We got into the Arrivals and there’s a Spa shop on the left, and to our amazement — THEY SOLD TIM HORTONS COFFEE AND DOUGHNUTS!.. We picked ourselves up a coffee and doughnut – and for the UK – at a reasonable price – the Doughnuts were 89p each but if you bought a Large coffee, hot chocolate, laté or cappuccino – with a doughnut you could get both for £2.19! ..

Anyway — that’s my swooning over the amazing story of Tim Hortons in the UK over with . . So – Today’s article is courtesy of the Metro. On the tram heading to work – and find a great article featuring Montreal and the food aspect of the city – so Here is ‘Take a big bite out of Montreal’ By Sarah Baxter of The Metro:

Foodie Canada: Gordon Ramsay got into a bit of a stew when he opened his first Canadian venture in Quebec’s largest city. But it does just fine without him BY SARAH BAXTER

In August, Gordon Ramsay launched his first restaurant in Montreal. On opening night, the sprinklers went doolally and diners were forced to evacuate. Unfortunate? Perhaps. But I think Montreal was trying to tell him something: a watery way of delivering its own f-word.

The Quebec city doesn’t need Sweary Gordon. It has an incredible food scene already. This metropolis, floating on an island in the St Lawrence River, mixes French, north American and immigrant influences to mouthwatering effect. And there’s always another great local deli/chocolatier/charcuterie the next block up.

Clutching a C$8 (£5) travelcard, I am riding the 55 bus up Boulevard St-Laurent, the city’s north-south artery. Inauspiciously for a gastronomic quest, I begin opposite a McDonald’s. ‘There’s one by our final bus-stop too,’ grins guide Ruby Roy, who is along for the ride. ‘It’s a useful landmark but we won’t be going inside…’

Indeed not. The idea is to travel up St-Laurent, hopping off when something takes our fancy. En route we’ll pass through Chinatown, the Festivals Quarter, trendy Mile End, Plateau Mont-Royal and Little Italy. And we’ll do a lot of eating.

‘Let’s get off here,’ says Ruby a few minutes up the road. This is the Jewish Quarter, centre of the rag trade in the early 20th century. Plaques display historical detail while local kitsch-cool vintage shops sell outfits almost as old. We head to a place called Schwartz’s, its windows crammed with smoked beef brisket.

‘Schwartz’s is a Montreal institution,’ says Ruby. ‘They smoke the meat upstairs, the same way they have since 1928.’ Its leather-topped stools and cafeteria tables are rammed; a queue snakes out the door. The smell is fantastic.

Back on the bus, we pause at Avenue Rachel – down here lies Banquise, the place to try a Quebec classic: poutine. Essentially cheesy chips and gravy, it fills the culinary niche of the kebab. Helpfully, it’s open all night and gets rather popular at 3am.

Then it’s on up to Avenue Laurier, where Ruby points out Dieu du Ciel: ‘There are 390 microbreweries in Montreal; this is one of my favourites.’ It’s a bit early for a pint but we continue down the street, Ruby bombarding me with neighbourhood tips: ‘Rumi does amazing Middle Eastern food. Charcuterie Vito is the best – everyone knows Vito. And Le Croissanterie Figaro – I thought, how good can a croissant be? But hey, they’re good.’ Even the hip local shops are in on the game: cool cookware store Les Touilleurs runs gourmet food workshops in its little kitchen.

I am salivating, so Ruby leads me to Fairmont Bagel. No Montrealer would eat bagels from anywhere else. I watch as the bakers hand-roll dough rings at lightning speed; they’re dipped in honey water, baked in a wood-fired oven on long paddles then tossed into a steaming pile of bready deliciousness. It real is an Atkins nightmare.

