While Okanagan Lake is closer than the ocean, the West Coast Grill and Oyster Bar is unmistakably the Valley’s premier seafood house. In this bright aquatic-hued setting, you can almost feel the salt air as you sip on a beverage viewing the theatre of the open kitchen and salivating over the seafood platters being assembled. Choose hot or cold seafood platters, or the West Coast Tower combining both. Oysters on the half shell with Tugwell Creek Meadery mignonette, fresh horseradish and lemon wedges are a house specialty: your toughest test is deciding which of the day’s variety to choose. The Fresh Sheet offers a myriad of seafood elevated to a contemporary approach including sashimi and sushi treatments; crab bruschetta, wontons and a steamer pot highlighting roasted local peppers and tomatoes? Pair with the house wine Narrative, a local favourite called from the Okanagan Crush Pad, or choose from the great BC wine, local beer and cocktail list. For its more landlocked patrons, West Coast offers salads, flatbreads, wraps, burgers, ribs, chicken and striploin.
This fall, it’s Locals’ Day, Wednesdays, where locals can buy one entrée and get the second at half price, and enjoy all day Happy Hour pricing, featuring West Coast’s famous buck-a-shuck oysters and 50% off starters including soups, salads and flatbreads. There are $5 glasses of house wine, $5 Caesars, and $5 draft beer including Oliver’s Firehall Brewery Holy Smoke Stout, winner of the 2016 Canadian Oyster Craft Beer Competition. Down the hall from West Coast, check out the French-themed lounge, open Thursday to Saturday, 6 pm to midnight. The lounge features creative cocktails, house-infused bourbon and cognac, charcuterie and local cheeses, and its own Happy Hour, 6 to 8 pm.
For updates on the Okanagan’s premier seafood house at the downtown Prestige Beach House with onsite parking by Kelowna’s City Park, see westcoastgrill.ca/kelowna
~ Roslyne Buchanan