Earls Kitchen + Bar — Restaurant in Calgary

My friends and I came in for a birthday, there were 6 of us total, but when we arrived there were only 4 there as the other 2 people were joining us in a little bit. We got sat at the long table behind the host stand and we looked at the menus and 10 minutes go by and there was still no server that came to say anything to us. I go up to the host stand and ask if we can service because we wanted drinks. The host was incredibly nice and said she would fix that for us. She went to go get the server and tried to help. 15 mins after we sat down, still no server, the manager comes after we have been looking around for anyone to help us and ask if anyone has been by. Of course we say no it’s been 15 minutes. Then our server comes, we order drinks, and I needed to leave earlier than the rest and after I ordered mine I asked for the bill because I needed to leave, the server, I think her name was Anita, not to sure though, understood. Drinks came, and I again asked for my bill and she said that the shots that I ordered would be taken care of because of the wait. Which is a nice way of mending the situation, so I was under the assumption that my drinks would be covered by the house. Someone drops off a round of shots of the table assuming everyone was drinking (and not everyone was) and said those would be on the house and assumed everyone wanted shots, they didn’t. After awhile of waiting, drinks empty, no server coming by again. Another server comes over after she sees us looking around asking if we need anything and we wanted the bill. We were charged for the shots that I was told would be on the house (the two that I ordered) but the ones the brought because of the manger were taken care of. It was nice that the manager wanted to rectify the situation but it honestly made it worse. The service was horrible, I normally don’t write bad reviews, or ever go this in depth as I work in the restaurant industry and if you’re swamped or whatever then come over and say you’ll be by in a bit, and not just ignore us completely and say “I didn’t see you”. I won’t be back at this location just because of this. Nothing was done right. Although drinks were good, the experience for the birthday girl was ruined...

I unfortunately had a very disappointing experience on my most recent visit to this Earls location (Saturday March 13th). My boyfriend and I arrived at Earls around 8:50 and was greeted by the hostess, informing us of the current 25 minute wait time. She did inform myself and my partner that last call would be for 9:15 and I agreed to adding my name on the wait but confirmed that we would still be served food and alcohol upon completion, she responded in saying that we would. When we received our message that our table was ready we checked in it was already 9:12. Again, I confirmed with the hostess seating us if we are still able to order alcohol and food as their last call was quickly approaching. In addition, if we would be limited to our dining experience and rushed I would rather not be seated and just dine at Cactus as their last call was for 9:45 pm. She checked her time and ensured us that our server would be promptly informed we were sat and that there will be no issue with ordering. We sat for 8 minutes without anyone greeting us or acknowledging our presence. Finally, a server comes to our table and greets us with "something to drink ? What would you like?" Not even a simple welcoming/ personable greeting or thanking us for our patience was said considering the circumstances. She stated that last call had already passed and we could not order any alcohol. I had let her know we were quite disappointed as I specifically confirmed twice with the hostesses if we would still be able to order the full menu, and said that we will just dine elsewhere. She quickly responded with "okay sorry take care" and walked away.

As a suggestion maybe informing all your patrons who go on the wait list that seating is not guaranteed prior to last call. It would create transparency prior to disappointment of waiting for nothing. Truly hoping this was a rare, one time incident incident as we do enjoy dining at this Earls location and our previous visits were...

Honestly felt a very strong sense of discrimination coming from the hostess when 7 of us tried to get a table at around 11:30 PM on Canada Day. The restaurant was barely occupied, with probably 25% capacity. We went to the front and was ignored by several of the staff and finally got the attention of the hostess at the front. We politely asked if they had room for a table of 7 and we literally could not believe the air of arrogance we received from her. She responded in the most rude voice that they aren’t taking a table of 7 because their servers cannot handle that volume right now and just turned around and walked away. It was so abrupt and rude and frankly disgusting - it wasn’t even what she was saying but her tone. We figured it’d be hard to get a table on Canada Day with the number of people we had, but we were polite when asking. Also, what restaurant does not prepare themselves for proper staffing on a national holiday in a hotspot in the city? We didn’t even get a chance to ask further questions such as splitting up the tables, since she had literally turned her back to us already. But what really disturbs me is that you could tell that she was judging that we were a party of colour and perhaps had biases that our business wouldn’t be worth their server’s time. We all left feeling like it truly stemmed from discrimination as we all heard her tone and what it entailed. Im disappointed in this experience as we have always enjoyed going to Earl’s after work but the way we were treated last night when the restaurant was empty, being ignored and then getting turned away will forever leave a sour taste in my mouth.

I was looking through recent reviews to see if anyone else has experienced the same type of discrimination in the past and it looked like someone was turned away in a very similar situation. I hope management strongly reevaluates their sensitivity training and...