Q Burger•Restaurant — Restaurant in Qualicum Beach

If anyone is looking for me, friends, police, bill collectors, my wife or the CRA I’ll make it easy for you; just keep Q Burger under surveillance and I’ll turn up really soon.

We found out about QB (if I may be so presumptuous as to use their initials) through an article in the Parksville Qualicum Beach News.

We are in a mixed marriage, I’m vegan but she’s normal and way too nice to me when it comes time to choose restaurants, as she did in this case, with vegan options.

We were able to score a nice outside table during a brief lull last Saturday although they were still crazy busy because of the article. Once we scanned the menu she chose the Wicked Sticky with fries (chicken breast with a balsamic reduction) and I picked the Quinoa Crunch which happily included all of my favourite veggies and avocado on a quinoa burger in a wrap with a side salad.

She loved her Wicked Sticky and I was blown away by the quinoa burger, in fact, I’ve already been back for another just to make sure I wasn’t dreaming (well, that’s my excuse).

The service was amazingly quick and so was the arrival of our orders, considering how busy they were with dine-in and take-outs, we were pleasantly surprised. Everything arrived hot, perfectly ‘condimented’ and in very generous proportions. I inhaled mine but she was able to bring half of the chicken home for another meal. I couldn’t bring myself to insult the chef by asking for a doggy bag so I finished it off (that’s my story). By the way, the citrus salad dressing was delicious.

Our server, Erin doubles as the owner. Be careful what you do or say, she has a wicked memory! I’d only been there once before but she remembered everything about both of our orders, I had also asked for extra dressing and onions. You can tell a lot about a business from any of a hundred indicators but among the top signs are the demonstrated commitment and involvement of managers and owners.

We live less than 15 minutes away, be warned Q Burger, you’re going to see...

We heard about the hype generated by all the awards and YouTube fuss of Q Burger and thought we'd try it out tonight. First of all, ensure you make a reservation well in advance. We tried earlier and it was full up on the Saturday we came through Qualicum. So this time we booked two weeks in advance. In the twenty minutes we were waiting for our food, they probably turned away 8 people looking for a table without a reservation. The atmosphere is quaint and cozy, full marks there. The four of us had mixed reviews on our burgers. My friend and I had the burger special, the handsome mushroom burger, a hand smashed patty with mushrooms, blue cheese and jalapeño mustard. I asked if they could do the burger medium rare, which they tried to do but it was more medium. Generally, that burger was pretty salty and lacked a lighter acidic lift. Also, it was clear the fries were perhaps cooked before and reheated. We actually had a much better fry experience the day before down the road at the Fern and Cedar. Our other two companions ordered the QBoom burger and the True Canadian Classic. Both were better than Mr Handsome. Though the three of us refused any ketchup, we asked for two cups of ketchup for the 14 year old who believes ketchup is a food group unto itself. Surprisingly we were denied that second helping until after he finished the first. The result was he left most of the fries but see our comment above). The most surprising thing was that about a minute to 6:00 (our reservation was for 5 pm and we sat down promptly at that time) we were advised that we needed to be done by 6:00 as they had another reservation. It did take 20 minutes to get our food so we felt a little rushed and unwelcome. Overall a fair experience but personally I've had better burgers and that was the general consensus of our group. Perhaps our expectations were...

Updated!! I have Celiac Disease, and I was thrown out of the restaurant for speaking to false claims and wrong information!!! Apparently, a cook for 30 years knows more than all doctors, science, and someone with the disease 🙄 I have never been more dismissed, disappointed, and offended. I was sworn at and told to never come back. To them, being sick is the only indication of bad food. Yet celiacs get intestinal damage from an autoimmune response to gluten. This can never be taken lightly and is very serious. I will be reporting them to the CFIA for poor information, claims of safety, and cross-contamination issues in the kitchen. Not acceptable!!

I am adding to their reply. It's unfortunate that they are now lying and twisting the truth. I was not angry, about what? Asking what is GF? I was not told the fryer was not dedicated. I was told it's safe because they change the oil, yet fry batter in it hence why i lost trust in what was safe. Their menu states "gluten-free," yet nothing on the menu is marked as such. Therefore, questions must be asked. I was scolded for asking to many questions and because they were busy and the mad cook came out and said he "has no time to entertain my questions and to go else where", then I was not pleased. I traveled from another city to eat there. There's was no applauding because that wouldn't make sense. I was clearly asking to many questions and trying to alter a meal that I could eat, that's the truth. Such poor service poor owners with big egos! I am the customer and this is how they tread me. This place is not Celiac Safe! I will now make a claim to the BBB for now poorly addressing this...