fast food – Michael Eats

Smash Burger from A&W

Published on May 25, 2026May 25, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 75 Resolution Drive, Brampton
Website: https://web.aw.ca/en/home

A&W is a bit late on the smash burger trend, aren’t they? About a decade ago, it seemed like every other new restaurant specialized in that particular type of burger, but the fervor has calmed down quite a bit since then.

But hey, better late than never, I guess?

Here’s how A&W describes it: “A perfectly smashed grass-fed beef patty with melted cheddar cheese, tangy pickles, sliced onions and our secret sauce, on a toasted brioche-style bun.” You can get it as a single or double patty; I went with single, and skipped the onion.

It’s a perfectly decent burger.

The whole point of this style of burger is the dark brown crust on the patty, and as you can see from this photo, they did a moderately okay job of accomplishing this.

As you’d expect from a fast food joint, the patty is quite dry and bland. The slice of cheese and generous amount of sauce (which is aggressively zesty and a bit overwhelming) mostly compensates for this, but there’s basically zero juiciness or beefy flavour here.

The cheese is cheddar rather than the more traditional American — personally, I think that’s incorrect (American has the perfect level of gooiness for this style of cheeseburger), but I guess that’s a matter of opinion.

The sweet brioche bun mostly suits the burger fairly well, though it’s too substantial and throws off the beef-to-bun ratio. Again, if we’re talking about what’s traditional, I think the soft squishiness of a potato bun would work better.

I’m sure the substantial brioche here would be a better match for the double patty option, but then you’d be faced with twice the amount of dry, tasteless beef, so… I dunno what the solution is there.

(I’d say the solution is “go somewhere better,” though I guess that would be a bit harsh. The burger is not unpleasant.)

Strawberry Salad from Wendy’s

Published on May 14, 2026May 14, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 5250 Dundas Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.wendys.com/en-ca

A few years ago, pretty much every fast food chain started serving salads in a short-lived attempt to prove to everyone that they’re not just about clogging your arteries and raising your blood pressure. But healthy eats at a fast food joint is an affront to everything that is good and pure about the world, and the salads are pretty much all gone — except at Wendy’s.

I guess people actually order the salads at Wendy’s? Because not only are they still on the menu, but they’re adding new ones, too.

Here’s how Wendy’s website describes the Strawberry Salad: “Herb-marinated, grilled 100% Canadian grilled chicken breast topped with fire-roasted corn, sharp white cheddar, roasted pecans, greenhouse-grown strawberries and lettuce all finished with a sweet onion vinaigrette. It’s the best you’ll pick all year.”

It’s fine? It’s a pretty generic salad. I didn’t dislike eating it, but the guy next to me was eating a burger and I’ll admit that I was pretty jealous.

It mostly all works pretty well — in particular, the balance between the salty cheese, the sweet strawberries and candied pecans, and the zippy dressing is fairly satisfying. I was worried that the dressing might be too oniony, but it was fine.

The biggest issue here are the chicken pieces. I was hoping they’d use freshly-cooked chicken, but instead it’s those pre-cooked chicken breast pieces that you can find in the supermarket or at Costco. They get the job done, but they have a very processed taste and texture that I’m not crazy about.

Zinger Drip Sandwich from KFC

Published on May 6, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 4559 Hurontario Street, Mississauga
Website: https://www.kfc.ca/

KFC recently came out with a “Zinger Drip” menu, which seems to have nothing to do with the Zinger Sandwich that they currently serve, aside from the presence of spiciness. But sure, I like spice — I’ll check that out.

There are three items to choose from: a sandwich, popcorn chicken, and hot wings, all coated in a spicy sauce.

I went with the sandwich: “The Zinger Drip Sandwich brings bold, saucy heat to a fan-favourite classic. Our Famous Chicken sandwich fillet fully coated in KFC’s rich Zinger Drip sauce, then layered with cheddar cheese and fresh lettuce – all served on a soft potato bun. It’s a spicy, satisfying bite from top to bottom.”

It’s tasty. The Zinger Drip sauce has a vinegary, Frank’s-esque base, but with some mild sweetness and a bit of a garlicky punch to round things out. It’s not particularly spicy, but there’s enough heat to give your mouth a tingle. It’s pretty satisfying, which is good because the chicken is absolutely drenched in the stuff.

