A Free Coffee at the Cupcake Lounge

This afternoon, while downtown, I thought I would use a coupon for a free cup of coffee with the purchase of a cupcake at The Cupcake Lounge (6 Byward Market Square, Ottawa).

I walked down to the small store next to Zak's Diner but just short of Clarence Street on Byward Market Square and entered.

Inside is a small storefront with two tables in the window for consuming your favourite beverage and your cupcake of choice.  Behind the counter is where the magic happens where two employees make the cupcakes by hand and sell them there.  From their website they sell both individually to walk in customers like myself to big corporate functions and weddings.

I waited for a lady in front of me to finish ordering.  Sure there were two employees, but one was putting the finishing touches on the icing of another chocolate cupcake while the first was cashing out the customer in front.  No problem there as there was not that many customers in line.  Less than a minute and I was next.

I walked up and handed the coupon to the lady behind the counter and ordered.

The Order: 1 Chocolate Chocolate Cupcake and 1 Small Swiss Brewed Coffee.

Waited two minutes while the employee first got the coffee brewing in the espresso type machine.  She then grabbed a pair of tongs, took a cupcake from the front display, deposited into a paper bag and labelled it.

The Cupcake Lounge Cupcake bag

The coffee was brought forward from the espresso like machine and handed to me along with the cupcake.

I sipped the coffee as I made my way through the Byward Market on my way.  The Coffee  kind of plain really and nothing special.   Not sure why it was "Swiss brewed" as it tasted like any other coffee I could obtain at an independent coffee shop.  Size wise, it was the same as a Tim Hortons small.

Cupcake Lounge Small Swiss Brewed Coffee

The Chocolate Chocolate Cupcake was interesting.  After unwrapping it and taking a bite it was interesting.  Sure the icing was delicious but not as good as the one I had at the Nutty Greek Bake Shop.  The chocolate was not rich creamy tasting like I expected, but a little sugary tasting.  Interesting gourmet take on the frosting but not the best I have ever had.  The chocolate cake bottom was not any better than a home made one. In fact the chocolate bottom was a little drier and tasted like it had been in store for a little bit.

Cupcake Lounge Chocolate Chocolate Cupcake

 Overall, the Cupcake Lounge needs some assistance.  Using the word "lounge" in the name is a misnomer.  The words "Cupcake" and "Lounge" together makes me think of a dessert place with comfy chairs accompanied by delicious cupcakes with gourmet tea or coffee. Instead at the real Cupcake Lounge is a small storefront with two cafe style chaired tables in the front of the window with Cupcakes priced at $3.45 (including taxes) and mediocre coffee claimed to be "Swiss Brewed".  For probably $5.00 for the coffee and Cupcake I could easily go elsewhere.

Steak a Spot at The Keg

With a gift card obtaining a remaining balance and a beautiful wife on a fabulous Friday evening, we headed off downtown to the Byward Market to enjoy some steak at The Keg Steakhouse & Bar (75 York Street, Ottawa).

We arrived at 5 P.M. and opened the first set of double doors to enter.  The second was held open by one of the female employees with black dress and smile on her face.  She welcomed us to The Keg and we moved to the Maitre D' stand where we were welcomed again and asked to follow yet another lady in a black dress.  Upstairs to the second floor we went and were showed a table.  Hmmm....my wife, for whatever reason wished to sit in a booth further back. No problem with the lady in the little black dress, we were sat and politely handed menus.

We perused the menus and two minutes later Emily, our waitress, showed up dressed in white collared shirt, black tie and a smile on her face.

Emily inquired if we had been to The Keg before?  Apparently, Emily is not a reader of my blog because I've been to The Keg before, just  not recently.  She asked if we wanted a quick tour of the menu.  With Emily barely containing her excitement, "No" was not an option.  Thus, before I could say the "s" in "yes", Emily was on her way explaining every little detail.

After Emily was done, we placed our order:

The Order: 1 Medium Rare Top Sirloin Dinner with Caesar Salad, vegetables, sauteed mushrooms and 1 Baked potato with sour cream and bacon bits. 1 Medium Rare Teriyaki Classic Top Sirloin dinner with Wedge Salad, vegetables, sauteed mushrooms and rice.

Two minutes later, freshly baked bread and butter were there.  A little more on this later.

Five minutes later our salads were in front of us and Emily was inquiring if we would like some ground pepper on them.  She ground a little pepper onto my wife's wedge salad and disappeared.

