Choose from a menu specializing in game meats while enjoying lovely views of a vineyard and lake at Nk’Mip Cellars
Mia Stainsby
Sun
The Nk’Mip Cellars patio, overlooking Osoyoos Lake, is just a few minutes from downtown Osoyoos.
I visited the Osoyoos area recently and have to say my most memorable food stop was at a Rock Creek roadside diner, where we stopped for coffee and local colour.
I asked for a scone, which I rhymed with stone.
“Good try! It’s scone!” the waitress corrected, rhyming with yawn. “And we’re out!”
“How ’bout the blueberry muffin?” I asked, having hallucinated some as I walked in.
“Frozen solid!”
I wished she were popping gum and rolling her eyes at me to complete the vignette. It’s a diner — I’d have been disappointed if she didn’t have attitude. And who cares if my pronunciation of scone was as right as hers?
In Osoyoos, we tried the restaurants at the Spirit Ridge Resort and at its next-door-neighbour, Nk’Mip Cellars. They’re both just a few minutes from downtown, at the end of Rancher Creek Road on Osoyoos Band territory. The gorgeous adobe-style winery is run by the band and the resort is a Bellstar Hotels and Resorts operation.
Of the two, Nk’Mip Cellars offers the more sophisticated dining experience. It’s more attractive and more service-oriented, and serious about food — it translates into an expensive affair with lunch dishes costing $20 and up. (It’s only open for lunch but, starting in July, they’ll have a small-plates menu from 4 to 8 p.m.)
The food is described as “aboriginal inspired” and the chef, Charles Stover, puts an emphasis on game meats — guinea fowl, rabbit, boar, caribou.
The menu is a little confusing to navigate as there are platters (cheese, smoked meat, combination, sampler) and add-ons of vegetarian, game and seafood dishes, as well as a choice of two-for-$16 appetizers.
I opted for roasted quail with wild mixed rice and sourdough apricot dressing, and the bannock with balsamic caramelized onions. My husband started with wild boar-wrapped scallops and caribou sausage starters, and the wild mushroom ravioli for the main. The meats could have been juicier but everything else was competently cooked.
We polished off a shared ricotta cheesecake with organic berries within seconds of its arrival. And our server, who took pride in her first nations heritage, didn’t miss a step — she was keen, informative, chatty and attentive.
We ate on a lovely terrace overlooking the vineyard and Osoyoos Lake. First nations music, softened with flutes and calm, drifted through the al fresco space.
From Nk’Mip you can look across to the patio at Passatempo at Spirit Ridge, where we had lunch another day. The view isn’t quite as bucolic, as the guest swimming pool stands between the view of vineyard and lake. People pad back and forth, some nice to look at, some not.
Passatempo, Italian for “passing the time,” is part of the the hotel so it’s open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Dinner entrees are in the $21 to $35 range here.
I had a quinoa salad with spinach, fried chickpeas, feta cheese and tiger prawns ($10) and my husband had grilled organic grass-fed beef striploin with grilled tiger prawns, and fries ($18).
The quinoa salad was healthy and delicious, save for the prawns, which were chewy. My husband’s striploin was well-done instead of medium-rare, and very chewy; the accompanying prawns were the same as mine but the fries were good, and obviously cooked in clean oil.
To be fair, we didn’t sample much of the menu. Owner/chef Brad Lazarenko sources local organic ingredients. Suppliers include a local cheesemaker, beef from Williams Lake, organic fruit and vegetable growers and local fair-trade coffee roasters.
Service was minimal and, even with coaxing, it was hard to get a smile from our passive server.
While you’re there, check out the Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre and go for a careful walk through rattlesnake country.
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AT A GLANCE
Nk’Mip Cellar Winery
1400 Rancher Creek Rd., Osoyoos
250-495-2985
Passatempo at Spirit Ridge
Rancher Creek Rd., Osoyoos
250-495-8007.
© The Vancouver Sun 2007