Sicamous restaurants and the golf course patio: where to eat around Mara Lake

The golf course restaurant and its patio

The restaurants in Sicamous are a short list, and the one with the best view is not in town at all — it is the golf course restaurant on the hillside a few minutes south of it. That is the quickest way to summarise eating around Mara Lake: a small, seasonal set of places along the highway and the marina, plus a clubhouse deck with a view none of them can match.

The clubhouse above the eighteenth green has always been the reason this course turns up in articles about patio dining in British Columbia rather than only in golf listings. The golf course restaurant sits high on the hillside with the deck facing west over Mara Lake, which means the view improves through the afternoon and peaks about the time a morning round finishes.

The offer at the golf course restaurant has been straightforward for years: a lunch and dinner menu at everyday prices, served inside or on the deck, plus a smaller snack counter for players making the turn. It is a golf clubhouse rather than a destination kitchen, and it has never pretended otherwise. What it has is the deck. On a clear evening there is not a better table in Sicamous, and that is the thing worth planning around.

Operations have changed hands with the course, which now runs as Mara Hills Golf Resort under GolfNorth, so opening hours, menus and whether the kitchen serves non-golfers are all worth confirming before making the drive. The course number has long been (250) 836-4653.

Sicamous restaurants: where to eat in town

Sicamous restaurants cluster into a small, seasonal set. The town has roughly 2,400 residents and swells several times over in July and August, so the dining scene is built around that curve: more places open longer hours through the summer, and a reduced core through the winter. Most of what there is sits along the Trans-Canada corridor through town and around the marina, within a few minutes of each other.

Search for Sicamous food and you get the same short list from every direction, because the town really does have one. The Sicamous restaurants that do open fall into predictable categories for a highway and houseboat town — a couple of pubs, family diners, pizza, a Chinese restaurant, coffee and bakery stops, and seasonal takeaway near the water. Nothing is more than a short drive from anything else, which makes deciding where to eat less of a logistical problem here than it is in most places.

Two practical points, and they apply however you phrase the search — restaurants Sicamous, Sicamous food, or somewhere to eat tonight. First, individual restaurants in Sicamous open and close with some regularity, as they do in any small resort town, so a current listing on a review site beats any static list including this one. Second, kitchens in a town this size close earlier than visitors expect, particularly outside July and August — if you are coming off the water at nine in the evening in May, check before you drive in.

Eating around Mara Lake and the wider Shuswap

Places to eat in Sicamous are not the only option if you are staying on Mara Lake. Salmon Arm is half an hour west and has a considerably wider range, including the restaurant at the Salmon Arm Golf Club, which keeps longer hours than most clubhouses in the region. Enderby is about the same distance south. Revelstoke, an hour east, has the best restaurant scene within reach by some margin, driven by the ski hill rather than the lake.

For a stay based on the water, most houseboat operators expect you to provision in town before departure, and the grocery options in Sicamous are adequate for that rather than generous. Anyone planning several days afloat generally shops in Salmon Arm on the way through, then treats the places to eat in Sicamous as the occasional night off from cooking.

Planning a round and a meal

The pattern that works best is an early tee time and a late lunch on the deck at the golf course restaurant. Mornings are the cooler, quieter half of the day on this course, the tee sheet fills from the front, and by the time an early group reaches the clubhouse the patio is in full sun. Patio dining after a twilight round is the other good option, though the kitchen’s closing time becomes the constraint rather than the light.

If you are combining golf with a stay, the stay and play page covers what is nearby. The tee times page explains how booking works under the current operator, and the Sicamous page covers the rest of what the town has.

Common questions

Is the golf course restaurant open to the public?

It has historically served non-golfers as well as players, which is how it ended up in regional articles about clubhouse patios. Since the course changed operators, that is worth confirming by phone before driving out, particularly outside peak season.

How many restaurants in Sicamous are open in winter?

Fewer of the Sicamous restaurants stay open than in summer, but the town is not seasonal in the way a purely resort village is — it sits on the Trans-Canada and keeps a working core of pubs, diners and takeaway open year-round. Seasonal spots near the marina are the ones that close.

Is there food on the course itself?

There has been a snack counter alongside the main kitchen for players at the turn, in addition to the clubhouse dining room and deck. On a course with this much elevation change, it is a more welcome stop than usual.

Where is the best view for a meal?

The clubhouse deck, which faces west over Mara Lake from high on the hillside. That westward aspect is why late afternoon and evening are the times to book it rather than the middle of the day.

Are there restaurants within walking distance of the marina?

Yes. The compact centre of town around the channel and the marina holds most of what Sicamous has, and it is walkable end to end. The golf course is not — it is a short drive south on Old Spallumcheen Road.