Excruciatingly there’s not time to get to Maison Cakao – home, says Ruby, of the city’s best brownies. Instead we amble past typical Montreal houses (staircases on the outside, leafy balconies) and ride the 55 up to McDonald’s, eschew Big Macs for Jean-Talon, one of four markets set up in Montreal’s poorer neighbourhoods during the Depression. It’s more gallery than grocery, with fresh produce laid out like works of art. We try Québécois blueberries, crunch honeycrisp apples, nibble cobs from ‘Madame Corn’. There is also an area where chefs cook produce from stalls to give buyers lots of recipe ideas.

Round the edges are small shops selling everything from spuce beer to moussaka (made by local nuns). In one deli, chillers heave with cheese. I try one – Very nice, I tell Ruby. She smiles. ‘Yeah, but I prefer the cheese store at Atwater Market.’ But that’s on the other side of town, I say – you’d go 10km for a bit of cheese? ‘Of course,’ she replies, nonplussed. Only in Montréal.

> Five way to work off lunch in Montreal

• Hire a city bike: In 2011 Montreal was voted the most bike-friendly city in north America, due to its 350km of bike trails and handy city-bike scheme. There are also guided tours – try Montreal on Wheels (www.caroulemontreal.com), which runs a fine three-hour highlights ride for C$55 (£34).

• Kayak the Lachine Canal: The historic Lachine Canal flows for 14km from Montreal’s port to the Musée de Lachine, and you can navigate parts of it by kayak, pedal-boat or canoe. H2O Adventures (www.h2oadventures.ca) rents equipment between May and September.

• Yoga-stretch in Le Plateau: Combine a cycle tour with some body conditioning. Fitz & Follwell (www.fitzandfollwell.ca) runs Bike & Yoga tours, on which you pedal around the bohemian Plateau Mont-Royal neighbourhood and pause in its parks to do the Downward-Facing Dog. Three-hour trips cost C$69 (£43).

• Run up Mount Royal: The hill that gives the city its name is the place where locals go to escape the city. There are 200 hectares of green space, riddled with bike and hike trails, centred on a 234m-high ‘mountain’; however, gradients are gentle, making it ideal for a postpoutine jog.

• Ski or stomp the Laurentians: This mountain range, just over one hour by bus from Montreal, is an outdoor playground of hills, lakes and lovely villages. In summer, hike and kayak; in inter, head for Mont-Tremblant, Quebec’s top ski resort. See www.laurentians.com

My perfect Montreal day – Ruby Roy, Montreal tour guide
‘Hire a bike in Old Montreal and cycle to Atwater Market. Pick up the bread of the month at Première Moisson, plus some chevre noir (my favourite Quebec goats cheese)  at Fromagière Atwater, wild blueberries and some Asian specialities from Satay Brothers. Next, follow the bike path along the Lachine Canal, eat your picnic at Lake  St-Louis, then cycle back via the rapids. Stop at Boris Bistro for a drink – it’s my favourite terrace in Old Montreal.’

To see the article on the Metro’s website visit their article’s page here: http://www.metro.co.uk/lifestyle/travel/878520-montreal-touches-all-parts-of-the-globe-with-its-culturally-rich-cuisine

If you’re looking to travel to Montreal, Canadian Affair offer the lowest priced flights to Montreal that you will find – if you’re planning your trip, check out their website and see if you can save some money for your favourite restaurant!

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DQ has done something i didn’t think would happen – it has beaten my favourite place for a burger – Wendy’s, and nabbed the title for its self. The burgers from DQ aren’t greasy, and the vegetables on them aren’t limp neither – and they seem to find the best quantity of each condiment they put on – to avoid the burger being too mustardy or too covered in sauce you can’t appreciate the taste of anything else.

In our first visit – i gave the 1/2lb Grillburger with Cheese a try – its a bun with two 1/4lb burgers, cheese, pickles, a slice of tomato, and lettuce with mayo and the usual sauces. The 1/2lb burger — is a big eat! So get it if you’re really hungry – but if you are looking for lunch and want the same taste you can get an equally great tasting burger if you get the 1/4lb Grillburger with Cheese.
The fries are good too – they’re crispy on the outside and soft inside, cooked perfectly every time i went – and salted perfectly – that being not too much or too little. They’re best compared to Burger King fries in the UK.
Drinks wise – they have all the usual suspects – though as i almost always have iced tea with any combo (meal) i get in Canada, I didn’t catch whether they have Pepsi or Coke.. and oddly on their website it lists both.. That could mean some stock Pepsi and some stock Coke.. but I’ll have to double check next time I’m out!

