Painted Pony Cafe

Pretty decent little café. They have buffalo elk and other indigenous meats. It’s low key with decent service and tasty simple food.

My friend and I recently discovered the newly opened Painted Pony Café when we were looking for a place open for lunch on a Sunday. Kamloops has a notoriously small collection of businesses that fall into this category. Lucky for us, the Painted Pony welcomed us with open doors.
The first thing we noticed walking in was the décor. The whole café is furnished with various horse, railway, and western themes. It didn’t feel overdone at all and conveyed a real homey feel. If it wasn’t already immediately clear that this was a family-​run joint, hearing the staff call for help from «Grandma» definitely confirmed that. Too cute!
My biggest issue with this place is that there isn’t a single vegetarian item on their lunch/​dinner menu, not even a salad. Luckily there were a couple things on the breakfast menu so I didn’t have to go hungry. It was pretty disappointing though.
The food itself wasn’t especially exciting. I enjoyed my waffles but if the only options for me are breakfast foods, I would go elsewhere. There is better breakfast to be found elsewhere in Kamloops. That being said, I can’t say no to hot, fresh bannock! It was delicious as usual. My friend had ordered the bison burger and while he enjoyed having it served on bannock rather than a standard bun, the patty itself was dry and overcooked.
Overall I wasn’t overly blown away, but there is definitely some potential here. I would definitely be willing to try it again in a couple months once they’ve had a chance to work through some of the kinks of opening a new restaurant.