The word “drip” in the name of this sandwich is extremely appropriate — this was one of the drippiest, messiest sandwiches I’ve eaten in quite a while. After I was done, I had to lather up my hands like a doctor preparing for surgery just to get the stickiness off them.

As for the rest of the sandwich, it’s all pretty standard KFC stuff. I will say that the cheese feels entirely superfluous — the Zinger Drip sauce is not subtle, and its flavour completely wipes out the cheese, which may as well not be there.

Choco Frosted Donut Blizzard and Cinnamon Toast Crunch Dipped Cone at Dairy Queen

Published on May 2, 2026May 17, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 5369 Dundas Street West, Etobicoke
Website: https://www.dairyqueen.com/en-ca/

Dairy Queen recently came out with a “Breakfast Collection,” which includes a Choco Frosted Donut Blizzard, a Fruity Pebbles Shake, and a Cinnamon Toast Crunch Dipped Cone.

Is a doughnut breakfast? I mean, I guess anything can be breakfast if want it to be, but if you’re regularly waking up and housing a doughnut or two, I’m not sure how many more years of eating breakfast (or just existing) you’ve got left.

But sure, for the sake of this exercise, let’s say a doughnut is breakfast, because that’s the one I tried. The Choco Frosted Donut Blizzard, as per Dairy Queen’s website: “Chocolate frosted donut pieces and DQ Signature Sprinkles are blended with our world-famous soft serve to Blizzard perfection.”

I actually liked this way more than I thought I would. I’m not sure if putting chopped up doughnuts into ice cream would even work (I feel like they’d get too hard and/or their flavour would be lost), but that’s not quite what they do here — instead, there are chewy, cookie-dough-like pieces that actually do a pretty great job of tasting doughnut-like enough that you know exactly what you’re eating.

The sprinkles don’t add much, but there are enough of those tasty doughnut bits to make this a thoroughly enjoyable Blizzard.

UPDATE: I went back and tried the Cinnamon Toast Crunch Dipped Cone (“First, we take our world-famous vanilla soft serve and dip it into a warm, rich cinnamon cereal-flavoured cone coating with crunchy cereal bits. To top it off, we add a generous dusting of sweet Cinnadust”). As usual with a dipped cone, the first bite was the best, but I enjoyed this. It has a pronounced cinnamon/sugar flavour, and does a respectable job of replicating the flavour of the classic cereal.

Spicy Avocado Bacon Chicken Sandwich from Jollibee

Published on April 27, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 800 Boyer Boulevard, Mississauga (inside Seafood City Supermarket)
Website: http://jollibeecanada.com/

I’ll give the Spicy Avocado Bacon Chicken Sandwich one thing: they’re not stingy with the avocado. Typically with a fast food sandwich featuring avocado, you need to pull out a magnifying glass to spot the stuff, but there’s actually a generous amount of it here.

As for the rest of the sandwich? Uh…

Here’s how Jollibee describes it: “Our New Spicy Avocado Bacon Chicken Sandwich starts with a crispy, juicy, hand-breaded chicken breast fillet, topped with hickory-smoked bacon, creamy Hass avocado, fresh jalapeños, crisp lettuce, and spicy sriracha mayo, served on a toasted brioche bun.”

It’s fine, mostly, but it’s a bit of a salt bomb. Between the salty chicken and the salty bacon, and with nothing sweet to balance things out, it’s a lot. The chicken was pretty dry, which somehow made the saltiness issue seem more pronounced (the fact that I had to wait 15 minutes in a mostly empty restaurant for this thing, only for it to be clearly not fresh, just added insult to injury).

The sandwich is also not particularly spicy, which is a shame. The spice level is there, but it’s quite mild.

Otherwise, it was okay. The chicken had a nice exterior crunchiness, the combo of bacon and avocado is certainly a tasty one, and the bun was nice and fresh. It’s fine, but I can’t say I’m particularly keen to run out and buy another one.

Also: the sandwich cost $13.99 before tax (!!), which might make it the most expensive fried chicken sandwich in the GTA (at least outside of restaurants with waiter service). Even local joints like PG Clucks and the Michelin-noted Chica’s Chicken are cheaper by a buck or two.