Mediocre Wendy's

Today while we out and about shopping, we stopped off at Wendy's (535 Terminal Avenue, Ottawa) for lunch.

An interesting tidbit on this Wendy's location, it is not listed on the main Wendy's website despite it being a Wendy's & Tim Horton's shared restaurant space like many built in the 1990s and early 2000s that dot southern Ontario. 

We arrived shortly after 11 A.M. with a "2 Can Dine for $9.29" coupon we recently in the mail. But we almost didn't make it to Wendy's.  No the smell the juicy smell of grilled burgers and fries cooking wafted over from the nearby Five Guys Burgers & Fries. 

We soldiered on though,  arrived at Wendy's and took our spot in the short line only to find a single cashier at the Wendy's counter who was doing everything for storefront except make the burgers.  It took us a little over 5 minutes to wait in line, place our order and then have the food brought to us. 

The Order: Qty 2 1/4 pound single cheeseburger combos (1/4 pound cheeseburger, medium fries and medium coke).

We grabbed our tray made our pilgrimage like any good fast foodie to the condiment station and found our seats.  

The burgers were tasty, but not overly scrumptious. The worst part is it appears Wendy's forces customers to have a cheeseburger to enjoy the savings of a combo.  No more single burgers without cheese.  Perhaps this is so Wendy's can jack up the prices a little higher and say they added value by offering savings on cheeseburgers instead of single burgers.  

The fries were mediocre at best.  Wendy's claims they have switched to sea salt on their French Fries packaging.  Not sure what was wrong with the old recipe, the old fries were far better than these new mediocre nothing specials.   This particular restaurant serves them room temperature as well which doesn't help much. 

Overall, this Wendy's is nothing special.  As my wife put it "I would rather have McDonald's, it has more taste".  Wendy's needs to return to the way "Old Dave" did things.  Don't screw around with the fries or the burgers.  People will order cheeseburgers if they want it and why change the recipe on the fries if it works?  Wendy's has gone from a decent location to grab a fresh tasting burger and fries to a mediocre run of the mill food establishment serving burgers and fries.

A Return to the Past: Le Bac a Frites

Today for lunch I decided to turn back the block to the late 1990s and early 2000s by returning to my alma-mater, the University of Ottawa. 

During my university career I used to visit the "fry shack" located in the parking lot between New Residence and Simard Hall at 56 Universite Private (Ottawa) on frequent basis.  Back then it was owned by a Francophone couple name Gilles & Cecile.  Gilles was there year round and Cecile during the spring, summer and fall.  Both always greated customers with a friendly hello or bonjour and knew the University and surrounding area well. They took pride in their food by ensuring every last part of the meal was satisfactory to the customer.  After I left the University of Ottawa in 2002, Gilles and Cecile decided to retire and sold the business, Le Bac a Frites, to Alvarro.

I have attempted to eat lunch at Le Bac a Frites at noon for two consecutive Fridays but came up empty handed.  Why? Mainly because the line up to order was too long. But there is not much management can do except request an expansion from the University as there are 3 people working in such a small building.   To solve that problem, I visited today shortly after they opened at 11 A.M.

Today at 11:05 A.M, I visited Alvarro who greeted me with "What you would like my good man?". 

The Order: 1 Hamburger Combo (1 hamburger all dressed with medium fries and 1 can of Coke) - $8.50 including taxes.

The team went together with 1 finishing up chopping the onion and other vegetables to start working the grill for the burger and the other working the fryer for the fries.  Alvarro handed me my can of Coke and I waited politly as more customers approached the counter. 

5 minutes later, I was handed my freshly cooked meal and I was off.  Normally during the spring, summer and fall, Le Back A Frites provides metal picnic tables to sit at and enjoy your freshly cooked meal.  Today, I declined due to the light rain the Ottawa area was experiencing and headed for the main cafeteria seating area in the Jock Turcot University Centre. 

I entered the cafeteria to find it to have been renovated probably 5 times over since I was last there.  New tables and seating along with Chartwells as the new food supplier seemed to have modernized the food court counter area. 

I sat down and dug into my meal.  The Hamburger was exactly as I remembered it.  Tasty paddy with freshly prepared ingredients topped with mustard, relish and ketchup.   The only possible thing I noticed was the burger may have shrank a little bit in size.  But considering I have not eaten there in 10 years, it is hard to know for sure. 

The fries were just as I remembered them.  Hot and Solid fries  that are great doused in ketchup.

Overall, Le Bac a Frites has not changed even with the transition to new ownership.  Same friendly service is provided with the small business proprieter on the premises serving quality food.   