If you’re looking for a taste of a DQ burger, a snack – the regular cheese burger will show you everything you need to know about how fresh the burgers are – and you get the same great tasting beef – and the meals at DQ are a reasonable price – but obviously varies depending on what you’re ordering!

DQ – ie.Dairy Queen – isn’t however primarily a burger restaurant.. As its name suggests, it specialises in Dairy. While we were in Canada – we almost managed to try every flavour milkshake they have.. and I settled on the old favourites as being my top shakes – Vanilla being my number one, then Chocolate and then Strawberry. Some people may think I’ve listed Chocolate second simply because I’m a chocolate fan – but actually, I’m not. The reason it’s above strawberry is because there’s just something about the DQ shakes that in my opinion suits chocolate just a fraction more than Strawberry – but all three are really not to be missed when you’re out! (oh, and two other flavours you may want to try are Cherry and also Raspberry)
I’m also not the only one to think DQ shakes are some of the best you can buy neither – they were recently voted on a popular restaurant review site as having the number 1 milkshake you can get!

Something else DQ are famous for though, is their ice cream. If you want to sample it – when you go in – get yourself a small strawberry sundae.. and yes it does have real pieces of strawberry in it! Remember – this is NOT the UK, a small sundae will satisfy anyone who in the UK would order large normally – though if you love your ice cream other sizes are available, and there are plenty of flavours to choose from too.

Now, for the first reason i found myself wanting DQ in the UK .. If it’s your birthday – the normal thing is to have a cake yep? What if you don’t want a cake? .. well i suppose you could have muffins? or cup cakes? .. DQ sell the most amazing ice cream cakes.. which they will customise at your request with writing drawn in chocolate or strawberry (etc.) sauce. Yes it needs to be kept in the freezer obviously – but if you get the opportunity – why not treat yourself.. pretend it’s your birthday if you need an excuse – and pick yourself up one – they’re worth every cent you pay!

So.. to sum it up DQ is my new number one eatery in Canada.. The food is fresh, not greasy and there’s a massive variety of foods to choose from (and yes, for anyone wanting healthy options – there are REALLY good salads on offer too). But even if you took the hot food away – you’re still left with an amazing ice cream and milkshake parlour – with more flavours than you’ll find in any run-of-the mill place that sells ice cream in the UK. So, if you’re heading out to Canada soon – why not pop in and try it for yourself.. and even better come back and let us know what you think!

The DQ in the photograph at the top is the DQ at Huntsville – and so as we always put a google map destination on, that’s the place im pinning today.

For more information about Dairy Queen (DQ) – their menu, restaurant locations and more – remember to check out their website: http://www.dairyqueen.com/ca-en/

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If you haven’t been to Canada yet, you’ll almost certainly walk into restaurants and find something on the menu called Poutine. Now, don’t be scared of its particularly unique name! Poutine is actually something that most people in the UK can relate to.. We have all (well.. most of us) gone to the chip shop and got either Chips with Gravy, OR Chips with Cheese .. Well .. although technically it wouldn’t be technically correct – if you had cheese and gravy on the same tray of chips, that is almost poutine! Now, i say almost because for it to be truly poutine, the cheese needs to be cheese curds, not just your normal cheese.

As you can see from the picture, poutine is definitely not the most elegant looking of foods, but lets face it, it beats the looks of mushy peas now doesn’t it! Besides, Canadians have always been known for their no-nonsence approach, and food in my opinion should always be about flavour, and not looks.

