Earls (Crossroads)

On my first day of work, a few team members took me to Earls for a welcoming lunch. I wanted something light, so I opted for the pecan chicken spinach salad ($16.50). The ingredient list sounded very appetizing with "warm bacon, brie, dried cherries, baby spinach, julienne apples and carrots, candied pecans, maple pecan vinaigrette, and pecan and porcini mushroom crusted chicken".

Well this salad was nothing like what one would expect from the description. The bacon bits were dry, flavourless and definitely not warm. There were only a couple blotches of brie, a few dried cherries, and maybe 10 tiny apple and carrot shreds in the salad. The maple pecan vinaigrette was neither visible nor detectable in any way. The candied pecans were not really sweet and came in very scant quantities as well. However, there was a lot of baby spinach and fried chicken. The chicken meat was dry, as was the fried skin that tasted nothing like pecan or porcini mushroom. I have never been a fan of Earls, and this experience certainly didn't change that.