Earls Kitchen + Bar — Restaurant in Regina

Today I visited Earl's twice: long story. At lunch I ordered the chicken tacos, which came with overly spicy chicken meat, corn chips dusted with a spicy powder, and spicy salsa, with not enough cooling avocado or enough creamy dressing to cool things down. Spicy salsa is good - spicy everything is not. Worse yet, nothing in the description suggests that this is what you will get. This apparently is a design flaw, not that someone in the kitchen accidentally over-spiced everything. (as per manager and server). When I brought this to their attention, they were kind and understanding, didn't make me feel like the problem was with me (as so many restaurants do), they fixed it by remaking a new one that was edible and comp'd that food item. They also said they would talk to the IT department to get the menu description fixed - awesome response and this visit gets a 5! (Although note to exec chef: Austin TX has some of the best tacos in the world - suggest spending a month there to learn what actually makes really good tacos. The design here is still off ... even without the spicy stuff ... but A+ for effort)

Dinner: I ordered a salmon main course to take home and it came with a side of roasted veggies. When I got home, I discovered that the broccolini had been liberarlly sprinkled with red pepper flakes, to the point where I had to leave half of it on my plate, as it was just to spicy to enjoy. This was takeout so I couldn't bring to their attention to get it fixed. As an amateur gourmet chef, red pepper flakes definitely have their place - my favorite quick Italian tomato sauce uses them, as well as other dishes. But in a dish that's not supposed to be spicy, they're to be used for a "hint of heat" that accentuates the flavors, not as an end in and of themselves. Especially when, same as with the tacos, nothing in the menu description warns that this ingredient will be used, to allow the customer to opt out or ask for "easy heat". This visit gets a 1 ... and so the two visits average to 3.

(Keeping the review from 3 years ago, 4 stars: Always love Earls!! Spicy shrimp with pasta never fails to please although ratio of shrimp to pasta is too low. Calamari was pretty good but lots of non calamari ingredients which is nice up to a point but they’ve taken it too far. Truffle fries delicious flavor but not as crispy as would be ideal. Margaritas were lovely (although just a little sweet) and wine list is pretty good - having visited Sardinia, I always enjoy trying vermentino at Canadian or American restaurants, and this was quite...

This is usually our go to Earls when we visit Regina. We were in town in November for our daughters birthday and chose to dine at Earls - one of our favourites. When I tell you the service we received that evening was not anything like what we have before, it was awful. We reserved a place online and in the comments section explained we were dining for our daughters birthday. When we arrived the host told us “ughhh I’m not really sure how long it will be but have a seat and wait”, that should’ve been our first clue to just go somewhere else. Everyone that came in behind us were given approx wait times. Once seated, we were told they had no pizza that evening - the reason the birthday girl chose the place but okay, we will find something else to order for her. She decides on wings (salt and pepper) like she orders regularly in Saskatoon. We order our drinks as well as our food and when our drinks arrived, I asked our waitress for a straw, as my frozen blended drink should’ve came with one - the waitress proceeded to forget, helping other tables, etc while I sat there watching my drink melt. Eventually I seen the manager walk by our table and asked if she would be able to bring me a straw, which she did. Thank you. Then our meals show up - when I tell you the chicken wings were so over spiced with salt and pepper - they were. Our daughters hardly touched them and when myself and husband tried them, it was too much salt and pepper on them it over powered the wings themselves. I had ordered the full size Caesar salad with chicken. Our waitress when taking our order kept seeming confused with everything and when I received my order I seen why, she put in a starter salad for mine with two chicken breasts - it worked out to be more than what I originally ordered. Daughters birthday never acknowledged the entire time, even when our daughter said why we were in town. By the time we were done and received our bill, my husband just wanted to pay and get out of there - mentioning he didn’t think we would ever return. I explained let’s call, talk to a manager and just give them a chance to try to rectify our experience as usually we love this location. I called, spoke to the manager and she was lovely on the phone - apologized, said that is not how they do things and that she would have one of the day managers call me back the next week to discuss our visit. I have not received a call at all. It’s been a few weeks now and nothing. Very disappointed all around and think we will be finding another restaurant to visit when we...

Ordered pick up from Earls last month, our order consisted of ahi tuna poke bowl and a Cajun chicken Caesar salad. An additional chicken breast was added on (and this is where they get you because the menu only states 'add on chicken' but it's only for a half breast, if you order a full breast (two halves) you are charged twice as much). We then proceeded to go in to pick up the order which cost $70 for two meals and pay with a $100 bill and the server asks, "do you want change?" to which my husband said "yes", and the server then proceeds to say, "how much". Full disclosure, I'm writing this from the perspective of someone who worked in the industry for over two decades - first rule of thumb is you NEVER ask this- you just give them their change back, and if you're lucky, they will tip you. Did she really think we were going to tip over $30 on a take-out order we came and picked up?

Fast forward to this past Wednesday where I ate again with my two friends and my one friend's daughter. My one friend is gluten intolerant and ordered the ahi tuna poke bowl. The bowl comes out- she starts to eat and is then informed that this wasn't actually her food, and they are taking it away. The other meals then come out- and they are all wrong... none of this is our food, and they are delivering the food to the wrong table. So, we sit and continue to wait for the proper meals. Food finally comes- it's fine, but the new ahi tuna poke bowl has no sauce. The glass of wine my girlfriend ordered was $20. Everything is way overpriced, and they aren't stating on their menu that add-ons are only half the portion size, and overall, the experience wasn't great. Service is slow, and the manager comes out after to ask us how everything was. We say fine, however they forgot the sauce- we've already paid (will note here that my friend gave the server cash, and she just took it and never offered her change), nothing can be done. He looks disappointed and walks away. Anyways- I'm not impressed. If you want to pay big money for good food- go to a Greek restaurant. But sorry Earls, you charge way too much for crappy service and your servers are just taking people's money and not offering change? That's stealing, and that's a...