Earls Kitchen + Bar

Love this restaurant chain as it offers consistent food and service.
This location allowed reservations during weekday.
Ambience is lively and loud. Tables are relatively close to one another but no big deal.
Service was sub par for this visit where food from sit down to order took 65 minutes but restaurant was super busy but had trouble handling table of 8 of us.
Dynamite roll unavailable for 30 minutes was sorta funny.
Overall still come back but in smaller group.

I never come to this Earl’s but was meeting a friend for drinks and a bite. She picked it since it was close for her. When I arrived it was busy, not crazy busy but busy at the hostess stand. It was well after dinner, so I was happy to miss the dinner rush. I waited to just ask the hostess a question since my friend was already there and seated. Just needed to know where she was? I waited as the hostess talked to some guys. I am assuming they were waiting for a table however they were talking about hockey, baseball and everything else under the sun. The polite thing would have been for the hostess to ask how she can help me, but no she kept talking with these boys instead and completely ignored me. After a few minutes of patiently waiting and feeling like I am interrupting this very important conversation on sports, texted my friend and asked where she was seated. I walked in and followed the directions from my friend. At that point, the hostess finally had some interest in me as she angrily asked me «where are you going»? I advised her my friend was already here and I am going to the table and walked off. She mumbled something about me being rude and it did give me a giggle since, isn’t this the person who just ignored me the last 10 minutes while she flirted away with a group of boys?
Arrived at the table my friend was waiting at and she looked annoyed. Found out she had already been there for 20 minutes and no one even took her drink order. We waited a few more minutes and flagged someone down to find out where our waitress was? We were advised, she would be with us shortly? Waited… waited and waited and decided to just leave. At this point, if its this hard to get a drink who knows how hard it would be to eat something?
EARLS — FAIL
Everything is just meh, which isn’t what I normally expect from an Earl’s. I prefer Earl’s Tin Palace on every front since everything is top notch. This location is just meh. Nothing spectacular, good or great. Looking forward to it improving allot. If it does, may give them another chance.

I didn’t mind this location… I wasn’t completely «wowed» in my overall experience, but I do have minor complaints. Nothing too major though.
Service: Wasn’t the fastest, it was busy, but still should have been a little faster. It took a while for the waitress to even notice us sitting there, many tables were left to be cleaned. So someone was behind in that regard. We sat at a table that wasn’t cleaned, but it was a good seat, so we waited. Our waitress was really nice, tried to say she couldn’t accommodate something. Buut my bestie was there and she used to work for earls so she knew it was a simple request haha. Can’t pull that on an ex earls employee! Lol.
Taste: Earls food never really fails me. Lol. I had the rocket salad with a beautifully crusted chicken, it was fabulous. I love beets and goat cheese, and crusted chicken mmmmm Soo Delish. On point. My pig (name for my bestie lol) had the chicken & rib combo. Omfg the ribs are SO juicy and fab they fall right off the bone. And omg the flavour. Wow. And yes, I did get her to order the full order so I can steal some ribs hahha. Annnd we indulged in desert, I had the toffee pudding cake & she had the warm cookie with vanilla bean ice cream. Wow. AmaZing!
Presentation: Presentation was quite nice, chefs did a great job. I love that in the desert they make their own caramel bowls for the ice cream, was pretty cool and totally aesthetically pleasing to the eye! Very pretty. My salad was plated and portioned very nicely. The portion size for the the chicken and ribs was massive lol I won’t lie hahha yes it’s the «full order», but I feel like it’s so much food 2 people can honestly order one full order and be good to go haha. Presentation of the restaurant however, wasn’t too pleasing to the eye. As I mentioned, many tables were left to be cleaned .
Atmosphere: Was an ok Atmosphere, music wasn’t too loud, it was busy but didn’t feel super cramped or anything. Atmosphere was like any other earls really.
Overall experience: Again, wasn’t «wowed», but wasn’t upset or anything. Was average. The company I was with really made the experience much better haha. The food is generally always on point at Earls, so it’s good eats for sure! Jst not sure if I’d go out of my way for this particular location again.
M.M.

Late night supper. Eh, what’s this? The menu has been visibly pared down to just one (large) page. Spatchcock chicken was recommended. Took the advice, glad I did. It. Was. Delicious! The peanut sauce it was served with was exploding with flavour. Must come back to try new menu items. Service was excellent, too.

Good service but average apps!
Stopped in to share some apps with a friend pre-​show at the Jubilee. The apps were average at best. My favourite was probably the calamari and least the artichoke dip. The truffle fries were fine but waaaay over priced. The margarita pizza way good not great.