The Caesar salad was excellent.  Not too much creamy dressing, but not skimping on it either.  The cheese bits along with the bacon bits added more flavour to present a solid Caesar salad offering.

The Wedge salad was also delicious.  My wife worked he way through the lettuce wedge and added toppings.

Fifteen minutes after ordering the main dishes arrived.

The Top Sirloin was grilled to perfection.  Nice colour on the outside yet a little pink and juicy on the inside. Bite after bite.

The baked potato came out nice looking as well split in half doused in sour cream and chives.  Under the sour cream a little melted butter.  The potato itself was not overcooked and slightly moist from the melted butter.  Mix in a little of the sour cream and you have a baked potato almost as good as what Mom would make at home.

The vegetables appear to be boiled and average.  Nothing special but nothing terrible about this either.  The sauteed mushrooms, yes, nothing special and nothing terrible either.

The Teriyaki Sirloin, also excellent.  My wife let me have a few bites to test out the difference between the regular grilled Top Sirloin and the Teriyaki Sirloin.  The only different, gratefully, is the teriyaki taste.  Same grilling perfection but just a Teriyaki rub added and allowed to infiltrate while grilling.

During our meal, both before, during and after, there was baked bread and butter.  The first loaf brought out two minutes after ordering was excellent.  The outside crust slightly crispy but the inside still slightly moist and warm like it was right out of the oven.  The second loaf, brought just before the steak dishes hit the table, a little troublesome.  The outside crust was rock hard but the inside was only satisfactory.  So the bread loafs seem a little hit and miss.

Emily cleared our plates after we were finished, disappeared and then did a sneak attack with the dessert menu.  She flies by, quietly slides the dessert menu onto the table and keeps going.  Three minutes later she returns to inquire if we would like dessert, coffee or tea.  We politely decline and ask for the bill.

Emily returns with a smile and the bill. We drop the gift card and have her deduct it from the total and pay the rest in cash.  She offers change but we decline.  Emily responds with a big thank you like she won the lottery as we leave.

An observation while leaving through the front door.  There were four ladies at the front looking to seat customers plus two additional ladies in black dresses more than willing to open the door for customers to come ago. Not sure why this is required, is it because customers will not attend if they have to open the doors themselves?

Overall, The Keg lives up to the steakhouse expectations in terms of food and quality service.  Quick seating after arriving, warm welcome and service by our waitress along with quality steaks.  Sure the prices are higher than other restaurants but with food well prepared and excellent service it is worth it.

St. Laurent the Husky at Tim Hortons

Following my not very filling meal at Burger King, I decided to walk my way across the parking lot to the Tim Hortons (1802 St. Laurent Boulevard, Ottawa).  I entered to join the line behind some workers dressed in neon orange jump suits covered in saw dust, yes, tree removal workers. Waited in line for three minutes and was served by the manager.

The Order: 1 Boston Cream donut and 1 Medium Black Coffee.

The manager quickly got the Boston Cream and two seconds later was followed by a cup of coffee.  So good so far.

I scanned the small location for a seat.  There were dishes here and there on some tables with the usual accompanying crumbs.  A little extra attention to detail on removing the dishes and cleaning the crumbs could be called upon.  But nothing overly dirty that an extra pair of hands could not resolve.

 A little further, I found a table to sit down, enjoy my snack and read the paper.

The Boston Cream Donut was the average run of the mill nothing special Tim Horton's now provides it's customers.  Nothing special.

The coffee was the usual good tasting coffee made to corporate specifications without any unusual added sweetness I've had at other locations.

So far nothing special about this Tim Hortons visit until I looked up across the aisle towards the windows.

Across the aisle was a man enjoying his lunch.  Nothing special, until you see what was sitting on the floor next to him.  An average size large husky.   I did a double take, could there be a large long haired husky inside a food establishment?  Yes, there was.  Was the gentleman needing a dog to assist him?  No, he appeared ready and able to take care of himself and the dog seem to be working as it had a regular leash on it instead of the full body training harness.

Was management of this location able to see said dog?  Obviously as there was a manager working the front counter who had served me my coffee and donut.  So why was the dog welcome to sit inside the restaurant? Does Tim Hortons allow the average person to bring a dog into their establishment that does not assist it's human in a recognized fashion?   This location, apparently so.  

