Earls Restaurant
www.earls.ca
211 Bernard Avenue
Kelowna, BC V1Y 6N2
(250) 763-2777

Earl’s on Top Patio is one of our favorite spots to eat. We love the open air, the sunshine, the view of the bay, float planes and jets. The service is good most of the time or at the very least they are quick to respond when asked.

We have been visiting since we moved almost two years ago and last year they went through a renovation that left the place looking shinny, hip and trendy.

I honestly say we have always had great food, from the Pecan Crusted Chicken Rocket Salad to the Chili Chicken to Jeera Chicken Curry to the Bacon Cheddar 1/2 Pound Burger. *can you tell these are a fav meals!*

As it is one of the few trendy affordable downtown places it can get quite busy, so you need to pick your times. If you like a more subtle and subdued dinning experience pick 11:30 for lunch or 3:00-4:00 for dinner. If you prefer more excitement choose a time during a sports game or anytime after 7:00. They do have a separate restaurant and bar area, but really it is just about how close to the drinks you want to be

If you are interested they do have a very tempting wine list and cocktail menu. I prefer the chilled slushy cocktails, but I understand they have a great selection of local wines as well.

The Summer being the best time by far, as the top floor patio is open, thus the name Earl’s on Top. Take your hat and sunglasses. They do have some shade covers and umbrellas but it is inevitable to catch a few rays, that is why you are there right!

We are definitely looking forward to the patio opening this year, maybe we will see you there?!

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Pizzaway is no exception.

I first tried Pizzaway in August/September of 2008, after receiving a flier indicating that they were open 24 hours a day, but unfortunately they were closed at the time. This should have been a warning, but unfortunately, I tried again a few hours later. Although the pizza did arrive this time, whether I was more successful or not is a matter of some debate.

I ordered a Hawaiian pizza, thinking that you really can’t go wrong with pineapple, ham and cheese. There wasn’t really anything “wrong” with the pizza, but there wasn’t anything much right with it either. It was round, which is a good start, but the pizza was bland, the ham on the pizza was rock hard, bordering on crunchy, so I guess the minimal amount was a blessing.

Lacking in meat, it compensated by being overly cheesy. Unfortunately the cheese was fairly cheap, not particularly flavourful, and just lumped in my stomach. Worse, the crust was dry and chewy and took up about an inch of the outsize of the pizza.

Combined with a bottle of warm pop, the whole experience was a bit of a disappointment for a first try at pizza in a new city.

So why am I posting about this experience a year later? Mostly because I happened to be chatting with a couple neighbours in the elevator about the volume of junk mail from a couple pizza places in particular and discovered that my experience with Pizzaway was pretty much typical, so I thought I’d help you, my fleeting internet visitor, remember what to do when you want pizza: “Everything you need to know is in the name: Pizzaway, Stay far away”

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1. Pizza 73

The pizza is at best mediocre, it’s edible, but certainly not fantastic and you can do much better for the price, although if you get lots of their cheese dip, it helps. So why is it a favourite?

One word: Wings.

I haven’t found any other pizza delivery place in Calgary that has even half way decent wings, and especially not breaded crispy wings that stay crispy by the time they show up. The hot wings are somewhere between good and great depending on the day, although nothing a bit of extra hot sauce won’t fix right up.

Best of all, online ordering at pizza73.ca.

Apparently Pizza 73 was bought out by “Pizza Pizza” in 2007. Who knew?

Related posts:

1. Pizzaway

The burgers were plain tasting and obviously low grade fatty beef, and while some may like it, I’m not a fan of gristle. For some reason it was crazy loud, the music was loud enough that you couldn’t hear the person across the table from you, but also it was hollow and echoing, so you couldn’t even enjoy the music.

The unpleasent atmosphere and medicre food combined together to result in my girlfriend and I leaving without finishing our meals.

Although I warned my parents of this first experience, my mom was still interested in trying it after my glowing reviews of the Vegas location, so my parents and I stopped in one day. After determining that the music was too loud for the cashier not be able to hear our orders without screaming, we decided it was too loud and moved on without tasting anything.

I have since re-visited the Vegas location, and although there were a pair of just-married couples who were too drunk to remember to use their inside voices and there was music playing, I still enjoyed the not-too-loud-to-hear-yourself-think atmosphere and burger was fantastic.

Based on the Calgary experience, we drove right past FatBurger in Vancouver last weekend, and I don’t intend to visit another Canadian location, although I’ll certainly drop by one in the US should I happen to be in the area.

Well he said, you pick a place and take me out for dinner. what else could I do?!?

http://www.memphisbluesbbq.com/

so I checked around with people at the office and they said that Memphis Blues was good – lots of food.

We arrived to the place being packed with a local hocket team they were watching the hocket game. The manager/owner was happy to change back to the music for us, but we came for the food, not the entertainment!

ok, ok I am getting to the food. We choose the Memphis Feast “Every meat plus all the fixins’. Perfect way to sample BBQ!!” the picture shows what you get.

The meat was definitely awesomely good! Ribs, pulled pork, alll yummy! oh the fries were to die for as well! LOTS of BBQ sauce on the side so you can decide how much you want. Baked beans were also very good.

There was cornbread that was good, but it was cold, I would have preferred it to be warm. The coldslaw was “blah” it tasted a bit salty to me, I would have liked a sweet coldslaw better.

There was TONS of food, we did take enough home to have another dinners worth the next day!

So I can’t really say oh authethic really is, but overall I did like the place. They turned on the Blues music after the other guests left that was a nice change and they have live entertainment later in the week.

Definitely will go back and I definitely want to try their picnic paks next summer, perfect to take camping for the first “setting up camp” night.

Both times we were “lucky” enough to get the same waiter.  The Customer Service was great prompt, polite, and friendly everything you want in a restaurant experience.

I personally thought the first time that “John” (name changed to protect the guilty) was great, he was funny and chatting.  Dave thought he was good, but fake.  Well ignoring that I still gave the guy a good tip.

This week when we were there John recognized us, it went down hill from there.  While the customer service was still above average.  John now thinks we are his friends…. trying and failing (badly) to remember our drink choices.  Okay now I agree with Dave he is very fake.

I guess that is what you do to stay “in the money” as a waiter. But it is a bit annoying for regulars!

All that aside the food was great!

Starting with the warm bread, hot and sassy appys and big portions.  Steaks are done to perfection – yeah exactly the way you want it!  The double stuffed potatoes or the garlic mashed yummy!

For us we have to make the decision to have appitizers or dessert, you can’t possible do both with out rolling out of the restaurant!

Related posts:

1. Pizzaway
2. Bordello’s Italian Pizzeria – The White Stuff

We headed over to Bordello’s Italian Pizzeria.  This is a quaint little place, in the upstairs of the Sturgeon Hall on Water Street.  The decor definitely made you feel like you were on a movie set of a old Italian Gangster movie.  Great pictures, nice tables and brick walls (I love the brick walls, they really add to the old world feel).

Of course Pizza and wine were the main items on the menu. There was a choice of red or white pizza’s, naturally we had to pick one of each. Obviously the white pizza that I picked was the best   Luigi – sausage, onions, cheese all very tasty.

I’ll let Dave tell you about his choice of the red pizza….

Overall the atmosphere was great, the customer service was good and the prices fit for the clientele that are looking to attract.