The Food was okay, but our servers attitude really ruined the night. It was as if we were lucky to even be there, and they never even asked us how our food was! It took 35 minutes before our waters were even refilled (we had to ask) and several managers and servers walked by without even bothering to refill them. You would think a team dynamic would be common sense? Our server took time at other tables and walked around slowly not doing much. Never going back, not even to another Earls.

I have been to various Earl’s restaurants around town and by far, I find this one to be most mediocre of the bunch. As other reviewers have said, the servers pester you every few minutes to make sure everything is OK. You would think that would add to their overall service, but it gets annoying… particularly if you have to ask repeatedly for something as basic as a glass of water, only to be told that it’ll be there «right away» and yet, it takes 20 minutes.
These servers seem like robots who are programmed to nod and smile in an artificial kind of way, but they don’t really have a sense of what it means to be sincere.
This particular location does not have much competition around and it would probably do better if it had to fight more for its business.

I normally don’t eat at Earl’s but I received a gift card for Earl’s for Christmas so we decided use it towards dinner.
We thought maybe it’d be busy because it was the long weekend and hadn’t made reservations, but we were seated in the dining side right away. Our server chatted with us for a bit, brought us our drinks and suggested some items from the menu.
My boyfriend settled on the suggested Buttermilk Fried Chicken sandwich (our server described it as a KFC sandwich — only 100x better!) and I got the Dungeness Crab and Asparagus Linguini.
My pasta was lightly coated with the cream sauce and there was a generous amount of fresh crab mixed throughout. And yes, the Buttermilk sandwich was as delicious as described!
I liked the atmosphere, service and food — I’d recommend this place and would probably be back again.

I love all the food & beverages at Earl’s. All menu items are consistently delicious, period.

Service and quality are good at this location. I paid nearly $ 15 for a Caesar salad with Cajun chicken and when it arrived I was very disappointed at how small it was. I think a Wendy’s salad is similar in size and quality, so while what I got was excellent, the value seems lacking. I don’t find the décor or the dining experience to be worth the $$ extra that you pay.

My mom and I decided to do lunch on Friday and didn’t want to venture too far from home. Since neither of us had been to Earl’s in a while (and we flat out REFUSE to go to Joey’s in Crowfoot, due to the horrible service), we headed over here and were seated on the patio in no time. The weather was gorgeous, but due to the location of our table vs. the sun it was a constant battle to be able to see properly. I adjusted the curtains on our cabana and it seemed to help, although when the wind picked up, it wasn’t really working for us. Minus a few points for their seating arrangements, but we were enjoying the day nonetheless. We both ordered drinks (Raspberry Mojito’s…yum!) and a selection of appies, including the Tempura Dynamite Rolls (super delicious as always), the Albacore Tuna Poke Nachos (a wonderful addition to their menu — but not quite as good as Craft’s version!), and the Calamari (decent, not a fan of their tzatziki). Everything came out quickly without issue, and tasted delicious. Service was as expected, nothing extraordinary. All in all, it was a good dining experience for what we were looking for. As I’ve said before, I prefer to stay away from the chain restaurants, but I was thoroughly satisfied after our meal here.

Lesson learned — I will NEVER come back here again…
We met a couple of friends in who were town and this marked the 2^nd time ever I have been to an Earl’s. I was up for a good evening knowing the company would be amazing and we were even semi dressed-​up. However, something told me in the back of my mind this experience would not measure up to the last visit to Earl’s on 16^th Ave. This was our friends’ choice of location and I am eager to try every restaurant in Calgary even if it takes me 80 years so of course we were agreeable. :) We walked in and were swamped with waitresses and fought through them waving them off politely to get to our party who were already standing right there to greet us. The staff offered to take my coat — nice gesture but NO thanks. I think all of us have fallen prey to jacket theft before and I did not want to lose my new Mexx. I would have frozen to death tonight without it had it been taken!
Anyways, we waited an eon for our first round of drinks. Took awhile with the menu as nothing was really screaming out to the 4 of us. I feel that Earl’s should have more fish dishes on the menu than just salmon. Plus, I feel, even for Calgary standards the entire menu is overpriced. I ended up ordering the clam chowder and baby calamari. The rest of the party ordered:
Bronx hamburger (stale bun, ick) and $ 2 extra for yam fries is ridiculous when the burg is $ 17 to start with.
Veggie Quesadilla which was deemed to be «hot» by the eater when anything remotely spicy was requested omitted from the dish.
Salad/​bread and soup (clam chowder) combo whereby the eater really had no comment.
My own clam chowder was bland sooo from my purse it was my cayenne pepper to the rescue! Totally edible though and at least warmer than warm in temperature. I was more disappointed in the calamari. Lacking flavour, I had to totally spice it up myself and add a ton of lemon. Would NOT recommend. Sigh, after all that time in choosing off the menu…
If I am paying a fortune for dinner I want it to be more than OK. Wine overpriced and nothing special for $ 11 a glass.
Service was a 1 out of 5. Our waitress forgot everything, from lemons, to sour cream to our drinks to napkins to the split cheque. Clueless.
Atmosphere was decent, not too, too busy and we were able to get a table without a problem. If the food is sub-​par though and the service sucks, it is just not worth our hard earned dough.
Like I said, thank God for good company but I will never come back here.

