Shades On Main Restaurant – Penticton

Thursday, we had the occasion to be in Penticton around lunchtime and Don has always wanted to stop in at this restaurant. Lots of cars outside, always a good sign, right? Ummmmm…..

When you walk in, the sign says “seat yourself“. We found a booth and sat down and waited…..and waited. This is lunchtime and there are (I think) 3 servers. Okay.

We perused the menus (2) and decided to order. Well, finally our server came over and took our order. Don ordered the Beef Dip, with a side salad and Blue Cheese Dressing.

I, on the other hand, ordered the grilled vegetable sandwich on Focaccio bread, fries and no onions, please. Believe this or not….we waited 35 minutes before our server came by and said “they tell me the onion is already mixed up with the vegetables” – and then just looked at me. I ordered a grilled cheese sandwich and she tells me it comes with two sides ( @1.oo each if ordered separately, I guess). I opted for a small Poutine ($2.00 the menu said) and we’ll let it go at that. Okay, now we wait.

After being in the booth for 55 minutes, we finally got our order. Don said the beef was sliced thin enough but there was no flavour. The Au Jus was super thin and tasteless. He added salt and pepper and still it was not tasty. He then asked for horseradish. A few minutes more and it finally arrived at the table. This should be a given with roast beef. Side bowl. Done.

The “poutine” was something else. The fries were already “dead” and the grated cheddar and tasteless gravy are unforgiveable. I think it was due to the fact they sat on the counter while making the grilled cheese sandwich.

This restaurant has “Best Restaurant” plaques all around the walls. So my question is – new Cook? or a bad day? The restaurant was full but either people like bland, no taste food or the restaurant and staff should consider themselves just lucky for the patrons.

Would we attend again? I don ‘t think so. The value is just not there for the prices charged.