A&W Canada — Restaurant in Ottawa

I am not a fan of fast food burgers ... and I had an A&W burger back in 2014 after a RedBlacks football game and it was less than favorable. Fast forward to a 2017 Friday night and my adult daughter has commandeered the entire kitchen to bake cookies.

Since making dinner at home was out of the question my daughter decides to treat the family to dinner. She decides on A&W not sure why , but it was probably related to a coupon, and who am I to argue ... she is buying.

So my burger arrives and what do you know, it looks like the burgers from the commercials. This is starting off well. I take a bite ... pretty good ... another bite ... and I start to here that little bald guy in the commercials '100% beef with no hormones" ... nom nom nom ... "no steroids" ... nom nom nom ... hey who ate my burger?

Overall it was a pretty darn good fast food burger (at least for Canada). FULL DISCLOSURE: My wife and I shared a bottle of California Old Vine Zinfandel before the burgers arrived ... so you could say my burger was Zinfandelicious!

So 4 stars for the burger. The fries were cold but that probably had more to do with the -25C weather outside (and my daughter munching away on them on the way home ... admit it ... it happened).

Now this 4 stars is based on A&W compared to it's peers, which is fast food establishments. If you are a tourist from out of the country visiting Ottawa please don't make the trek out to Kanata for burgers because some bloke gave this place 4 stars ... but if you live in Kanata ... and it is a wintery Friday night and your Kitchen happens to be out of commission, you could do much worse...

The A&W on Terry Fox was dirty. There was trash all over the floors. Their seats are tiny, using the classic look from he 60s and 70s, which made them very uncomfortable. The front of the restaurant had a fun looking retro look, as they used the drive in look, but all the seating was indoors. Thee are several seats tucked away at the back, but there were condiments spilled all over the table, and lots of flies buzzing around the section. Granted, most people were still without power on the Sunday and they were likely short staffed, but if they couldn't provide a safe clean place to eat, they should never have opened. I eat A&W quite often, but I felt like I was his place was a pig sty. I was very ill about minutes afterwards, and I then spent too long in the bathroom. If they can't even keep the tables clean, they shouldn't open.

I have a completely different opinion of the A&W at Merivale and Hunt Club. The place is always clean. I wouldn't even hesitate to use the bathroom because the rest of the place is pristine. The staff are friendly there and they never mix up your order or give you mushy sweet potato fries. Plus, they offer freestyle drinks. Caffeine at lunch is fine, but I want a diet drink without caffeine at night. Well, the freestyle gives many choices, in my case, it's the minute maid lemonade light that I like when I'm looking for a non-caffeine nated drink that's sugar free. They even let you add flavours to it. Just remember there's sugar in the flavours, still less than a regular coke. My favourite is to add the cherry to the lemonade light. It's also...

I was there on August 19th, 2023 around 5.50 pm. I placed my order which was taken in such a rush that even before finishing every item, I was asked “Anything else” almost 6-7 times. I came to window and was handed over the bag of food in such a rush that the bag dropped. The staff at the time (Nikhil) was not even looking towards me while handing food. Either the place is understaffed and they are doing a lot and fast. Or staff are simply rude and don’t care. When I told him, at least look on this side while handling food, he says he handles all customer like this. So he seemed pretty confident that HE DOESN’T CARE. I did ask to see the manager and at that time he said manager is not available(probably manager is in during morning). So a suggestion to management, I know it can be a stressful environment working sometimes but a general decency and customer service can be provided. Not asking to be super friendly but while handing in the food please be careful. Had it been a cup of hot coffee, it would have been worse. I suggest training that particular employee on how to speak with customers. A note: I was given another food after the food...