South St. Burger — Restaurant in Kitchener

We have frequented this South Street for about 3 years now, happy with the service. Having Celiacs disease, it was amazing to have a place that was so diligent in their effort to offer gluten free alternatives. Until recently. We have had two unbelievably disrespectful run-ins with the newest manager, Iqbal. The first time, on our way, to see a movie, we decided to stop and get food before hand. We arrived there and it seemed that there was an issue with the register. We stood there for approximately 20 minutes without him so much as looking up at us, as he seemed to run through the same tapping of the machine that was bringing no results. A simple acknowledgement of the customers that were lining up would have been something. We tried to speak to him to even say we could jsut give cash and leave and all the response he could muster was "no" or some other disinterested comment. We left. After even the girls who were there insisted that it would be fine, but he seemed to not care what they said. The second time was today, when we wanted a simple salad. When we expressed that we wanted to know which salad dressing was "gluten free" the remarks we received were "I don't know", "does salad even have gluten?", "what, do you want me to Google it?" and blank stares. He should no interest in helping us with this issue. We have gotten salad and the dressing from this location before when they were served out of the fridge. There was a manager there, a lady, who was always diligent in making sure everything was gluten free. The absolute lack of customer service and disrespect from this individual is awful, after we are used to getting superb service from the workers there and the other manager. I wish I knew her name, because she was such a delight. Unfortunately, our interest in returning to this establishment...

South St. Burger A Review by Hassan Hawash

They had me at “we don’t do drive-thrus’ on the poster as you come in the entrance. From the moment I saw that sign, I was reassured that although I was having a burger, which is, of course, ever so synonymous with fast food, My 5oz angus Canadian Burger was not a made to rush burger. In fact, it was a pretty close to a made to order burger.

From what I gathered, at South St. Burger, they have enough burgers delivered from the main headquarters in the Big Smoke trucked in for a five-day period thus preserving their motto ‘never frozen’. The franchise personnel are well aware of how long the burgers can keep in the refrigerator before an expiration date sets in.

To my delight, the burger came as advertised. There was definitely a freshness to it. A good thick 5 oz. burger took the time you would expect – about ten minutes on the grill, for it to be well done. The wide assortment of toppings all looked very fresh. None of that processed cheese! The burger was kind of reminiscent of what I remember of having at home growing up when mom would make burgers from scratch. As for beverages, they had Boylan’s black cherry soda on offer as well, one of my fav’s. As far as a side dish, the onion rings had just the right amount of crispiness that I like.

As in many dine ins, free wifi is offered. They further this offer, which is becoming more and more commonplace and, of course, is a very good public relations gesture of asking for your birthday as to extend a burger offering on your...

SSB is such a difficult establishment to describe and position in the market; it kinda sits in between fast food and a proper restaurant, but I had better food in fast foods, and more affordable burgers in restaurants - this location didn't disappoint in that regard. It's an exciting menu where food sounds great on paper, but it falls flat once served, and unless you're going for some unorthodox toppings, you end up with a burger that any dad could put in front of you on any given BBQ Sunday. Waffle fries were soft, drenched in grease, and undercooked, probably because they went from a chest freezer straight into insufficiently hot oil. Add fountain drink and that's $21 plus tax. I expect more from a burger joint. The fries however were super fresh, sweet potato fries as well. Chicken patty was anemic 3oz of breast meat served on a 3.5in bun, but relatively tasty.

The service was OK, tho; everyone was patient, attentive, and they prepared food with utmost care without rush, and I appreciate that.

All in all, a mixed bag, YMMV as they say, and I would usually visit a place more than once before writing a review, but I'm afraid this was my first and last time in SSB, because if I want to spend $80 for 4 burgers I'll probably...