Was the Husky allowed to in the restaurant as it was too cold outside?  Actually this question is a little ironic on two points.  The first: Ottawa was having a mini December heat wave as the temperature was about 5 degrees Celsius.  The Second: the dog in question was a Husky who are normally found and revel in cold climates like Alaska.  So even if it were minus five, the Husky would probably be more than happy to be outside enjoying the fresh air and a little snow.  It makes me wonder why the dog was allowed inside the Tim Hortons location.

Overall, this Tim Hortons serves average corporate quality food with nothing special.  Service is average in terms of waiting in line and up to receiving your food.  A little more attention to detail in removing the dirty dishes and wiping the tables could be undertaken.  Where this location really goes downhill is overseeing customer behavior.  Sure I could excuse the odd small dog being toted in and going unnoticed, but a large dog the size of the average Husky or Labrador Retriever is inexcusable to overlook.  In an establishment serving food, there should not be pets welcome unless they are absolutely needed for assistance.   Otherwise, they should be left outside or at home.  It is not Tim Hortons' responsibility to look after your pet, it is the customers, so leave St. Laurent the Husky and his buddies at home!

Tomfoolery at Burger King

Recently received some new coupons in the mail.  Thought I would try them out with a visit to Burger King (1804 St. Laurent Boulevard, Ottawa) for lunch today.

I arrived at noon to an interesting location to get into.  The restaurant sits on a small hill with a weird "U" shaped parking lot that is somewhat shared by a Tim Horton's location directly opposite the Canadian Science & Technology Museum. The parking lot entrance off of St. Laurent Boulevard forces you to drive first past the LaserQuest, then the Tim Horton's and finally to the parking for the Burger King.  Yes, each store seems to have it's own mini reserved parking section in a small weird looping parking lot.  It's like the three buildings could not get it together on a mutually shared parking lot with easy access in and out from St. Laurent even with the fully signalized access.

The Burger King has a small raised concrete patio that sits overlooking the parking lot.  But where is the front door?  Does it face St. Laurent Boulevard? Do you go up the concrete steps to the patio and inside?  Which is it?  The latter option.

If you can figure out how to get in through the confusing parking lot orientation and figure out the entrance, you'r in!  I arrived to a sparsely attended restaurant location which is quite surprising as I approached the counter and placed my order, according to the receipt, at three seconds before 12 noon.  This is a little surprising considering it was lunch time on a Friday in a restaurant on bustling St. Laurent Boulevard across from a major museum within one of Ottawa's largest industrial areas. Yes, it is in a prime location for Friday afternoon lunches with industrial workers, museum attendees and others right at their doorstep.  Yet there was perhaps at most ten customers at a time in this Burger King location during my meal there.

I walked up to the counter, handed over my coupon for a free upgrade to "Gratifries" when I order any combo meal that I received in the mail last week.  I was willing to try the new "Gratifries" as Burger King's regular fries quite frankly than the original cardboard fries or even their slightly newer fries they had on my previous visit at another location. I was looking forward to Burger King's version of krinkle cut fries that were crispy on the outside yet soft on the inside.  Would these fries be able to even hold a flame to my beloved and often missed Nathan's Famous crinkle cut fries found at Coney Island? I would soon find out, but back to ordering.

The Burger King employee behind the cash stared at the coupon and looked back at me and said: "We've actually changed our fries to the Gratifries so there is no need to upgrade."

So why would Burger King then send out the new coupons and include this free upgrade when, really, it is not an upgrade but an improvement of the Burger King french fry experience?  That question was not meant for the guy wearing the fast food robes behind the counter, so I didn't press the issue.

The Order: 1 Whopper Combo with Medium Gratifries and 1 Medium coke

The food was prepared and on my tray within three minutes.  Not bad for Burger King or any other fast food restaurant.  On to the condiment stand.  The bulk ketchup dispenser did the usual fast food condiment station, empty, not even a squirt into the little paper cup.  You would think with the slowness of the customers coming through the door one employee could have at least ambled over about an hour before to ensure the ketchup dispenser was sufficiently fueled for the main serving time of lunch.  But, strangely, Burger King can't do that.   I returned to the front counter and requested some "to go" ketchup packets and indicated the dispenser was empty.  No problem, the ketchup packets were placed on my tray.  But, during my meal at this location, I don't think the bulk ketchup dispenser was ever refilled even despite

Now to find a clean table....

"Clean table" being the two operative words.  I walked towards the windows overlooking the passing cars on St. Laurent Boulevard.  There is about eight tables on that end all in booth seating formation.  I passed by seven of the eight of them.  Why? The seven were either completely dirty with ketchup or other mystery stains or, at the very least, had crumbs on them.

