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.

A fun place to visit!

This is going to sound very touristy... but I really liked Skagway!

A quaint (on purpose) main street, a lovely little cemetery with freshened up tombstones that you can actually read, and really ancient ones, and a little waterfall. What more could a tourist want?

The downside of Skagway is the sheer amount of cruise ships that come in to swarm like a bunch of flies in the summer. When I was there, only one cruise ship was in, so the town was relatively deserted. That didn't stop a rude tourist from asking us why the brew-pub wasn't open. For one, we don't work there, how do we know? And two, the sign was right in front of her face, dumbass.

Great restaurants: Crab shack off Main for lunch. No frills paper-plates and interesting dining on plastic chairs but soooo delicious!

Dinner: Star Thai. Fabulous Thai food, meals run around $14-$16, 1-2$ substitution if you want noodles vs. rice in your dish. Amazing food!

You must do the $5 for 15 minutes brothel tour hosted by the Red Onion Saloon. A classic and actually a pretty interesting little setup. Bonus garter with the tour!

Also, try the Blueberry beer. Fan-fucking-tastic. Only available at the touristy pub on Main on the right side of the road.

You can avoid the tourist-Made-in-China crap, but hey, it's more fun to mock 'em! Visit the shops, but avoid the one that smells like chemicals further down Main on the left hand side. Ew...

Best of all? Skagway is only 2 hrs away from Whitehorse. Go during early Spring and rejoice!