Terminate the McDonald's in Wal-Mart on Terminal

This week McDonald's is advertising free small coffees for all customers.  As well, the Monopoly Game is also running with free prizes being periodically won by various customers including myself. 

So I thought I would visit a McDonald's (450 Terminal Avenue, Ottawa) for some free coffee (this week's McDonald's promotion) and a free muffin (from the Monopoly Coupon I received from eating at McDonald's earlier).   I approached the counter, passing by a large grey container on a McDonald's promotional counter, to place my order with what appeared to be a McDonald's on duty manager.

The Order: 1 Small Black Coffee and 1 Blueberry Muffin

The manager rang in everything and got out my Blueberry Muffin from the on counter display case.  Normally I enjoy the Oreo Chocolate Muffin, but I didn't see any in the display case despite the case appearing almost full.  

The coffee? The manager pointed over to the promotional display and explained coffee was free for the week. I was free to help myself.  Normally to the McDonald's I have visited in the Richmond Hill and Aurora area (near Toronto) the free coffee is ordered at the counter and poured by the people behind the counter as if you were regularly ordering it. At this McDonald's, apparently the volume is so overwhelming you can pour your own. 

I attempted to grab a single small cup and ended up with three.  I had to separate the extra two cups individually before grabbing my single cup. I finally poured the coffee from the oversized bulk plastic coffee container you would find at any McDonald's special event.  I looked for a lid, nothing, so I  left figuring this location had cheaped out on the free coffee promotion.  

The coffee was the usual tasting McCafe Coffee that McDonald's has been promoting for the past couple years with the free coffee weeks.  However, this coffee was luke warm at best.  Perhaps if this McDonald's, like its Toronto area McDonald's compatriots, would serve the coffee using it's existing counter staff, the coffee would be warmer and perhaps fresher tasting. 

The blueberry muffin tasted like it had been in that display case all weekend and maybe even thensome. Usually, I find McDonald's muffins taste a little fresher than despite them being shipped in from who knows where.

This particular McDonald's, located inside the large Wal-Mart in the Ottawa Trainyards, I have been to at least three times now.  I've never been really impressed as this location seems understaffed and overwhelmed when customers visit for meals.  This leads to lengthy waits at the counter to order  and obtain food.  As well, issues with cleanliness with condiment and drink station,  tables, floors and other eating areas also result It is a good thing that Wal-Mart store itself looks after the washroom as I highly doubt this McDonald's store management could keep it up to health standards.  

Overall, this McDonald's needs help.  Serving luke warm coffee from an oversized plastic thermos during a head office promotion sanctioned coffee will probably not attract future customers to switch from your competitor Tim Hortons to McDonald's on a regular basis.  Issues with cleanliness and slow service also tend to turn off prospective customers from purchsing and existing customers from returning.  Hopefully, this McDonald's can pull it's Ronald McDonald striped socks up and improve.

Pinecresting for an Ikea Restaurant

Today we ventured over to Ikea (2685 Iris Street, Ottawa) to do some hmming and hawing over some new furniture.  We arrived at 9:30

First we discovered the new Ikea Family Card that allows for discounts on food (i.e. free coffee or tea!) and furniture.  We signed up online last night and obtained our card today in a matter of seconds at the automatic kiosk via scanning the bar code provided. 

We then mosied upstairs to the restaurant for our the breakfast offerings at the Ikea Restaurant.  We grabbed our trays and moved along the cafeteria style line for our food.

The Order: 2 Breakfast Combos (Scrambled eggs, 2 sausages and home fries), 1 Large Cinnamon Bun, 3 Pieces of Bacon, 1 Coffee and 1 Green Tea.

All of the above was only $5.08 including $0.59 tax.  This is because 30 minutes before store opening there is free coffee and tea for all customers (Note: All day Free Coffee & Tea as well for Ikea Family Card holders).  As well, the 2 breakfast combos were only $1.00 each plus tax.  Pretty good value pricing for a breakfast meal. 

After paying the cashier, we gathered our drinks from the drink station and then retraced our steps back to the cashier station to pick up our cutlery.  

The only issue with this self serve style is the confusion it creates in finding where you need to go.  When waiting in line at the cashier, there were two families of four trying to figure out where the start of the entire process was.  A little encouragement towards the start and they found their way.  Then there was trying to gather our utensils, that we missed and got to the drink station.

A simple suggestion to resolve this issue would be to number each of the spots of the restaurants.  This would resolve a lot of the confusion as customers would only have to visit #1, #2, etc. For example, picking up your tray would be "Start Here #1" and then move through the organized line to gather you food.  2 Cashier would be next, cutlery 3, drinks 4 and so on.  This would make it easier to have customers get from start to finish in a expedient way without the frustration of missing a step and having to backpedal. 