I do realize that fast food outlets do have issues with clean tables due to customers using them then leaving trash, food remnants and whatever.  But this Burger King was an average size location with few customers working their way through.  So apparently the tables had not been cleared and wiped for some time.  But at least the eighth table was a charm and I sat down.

The Whopper was encased in a large traditional cardboard clamshell package.  Optically it looks like the marketers at Burger King are trying to make the Whopper seam large by placing it in a large cardboard clamshell package.  Opening up the cardboard package revealed the burger half wrapped in traditional fast food style burger wrap wax paper. I guess this is to protect the finely manicured fingers of Burger King's upscale clientele from the toppings oozing out or, heaven forbid, the precious little fingers from touching the hamburger bun. But I'm still wondering why they continue to screw around with the packaging.  Hasn't the Whopper been the same for over 10 years?  You would think they would have this down by now and not mess with it.

Tastewise the Whopper was like you would find at any Burger King in the past decade, perfection in temperature, composition in toppings and the patty being a decent size.

The french fries? Sure the taste was an improvement over the past Burger King rendition of fries. The fries were crinkle cut with a nice golden shade.  Inside they were softer potato as promised.  As good as Nathan's Famous Crinkle Cut fries? No, but not still pretty good.  A little ketchup and they an excellent accompaniment to the Whopper burger.  Quantity it was disappointing, the size was supposed to be "medium" but it felt like a McDonald's small.  I commented on the quantity issue of Burger King's fries in my previous post as well.  Burger King can simply not afford to skimp on the size of the fries as McDonald's is easily beating them hands down in the current burger wars and the skimpiness on the fries is merely one reason. At least Burger King is moving forward with better quality fries and, hopefully, these crinkle cut fries will last beyond a "limited time".

Overall, this Burger King location is full of tomfoolery.  The weird layout of a parking lot on the way in, the confusion of where the front door is, the useless coupon of a free upgrade in fries when the fries are now standard and much more are all issues that need addressing.  Sure the parking lot may not be the location's ability to change but surely the useless coupon for an upgrade, lack of ketchup at the dispenser and cleanliness of the tables can be remedied.  With tomfoolery like this in terms of attention to detail, it is no wonder Burger King is slowly loosing the fast food burger wars to the likes of Harvey's, McDonald's and Wendy's.

Costco's Hot Dogs & Pizza are So Cheap they Forgot a Place to Sit

Costco (1900 Cyrville Road, Ottawa) my wife and I have visited shortly after opening at 10 A.M. on Sundays.  We have toured around, checked out and then proceeded to the food court area directly after the cash registers before exiting the store.

There is a common line up queue to move through with two cash registers for customers to move up to.  This is usually quite quick process as the order takers are pretty speedy in taking your order and obtaining your cash.

We normally order two hot dogs, a fries and two soft drinks which usually rings up between six and seven dollars including tax.  Not bad for a quick lunch for a pair of adults.

The next step of obtaining your food is hit and miss.  The first time there, my wife and I easily received everything we ordered in a timely fashion.  The second time, I had to repeat to two different workers that all I needed were fries.  Seems that if, like at McDonald's, if the supply of cooked fries cannot keep up with demand and a wait ensues, things fall apart.  The order taking to fulfilling the order is lackluster as there is no computer guidance provided.  Costco order takers call out the orders and the fulfillers put together the orders and bring them forward to the awaiting customer.  If the food preparation, like the french fries, is behind and orders continue to come in, the fulfillers get confused.  If a computer order system like at McDonald's or A&W were implemented, the orders would be easier to keep track of instead of by the current haphazard method.

Once you have obtained your food the next stop is the condiment station.  Pretty well stocked area with the usual serve yourself fountain pop, napkins and straws.  The only additional items are the several hot dog toppings to choose from.  This condiment station reminds me of a slightly longer version of a hot dog stand.

The next Costco challenge comes next.  You have topped your hot dog, gathered your napkins and straws, which means it is time to manouvre your way, without spilling your pop from your overflowing tray, to find a seat.  At Costco Food Court file this under good luck!   No matter what time you are there whether it be 11 A.M. or the ever popular 12 Noon to 1 P.M. lunch our, you are pretty well out of luck.  The lack of seating even at the non busy times is appalling.  There just is not enough tables to fulfill customer demand.

