Location: 3300 Bloor Street West, Etobicoke
Website: https://web.aw.ca/en/home

I like A&W.  Generally speaking, I think they’re one of the better fast food chains.  The Steakhouse Teen Burger, on the other hand?  Uh… well, they can’t all be winners, can they?

Here’s how A&W describes it: “A perfectly seasoned grass-fed beef patty topped with sweet and smoky bacon jam, real cheddar cheese, tomato, arugula and creamy peppercorn aioli, all served on a freshly toasted sesame bun.”

It’s that bacon jam.  The ads for this thing proudly proclaim that it’s sweet and smoky; I don’t know if I noticed any smokiness, but wow, is it sweet.  It’s sweet.  I’ve had desserts that aren’t this sugary.

This might have been okay if it has been applied sparingly — a little bit goes a long way — but they had globbed an alarming amount of it onto the burger, and it was all you could taste.

Don’t ask me what the peppercorn aioli tasted like, because I have no idea — the flavour here was 100% pure bacon jam.

And hey, bacon jam can be quite tasty, but this stuff was all jam, no bacon — it had very little bacon flavour, a little bit of tanginess, and a whole lot of sweetness.

I also got unlucky and got a burger patty that had clearly been sitting out for a while, because it was honestly one of the drier hamburgers I’ve had in a long time.

I did not enjoy anything about this.  Sorry A&W; I like you, but today was not your day.