One of the few exceptions to a normally great Earl’s experience. This one is close to my house so I go here semi-​regularly. Everything is just OK, which isn’t what I normally expect from an Earl’s. Looking forward to it improving.

I ate here on the weekend and was pleasantly surprised
I had the southwest salad which was delicious! and the person I was with had the prawn and scallop linguine (which I have also had recently) and it was wonderful! Our service was a little slow in the beginning but it was very busy (lunch time on a Saturday) so nothing out of the ordinary. And was better as we went.
I’m not one for chain restaurants but I enjoyed my visit :) And I would definitely go back!
Any recommendations to the restaurant? Take a bit more pride in waitresses (i.e. support the idea of them brushing their hair), it looked like some of them came straight from nellie’s or aritzia staff. But hey, maybe I’m just not «with it»

Is it true that when applying for a serving position at Earls you are required to provide a picture along with your resume? It wouldn’t surprise me as this is one of the more pretentious places I’ve ever been to.
Not only are all the waitresses somewhat stuck-​up, but they seem to portray an attitude that they are better than you. When asked if a cab could be called for our party, the hostess very grudgingly picked up the phone, dialed the number, but neglected to tell us the cab was there… we missed it.
It also seems that they don’t so much care about good customer service as they do about looking good for the customers. I was trying to get the attention of our waitress but she was busy checking her make-​up in the mirror and flirting with the bartender.
Needless to say, our drinks were expensive and the appetizers weren’t good enough to send me back again. It’s a little too (fake) fancy for my liking.

B — List. Earl’s is a fun place particularly on the summer patio. Earl’s management appears to have adopted an Interesting selection process when hiring employees. The staff could be considered young as well as the front-​line duty managers. The food is good and relatively expensive given ingredients, portion and preparation of food. The décor is Interesting. I am not sure what words would adequately describe the interior. For distractions from your date, there are plenty of plasma screens in view with mostly irritating music videos blarring and/​or sporting events. Did I say this place can be really noisy? Keep yelling at your dinner date!
Service? Hit and miss. Some days are good; the right person who knows what they are doing and demonstrates a minimum standard of care and knowledge will surprise you. On other occasions, the service is, quite frankly, high-​schoolish with the manager pretending to apologize for the staff’s lack of training, work and life experience. Additionally, observation, listening, and thinking skills are, at times, in short supply. It is obvious to many that these foibles are not one time events.
Still people line-​up to get in, human behavior what it is. There is, in general, better food and more pleasant dining experiences elsewhere. But that is not why people come to Earl’s. I suspect many come due to the ‘scene’ the Earl’s originators have created for the public, a manufactured ‘hip and happening’ place where you can let your mind wander as you survey the landscape within or feel ‘in the zone’ as the conversation noise levels cascade throughout the evening. You suddenly feel as if you are some place important, as you are.

A girlfriend and I wanted the perfect lunch spot to catch up after not having been in the same country for the last 6 years. We decided to meet at Earls in Dalhousie Station, because it USED to be one of our mutual favourites. Used to be.
It’s one thing to be served, and it’s another to be harassed. Three different servers came by our table about every five minutes until we ordered. When we did finally order, the servers continued to come by every couple minutes to see if everything was okay. Believe it or not, there IS such thing as ‘over-​serving’, especially when two people are trying to have a conversation.
I wasn’t impressed to see that they had taken my favourite dish (Thai Noodle Salad) off the menu, and even less impressed when my 12 dollar salad was served as a plateful of greens with a few measely berries on top.
It’s pretty safe to say you wont be catching me at this location ever again.

Maybe if they spent half as much attention to their food as they do to the waitresses they hire their food would be worth the prices charged.