We have tried a couple of times to do this shortly after 11 A.M. to find a spot.  The first time we were offered by an older married couple the opportunity to share their table of four.   The second time we were smarter.  We reviewed the seating options before ordering our food. We found two empty tables and I left my wife at one while I ordered our hot dogs, fries and soft drinks.   We ate our food in peace watching the family of four with their overstuffed shopping carts circle around the tables like vultures waiting to pounce.

A Costco Food Court Tip: Have someone find a table before you order. This will prevent you from circling the small seating area while balancing your overflowing tray looking for a table.

The food quality is pretty good for the price paid.  The hot dogs remind me of the Italian sausage style hot dogs you find at a downtown hot dog stand.  Pretty tasty along with all the toppings you could choose from.
The fries though are a little questionable.  Sure the quantity is there, but the quality needs improvement.  The main point of contention is the fries are breaded instead of fresh cut style.  The breaded quality is different than normal and may be the "Costco take" on the traditional hot dog and fries concept.  The fries though seem lower quality than what is found at a traditional food court establishment.  Perhaps a rethink of the fries is in order with an attempt to see if Nathan's style crinkle cut as an option.  Breaded just doesn't seem to work.  Otherwise the fries and accompanying ketchup quantities available are excellent.

Costco Gloucester

Overall, the Costco food court experience is pretty average greasy fast food.  The service, if everything goes right, is good.  The food quality is average with nothing special.  Seating needs to be relooked at in terms of matching space to customer demand.  This particular Costco needs more spaces for customers to sit.  There is nothing worse for a fast food place than having customers salivating over their meal with no place to sit.

VIA Rail Gift Card Hell

I've tried dutifully to book a trip to Toronto through VIA Rail. Why VIA Rail and not Porter Airlines or WestJet that would get me to Toronto from Ottawa faster for almost the same price?   Simple really, I was given a VIA Rail gift card last year that I wish to use.

It really should not take over an hour to book a trip either, especially with a VIA Rail gift card in hand. But nonetheless, it did.  How? Well lets return to the start of the story.

My wife and I logged in to our VIA Preference account that we had surprisingly accumulated points in and entered our promotional code to receive 10% on our ticket purchase. Next we visited VIA Rail's website to search through departure dates and times.  We chose a date, worked through the process of confirming our trip and got to the payment form.

At this point we were stymied, the only two options was to pay by credit card and via Interac.  Where is the spot to pay by gift card?  I looked again, nothing.

I opened a new browser window so I wouldn't lose my payment screen and have to go through the trip selection process again.  I searched the VIA Rail website for "Gift Card" and found several search results.  The first result VIA Rail was promoting the gift to business owners of travel on VIA Rail to employees or business contacts by giving a gift card.   Further down the search terms was where Gift Cards could be used.  I scrolled through that page and it was indicated Gift Cards could be only used at VIA Rail stations in person.  There was no mention of how to use the gift cards online

Really? Gift cards can be used online on a variety of websites.  Usually it is to enter the gift card number and, on the other side, scratch off a portion of the card to reveal the PIN number to use as a password.  Pretty simple really.  Too bad VIA Rail has not caught up with this concept.

No problem, I don't live too far from the Ottawa Train Station.  The only hitch, you must access the Ottawa Train station from the north side of the station.  There is no access to the south of the station either via a bridge overall or a tunnel underneath the rail tracks to the main building. Hopefully this anachronism, especially with the growth of the Trainyards Shopping Centre and the Alta Vista community to the south will be restructured with the coming OC Transpo LRT construction.  This is a little troubling as the only access really is a long walk via the recreational paths, take the OC Transpo Transitway or drive.  So I took the circuitous route on OC Transpo to get to the Ottawa Train Station.

After arriving at the train station, I waited in line at the ticket counter.  Only 1 agent was available who was already helping another customer.  Since I was the only other person in line, this wasn't too bad.  After three minutes, another agent showed up and welcomed me.

I ventured over to the counter and explained what I was trying to do.  His response, you are better to order the tickets online as they would be cheaper.  I said that is great in all but how do I use the gift card?  The online instructions had indicated the only way to use the gift card was to order train tickets at the station.  

At this point I'm shaking my head.  This optically from the customer's point of view was nothing but a cash grab by VIA Rail. Tickets online are cheaper and thus the gift of cash towards a trip is way better than a VIA Rail gift card. Why? Because the only way to use the hunk of plastic issued by VIA Rail is to purchase tickets at the railway station which cost more than via the website. But, I digress.