The dish originated in rural Quebec, Canada, in the late 1950s. Several Québécois communities claim to be the birthplace of poutine, including Drummondville (by Jean-Paul Roy in 1964), Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, and Victoriaville. One often-cited tale is that of Fernand Lachance, from Warwick, Quebec, which claims that poutine was invented in 1957. Lachance is said to have exclaimed ça va faire une maudite poutine (“it will make a damn mess”), hence the name. The sauce was allegedly added later, to keep the fries warm longer.

So, since in the UK fresh cheese curds are difficult to find, how do you make poutine in the UK? If you were fancying making and trying your own poutine, it’s actually not too difficult. my suggestion if curds are hard to find, use a cheese like Mozzarella (torn into small ‘curds’) or Cheshire or Lancashire cut into small cubes, then pour your sauce over them.

You can either make your own real meat gravy from your Sunday roast, or use tinned gravy granules (OXO or that nice Bovril granule mix), a touch of tomato sauce and a dash of pepper (black), or if you like a touch of oregano and garlic that is fine, depending on were you go in Quebec the poutine sauce can change.

The most important thing you should know, is the chips are supposed to be soft in the middle and crispy on the outside, and to make sure they keep their texture for as long as possible, take the chips to the table and put the gravy on immediately before eating!

So when you’re in Canada next, you’ll see it on the menus. And sometimes, someof the best places to get it are at the chip trucks you’ll see in store carparks or by the road – so why not call off and try out the genuine stuff? Comments would be welcome for places to get the best Poutine!

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In recent years, Red Lobster has received a number of awards including “#1 Best Seafood” in a 2009 Zagat Consumer Survey, “Healthiest Sit Down Chain Restaurant in America” from Men’s Health magazine’s 2010 “Eat This, Not That” guide and Restaurants & Institutions’ Consumers’ Choice in Chains award in the seafood category.Guest satisfaction scores have also climbed nearly 10 percentage points to 78% in 2009. But why?

Well, they really put a lot of effort into their food, making sure its sourced correctly, and even cooking – they use wood-fire grills which help give their seafood a unique flavour of old-style cooking.

Red Lobster was founded in 1968 by entrepreneurs Bill Darden & Charley Woodsby. Originally billed as a “Harbor for Seafood Lovers”, the original restaurant in Lakeland, Florida was followed by several others throughout the Southeast. General Mills acquired Red Lobster in 1970 as a five-unit restaurant company. The chain expanded rapidly in the 1980s.

In 1995, Red Lobster (along with Olive Garden and other sister chains) became part of Darden Restaurants, which was spun off from General Mills as an independent, publicly traded corporation. Today, there are nearly 700 Red Lobster locations throughout the United States and Canada, as well as a small number of locations in Japan!

So, if you spot one of these places why not head in and try it for yourself! — and let us know what you think of coarse!

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The unique, historical restaurant is nestled into picturesque downtown Port Perry. Locally, they are well known for their fantastic service (one of their waitresses was voted #1 around), their great patio ….. and their ghost! They offer great food, outstanding service and a cozy atmosphere on two levels inside plus outdoor patio during the warmer months. You can relax by the fireplace to dine with your special someone. Just quenching a thirst? Try one of over 15 domestic & imported beers on tap!

We arrived outside this pretty building covered with ivy and framed with trees, and it looked almost familiar, like an old british pub you’d find in a small village. Luckilly for us there was a parking space right outside the restaurant on the street, though if you cant find a space here there are spaces further along the street or round the block.

Inside, we were taken to our table and we ordered our drinks from the waitress. We were then instructed that we were free to then help ourselves to the buffet!
The building its self is actually a haunted house, so it has a very homely feel to the place, and the buffet is set up in what is a small conservatory which is off the side of the building. The food on the buffet is all kept hot using heated metal cantine-style containers and neatly set out on tables down the side of the wall.
Food available was a whole variety of fruit, sausages, bacon, italian chicken, eggs benedict and sautéd potatoes to name a few, though they also had waffles which deserve a mention!