We found a clean table and dug into our meals.  The food overall was medium warm in temperature.  If this was a diner, I would have sent it back for being lackluster in temperature.  The scrambled eggs were the worst, it seemed they had been warmed an hour ago and left to cool since then.  The sausages and bacon were medium room temperature.  But for the price of the food, it was still good value. 

The coffee was decent quality but probably the warmest thing there.  Coming from a Bunn-O-Matic machine, keeping the coffee warm and great tasting was probably the simplest thing the Ikea Restaurant did. 

Overall, the Ikea Restaurant is a satisfactory only.  For the pricing available, one should not expect high quality pancakes, waffles and such topped with whipped cream and fruit.  The total aim of the Ikea Restaurant is to provide decent food with a great price before and after a shopping trip to Ikea.

Elgin Street Diner: a Diner on Elgin Street

Last night we found ourselves in Downtown Ottawa and decided to review our dining options on Elgin Street.  The Lieutenant's Pump looked quite busy.  Pancho Villa had space, but I wasn't crazy about last times food when visiting in August.  We continued down Elgin Street and stopped off at the Elgin Street Diner (374 Elgin Street, Ottawa). 

We were seated righted away by, what would turn out to be, our waiter.  The place was moderatly busy and grew busier as time went on.  However, this better known for their breakfasts which we have attended before where the restaurant was packed.

We reviewed our menus and placed our drink order (2 waters).  2 waters? Yes, bottomless fountain pop is now $2.99 at this location.  Thus, I'm reviewing my options as quite frankly I usually only drink about 2 glasses at most restaurants.  So $1.00 plus per glass now seems a little much. 

Our waiter quickly dropped off our 2 glasses of water, swung around to another table to drop off their drinks and returned to inquire if we were ready to order.  We, of course, were after reviewing the menus thoroughly for dining options.  Thoroughly?  I wanted a Club House Sandwich with fries, but the Elgin Street Diner has 8 different Club House style sandwiches to choose from.  Decisions! Decisions!

The Order: 1 Smoked Turkey Club Sandwich  (smoked turkey, black forest ham, swiss cheese, lettuce and tomato) on white with fries and a glass of water and 1 Salmon  Burger with Fries and a glass of water.

The entire order came in about 10 minutes or less to be cooked and presented to us. Impressive service so far. 

The meals were interesting.  The fries appeared to be freshly cooked with that greasy glow to them.  However, as I dug through my fries while eating them I noticed they were satisfactory warm, but not extremely hot.  Perhaps this is so the diner is "Kid Friendly" so the little ones will get fresh fries without burning their tongues. 

My Turkey Club sandwich was delious with the right amount of mayonaise.   In hindsight, the only interesting part was there was bacon instead of the black forest ham as shown on the menu.  I didn't realize it until writing this review that bacon had been subsituted.  As well, the swiss cheese was not that noticeable.  But nonetheless, the Turkey was well done and the sandwich looked and tasted appetizing. 

The Salmon Burger was also interesting.  The Elgin Street Diner served a breaded Salmon Burger which was interesting.  In hindsight, this being a Diner and not a specialized seafood restaurant, breaded should be expected as opposed to regular Salmon grilled to perfection.  Although, I suppose the Diner could have used an M&M Meatshops Salmon Fillet instead which would have make the burger appear fresher and possibly better tasting. But there was no complaints from my wife who said the Salmon Burger was "O.K."

Overall, the Elgin Street Diner is a traditional greasy spoon diner that specializes in traditional breakfasts as well as burgers, fries, sandwiches and other traditional diner fare.  The food itself is excellent (even when not made to menu specifications as noted in the minor slip up above) and the service is fast and efficient with decent pricing.

Five Guys Burger & Fries Industrialized

Today for lunch I visited Five Guys Burgers & Fries (525 Industrial Avenue, Ottawa).  This was the third visit to this location which I've had mixed results with.

The first visit, at the beginning of October, my wife and I visited this location as our first time ever to a Five Guys Burgers & Fries.

After reviewing the menu, I chose a Hamburger, Large Fries and Regular drink.  My wife chose a Little Hamburger and a drink.  This came to over $25.00!  It took a while as well for our food to be prepared as, like at T.C.'S Fish & Burgers in Aurora, the restaurant makes it to order (i.e. you order, they start preparing your meal).    Good thing my wife didn't order her own fries.  The large fries are good enough for two people.  My hamburger turned out to be a two patty burger with all the trimmings while my wife's small hamburger was a traditional single pattied burger.   Overall, I used this first time visit to refine my order for the next two attempts. 