The agent ran through the booking on his computer and showed me the exact same trip from Ottawa to Toronto on his reservation system, including taxes, would cost $162.75.  That same trip I had pulled up online was going to cost us $148.48.  A difference of $14.27 between the two options.  So basically, for two tickets we were being charged $14.27 to use our gift card as indicated by the VIA Rail website on using the gift card.  Apparently with VIA Rail, cash is King or pay an additional fee to use a VIA Rail issued gift card.

The VIA Rail agent explained that I could use the gift card if I wished using the following method:

1. Purchase the train tickets online using a credit card.

2. Visit the train station counter with the reservation codes and the VIA Rail gift card for a refund.

I couldn't believe the agent.  I asked him to provide this method in writing.  He handed me a paper pad and I started writing it so he could sign off on it.  He stopped me after writing about three letters and gave me his business card and said have whomever is doing the transaction call him if there was an issue in refunding the gift card if I had my reservation code in hand.

I took the business card, rolled my eyes and headed home after a wasted trip. On the OC Transpo trip back home I reviewed the business card.  The agent's name and title of "IN-CHARGE" and, bolded, "CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE CORRIDOR EAST".  Interesting job title "IN-CHARGE", in charge of what? Customer Experience on the East Corridor?  Perhaps this is why I would have paid $14.27 difference between ordering online and in person with him, his expert service of typing things into his computer and getting a ticket issued. Seems he doesn't have the tools to be "IN-CHARGE" of "Customer Experience" if he is unable to waive the price difference.  His only solution was for me to contact "VIA Rail Customer Service".  Great, the typical "It's not my problem, call head office" type deal.  Perhaps in the future VIA Rail head office could empower the employee with the "IN-CHARGE" management sounding type title of Customer Experience with the ability to actually improve the Customer Experience by resolving such obvious glaring issues as the inability for a company to take payment through their own e-commerce website via a payment type that the company has so obviously approved, a gift card.

Upon arriving home my Spidey senses were tingling.  So I called VIA Rail customer service and navigated through the traditional phone hell large companies put you through in order to get to someone who may know half of what you are talking about and can read from the corporate issued script.  

I pressed "1" for "English" and then listened to at least seven different options.  I chose "5" for website help and then was put on hold for "the next available agent".  The usual apologies for the hold and implorations for the customer to stay with them to maintain priority status.  After 5 minutes on hold I was starting my usual wondering of any corporate phone hell by asking "Does VIA Rail actually give me as a customer any 'priority' on the phone?"  and saying "If VIA Rail actually cared and gave customers 'priority' they would have enough people to answer the phone.  

Marie picked up just short of the 6 minute mark.  I explained my problem to her about the gift card.  She said the exact same process as the "IN-CHARGE" agent from the Ottawa Train Station.  I asked about the price difference between ordering at the station and at home for the exact same trip using the exact same VIA Preference accounts and discount codes.  Marie put me on hold and the call dropped.

I dialed back in to the VIA Rail phone hell system again.  This time a different phone message came on before I could press "1" and then "5".  The message explained in both English and French that there was "a higher than normal call volume which may lead to extended waits." Great, their own phone system dumped me off before the message.

Funny though, this time after pressing the "5", I waited only 3 minutes for "Robert" to pick up.  I explained to Robert my trials of using the Gift Card and what I'd been told.  Robert at the beginning said that I was told wrong that I would not be able to use my Gift Card in that method.  I asked him to double check because now 2 out of 3 VIA Rail employees, including one "IN-CHARGE" had indicated I could purchase my ticket online, go to the VIA Rail station with my reservation code and refund the amount of the gift card.

 I also asked about the difference in payment.   Robert was a little evasive at this point asking when I checked the prices on the web.  Apparently, VIA Rail lets prices float like the stock market up and down depending on demand.  I know the airlines do this as well letting popular times to travel increase in price as days go by and lower demand trips go down in price in hopes of putting buts in seats.  Standard industry practice.  But I was ready for this with the response of checking the price online at 6:50 P.M., 7:30 P.M. at the Ottawa Train Station and 7:50 P.M. again online at home with the same price.  Robert's response: "That can't be right" and promised to look into it.

