Wendy’s

a wendy’s just like any other.
ordered the bacon [portabello] mushroom melt. has to be one of my favourite fast food burgers. i get excited everytime it is back on the menu.
cashier could’ve been a bit more professional though.

This location is the starting and end point for the Toronto Bike Network’s Saturday rides, about every second Saturday, from APR to SEP. The food is good, if you like cheeseburgers. If you want a coffee, it is usually faster to go to the Wendy’s section, rather than the Tim Hortons section. I like the ¾ lb Baconator. I’m cyclist, so I need these calories or I’ll waste away. ;-)

I like Wendys better than other fast food and I eat here between 4 and 5 times per year. I have had the same standard order for the last 5 years (across all Wendy’s in Ontario) — Junior bacon cheeseburger combo, with no cheese, mustard, ketchup, onions and bacon ONLY. I even tell it to them in the order that they have to press the buttons on the register.
This location has served me this meal 11 times since I moved to Toronto and my burger has been wrong twice. Once it had cheese, but was otherwise correct, and once they just threw a standard jr bacon cheeseburger in the bag, sick pickles and all. That’s not a *terrible* record… it’s certainly no 99.9% accurate guarantee though. I usually expect my food to be incorrect from the drive thru so I think they’re operating within the bounds of acceptable.
The good:
— I never experience a language barrier at the drive thru
— I like the screen that shows you what they’re typing in (I think our order accuracy would be less if I couldn’t see and shout corrections which I have done 4 of the 11 times)
— They have always been short and curt, which I am choosing to recognize as «efficient» or «expedient» rather than «unfriendly»
The bad:
— The drive thru here is confusing and you have to weave through the Tim Hortons drive thru traffic — in fact, I am convinced that this parking lot was designed by someone who failed urban planning, but may have excelled in abstract art or replicating cubist masterworks
— Over the 5 years I have been eating here, the portions of drink and fries have slowly declined, but the price had stayed the same at $ 4.19… last week I stopped by and the combo has been discontinued! You now have to order each item separately from the $ 1.89 menu* which brought my total to $ 6.30 — NOT WORTH IT. I haven’t really looked into it in detail but I imagine it will be cheaper for me to upgrade to a regular Wendy’s burger combo rather than order a-​la-​carte from the super saver menu (or whatever it’s called to imply that I’m frugal, not poor).
Overal, I will definitely come here again but I might have to change my order, so be prepared to wait if you’re unlucky enough to be in the car behind me while I ponder all the choices next time.
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*So… in the post-​script of this love letter to Dave Thomas… Wendy’s has improved their ingredients in the 5 years I enjoyed the $ 3.99 jr. bacon cheeseburger combo. The bacon was upgraded to an applewood smoked, thicker cut of pork and they have recently debuted «new fries» which are freshly cut (whatever that means in the context of… this…) with sea salt (did not taste the sea salt)… so I do UNDERSTAND how you cannot operate on the 8c margin of a $ 3.99 combo. But honestly, I didn’t ask you to improve your ingredients.

It’s Wendy’s, right? How can you screw it up?
Belittle and demean your employees in front of customers and mess up order after order, barely apologizing to each person as you correct it. I imagine it IS difficult working at a fast food restaurant but this is a popular location and today’s crowd was about ¹⁄₁₀^th as thick as what I imagine the average summer turnout to be. Someone needs to shape up.
I don’t want to hear a duty manager say things like «Shut up and take this customer’s order!»
Nor do I find it necessary to have three people manning one cash register to take a drink order.
The incompetence was so high that the third customer in a string of wrong orders actually said, «Y’all need to get fired or something. You’re terrible at your jobs.»
Take a cue from the Greatest Wendy’s Location Of All Time (
) and work on whizzing through long lineups of grumpy customers with a 100% success rate, K?