially warmed dishes, down to milky coffee. Personally, I ordered the Croissant Eggs Benedict with smashed potatoes. The potatoes were nice and warm, but my egg had long been cold. My fiance ordered Chorizo Hash and ended up with salmon in it.

My heart goes out to our waitress.. they did a great job with the situation they were dealt, and the day they were having.. and I hope they have much better days coming their way. The harmony of the team working at The Nest is very sorely lacking with the change of hands. I hope they can find their footing in the coming months, or I expect many other reviews similar to this one.

We were offered some compensation for our experience, but unfortunately I will not be visiting The Nest again for the...

My husband and i went to the nest for lunch because we heard there were new owners and had the worst food experience we have ever had. That being said, the server was fantastic. I had the nest salad with a chicken breast and my husband the beef dip with fries. The only way you serve fries that damn gross is by cooking them, having them get cold, and then dropping them in the fryer again. Shamefull. The underweight beef dip was served on a hot dog like bun, and the main flavor was salt. My "salad" was served in a warm bowl and was missing topings. Half my lettuce was inedible because the bowl was so warm. Chicken was gross. No flavor was almost spongy in texture, and it took an hour to get this food too. We sat there for half an hour and watched one dish come out of the kitchen. I don't know who the cooking team was on August 04, 2024, but you need to do better. So much better. I saw a chef step out of the kitchen and hang out in the bar 3 times, I'm not sure why he felt he had the free time to do so. Not a very professional cooking team at all. Not a very professional vibe in the front of the house either. And the floors were so dirty. And not the kind of dirty you get from half a day of food service either. If you can't maintain cleanliness in the front of the house I can only imagine what the kitchen looks like. Server was super! Food was worse than bad. We will never be back until they get new...