Before hanging up, I asked again to walk me through ordering online using a gift card.  His response was exactly the same as the Ottawa VIA Rail station "IN-CHARGE" agent and Marie at VIA Rail Customer service.  Pay for your trip online using a credit card and then come to the station to have the Gift Card amount refunded.  I asked him again by using the analogy that I would purchase my ticket now and then, the day of travel, I would arrive and receive a refund of the gift card.  Robert's response of course was I was correct.

Before hanging up, I promised Roger that if the Gift Card refund did not occur, I would be working my way up the system of VIA Rail until I received my money back from the gift card purchase. Roger said he understood and we hung up.

I'm not sure what is up at VIA Rail.  They promote the ability to purchase gift cards on their website to business owners and others.  But on the same website indicate the only way to use a gift card towards a trip on VIA Rail is to purchase tickets at a VIA Rail station.  Not only can this be inconvenient for those across the country who do not live near the ever dwindling number of VIA Rail stations to get to, but VIA Rail charges customers a higher train fare at the station than provided online.  This results in customers being charged more to dutifully attend the train station as instructed by VIA's website and use their VIA issued gift card than if they bought the same ticket online with the same amount as a cash gift.  No where on the website that I could find was the method of purchasing the ticket online and then attending the station to get the gift card refunded.  But of course that was not ludicrous enough, let's remember VIA Rail's website doesn't accept VIA Rail issued gift cards in the first place.  This lack of ability to accept gift cards online is the whole reason many a VIA Rail passenger will be put through VIA Rail Gift Card Hell to get what they have duly paid for without a VIA Rail approved at station service fee.

Harvey's Makes your Hamburger a Beautiful Bronson Thing...

On Friday, I was looking for a hamburger with fries and a drink.  Just a simple "Yahoo it is Friday!" type of lunch to celebrate the end of a work week. I found a Harvey's (564 Bronson Avenue, Ottawa) to visit and headed over.

The Harvey's parking lot is tight two row parking lot fenced in with only access off of Arlington Avenue.  Sometimes this tightness can be problematic if there are two many vehicles trying to enter or exit the lot.  Not sure which expert designed this parking lot, but it does not work on a frequent basis with two fast food restaurants (the other a Burrito Gringo) sharing the same constrained lot.  Weekday lunch times are the worst as landscape trucks with trailers attempt to navigate the narrow one entrance and exit only at the same end of the lot.

Upon entering the Harvey's, the restaurant layout appears smaller than a more traditional suburban Harvey's space, yet there is more space than the downtown Harvey's found on Elgin Street.  A happy medium of space between the two.

I worked my way through the short line up to get to the counter and place my order

The Order: 1 Original Hamburger combo (medium fries and Pepsi)

I was gradually moved down to the topping and prep area of Harvey's to be served by an older lady.  She topped my burger from the standard issue Harvey's stainless steel topped counter along with the semi circle of bowls of toppings and bottles of whatever liquid goulash they have.

After topping my burger, she grabbed my fries and drink.  Next she inquired if I would like ketchup with my fries.  An odd question considering I was having my meal at the Harvey's.   I didn't think about it and said, yes please.  A couple of ketchup packets were added to my tray and I was off to the condiment station.

"Condiment station" is really a misnomer.  Are condiments at a burger place involve vinegar, ketchup and other "nice to haves" for the average person who have individual tastes?  Thus, I would call this Harvey's station the napkin and straw station.  Apparently fast food customers now cannot be trusted with dispensing their own ketchup anymore as more restaurants are moving to handing out prerationed ketchup packets.  It is like ketchup is becoming harder and harder to find.

I sat down at a decently clean table and dug into my burger.

The burger tasted just like any other Harvey's Original burger.  Along with the usual issue of the toppings slowly oozing out the end opposite to your mouth.    Why is it, no matter what Harvey's I visit, the toppings always seem to ooze out the other end and splat on the outstreched paper wrapper?  No matter if the Harvey's is in Ottawa, Aurora, Toronto or Timbucktoo, this happens.  It must be Harvey's corporate policy to ensure this happens.

The fries were the average Harvey's fries in standard proportions.  At least Harvey's seems to be keeping the size of their fries along with their combos the same size as opposed to shrinking them.  Temperature wise the fries were nothing special, but they were not frozen cold either.

Overall, this Harvey's is a standard run of the mill place.  Nothing special in terms of service or added value.  Just average corporate approved levels of service.  If there was something they could do about the parking lot by adding another entrance/exit and perhaps loosing the wrot iron fence, this Harvey's would be "... Beautiful Thing" to get into and out of.