Har­veys on Base­line and Merivale (Ottawa)

Wel­come to my new series, the “Cana­dian List of Ten”! Ten weeks, ten posts, ten lists and one hun­dred new Cana­dian things for you, from food to lan­guage, from city to weather.

I must admit it, I’m not a fast food per­son. I can’t even remem­ber the last time I vis­ited one — I’m still too French to eat a greasy burger and fries. That said, when I first came to Canada, I did tasted most of Canadian’s fast foods and diner-style restau­rants. There were only McDon­alds’ and Quick (the French fast food) where I grew up and I was quite amazed by the num­ber of fran­chises, Cana­dian or Amer­i­can, in Canada.

But it was only a few months-long phase and I now tend to go to eth­nic restau­rants or local places. I like a burger once in a while but I’m picky: I want a nice grilled burger, with real fresh meat.

So here a list of the top Cana­dian restau­rants, fast food and cof­fee places. You must know at least a few…!

1. The Works: this restau­rant only exists in Ottawa where it has 5 loca­tions but I couldn’t resist adding it to the list. It spe­cial­izes in “gour­net burger” and has a long menu of very funny and weird com­bi­na­tion. You can have a peanut but­ter burger, some come with fried eggs, blue cheese or bananas. Each burger has a name (for exam­ple, “Don Cherry”, “Crappy Tire”, “Hold The Phone”, “Johnny Be Goat”).
2. Extreme Pita: the com­pany was founded by two Cana­dian broth­ers, in 1997, in Water­loo, Ontario. They sell a vari­ety of pita wraps with stuffed with North Amer­i­can ingre­di­ents as well as more eth­nic ones, such as hummus.
3. Joey’s Only: the largest seafood restau­rant chain in Canada started in… Alberta. The menu fea­tures a vari­ety of seafood dish.
4. La Belle Province: this is a well-known fast-food eatery in the province of Que­bec. The first loca­tion was opened in the 1970s in Mon­tréal… by a Greek immi­grant. The menu fea­tures the usu­ally greasy spoon items, some with a local twist, such as pou­tine, burg­ers, smoked meat sand­wiches and bagels.
5. Mr. Sub: this sand­wich shop orig­i­nally from Toronto is the third largest sub­ma­rine restau­rant chain in Canada. It sells sub­marines, foot­long sand­wiches stuffed with fresh ingre­di­ent and made to order.
6. A&W: the Cana­dian fast food restau­rant chain has noth­ing to do with the Amer­i­can A&W any­more. It is famous for sell­ing Root Beer, a car­bon­ated soft-drink pop­u­lar in North Amer­i­can (and yes, alco­hol free).
7. Swiss Chalet: it is a chain of Cana­dian fam­ily restau­rants orig­i­nally founded in 1954 in Toronto, Ontario. It is best known for rotis­serie chicken and smoked bar­be­cue ribs served with sides such as fries, gravy sauce, beans etc.
8. St-Hubert: this casual din­ing restau­rant fran­chise is the 16^th largest restau­rant chain oper­at­ing in Canada. Most of its loca­tions are in Québec (includ­ing a busy one at Mon­tréal air­port). It spe­cial­izes in rotis­serie chicken.
9. Harvey’s: this fast food is the second-largest Canadian-established restau­rant chain behind Tim Hor­tons, and is the fourth-largest burger chain in Canada. It serves ham­burg­ers, hot dogs, french fries, onion rings etc. Burg­ers are grilled in front of the cus­tomers, who then get to pick among 11 dif­fer­ent top­pings and condi­ments. It is also famous for its “Free Orig­i­nal Ham­burger Day” held every year: any body can come in and claim a free burger. Huge queue ahead!
10. Tim Hor­tons: the Cana­dian fast food restau­rant, known for its donuts and cof­fee, is a huge busi­ness in Canada. It has 2,939 out­lets in Canada (more than McDon­alds has!) and accounts for 22.6% of all fast food indus­try rev­enues in Canada. Yep, that much. Cana­dian are addicted to their “Tim­mies”, even though I still don’t get why. The restau­rant are are packed, not exactly nice and comfy (drive through is the way to go) and the cof­fee isn’t great. But this is Tim Horton’s, a part of Canada!

Related arti­cles:

1. Foodie Review: Dick’s Drive-in & Dairy Dip
2. Things I Love/ Hate About Cana­dian Food
3. The Land Of Plenty
4. Supper’s Ready
5. Food­ies Sunday