We had wanted to dine at Famoso but there was a half hour wait and we were starving. Walked up the road a bit and voila, there was Earl's with no wait time and I had an Earl's gift card burning a hole in my pocket.
I liked that there was a hostess at the ready for us to get us seated. The lounge was packed and very loud so we opted for the dining room and there was a table ready for us right away. Too bad we were seated next to the screaming, crying baby in the room. I would argue that this restaurant is NOT for children/babies.
Overall, the food here was pretty good. The service - not so much.
We ordered a caesar salad to start and the waitress was kind enough to have that split into 2 plates for us. The salads here are huge. The caesar is - well, boring. No bacon and it does not come with any lemon to jazz it up. Had to ask for the lemon and ground pepper. We had asked the waitress how the baby calamari was upon ordering and she said it was pretty good. We agreed that the salads would be plenty with our full meals and that next time, we would try the calamari. Wouldn't you know it, the calamari was brought to our table anyways with our salad. Hmmm. We mentioned to our server that we did not order it and she advised that as long as we did not touch it she would bring it back to the kitchen and implied that it would be re-served to someone else. Really? I would not want that happening to me so we told told her that we would just keep it, thanks. Error #1.
I ordered a 7 oz steak that came with a really nice whisky sauce and some button mushrooms over top. The veg was a couple of cut up roasted red pepper pieces and purple onion. They could have used a little imagination for a $26 plate and used asparagus. I did enjoy the meat, it was cooked rare, to order and I loved the mashed potatoes too. I would be hard pressed though call these garlic mashed as were described on the menu. Too bad. I love garlic and there was not a hint of it in there. I finished my drink and ordered another - which NEVER came. Error 2.
No waters were ever poured for us either throughout the whole meal, none offered.
By the way I ordered my first Earl's Bellini as my first drink and I really liked it. Very peachy, very summery and cold.
Hubby ordered his usual hamburger with cheese (extra charge of course for cheese) yam fries (extra change of course) and for dipping, on the plate was a really nice curry- mango sauce. Inventive, we both liked that and the fries were killer yummy. I took half my meal to go as the unexpected calamari kind of filled me up and dessert never even crossed our minds, we were so full. Not that we were offered any - the server approached us and advised that she was off shift and could we settle our bill? I guess so, sure. She advised that one of her colleagues would be checking on us as she scooted on out of there but that never happened.
Service fell down tonight, was not on point, the server was in lala land and there was just no efficiency whatsoever.
I felt that the food was good enough that the review warranted 3 stars but maybe that is too kind. I am in a generous mood today. I guess I was in a generous mood last night too as despite all all server's flaws, she still made her 15%. But she was standing right there as I entered the tip into the machine too so - what else could I do?
I doubt we would ever make a point to come back here - too bad. They could do much better business if they would step up their game a bit and do some staff training. I can see by the other reviews as well that this place is struggling to keep its lackluster overall 3 stars. read more