My second attempt was lunch at high noon on cold day.  I entered the store to find a line up with the kitchen in full action.  The line moved quickly, but the food took a while to come up, but not for a lack of trying by the kitchen crew who appeared to be a well oiled machine moving food through.  I ended up hitting the road with my food as there were no tables available indoors and outdoors was too cold to sit on their patio or in the nearby well manicured grass.  So I enjoyed my fries as I headed home in order to properly enjoy my meal.

On my third attempt, today, I arrived early at 11:15 A.M. in hopes of beating the lunch time rush.  Success! There were only a handful of customers there.  I walked right up to the counter and placed my order with the cashier.


The Menu

The Order: 1 Little Hamburger, 1 Regular Fries and 1 Regular Coke.

The food took about five minutes to move from the grill, to the topping station, to the fries and to the customer.  The only delay was a small wait for fresh fries to come forward.  Of the three visits, this was the only time I've seen the fries not be ready unlike McDonald's or other fast food where it is a regular occurrence. 

I sat down and opened the nondescript brown paper lunch bag that all customers get in order to access my food.  The bag had the usual old school grease stains due to it's occupants.

The fries were all over the place in the bag.  The kitchen crew first fills the cup full of fries, loads the bag and then dumps in even more fries on top to ensure you get enough.  This obviously leads to the aforementioned grease stains on the bag.   The fries were delicious!  Freshly cut, fried and salted. The only complaint was the latter noted salt, too much in some cases. Add a little ketchup, and you are in french fry heaven.  Added value was the sign at the front of the store saying "Today's potatoes are from:" with the name of two American located farms Washington.  Quick note: Sure Five Guys Burgers & Fries is originally American, but is it not able to source some Canadian spuds perhaps from Ontario or Prince Edward Island, especially after the recent harvest?

The burger was also equally delicious.  I could taste the freshness of the in house made paddie from the first bight.  The only complaint, the entire burger was smushed.  I looked around to see if my burger was a one off.  Nope, everyone elses burger also looked like a burger well handled by a five year old.  This results in the toppings, especially the liquids, from bursting out of the burger even before the first bite. 

The decor is pretty much like the old school burger and fry locals you would find anywhere.  Bags of potatoes here, free peanuts and associated shells there.  The only real beef I have with decor is: Do you really have to show off your awesomeness at every turn via gushing media quotes, including in the washrooms? The quotes were little much. 

Overall, Five Guys Burger & Fries is a solid burger place to fulfill your burger and fries cravings.  There are a couple of issues though that they need review.    The only issue I had was the price, at $11.04 for a basic burger, fries and drink it was getting a little much. At least Hero Burger in Richmond Hill has their basic burgers, fries and drink $10.00 or less. The food and service is of excellent quality with everything prepared efficiently and quickly to ensure the customer receives their delicious food as fast as possible.

Bank on Bridgehead Coffee

Yesterday I needed to kill some time and had the munchies while being downtown.  So I ventured over to Bridgehead (109 Bank Street, Ottawa) to grab a coffee and something to fulfill my munchies while also having a review of what the people I follow on Twitter are saying.

I entered the coffee shop about 3:30 P.M. to find it full of people gabbing while others are hunched over their laptops surfing the internet.

I waited my turn for a short time in a short line to order before being greeted by the cashier who took my order.   While in line, I was looking at my options for something to nibble on.  At another Bridgehead location I noted they had a triple berry muffin amongst other choices.  Not here, only the Pumpkin Spice Muffin was available.  Only 1 muffin choice amongst the croissants and other baked goods?  Interesting. 

The Order: 1 Medium sized Medium blend coffee with 1 Pumpkin Spice Muffin.

After receiving my order, I spied 1 single table in this larger size coffee shop available and sat down.

The coffee was freshly brewed and superb.  Still better than a Tim Hortons coffee as noted previously in my review at the other location at Metcalfe & Sparks Streets.

The muffin, was a step back though.  It was a solid fall season muffin with small green coloured seeds on the top.  But the muffin itself tasted like an average pumpkin bread muffin at best.  Nothing like the Pumpkin Spice Muffin that Tim Horton's promotes during the fall season.   The Tim Horton's muffin has more pumpkin spiciness zing to it whereas Bridghead's is just plain pumkpin and lacking any zing. 

Overall, Bridgehead is a great Ottawa based coffee chain.  The coffee is better than the average brew from the big coffee chains like Tim Hortons and Starbucks.   But their baked goods so far I've found to be hit and miss.  For a young coffee chain, these are just some of things to fine tune.  Hopefully over time Bridgehead can refine their baked goods in order be banked on for good coffee and decently fresh and good tasting baked goods.