Restaurant Review: Earls

Not a true review as I just went for dessert at Earls, but it reminded me that I should do a review of it regardless. Let's start with dessert then:

First of all, the doors to get into the Earls are mindblowingly heavy. I am not a complete pantywaist but they were achingly ridiculous, the boyfriend had to step in and open them for me. Jeeze, feeling welcome yet?

Nevertheless, the layout for Earls is gorgeous. Dark, mimicked trees, cool booths, it all screams 'chic' even though we are in the Yukon and anyone not wearing rubber boots is 'trendy.' Even those can be trendy though.

We ordered dessert, the service was prompt and friendly, if a little strange (I totally know the server, in an offhand I've-seen-y0u-somewhere way) but the selection of desserts was a bummer. Clearly Earls is a place for cocktails and to be seen. Their cocktail menu was had a larger selection than their meals AND desserts. Woah.

I ordered the chocolate sundae in a candy dish and my partner ordered a NY cheesecake. We had a total choice of about 3 items-sundae, brownie pudding, cheesecake.

The cheesecake was $7.99 and the sundae was $6.50. Not really cheap. The desserts arrived promptly and we enjoyed them but the depth of the desserts was really lacking. My 'sundae' was 3 scoops of vanilla bean ice cream with some chocolate sauce lightly drizzled. Hmm. More like vanilla with a little bit of chocolate sauce, instead of a sundae drenched in syrup like I was hoping. I have to say I've had better at Dairy Queen.

My partners NY cheesecake was a thin little slice, tasty but small. Expensive for rather lacking desserts--got our sweet fix but...that's about it. High on appearence, low on quality/value.

Menu-wise, the last time we ate there I had the 'Big Bowls' yellow curry dish. It was unbelieveably salty, and curry should never be salty. It was around $16-17 back in September and I looked last weekend and it was $18.99!! Trust me, the quality hasn't gone up THAT much. Jesus.

Also, we had a server that gave us styrofoam food containers when we requested our leftovers be packed up--and we were puzzled, but ended up scooping my salty remnants into the package right at our table. Isn't that their job? Bizarre.

And as always, the cocktails menu exceeds the food menu in array and price. I also got a mint/cucumber mojito and the overeager server grabbed it and asked if I wanted a new one ($$ cha-ching!) when I was fully planning on eating my garnish cucumber and mint leftover! Pfft.

Restaurants are expensive here. Choose wisely. Appearence doesn't always have to be a battle for quality.

Night Moves (time for a drink yet?)

Whitehorse has a decent selection of drinking holes. Only one, to my recollection, may be referred to as an actual 'hole'.

That would be the illustrious '98. Drunks yelling at each other at 2pm on Monday afternoon, bums laying on the doorstep, pretty much business as usual at the '98. Interestingly, they have actual advertisements in newspapers, suggesting they have quiet and cheap rooms. I seriously doubt it.

Next to the '98 is Flippers. We went for a drink there and it is tiny. Rectangular and long, it has a kind of East-Coast down-and-out sea shanty theme. They don't accept anything but cash, and when we had none, they recommended we use the bank machine 'next door'...which was inside the '98. NO thanks. We left. Apparently to our loss, as they have a real 'gritty vibe'. Eh.

Moving up and onwards...Town and Mountain have a very nice martini bar that I fear will go bankrupt within the year. Nobody here is that classy. Also, the servers were wearing ridiculous fake-fur boots. She looked like a hooker wearing paws of a polar bear.sigh

They also have a bar, Lizards that nobody goes to. We went and had a great time in the summer, and I went back in the fall for a drink with a friend, where we encountered a rather too-friendly First Nations guy, who proceeded to tell us the worst moment of his life was when he buried his brother. Ugh.

Coasters is the bar everyone goes to. Classy, trashy and everyone in between. I have had good times there and bad. Very typical bar, overpriced drinks and absolutely no good looking guys. None. They are a rare species up here to begin with, and if you see one, take a picture because no-one will believe you. Woo...

There is also Earl's. Hahah.