The quality of the food was fantastic as well, and this seemed to show from how busy the restaurant became shortly after we had arrived!

Overall, this is a real hidden gem. If you’re in and around Port Perry – call in, see if you can sense anything spooky, have a drink – and how about having lunch, or taking part in the all you can eat brunches! Of coarse like all great places this is also a great place to stop by for an evening meal as well so if you visit – remember to pop back here to Canada Trip to let us know what you thought!

You can find them at:
Jester’s Court
279 Queen Street
Port Perry
L9L 1B7

or take a look at the map!

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Now although i have probably managed to capture this restaurant in one of the least desirable ways, on a dull rainy day – (for which i apologise!) These restaurants usually actually look pretty unique and stylish.
Now, remember what i said about all these restaurants generally having a unique point about them, if it isn’t the general style of their restaurants, Swiss Chalet’s unique point is their chicken. Swiss Chalet is best known for rotisserie chicken and smoked barbecue ribs, which are traditionally served with such side dishes as french fries, baked potatoes, salads, rice, and vegetables. Chicken dishes are also served with Chalet Sauce, a dipping sauce that is somewhat similar to barbecue sauce gravy.. well .. that is one interpretation of it. Their dipping sauce, something which Swiss Chalet are very proud of, is one of the strangest dipping sauces I’ve actually come across. It is fairly runny, rather than thick so it will coat anything dipped into it – lightly. I would probably describe it more of a light tomato sauce with a hint of BBQ, with possibly a cinnamon and or nutmeg twist. I think it’s for the spice’s reason that the sauce isn’t necessarily to everyone’s taste, though i like it – and that’s all that matters to me! — If you go – why not try it and let me know what you think to it!

When i went i had the chicken sandwich and soup. The menu states you can choose what chicken you can have on it, so you can choose either breast meat or brown meat. The only problem is that you will have to pay extra for the breast. I did kind of find that a little bit odd, since breasts are nice big chunky pieces easy to cut up, where as leg meat, which lets face it is where the majority of the rest of the meat on a chicken comes from – is fiddly, having to debone it first. But still i think we all know why you pay a little more for it.. because more people prefer breast meat! So hey – why not pay the extra for that extra special sandwich?
The dinner came, as a nice big sandwich, along side a nice big bowl of soup.. Now is it me or is the idea of a meal consisting of a bowl of soup – AND a chicken sandwich, the best idea for a lunch? It’s the best of both worlds, soup giving you that warming feeling, and then a chicken sandwich to finally fill you up! I don’t really understand why more places haven’t taken it up! They’d sure get my custom!

Still, for evening meals you can’t go wrong here. They have a really nice, varied menu which offers a number of things that give it simply a fresh feel to other places. It includes completely new ideas such as for starters, their Cheese Perogies: Cheese and potato filled dumplings served with Cajun sauce for dipping, or what about their Garlic Cheese Loaf, also on their starters menu: Oven-baked sundried tomato mini-baguette topped with melted Cheddar Jack cheese, diced green onion and tomato!

There’s also another little bit of intelligence gone into their menu, for example in addition to the genius that is Chicken sandwich and soup, If you can’t decide on whether you want to try their chicken, or their ribs – why not get both?! They do BBQ Ribs and Rotisserie Chicken Combos!

So, to sum it up, If you want to try somewhere different, with a fresh unique style, with plenty of choice and thought gone into its menu, as well as somewhere which serves great food and will also leave you with a unique experience – Swiss Chalet is definitely worth a visit while you’re out on your holidays!

The map below shows the actual restaurant i photographed above, though if you don’t get chance to go to a Swiss Chalet before you head to the airport going home .. and you’re flying from Toronto – there’s actually one in the airport, before you go through security – so no excuses to miss out!

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Montana’s is known for their ribs, steaks, rotisserie chicken and other lodge fare. The restaurant aims to be a family/casual concept, rather than fine dining. The theme of the restaurant is of a lodge/wilderness setting and they try to provide guests with an escape to simpler times and places. When you enter the restaurant you may be surprised to find various items mounted up on the wall and suspended from the ceiling .. one of the items being a truck!

