Wendy's — Restaurant in Toronto

Wow this place was slammin tonight! Walked in and there must've been at least 10 staff all hustling like there was a fire! They even have a side door by the counter for all the Uber Eats/Doordash/etc drivers, and they were popping orders out like nothing!

I'd also like to add how impressive it was to have an open kitchen - never seen that at a fast food restaurant, and it was cool to see all the action happening.

So now for my experience; I ordered my fav, the Baconator but noticed they had a special mushroom burger with garlic sauce and (it was funny how Vanessa, the gal who took my order, tried pronouncing it) Muenster cheese slices, so I asked her how much extra to make my Baconator like that one. She swapped out cheeses and added the garlic sauce (and added my usual lettuce and tomatoes) at no charge, and only up-charged me .70 cents for the grilled mushrooms - worth every penny btw! She repeated my custom order to the short gal making all the food at the prep station, and she acknowledged it.

In the meantime, as I was standing off to the side, I was again impressed watching all the staff hustling so fast to prep and put out all the drive-thru, delivery service and customer orders ahead of me. There was even a difficult customer behind me trying to change her order, and Vanessa handled her with class even though the customer was being a very difficult and demanding b!tch.

All of a sudden I noticed at least 10 mins have passed and some customers behind me had already grabbed their orders, and since Vanessa was running around seemingly doing 100 things at once, I looked over at the short brown gal that was given my custom order and was at the food prep station and asked her where my burger was? She replied "I'm out of the white (Muenster) cheese", and yet she never went to get some, nor did she even attempt to ask anyone, but instead just kept prepping everyone else orders that came in after me. I looked at her like wtf?!? Go get some or ask someone to get it for you, don't just leave me standing there for my order just because you ran out of cheese at your station! You have one job!!

That experience alone would've made me rate this location 1 star and even contact management/head office to complain, but coming out from the back of the restaurant, I see Vanessa hustling towards the front and at half way to the counter, she heard that girl, and even she was baffled at her co-workers response! She quickly does a 180 and runs to the back cooler and then runs back to the prep girl with a block of cheese. Vanessa saves the day - AND the one star review/complaints!

Even the manager (taller thin brown girl with a light-colored dress shirt) who was by the front the entire time seemed clueless as to what had just happened, so I got her attention (after getting Vanessa's name) and told the manager she should give Vanessa a raise. She looked at me "like whatever" and walked away. Again, wtf?!? I just praised one of your employees for picking up the slack of one of your other useless employees and that's your response?! Damn ignorant!!

I sure hope HQ reads this review and gives Vanessa a much needed raise (and make HER the manager!), and praise for every other staff that were busting their a$$es, and get rid of the lazy prep girl and fire the ignorant and arrogant manager (who btw was the ONLY slow person behind the counter, and seemed like she hated even being there!)

So again, mad props and many thanks to Vanessa for stepping up large, accepting my custom order (and even explaining it multiple times to the useless prep girl!), and providing outstanding and exceptional service so much, that my review went from 1 to 5/5 stars, and inclined me to write this long and detailed review of my experience!

Oh, and my custom Baconator... it was bomb AF!!!...

Spoiler alert: go to a Burger King. You need to buy a car to pick up the order through the Wendy’s app to pick up your order even though the Wendy’s app gave me the option to pick up my order at the location. Otherwise I have to knock the window of a driver in the drive thru, give them a fright and ask a driver to order for me like I was a beggar with no money. Apparently it’s for “safety reasons. 🤷🏻‍♀️”

I work near this location and I got coupons in the mail but sadly I don’t leave the office until 11:20 pm. One time I came by and they were helpful to accommodate. I was happy with the service. It’s not often I go to Wendy’s since the downtown locations shut down.

Fast forward to 3 weeks later, I wanted to surprise the boyfriend. Friday the 13th was a difficult and long day since it has two pays going in (a Friday and the middle of the month), so we had twice the amount of clients come into the office. After leaving work, I called ahead again and tried to order again since the coupon I had was going to expire this weekend. I asked if I could complete an order to the window since the speaker box only works with a car. Sadly I was turned down. Apparently things got “stricter” for safety measures.

They said I can ask a car driver to order for me. That’s even more unsafe but okay. Logical for them for me to hitch hike to get an order I guess. 🤷🏻‍♀️ She then said I can order through uber or skip or the Wendy’s app.

I downloaded the app to order it online so I don’t come across as a creep to a driver and ask them to order for me. I was having trouble scanning the coupon onto the app in their scan feature. I asked for help from staff, I was then told another stipulation: I need to be in a car to pick up my order.

First I was told that I can’t order at the window for safety reasons to avoid being hit by a car, I have to order it from the app. Now I need a car to pick up my order?

I guess I need to go a block north to buy a car, drive back to put my order in and be able to pick up. Maybe that’s why Wendy locations are shutting down as of late. Lack of business. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Just left the coupon and walked away. Will make a call later on to tell them that I wasted 30 minutes in the -6 degrees Celsius night downloading the app, trying to figure out how to use the scan app feature in the app to comply to not ordering at the window just to be turned down by a kid who was more focused in avoiding a business transaction.

Again, her suggestion was to ask a driver in the drive through to order for me. So basically knock on the window of a driver in the drive thru and ask them to order for me like I was a bum. 🤦🏻‍♀️ Maybe if I didn’t mention a promotional coupon I wouldn’t have been...

EDIT: I have returned here over 10 times since my initial review and they have redeemed themselves. It wasn’t a 100% win more like 85%.

I have been visiting this location for over a decade. I’ve always had amazing experiences with each visit. Perfect burgers! I mean like picture perfect!! Not sure what has changed in the last year or so. The burger patties haven’t been as fresh, the burgers get squished and flattened it seems. My last two visits were the most disappointing. With both times a (micro) manager working the drive thru window causing more chaos inside among workers than good. I order pretty much the same thing every time just in different quantities. A JBC with extra pickle, extra onion, sm fries, and sm coke no ice. No pickles or onions on my burger. The previous time I ordered 2 JBC extra pickle, and extra onion, and I got charged for a single burger and they asked for my order 3 more times at the window. Had to pull aside wait for them to correct it. They did comp me with a sm fries. Nonetheless seems that the manager should let the workers work and not jump to every station causing confusion. When asking for someone’s order, be ready to take it and punch it in and not just trying to memorize it to punch it in later.

I do hope things...