VA Eats: Earls Kitchen + Bar

After a long Monday, Mirona met up with me for dinner in a new section of Tysons Corner Center.  For those of you not from the area, Tysons Corner is a pretty large mall that has been in the northern Virginia area for years.  It is home to a ton of great restaurants, and now has welcome in a few more.  So, we decided to check out Earls Kitchen & Bar.  Cute story, but it’s called ‘Earls’ without an apostrophe, because the two owners share the same name, Earl.  Funny, huh? 

In any case when we walked in the place was packed.  Surprising for a Monday night in McLean, Virginia.  While we waited for our table to be ready, we enjoyed a cocktail that literally tasted like a lemon meringue pie in a glass.  That would sound good, but this was completely frozen, and not exactly my cup of tea, but the meal more than made up for my feelings on this frozen beverage. 

Mirona ordered the Baby Back Ribs, which were falling off the bone and just melted in your mouth.  They were incredible, and I was truly surprised!  I’m  particular about my ribs, and generally only order them at southern/soul food restaurants or small hole-in-the-wall joints.  For me, I just imagine that they would have better ribs than a more “fancy” restaurant.  But, boy was I wrong.  These ribs were made by someone who definitely knows what they’re doing.  The barbeque sauce was sweet and smoky, without overpowering the natural smoky flavor of the pork ribs.  So delicious!

I ordered the Jerusalem Salad.  This arugula based salad, comes served with a preserved lemon dressing, assorted colorful tomatoes, cucumbers, Moroccan spiced chicken breast and a delicious sumac yogurt.  Oh, and the pita chips crumbled into the salad.  It was a great contrast of flavors, crunchy chips and cucumber with spicy chicken and creamy yogurt – fantastic!  I would highly recommend it!  I definitely want to check out Earls again. 

Rating:  B