| Calgary mainstay needs an update
The Good Earth Cafés have played an important role in bringing healthy, simple food and good coffee to Calgarians, so it pains me to write this, but two recent visits to Good Earth locations in town have left me sorely disappointed.
Both times I stopped in, I felt that most things – the coffee, bread and soup excepted – were substandard: the food generally had no taste and was expensive, and the service was uneven, ranging from curt to efficient to slapdash to nearly asleep. I would recommend that management instill some standards before the clientele votes with its feet.
My first visit was to the Eau Claire location, and it appeared very neglected. The varnish has worn off the tabletops entirely in most cases, leaving bare wood ( I'm not sure how you can clean bare wood properly), while the bathroom was beyond description – the whole place needs to be powerwashed.
The food was what I've come to expect as Good Earth fare: the soup (small $3, large $4.50) was good, the special (small $3.75) was OK, and the salads (small $3, large $4.75) were awful. The tuna pasta salad was creamy with mayonnaise, and athough I could taste some dill, it tasted flat and old. The eggplant sesame salad had a Mediterranean theme, supplemented with chopped spinach, whole wheat penne and olives, but it was carelessly prepared – none of the ingredients were the same size, and it didn't appear to be dressed with anything whatsoever. The special, a curried fennel and potato stew with a tomato base, was nourishing, but was served with overcooked rice – given the potatoes in the stew, it would have been enough by itself.
The coconut bean soup was good, and the accompanying bread (50 cents extra) was fresh and crusty. The cappuccino ($2.75) and lattes ($3.25) were, as usual, excellent.
The rhubarb crisp ($3.50) was small, and would have been tasty had it not been freezing cold – in retrospect I should have asked the staff to heat it up.
I wouldn't usually fuss about the drinks we had at lunch, but in my view, they're too expensive for what you get. I asked if the orange juice ($2) in the cooler was "fresh-squeezed," and I was assured by the counter staff that it was. It tasted like Tropicana, and when I phoned later, the staff confirmed that it was in fact Tropicana, but that Tropicana is a "fresh-squeezed product." Hmmmm. As well, the fabulous Mexican Jugos del Valle juice is $2 per can at Good Earth, but at the coffee house in my office building, it costs $1.35.
The 11th Street and 15th Avenue location was much cleaner than Eau Claire, but while the staff in Eau Claire were helpful – if a bit carefree, given that the restaurant was in disarray – the staff at 11th Street essentially ignored us.
The special was vegetarian "black bean" chili, which used kidney beans and tasted strongly of tinned tomatoes. The salads were more of the same – if I ever have to eat another chick pea out of the can with no dressing on it, I might have to commit myself. Good Earth's famed macaroni and cheese ($5.25) was stodge. The scones ($2.50) are huge, but they’re also heavy – I have yet to finish one no matter how hungry I am.
Going to Good Earth for a bite is not a cheap undertaking – if you want to have soup and a salad and a drink, it's going to cost $8 to $10, and this is a place where they expect you to bus your own dishes. In my view, you'll find better value (and, generally, better food) elsewhere. |
