A&W

I’m surprised that I had a REALLY enjoyable fast food experience here at this A&W. I ordered sweet potato fries which are very well toasted/​fried. I ordered the mozza beef burger — their tender & juicy beef reminded me of Shake Shack, the lettuce layer’s fresh & crispy, the buns are brittle on the outside, soft and squeezable inside. Server is amiable, food is cooked &delivered quickly, and very clean & comfy ambience. So much better than those McDonald’s & wendy’s on Younge st. Highly recommend !!!

Cool looking décor, excellent service, very friendly server. Tastes great and there is a lot in a burger.

Food was Ofcourse as usual. A&w makes nice burgers with toasted buns which I love.
But holy smokes worst service from the worst cashier ever. Her name was Kaya. I had asked to be buzzed in for the washroom but I knew a child was in the second washroom. So she buzzed but I was trying to open the first one. Instead of kindly buzzing me in the first washroom or just taking me to wait, she screamed across the restaurant «the second washroom!!» 3 times. The people were all starting at me and the child was now scared cause his door kept clicking. She was so rude. I’ve never had such rude service in my life. No smile and she didn’t even look up at me when I had asked her if I could use the washroom while we waited for our order.
Unbelievable. Of and to top it all off, there was no toilet paper. A kinder staff named Cathy who seemed to be doing all the work and all the smiling gave me a roll.
I work in the service industry. And there is just no excuse. She was plain rude. Didn’t look at us, mumbled her words, yelled at me three times across the restaurant for the washroom and didn’t listen when the mother said oh my son is in there. I have never ever ever given such a bad rating. Hope she doesn’t treat everyone like this everyday.

Update on this one: They are too cheap to put a slice of tomato on their expensive burgers, if you want tomato it cost 50 cents extra. Why do that when you can get almost the same burger at Wendy’s across the street with tomato for less money.
And the no ice thing? I mean really…
Goodbye A&W…

Disgusting.
I bought two Mozza burgers with a coupon and bit into one hungrily. Unfortunately the beige, lukewarm patty permeated my mouth with an unpleasant, gristly taste. It went down the chute of my condo unfinished, along with its untouched twin.
I’m not sure if this is an especially bad A&W, and I don’t really care. I’ll never walk into an A&W again.

This is one of those guilty pleasure places for me. My ex gf and I went here all the time.
A&Ws seem really big here in Southern Ontario. In Los Angeles you hardly ever see them. So, they are kind of fun, curiosity to me.
Yeah, it is corporate owned fast food: you know what you are in for, bad and good. When I want gourmet, I know where to go. When I want cheap, easy and reliable, I will go to a place like this. (I have my limits though – this and Harvey’s are the only fastfood chains I eat at).
I love the frosty mug of rootbeer and free refill.
The poutine is tasty. Instant gravy but vege friendly.
The sweet potato fries are fine.
I’ve tried several of the sandwiches. Again, nothing incredibly amazing but always very tasty.
The service has always been friendly and our orders were always right.
I might not go to less location due to personal associations but I’ll go to others. Recommended in the category of fast food hamburger.

Got all the way home before I noticed they forgot my fries last night! What a burn.
Granted it was 3am on a Friday night but was still very disappointed. Staff here are generally friendly and food is well prepared for a fast food joint.
Unfortunately, coupons never include the veggie burger.
This location is now open 24hours.

$ 9 (excluding tax) for a teen burger combo that was greasy, mediocre at best. This is not gourmet, why are they charging gourmet prices? This is a worrying trend among the corporate fast food giants charging big bucks for crap food. Not sure what’s happening.

Good on a coupon, keep walking if you don’t have one. Way overpriced otherwise (example: $ 8.25 for a Teen Burger combo)
Love that you get your root beer served in a cold, frosted glass if you «dine-​in». The burger was fine for fast food, fries were also okay. Service was insanity — the place was packed to the brim and they only had one girl on cash and one guy making all the food. Got the burger and drink well before the fries. Bathrooms were disgusting and you need to get «buzzed in» to use them.

I always order the mozzarella burger combo with mayo instead of their sauce at the Yonge & Eglinton food court, which is always fresh and delicious! I went here because I had a coupon and ordered the same thing but it was a bit tasteless and disappointing. The place is a bit small, the cashiers speak rudely (could be misinterpreted because of their accents) and the only reason it’s decent is because the store is one of the newer concept A & W restaurants where they serve your fries in a cute stainless steel basket with paper to collect any oil, the tables have seasoning salt to dress up your fries and if you have your food to dine-​in, they serve your drink with a frosty glass. I wouldn’t go back to this location.

The best alternative to McD’s and even better.
VIBE
Okay…I just love that there are more A&Ws popping up including one near where I work. Yips!
I was at an event and hadn’t eaten for hours. So walking up Yonge street, this was a nice surprise! It is SO CLEAN and MODERN inside. For the busy lunch period, you can order via a self serve kiosk. Craziness.
I ATE
it’s all about the teen burger combo. Especially if you’re starving. It comes with fries and a huge draft like glass of whatever you want to drink (they usually default it to Root Beer).
I also like those chicken fingers. Mmm.
OBLIGATORY CATCHY REMARK
A good choice in the competitive fast food market. It’s not healthy. But you don’t come here for that.