Montana’s is somewhere we always try to go to at least once during our trips, and their menu is full of fantastic quality food at great prices. There’s one thing that we always try to have when we are out – and that’s the starter Nachos.. but don’t get it just for yourself! We made that mistake once, the first time we went out in fact.. if you do, you will get a heck of a lot of nachos, so get them to share, but with their mix of blue and normal corn chips, as well as the various toppings you can buy as extras to go on them – they’re well worth every cent. (Hint: get them topped with pieces of steak!)

Another of our favourites are their burgers.. They serve some of the ULTIMATE burgers. There’s no going home still feeling hungry with these, and with the variety of different burgers available – there’s always something you would want.. that’s if you’re not tempted away from burgers by their steaks, ribs or other dishes! Oh, and their Cedar-Roasted Salmon is fantastic too if you’re looking for a healthier option!

Let your waiter/waitress know if you have a birthday in the party as well, they have a particular routine to carry out if they do and you get a free small desert! Though the whole restaurant clapping with the staff crowning the birthday person with a large horned hat may not be to everyone’s taste!!

There are restaurants located in all Canadian provinces except for Quebec and the three territories, so if you’re in the right Provinces, keep your eyes open for them! You’re sure for a memorable evening!

For more information, as well as their menus and locations check out Montana’s Cookhouse’s website

When we’re out in Canada our usual Montana’s is in Orillia

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Now, the photo above is certainly not one of my favourite photos.. it was taken on the move so i’ll apologise for that! However, my trip to Arby’s was actually in fairly high expectation. I’d heard their roast beef in their sandwiches was so tender.. Given the recommendations i was thinking i was in for a pretty decent treat. And besides – I was in Canada, and along with the US, Spain and Australia, it’s a beef loving country – with good cause due to the quality of their beef.

We parked up outside the adjacent Tim Horton’s and went inside. Its interior was the usual comfy fast food restaurant feel, similar to most burger kings in the UK. Immediately i was a little surprised. I had kind of expected the sandwiches to have really nice thick pieces of roast beef in them, but from what i could see in the pictures was more of a very thinly sliced .. wafer thin in fact – beef on a burger bun. I quickly put that to the back of my mind though – it doesn’t matter how the meat is cut right? providing you have enough of it on the sandwich!

Well – we all know from McDonald’s in the UK that we should never trust the pictures on the menu, but i was thinking – this is Canada, half hearted doesn’t exist!
We decided to have just the Beef ‘n’ Cheddar sandwich, though not the Combo, as really we were hoping to just try their signature beef sandwich. Fries are fries ultimately in Canada, it doesn’t matter where you go – you wont be disappointed in them, and though the Curly Fries here at Arby’s are one of the things they are well known for, i would be surprised if they were any better than the particularly high standards that all Canadian fast food restaurants set across the board!

This is actually a pretty difficult review for me because as much as i want to give places the benefit of the doubt, Arby’s was truly a big disappointment.. For someone who was expecting to have thick pieces of nice roast beef on a nice big breadcake, the size of the sandwich was a little bit of a let down.. To be fair though, the bun was very good quality, nice and soft and it was onion topped so it gave it a nice complimentary flavour to the beef. As well as the bun the sandwich came with what i think was squeezy cheese, rather than real cheese – so the quality was the usual processed cheese flavour, pretty strong, but with an almost chemically side to it .. What was nice though was the tomato-y sauce that was on the sandwich, this did work really well. It was sweet and subtle – so it didnt overpower the meat or the cheese on the sandwich, which a lot of sauces tend to do.

