Basil & Mint Restaurant and Bar (Kelowna, Canada)

After four hours of driving with a few stops and admiring some spectacular scenery along the way, we checked into the Airbnb place. I didn’t post any pictures for privacy purposes. I’m not sure how much people want to share. However, hit me up about the place I stayed at for Airbnb if you ever want because it was a lovely little place that fit all five of us perfectly despite it just being a basement. Regardless, we got in and my cousin searched up what restaurants looked appealing and found this one: Basil & Mint Restaurant and Bar. I believe she said one of the reviews said that it is a “hidden gem”. And you know, its all about hidden gems, right?

Off we went to Basil & Mint which was a mere 5 minutes drive out! Funnily, in complete coincidence, we also met other family members visiting that were going to the same restaurant. We sat separately but close enough to mingle. Now for the food!!

Basil & Mint Restaurant and Bar
3799 Lakeshore Rd
Kelowna, British Columbia
V1W 3G9

I can’t find the Table d’Hote menus on the website to review but I took a look at the main menu to get the actual names. The Table d’Hote is actually a pretty good deal at $35 which includes appetizer, main course and dessert. We all took it.

Appetizers

Beet Salad

Asparagus Soup

Caesar Salad

I ordered the Caesar Salad or the soup and gave it to my mom because I can’t have it. My aunt ordered the beet salad and I believe that she enjoyed it. However, a point to the restaurant if they do read this, if you have something like the soup above, your waiters should know to tell the customer that the dash of cream can be not added and they can have it. If you have no other alternatives, that is a fair one to have. Its just to respect the person like myself who has a very widely known lactose intolerance and doesn’t quite enjoy eating salad either. I’m used to it and doesn’t bother me much but its nice to feel respected by the restaurant that is serving you when they actually care about this. Especially when I made the point to ask them about the potatoes and told them about the food allergy.

Main Courses

Braised Beef (I think)

Roasted Chicken

Risotto

Seasonal Vegetables

Its funny how the vegetables are the most clear. A huge thanks to my cousin who turned on the light on her camera to create the light we needed to take a good picture. The vegetables are delicious. I’m personally a fan of these organic carrots. I buy them quite a bit actually and they are great even without a ton of fancy spices or whatnot. I took the beef dish and struggle to remember whether it was the boneless beef ribs or the braised beef. The meals are a decent portion. All the food tasted good.

Dessert

Spiced Apple Cider Sorbet

Creme Brulee

A compliment to the restaurant for having that lactose free choice of a rather unique flavor of sorbet. The best way to describe the spiced apple cider sorbet is frozen apple pie. Its a little too sweet but I’m a fan of apple pie so I liked it. My husband took the Creme Brulee and I remember him liking it too.

Although, at that point, he was about to pass out on the dinner table since we had a long day and with the time zone differences, our day was extended three hours more.

Enough of this sidetracking all the time, Basil & Mint is pretty good. It has pretty good food and a nice decor although for say families, maybe a little dim. I don’t see them targeting the family business more like a hang out with friends for a few drinks type of place. With that said, they have an outside terrace which we didn’t sit in but that is a plus. There are some cool stuff like they have a wooden stove, so the pizza must taste pretty good. However, none of us took it because not enough mouths to finish it. The service is a little underwhelming. They weren’t quite there all the time and I believe the service where they didn’t tend to my food allergies didn’t give such a better impression. They weren’t rude by any lengths and that is good. Just little things, like my other family’s table didn’t have the Table d’Hote menu for some reason and they only knew about it because we told them that we were having it. Organization and communication things going on there.

Regardless, it was a decent experience. The point of a restaurant is a whole experience but a huge portion is having good food and Basil & Mint might not be a hidden gem, although I didn’t eat at enough Kelown restaurants to offer an opinion on that, but it does have some good food.

Pinterest Spring/Summer Inspirations!

Its been forever since I’ve shared some fantastic Pinterest stuff! Mostly because while pinning is super fun and therapeutical, putting together the posts can be tiring.  Just deciding what to do takes so much time that it becomes less therapeutical than it actually is even if I love putting those posts up.  However, maybe this is what Pinterest is going to be: Therapy or Inspirations! Spring is pretty much almost over and hints of Summer is landing in Montreal.  The last few days have been hot and humid and I love it! 🙂

This also means spring cleaning and garden/outdoors stuff needs to be taken care of! I have some rhubarb to harvest and maybe make some nice drinks.  The heat also means that I kick in a much healthier lifestyle.  Lots of things that I seek out Pinterest for! Lets look at some of my faves and ones I hope to pursue if not now, eventually!

The Anatomy of Sangria

Hot summer days calls out to me in the form of Sangria. I don’t drink a lot in general but a great sangria is so hard to resist. This infographic breaks it down in an interesting way and peaks some new ways to use different ingredients next time.  For the record, I’ve recently realized that I’m intolerant or maybe allergic to red wine so any sangria’s now have to be with white or rose wine. I have also done a autumn sangria with brandy and that turned out pretty good.

Popsicles

I’ve tried out a few popsicle recipes before and I’m not really good at it but its something I’m trying to learn to do better. This one looks delicious.  They are called Fruit Salad Ice Pops.  I love fruits and especially fruit salads and wrapped up in a popsicle. Yummy!  I’m already thinking of what fruits to get to make it and wondering where those popsicle molds are.

Infused Water Combinations

Last year I started getting into infused water. I like cold drinks and water is super healthy so I’ve tried something with blueberry and basil before if I remember correctly.  This summer, I want to keep with the healthy stuff and try some other ones.  These ones are pretty neat especially detox and weight/sugar control and metabolism booster. I guess everything but the lower blood pressure one looks like choices I want to try out.

Watermelon Strawberry Sorbet

For those of you who are new here, I’m lactose intolerant or at least it seems to be in an extreme phase again.  Its really built a love and appreciation for Sorbets in my life. I’ve been wanting to try to make sorbet for a while and if these recipes say its easy, I’ll believe it! Its one of my goals this summer to give it a try.  This combination particularly looks great. I love strawberries and watermelons and yet, no one really pairs these two together. I wonder what it’ll taste like.

Liquid Sunshine

I know, its a lot of alcoholic beverages here! In general, there’s a lot of drinks. Thing is, I was going to do a cruise dedicated post after my cruise recap last year and I forgot about it. I flat out forgot. That’s just how I am. A year after, I remembered and was thinking maybe this year, I’ll start a little drinks segment to experiment different recipes.  I don’t mean alcoholic cocktails, even if they are resistible, I don’t usually drink that much but even for like lemonades or infused waters and other healthy stuff. I think its well worth a shot! 🙂

That’s it for this Pinterest Inspirations!
Originally, it had a ton of other stuff for the garden and whatnot, but I just wanted to keep this fun and short! 🙂 

Let me leave you with this lovely quote!

Happy Friday! 🙂