I have been impressed with A&W's reinvention of itself, and this location follows the general trend: the food is definitely better than I remember as a kid, or even from about 20 years ago. I don't know that I would rank it as my favourite fast food joint, as does a friend of mine (whose initials just happen to be A.W...), but it has definitely moved up my list of preferences.
Alas, there were a couple of downsides to our visit here. My sweetie did not like the gravy in her poutine at all. She said it tasted weird, and if there were some way to eat just the fries and the cheese without the gravy, she would have done so. (Sorry, A&W, but I think you need to take this one back into the test kitchen.)
My mistake was ordering the apple pie. Structurally, it's pretty much the same as the "pies" that many fast food joints sell (although I have always considered them more like turnovers than pies), but A&W dusts the outside with sugar and cinnamon. That does make them tastier, but for people who are trying to avoid carbs (either because they're diabetic or because they need to lose weight), the extra sugar pushes the pies from being a questionable choice to being a very poor choice. I must remember not to make that mistake again. (It did strike me as kind of an odd choice, since the "new" A&W is very much pushing things like fresh, healthy ingredients, and will let you order any burger wrapped in lettuce instead of in a bun. Some kind of less sugary dessert option would seem to be more in keeping with that general theme.)
As for Covid-19 steps, the drive-through was doing a land-office business. You could go inside to order, but the setup was a little confusing. The side door is locked, so you can't have a path in one door and out the other (as I have seen at other fast food joints). Most of the tables have been put away (not just marked off), which is actually a pretty good idea for businesses which can stash the tables somewhere. (Possibly, they stashed the extra tables in the washrooms, since those were locked off.) There were some tables left (with numbers on them, for some reason), but we weren't sure whether they'd allow us to eat inside, since ALL of the chairs were also stashed away. So we took our food outside and ate at one of the tables there. read more