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| - Where are the toppings on my Santa Fe blackened chicken salad?
Not ok, Earl, not ok.
I ordered this because I like filling, yet carb-light meals at restaurant chains, and I'd really enjoyed this at a Calgary Earls last year (I've been to a hell of a lot of Earlses in my deeper past, but almost never in recent years). In fact, I was almost embarrassed to claim I'd eaten "salad" because of the other ingredients - avocado chunks, black beans, corn and feta. So much topping that it threatened the fine balance between greens and extras... uncommonly thrilling for a mostly straightforward, mostly suburban restaurant chain. Plus, it was Earls that first introduced California / Southwestern cuisine to Western Alberta so many decades ago, where nary an avocado had ever graced the lips and where tortilla chips were nibbled with reverence as if shards of Moses' sacred tablets. By ordering the Santa Fe chicken, I felt I was paying respect to Earls' deep past while partaking of its present.
NOT SO IN TORONTO. The chicken and lettuce were respectable, the dressing was tasty, but the TINY portion of avocado I got was not properly ripe (still on the rubbery-crunchy side) and I eventually came across only one fingernail-sized morcel of feta. Like a crazed prospector digging for nuggets, I lauded myself for upturning a pathetic bounty of about 5 black beans and 4 kernels of corn!
On the brighter side, this Earls featured the Beau's Full Time IPA which was delicious and cold in those massively heavy Earls pint glasses.
This venue is fine, good for big groups, even when it's busy, and the service was really excellent for such a gigantic place. There's a huge patio, a dining room and a massive lounge with huge high tables and big sports screens if that's your jam.
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