The WORKS Craft Burgers & Beer — Restaurant in Ottawa

Ate here on 4 Feb 2013.

I've never been to The Works before and was interested to try it out. I had a Tigger’s Triumph (beef patty 'well done', spinach, sundried tomatoes, feta cheese) with sweet potato fries, and my husband had a Hamburger Mary (beef patty 'medium', mayo, egg, tomato, cheddar, bacon) with regular fries. We ordered two medium shakes to take away with us.

The burgers: Tigger's Triumph, in summary, was not very triumphant. The beef patty was surprisingly dry; I ordered it well done, and it was cooked the whole way through, but a well done patty doesn't have to be dry! It was also not a very flavourful burger. It seems almost impossible to have flavourless sundried tomato, and occasionally I would bite in and get a burst of flavour, but otherwise it was a let-down. Oh also the whole wheat bun was really drying! No wonder they give you 500mL of water! I ended up taking one whole burger bun off my burger because it was drying out my mouth like crazy. Hamburger Mary: the 'medium' patty also a bit dry (even though they cook it to 'medium' by default, so you'd think they would have perfected that). The tomato was also flavourless and watery. Husband ended up putting a fair bit of tomato sauce on his burger so he could get some moisture and flavour. Whole wheat bun also very dry on his burger.

Fries: Sweet potato fries were tasty, well cooked. Normal fries also good.

Shakes: Alright, if you guys just did shakes that'd be fine. They were definitely the best part of the evening. Chocolate choc chip: deeeeeelicous. Like someone had just softened some really tasty chocolate icecream, put some semisweet choc chips in the cup, and served it to me. Oreo: full of Oreos, well blended though so it could fit through the straw.

Price: Two people, two meals, two 500mL shakes, plus tip: $50.

Satisfaction: If I never ate another one of their burgers that would be fine by me. Their shakes, on the other hand... I'd give those...

As soon as I got in with my daughter I was immediately greeted with an energetic hostess. After being promptly seated we were given a rushed, but thorough, explanation of the menu. Drink orders were taken and delivered quickly.

My daughter asked for the ho-hum with vegetarian patty and a Caesar salad. The waitress made certain she didn't want bacon on her Caesar, which I was impressed with. I asked for the smokey mountain burger on a beef and bacon patty and some celery and cucumbers.

Our orders arrived quickly, which concerns me at a burger joint. My burger came exactly as ordered, but without fresh toppings on the side such as lettuce and tomatoes. The meat was juicy and (big surprise!) pink on the inside. Otherwise it was ok but the sauce was a little heavy. Veggies were fresh and crisp. My daughter enjoyed her burger and salad.

The atmosphere was lively but a little to dark for my taste. I could barely read the menu where I was sitting. Our waitress was a tiny bit pushy about buying their gift cards but backed off when I was obviously not interested.

Our meal came to around $40 which is overpriced for what we got. I've eaten at The Works around Ottawa a few times and this will be my last time. Most people generally expect a ground beef patty to be fully cooked (remember mad cow disease??), regardless of Ontario's food laws about the meat's internal temperature. I don't even think this was followed on my visit as my beef was a deep pink in the middle. I remember my first time at The Works many years ago and the quality has gone downhill since then.

4 stars for good hosting service 0...

UPDATE: I was asked to provide my information so someone could contact me. I believe head office sent an email telling me the manager of this location would be in touch. They have not. This speaks volumes. Answering a review and not following through does not make it better. It actually makes it worse. No need to contact me again.

Let me start by saying we have gone to Works restaurants for years. We have not been since pre-pandemic. So we were looking forward to today’s lunch. We arrived at approximately 12:45 pm the waiter came, brought us water (that tastes terrible) and took our order. We waited, and waited with no sign of our food. The waiter did tell us once it shouldn’t be much longer. By 1:30 our food had still not arrived. I asked the waiter why it’s taken over 30 min to get our food. I have never had a waiter be so rude and hostile. His exact words were “ ya no doubt, it’s lunch time. I’ve seen people wait an hour. Did you see all the people in here? It’s lunch time.” He walked away and my friend and I just looked at each other in shock. We waited about another 5-10 min and he brought out the food. He was over compensating at this point, asking if my guest wanted another beer (didn’t ask if I needed a refill of soda water). The food was ok. Fries were Luke warm. I wanted to let the manager know that his employee Riley was directly responsible for two long time customers not coming back and telling people about our experience. Also, I took pictures of inside the restaurant. There were maybe 4 tables occupied with at most 10 people total in the regular...