Dine Around Kelowna is on! From January 18th to February 9th restaurants around Kelowna are putting on 3-4 course meals for $25-$65 🍽️. This is the perfect time to discover something new at a great price point. We recently had the pleasure of going to Il Mercato Social Kitchen and were blown away!!
What to Expect?
Il Mercato is an Italian restaurant that sits somewhere between fine dining and casual eats. I say this because while you have your fancy cloth napkins, you also have flat screen tv’s playing sports. Best of both worlds I suppose! We went as soon as they opened around 3pm and were seated right away. The restaurant is not very busy at this time, making it the perfext late lunch spot. It’s located in West Kelowna in a little plaza with FREE parking.
What Did We Try?
We ordered the dine around menu which consisted of the Social Bread, Squash Soup, Chicken and Prosciutto, and Tiramisu, we also ordered a second main of the Osso Bucco. Il Mercato’s Dine Around menu was huge! Portions were the same as their regular menu which equated to a savings of about $8-$12 dollars depending on the entre of choice.
We had scouted out the menu prior to arriving and after seeing squash soup, we couldn’t stop thinking about it! Their Squash Soup did not dissapoint the craving. It was creamy, full of flavour, and the presentation was on point, although I would have to say the presentation for every dish was beautiful! The Osso Bucco was so tender and juicy, the meat fell off the bone and melted in your mouth. We actually only ordered this dish because it was one of the few dishes that didn’t have tomatoes or spice. Due to some current diet restrictions we hd to be careful. We were unsure if it was going to be good in comparison to some of the other dishes that we typically opt for. We were sitting there completely taken aback by how flavourful it was! Lesson learned. DO NOT LOOK OVER THE OSSO BUCCO.
Next up we have the Chicken and Prosciutto. I peeped last years version and let me tell you, they definetley stepped up their game, and they stepped it up hard. The sauce was close to a gravy, almost like the one I talk about at Lakeside Dining, and if you’ve read that post you know it was to die for. My partner kept trying to get a bite of my chicken and a small part of me wanted to knock his fork out. Finally we had the Tiramisu for dessert. To be honest I only had room for a single bite, the previous courses had ensured that. This Tiramisu has a chocolate forward taste with a hint of espresso which I really enjoyed. It was light and fluffy with whipped cream between the layers.
Final Thoughts
My final thoughts on Il Mercato are that you can certainly tell that everything is made from scratch and with so much love and attention to detail. Every single bite was mouth watering and has bypassed a certain fine dining restaurant in Kelowna known for Italian cousine. I would say it’s my new go to spot for Italian but I would need to taste the staples like their pasta, seafood, and of course the pizza to be certain.
Hope you guys are having fun Discovering Kelowna 💞