Earls Kitchen + Bar — Restaurant in Winnipeg

I visited this location February 3rd 2022 and had a horrible experience. My husband and I decided to give Earls another chance last night. We had the same horrible experience. The menu has changed, and the food was less than sub par. It is truly a shame because we used to love Earls and would come here frequently for our date nights pre covid. I ordered the 9oz blackened cajun steak and side items that come with the meal. It was unedible to say the least. The new mixture of veggies they provide were mushy and unseasoned and barely warm, I miss the aparagus... Hardly a single serving of mashed potatoes and what used to be a beautiful wisp on top was a thrown on heap of stale dusty bits... the steak was the furthest away from "tender" it looked appetizing but when I had my first bit it was like chewing rubber. We arrived for our 7:30 reservation and got seated promptly. However it took more than 18 minutes to be served water. Our drink order was taken at that time but then we waited longer than 10 minutes for our drinks. We hadn't gotten food until almost and hour and half later after ordering. I will say the new atmosphere is lovely, my husband and I enjoyed marveling at the new design. I don't think we will be returning to what once was our favorite date spot which saddens us. They prepared a burger for me to go. I was going to eat it for lunch today but after q bite that too was awful. It was coated in a massive amount of salt and pepper... not sure what's going on there but this was very distasteful and I believe this was on purpose...

What the hell is this portioning? I understand it's wagyu, but come on, this is thinner than a strand of hair. It's like the cook just grinded the meat into shavings and slapped it on rice and called it sushi.

I expected better from a well established restaurant, and to see this form of portioning is unacceptable. If you can't even put a decent amount of meat on the item, don't even put it on your menu. I get it, wagyu is expensive, but it doesn't mean you scam your clients by giving them a square of rice with meat shavings.

The taste was 4/10, mostly overwhelmed by the flavoring of the sauces, which is soaked into the rice.

As for the steak and pasta, it was actually pretty decent. 6.5/10

Staff were super nice, 10/10 and deserved the tips, no complaints there.

Environment/astetic as stated before is actually pretty great, if this all you care about this is a great spot to have a family/friend dinner.

Side note: I get the feeling, you really are just paying for the "environment" over anything else. Other local restaurants seem to offer more for your buck if affordability and taste are all you care about.

Overall 3/5 stars for me, would reccomend for astetics/environment. Would not be my first choice for food specifically.

I have yet to try their other food items, so I'll probably change my score going forward.

Side note: we did take out for the...

We had an uncomfortable experience on Dec 21, 2024 (reservation was for 7PM for 12 people). We booked a reservation for 12 people and they gave us a very tiny seating area. Upon arrival, we noticed that there was not enough room for the 12 of us at all. Our menu's were very close to one another and we were all so squished into each other. We had a friend show up out of surprise a few mins late, and after that point on was when our experience got much worse. The staff kept staring at us and whispering things to each other and looking our way the whole time we were dining there. Our waitress rolled her eyes before taking our orders. There was a couple that was sitting beside us at a table of 2 and the couple was asking if we needed more room - however, when the servers found out about this they started talking to the couple if they wanted to move to a new table. The staff apologized to the couple and made arrangements for them but they left us hanging with very little room and terrible service.

We were very disturbed with the unprofessional behaviour and the way they treated us. Every time we looked at the staff, they were always whispering to each other, and then would proceed to stare at our table. I felt terrible with this whole experience as I paid a good amount, and WE ALL definitely won't be coming back here at this...