Poplar Grove Winery

My family’s trip to poplar grove started off in the wine tasting room where we were rushed to try our 5 wines for 5 dollars. After, we were interested in enjoying a few bottles of wine on the patio at the restaurant, Vanilla Pod. Although the restaurant had plenty of empty tables, we were informed the kitchen was backed up and asked by the waitress “do you really want to stay here? You won’t get your food for a while”. I’d also like to add that while the restaurant and wine tasting room are right next to eachother, they charge a $30 corkage fee. Since we were interested in having drinks first anyhow, we mentioned to the waitress that we did not mind despite all of that. She scoffed and went and asked the manager if we could be seated and he replied “absolutely not”. When the waitress returned, she told us she couldn’t seat us because they were expecting reservations which appeared to be something she made up on the spot. As we chose to walk away after being treated horribly, she asked us “so will you be coming back?” I do not see why anyone would return after receiving such horrible service. I do not recommend this winery. Save your time and money.

Best in the BC! The staff made great efforts to ensure we were educated about the wines during our tasting. They were very knowledgeable and passionate about the wine, which is the finest I've tasted in all my BC winery tours. Such a beautiful location and an absolute must- visit on any Okanagan winery list.

We went to the Poplar Grove restaurant, Vanilla Pod, during our annual visit. We usually return every year but this year will be our last. We were travelling with kids and was running a little late on our reservation for 5 pm, so we gave the restaurant a courtesy call to let them know. Immediately we were told that our table will be given away if we are 15 minutes behind. The manager (later found out his name is Paul) made sure we understood by repeating himself multiple times. When we arrived, we were rudely greeted by Paul with a reminder that we are 10 minutes late. Immediately he told us he need us to go by 7. As we were with kids, we told Paul that we are not going to be long and we are fully capable of managing our time,  he again reminded us he needs the table back by 7... The table beside us heard our conversation and echoed what we said and  said they were also treated quite rudely when they were running late ( they were compensated by a cab ride home after they complained to the waitress). Funny enough, our food finally came at 6 PM and only 2 tables were occupied! We never had the chance to go for a wine tasting to decide what to order for dinner. So we quickly ordered, scarfed down our food and left at 6:45.  To the owner of Poplar Grove, you guys invested so much to upgrade the tasting room, expanded your wine selection and restaurant menu... Maybe it's time to spend a bit of resources towards your staffs. Paul was extremely stressed out and flustered and told us they have to seat 200 guests tonight and lectured us by saying if we are late, they will be late seating the guests who follows. He could have just told us he needs the table back by 7 instead of threatening us that he will give out table away if we are more than 15 minutes late.  That stress rubbed off onto the rest of the staff and onto the guests. If Paul cant handle the stress, maybe is time to hire someone who can as you guys grow and expand. The wine is great, food is good, but dont come for the service. And dont be late!

Poplar grove served fantastic wine paired with an amazing meal and superb service. I will make this my go to recommendation for anyone going to Okanagan and wanting a sincere and warm experience.

Beautiful winery with amazing views ,but unfortunately the new Rose was quite bad and on top of that the halibut was very sub par . We left more then half the bottle behind and ate barely anything. Some times meals and wine dont work out and that's fine , but I expecting at least some kind of discount on a $125.00 dollar bill plus a $25.00 tip when we had such a bad experience. Instead they charged us a full bill which says alot about this place and how much they care about people coming back . We will not be coming here anymore .