You needed to be subtler with the quips to earn hearts?
Stiff criticism
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I feel like this might have indirectly been a reply to me.
here's why
If so,
“I don’t like … tomatoes as much as most people seem to.”
means I have zero interest in a fake marinara sauce. A little tomato sauce is good on a pizza, and it’s okay with pasta (and less fatty than the cheesey/eggy/creamy sauces I prefer) but I really have no idea why people dunk so much food in tomato sauce. Cook an egg in tomato sauce? Why? