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Earls Kingsway 7-Course Chef’s Table Experience

Farm to Table

Disclosure: I was invited to attend a media tasting.  All opinions are my own.

Last week, myself and five other social media influencers were invited to an exclusive Chef’s Table dining experience at Earls Kingsway.  It was a fun-filled, intimate and mouthwatering evening of globally-inspired dishes paired with beer, wine and cocktails.  During the 7-course meal, we learned about Earls’ company philosophies and the stories behind their dishes from Head Chef, Connor McKernan, and Earls Kingsway Manager, Miranda Hartman.   I felt very honoured to have had the opportunity to get to know Earls better given their popularity as casual dining chain in Canada and parts of the US.

Enabling Staff to Grow

We learned more about Chef Connor throughout the evening as he explained each course to us.  His story is very inspiring, having started from the bottom as a dishwasher and working his way up to Sous Chef and Head Chef.  Similarly, Miranda worked her way up to management from her hostess position.  It is wonderful to hear that Earl’s has supported their careers within the company.

Connor

What We Tried

Our 7-course dinner included a tantalizing selection of food and beverages:

Food:

  • Dynamite Roll
  • Lettuce Wraps
  • Hunan Kung Pao with Prawns
  • Santa Fe Salad with Cajun Chicken
  • California Pizza
  • 8oz Certified Humane Beef Sirloin with Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Brussel sprouts
  • Key Lime Pie, Peanut Butter Cookie, Sticky Toffee Pudding

Beverages:

  • Bees Knees
  • Marilyn Monroe
  • Moscow Mule
  • Elderflower Craft Soda
  • Crios de Susana Balboa Malbec

Each influencer received her own sample portion so this review and the photos are not based on the full serving you would normally receive.

We started off with the cutest cocktail ever, a Bees Knees in a honeybear glass.  This citrusy drink was a mix of aviation gin, cointreau, honey, fresh lemon and angostura bitters.  I thought it was a great, summer-inspired start to the meal.

Bees Knees Earls

Next up was a selection of Asian-inspired shared plates: the Dynamite Roll and Lettuce Wraps.  I have not considered ordering Asian dishes at Earl’s so I was quite surprised as to how delicious these were.  The Dynamite Roll had prawn, mango and avocado sushi, black sesame and drizzled with sriracha mayonnaise and unagi maple.  Most notable is that the maple is sourced from a farm in Quebec.  The Dynamite Roll was wonderfully flavourful from the mayo and unagi maple.  The rice to sushi filling ratio was optimal and the prawn was nicely crunchy.

Dynamite Roll

The lettuce wrap was a light and healthy dish with soy ginger chicken, pickled vegetables, and roasted peanuts.  Served with sweet and spicy chili sauce for dipping.

Earls Lettuce Wraps

The Hunan Kung Pao with Prawns was an Asian-inspired dish with some bold flavours.  It had ginger soy sauce, wok fried vegetables and noodles, roasted peanuts and hunan peppers (which are customizable by the way).  It tasted fine though not entirely memorable.

Hunan Kung Pao with Prawns

The Santa Fe Salad with Cajun Chicken is simply ah-mazing!  It’s chock full of flavour and super hearty. The salad has Cajun grilled chicken on a crispy bed of mixed greens, tossed with house-made peanut lime dressing, complimented by black beans, corn, avocados, feta cheese, fresh dates, and corn tortillas.  Seriously, it’s a bowl full of yum.  I’ll need to have this again soon.

Sante Fe Salad

My favourite drink of the evening was the Marilyn Monroe, a delicious cocktail with Smirnoff vodka, passion fruit, vanilla and prosecco.  I absolutely loved the passion fruit in this drink.

Marilyn Monroe

I thought that the Californian pizza was good and it’s hard to go wrong with prawns, basil pesto, sundried tomatoes, white cheddar.  This was a thin-crust pizza that had the right crust-to-topping ratio.  The crust itself was nicely crispy.

California Pizza Earls Kingsway

California Pizza Earls Kingsway Burnaby

Served in a copper cup, the Moscow Mule was a snappy and refreshing cocktail made from Smirnoff vodka, ginger and fresh lime.  The story behind the Moscow Mule is fascinating which Huffington Post has covered here.  In essence, vodka was an unpopular liquor on the American cocktail scene.  With some ingenuity along with using ginger beer and copper mugs that were in abundance from not being sold, the Moscow Mule was born –  a vodka and ginger beer cocktail served in copper mugs.

earls moscow mule

I also quite enjoyed the Elderflower craft soda with just a hint of sweetness and a mild floral note.

Elderflower craft soda

In late April, Earl’s announced plans to source its beef from the U.S. because of its new humane meat policy.  This decision met with much opposition from supporters of Canadian beef (namely from Alberta).  At the Chef’s Table, I had an 8oz Certified Humane Beef Sirloin paired with a Crios de Susana Balboa Malbec.  It was wonderfully tender and pink in the middle.  The sides were garlic mashed potatoes and brussels sprouts.

Just this week, Earls reversed their decision to source from the US as they have now found suppliers in Canada that meet ethical standards to their suppliers.  While some Earls locations in Alberta will start to serve Canadian beef, supply remains an issue.  It will take time for them to find enough supply within Canada for the entire chain.

8oz Certified Humane Beef Sirloin with Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Brussel sprouts

To finish off a fantastic meal, we had a trio of desserts: Key Lime Pie, Sticky Toffee Pudding, Peanut Butter Cookie.  They Key Lime Pie was wonderfully tangy and creamy with a delicious graham cracker crust.

Key Lime Earls Kingsway

The more decadent of the trio was the Sticky Toffee pudding with chocolate and toffee sauces, vanilla bean gelato, and candy snap.

Sticky Toffee Earls Kingsway

The Peanut Butter Cookie was soft and chewy.  Along with salted caramel and vanilla bean gelato, this was an ultra comforting dessert.

Peanut Butter Earls Kingsway

Overall Impression of Earls Kingsway Chef’s Table Experience

Thanks to Chef’s Table, I gained a new found appreciation of Earls as a company that values staff and supports them in their careers.   Furthermore, it was fun to hear the stories behind Earls’ dishes and how Earls values feedback on their food from customers.  My favourites of the evening for food were the Dynamite Roll, Sante Fe Salad, and Peanut Butter Cookie.  For beverages, I loved the Marilyn Monroe and Moscow Mule.  All in all, it was a memorable, informative and delicious evening shared with food lovers in a restaurant that gained my respect and admiration.

Miranda Connor

Earls Kingsway

Earls Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

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