Earls Kitchen + Bar — Restaurant in Kelowna

Earls, what happened?

Earls used to be a great spot for yummy food and stellar service, what happened?

Alright, so this was my choice for my big birthday celebration, Earls! I was craving their delicious Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo with cajun chicken, a meal I have enjoyed many, many times. This time, it wasn't good... The fettuccine was underdone (I love mine served al dente), there wasn't much sauce and I think they had a tiny quail instead of a chicken, where's the chicken?! My beautiful wife ordered the Jumbo Lump Crab Cakes + Greens, I'm guessing the crab came from a can, it wasn't good... Other's in my group ordered the pizza, and chicken sandwiches, nothing too exciting to report there... But everyone was underwhelmed with the food, I assured them it usually is much better...

Our server was training a new employee, so service was mediocre, I won't complain too much, as I know that he was trying his best while trying to train at the same time.

We were seated right beside the kitchen, so unfortunately we could see everything going on... There were long wait times with food sitting under the heat lamps, you could see all the messy storage containers, cleaners etc and my least exciting thing to report, prepared food coming out of plastic bags and being heated up. Not sure what actually is cooked fresh here anymore...

• I do want to say thank you Earls for the birthday desert, that was the best part of our meal. It was a large portion and greatly appreciated! Also, I'm glad that you are still using cucina soap in your restrooms, thank you! *

My history with Earls, for those interested

I've been a long time supporter of Earls! When I was a young boy, I was fortunate to go out for dinner every Friday with my grandparents. We would pretty much go to Earls or The Keg, every single week! When Earls first opened, they were quite high end and very proud of their kitchen, the location we would go to the most (Richmond, BC) would offer to show us their kitchen each time and be so proud of how clean their kitchen and restaurant was. You would take a seat, they would bring out the best, fresh from the wood fire oven foccasia with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. My family would often buy the cool decorations on hand (specific memory of a big beautiful cockerel, huge glass jarred veggies and dried pepper displays to name a few).

I've celebrated my grade 12 graduation, milestone birthdays and family achievements at Kelowna's Earls on top, we have celebrated and enjoyed many, many meals here.

Unfortunately, we won't be doing that again any time soon...

At least I can buy the same bag of alfredo sauce from the store now, thanks for that Earls! hahahaha

Oh, I do have a question Earls Kelowna, does this location have an elevator? Those stairs can be a bit much for those with mobility challenges, a family member decided not to join us for...

One week before our Kelowna trip, I called to make a reservation at Earls, knowing it would be busy on a Saturday night. We were coming from Calgary and wanted a nice beach view for dinner, which is why we specifically chose this restaurant. During the reservation call, I requested to be seated on the patio with a beach view and they confirmed it.

When we arrived at the restaurant, we checked in around 6:09 PM because of the long line at the entrance.

We were initially thrilled when the lady seated us on the patio, just as we had requested. However, shortly after sitting down—before even being offered a drink or water—the lady told us that we needed to move because someone else specifically booked our table at 7:30 PM. She said that if we didn’t think we’d finish dinner by then, we had to move, but there was no guarantee another table would be available.

This left us confused and disappointed. What was the point of making a reservation a week in advance, including a specific request, if it wasn’t honored?

A second staff member (guy) came to explain the situation, offering us to either stay at the table until 7:30 PM or move now thinking we wouldn’t be dinner by then. For us, it was clear they were prioritizing a guest who hadn’t even arrived yet. Aren’t we a customer too who requested that table specifically? We felt like we had no choice but to move. We were so tired and wanted a nice beach view to end our day but we went home disappointed.

I even saw the lady at the entrance changing our table on the system, which made it seem like we didn’t have a reservation at all.

This experience was disappointing and frustrating—especially for a place we were genuinely...

A few weeks ago in Kelowna during a concert visit, we had a disappointing experience. We arrived late, and although the lower restaurant appeared empty, there was no hostess there, the sign pointed us up to the rooftop, so we went up. The hostess informed us they were closing soon and we had no reservations, but she then summoned an irritated man over who told her to seat us without even acknowledging our presence.

We sat there for 25 minutes while watching servers pass by as they cleaned tables. Eventually, my cousin returned to the hostess and a server finally came by. After we ordered drinks, the server apologized for the delay—but about 15 minutes later, someone brought us the wrong drinks. We started drinking them anyway because we were parched.

The thing was that I had ordered a non-alcoholic beverage and inadvertently consumed alcohol. The server later tried to explain the mix-up, suggesting it might have been a bonus drink, but upon realizing her mistake, my cousin expressed her displeasure over the unintended free drink, (she hates sangria) and we eventually received the correct ones.

Food finally arrived roughly 50 minutes after we were seated. I bit into a chip and salsa, and as I bit into it, I found a large piece of hard plastic embedded in the salsa, evidently from the original salsa container? We informed the server, who apologized and removed the dish; I believe we were offered a complimentary appetizer as compensation. Didn’t seem like it was a big deal. Although she was very apologetic about the drinks. I do drink alcohol and told her that so I guess it wasn’t a big issue.

Overall, it was the worst dining experience, despite the...