So .. now we come to the beef. This is Arby’s signature beef, the meat which it’s business is about.. and i honestly was disappointed greatly by it.. The meat, whether it is cut from a real joint of beef, or actually taken from a reformed beef-roll which they cook on site, just simply did not taste as much as it should have.. The flavour was so subtle the cheese covered it up almost completely… The concept was also a little odd to me. This was what we’d call in the UK – Sandwich ham style beef. You know the stuff you can get in Sainsburys or Morrisons, pre-packed wafer thin sandwich beef, but it was warm, on a sandwich. The beef at Arby’s is actually just as good as the Morrisons Sandwich beef..

Still, Arby’s is not bad. I’ll stress that. You get a nice sandwich, it’s filling and you get the usual quality you’ll expect from anywhere which serves food in Canada, but for me, there’s nothing truly special, nothing that sets it high up there as somewhere you’d decide above other places to go for lunch.. Unless of coarse you wanted to try its Jacket Potatoes, wedges or loaded potato skins, or even their ham sandwiches. My problem ultimately was that i went in with expectations that were far too high.. Maybe i’ll call in again in october to try it out again!

I’d love to hear from people – to tell me what you think about Arby’s – what your favourite things are, whether you agree or disagree with what I’ve said, and I’m looking for people from Canada, the US and especially people from the UK who have tried Arbys after knowing what we can get in the UK supermarkets.

So to sum it up, Arby’s – its not my first choice for lunch, it’s a sandwich shop at heart, serving warm sandwich beef sandwiches. Why not give it a try and let me know what you think!

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The one we go to is in Lindsay, it’s a joint restaurant as interestingly this particular store has one counter, one set of tills but you can either get KFC or Taco Bell (or both if you wanted)!
One of the things i like about Taco Bell is that it has simple, cheap food which fills you up well. It’s also something that we have rarely seen, even though there has been Taco Bell stores in the UK.. they all closed down in the mid 90s.

The food items i usually get are the 2 taco combo, which you can choose from hard or soft tacos, or like we usually do – get one of both, and then upgrade it by having Supreme fries with it. Supreme fries are something that i believe is only available in canada. You get a cardboard tray with (skins-on) fries piled on it. On top of the fries you then have taco-mix mince, sour cream, onions, diced tomato and chives – i wouldn’t miss having supreme fries with my meal!

The other thing i like from here is the particularly cheap 1/2 lb burrito, that being a steak burrito. There are a number of burritos available, one being that or there is also the chicken burrito – which is spicy chicken in a sauce along with rice – these really do the job if you’re hungry and just need something to fill you for a couple of hours!

They serve Pepsi at these places, just like KFC – they also serve mountain dew (which for benefit of people in the UK is a very sweet citrus flavoured fizzy drink), iced tea, fruitopia, a lemonade and a fizzy orange.
In the restaurant in Lindsay, you are given a cup and you can help yourself to your choice of drink, and you are allowed to have refills at no added cost!

Just like all places in Canada, they have absolutely no resemblance to the UK KFC fries.. I think I’ve mentioned before – UK fries in KFCs here are soggy, usually under cooked and taste pretty awful. Not only that KFC have no idea how to use a salt shaker, so the chips are completely unseasoned. Be it for health or just being cheap, that’s how things are.. We are of coarse provided with salt sachets.. but to be honest the fries just are awful at UK KFCs… especially if you compare it to the Canadian KFCs or Taco Bells.. These fries at Taco Bell or KFC in Canada are skins on, and seasoned well. For me i think they’re actually the best fries you can get at any fast food place in Canada. Though, its a very tightly run competition!

So, if you’re hungry and you’re passing a Taco Bell, head on in and have a go at Mexican style Fast food!

Interesting Fact: If you’ve been to Canada or the US already.. or even expats from Canada or the US, then you may be interested in this news! Taco Bell opening a restaurant again in the UK at Lakeside Shopping Centre in Essexhttp://www.bighospitality.co.uk/?page=articles&ID=205024

Link to Lakeside shopping centre’s taco bell information: http://www.lakeside.uk.com/store_profile-6200.htm

For more information about what’s on the menu and their Locations in Canada – check out Taco Bell’s website: http://www.tacobell.ca/

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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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