I would go to A & W more if there was actually a bear to greet me.
I’ve been getting a crazy amount of A & W coupons in the mail.
I’m a sucker for fast food breakfasts (once in awhile).
This location does have those cool self-​ordering kiosks…
But I’m there, I might as well have someone take my order for me.
Saves me the trouble of having to type anything.
They have awesome, free cool coasters behind the kiosk!!!
The interior is bright and clean.
But it was super hot inside.
Way too hot.
Uncomfortable, stuffy, gross, hot.
And it might be because it’s less busy than the McDonalds, but this place had a lot more homeless people than usual.
I took my breakfast back to the office.
We always wanted to compare McDees to A&W breakfast.
The A & W breakfast sandwich comes on a sesame burger bun.
Not a fan.
I prefer McDonald’s coffee.
I prefer McDonald’s breakfast.
But if it’s non-​breakfast, I do like A&W onion rings and root beer.
2 star breakfast, 4 star other fried things = 3 star.

Cue tuba music.
You know you’ve hit rock bottom when the best you can do for late night munchies is A&W. In truth, my dining companion and I were in the mood for something trashy and quick and it was well past midnight. Yes, there are other late night eateries in Toronto but I had just the slight inkling for grease and root beer and A&W shot to the front of the pack.
Though I was looking forward to trying the self-​ordering kiosks, they were not functional that evening. Fortunately, the human behind the counter was virtually emotionless, so it was almost the same thing. Even though I ordered my meal ‘to stay’ wishful thinking on the part of the burger robot had her throw everything in a bag. I guess they wanted us to GTFO. I didn’t mind not getting a tray, but I missing out on the frosted mug bummed me out. Sad. Face.
The décor here is a notch above your typical fast food set up. Heavy steel chairs, varied seating, decorative pipe fittings all over the place, rich orange and brown walls with pastel highlights, etc. You might even call it haute fast food if there were such a thing. Except that the the food here is par — neither good nor bad. But I’ll give them points for not icing down their drinks.
Obligatory Title Pun: ROOT for the home team.
Menu Readability: The only burger worth getting is the Teen Burger. Everyone should know this.
Need to mention: Did you know that A&W Canada is completely distinct from the American A&W? And that tuba-​loving bear is a Canuck feature also.
What this place teaches me about myself: What is it about frosted glass mugs?

Service — terrible. This is supposed to be «fast food» right? We waited behind two people for a good 10 minutes just waiting to order. The staff seemed to be getting into disagreements with every customer, and having a great deal of difficulty getting the orders right. They also seemed to be getting into disagreements with each other. This was on a Sunday evening. Not a particularly high traffic time.
The food, just fine.

Good: The interior shames other fast food restaurants. Self-​ordering system. The food was good.
Bad: Self-​ordering system is extremely loud.
Ugly: Food preparation is a little slow

This location is new! It sits in an area that is heavy with late night, fast food competition, hoping people will pass up McDonalds, Pizza Pizza, etc. for A&W. Well, some friends and I did.
My one qualm: for fast food, it’s not very fast at all. They’ve got to sort this out stat.
But as far as fast food goes, this is really up there! The burgers are thicker. You get a whole ring slice of onion. The bun seems toasted. If you get it to stay you can have your root beer in a frosted mug! Who does that? Also your fries come in a reusable mini-​deep-​fryer-​looking thing. So cute and environmental!
I got a mama burger combo. The location is nice and central. This food is worth switching fast food places for.

Fantastic! Even though there are so many burger places (fast food crap) around A&W MAkes the best burgers, in my opinion… I love their root beer… BUT NO FLOATS!!! *Heart Breaks*

IT’S FINALLY OPEN!
As Mike has said before me, it took a good six months for this location to open after the 7-​eleven before it closed down. I’m guessing that the length of time it took to open this location is because it is a concept store so they’re weren’t following their tried and true platforms for opening a new restaurant.
What makes this a concept store? You’ll notice that everything except the colours are different. There’s still the old orange and brown that you come to expect, but there’s A LOT more stainless steel. Everything about this location is über modern.
The biggest thing you’re bound to notice is the large white pillar just to the right when you enter. This pillar holds two brand new self-​ordering kiosks. Tonight when I walked in there was a line 4 – 5 people deep but no one was using the kiosks. People seemed to notice them but didn’t use them, maybe because they were paying cash.
The kiosks are very easy to use. You just use the touch screen to place your order. The first screen to come up asks if you want a combo or individual items. If you choose to order a combo you pick which one you want, then can customize your burger (They charge for extra lettuce, tomato, and cheese). After that you choose your side, which shows the additional costs if you want a salad or poutine. Finally you pick your drink.
The kiosk then bumps you back to the main screen where you can continue to order more food or choose to check-​out. You can pay with Visa, Master Card, or Debit. You do the normal thing with your plastic and the kiosk spits out a receipt.
When you’ve got your receipt, you go up to the self-​order pick-​up area to grab your food. No need to stand in line.
Other differences to this restaurant are nicer furniture, a stand-​up freezer where they keep the mugs frosty, a wall with coasters on it so you can take a little souvenir with you, the burgers come in a paper sleeve not foil, and the fries come in these little stainless steel baskets.
The menu is the same as normal A&W’s (at least as far as I could tell) but the menu boards stand upright on the counter instead of being overhead.
Overall I had a great experience. The self-​order process was seamless. I had to wait a little longer than I would expect for my food but that was because I had a veggie burger in my order which always causes things to slow down. The staff were friendly and apologized for the wait.

We wandered into A&W late one night when there was little else open. While the menu and food quality is standard, the environment is not the A&W of my childhood.
Self-​serve ordering is a fantastic addition that gives you the opportunity to customize your order without the guilt of confusing and complicating the order at the counter, root beer served in ice-​cold glass mugs is perfect and the décor is a perfect combination of clean lines and current colours with vintage imagery.

it is an A&W and I realize this is not a healthy food choice but when we went in I noticed they actually have real glass A&W mugs with their logo on them in colour and that must have cost them a fortune so I felt a bit nostalgic
A&W Restaurants
496 Yonge Street
Toronto, ON M4Y 1X9
(416) 921‑7426