Canada Trip.co.uk

Well this is going to be an interestingly mixed article for the longest day of the year! But it is another foody article! One of those places i made sure i visited while out this May! The sacrifices i make for our readers!!
One of the big brands you will see while in Canada is A&W. This is a burger resteraunt but it specialises in selling its own unique brand of root beer.

That was it’s stumbling block for me.. But i promised i would go in and have a look – so i did!
When i first went in, maybe rather silly of me – i couldn’t see anywhere where it said it sold any other drinks other than root beer so i asked for just a burger rather than the combo, luckily though someone else with us had the combo and asked for a diet coke. Now I’m sorry to all those of you who love root beer.. but i really cannot stand it. For people in the UK who want to know what it is most like? Well, its most like dandelion and burdock, but it tastes completely of Germolene. . . which makes it very difficult for me to enjoy! At this point however on our trip i hadn’t tried genuine Canadian root beer, only British root beer found in a couple of supermarkets. But lets move on from my root beer dislike!

The menu does push the root beer an awful lot, all the combos are pictured on the menu with burger, fries and the trademark glass of root beer with the foam top – but worry not! A&W do sell other drinks as well as root beer, in fact they are one of the stockists of my favourite Cola – Coke. Not only do they do coke but they also do iced tea, sprite, minutemaid and a variety of Milkshakes.. oh yes and rootbeer floats too..

A&W in Canada have what they call the burger family, which for me makes me feel a little bit silly when i go up to the person serving me and ask for a Pappa Burger, but put that aside and actually look at the food and it is actually very good quality.

I had the pappa burger – which is a double patty burger with sliced onions, pickles, mustard and ketchup. This is generally the standard accompaniment which you get with your burgers, with lettuce and tomato usually being reserved for the special burgers that they do. One thing i will say – is that with the pappa burger being so filling, Grandpa must have had a big stomach, being a triple burger!

The burgers themselves i have to say were fantastic. I’d put the quality of the burgers on par with Wendy’s, not only do they have a really nice meaty texture they also are packed with flavour, and the pretty simple condiment selection really lets the burger shine through rather than it being generally softened by salad. Where the burgers differ from Wendy’s though is that they’re generally more of a ‘home style’ burger – they’re round and they are similar to how burgers turn out should you cook them at home – having a slightly ‘crispy’ texture on the outside – I actually liked it so much i was disappointed with myself that i had only had the burger and not taken the combo option.. so I’ll be going back again next visit!

One of the things i will praise A&W is something I’m sure every one of us has thought for years when we go to McDonald’s in the UK, or Burger King, you get a large drink and they fill half the cup up with ice!! A&W proudly state on their cups that they do not put ice in their drinks. They state they chill their drinks to the perfect temperature anyway, which removes the need for ice which not only reduces the amount of drink you get, it also reduces the taste. So, to all other restaurants around the world – Look at A&W and learn your lesson!!

A&W don’t just do burgers, they also do a range of “chubby chicken” which come in burger form, strips or pieces of chicken. I haven’t tried any of these yet – but if any of our readers wants to comment on exactly what this is like – please feel free to let me know and i’ll tag it into our article!

So to sum it up, A&W is actually a very good place to get yourself a burger combo lunch, don’t get worried that all you have to choose from is root beer – because you have all the choices of the majority of the burger restaurants out there. The burgers are good, the fries are good and the drinks aren’t ruined by ice – what more could you need?

Finally, i appologise again to all those who like root beer, and insist anyone who hasnt tried it yet – please try it, even with my warnings! You never know if you like something until you try it

The A&W we visited is in Orillia, opposite  the old Walmart store:

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This entry was posted on Monday, June 21st, 2010 at 9:10 am and is filed under Ontario, Places to Eat. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.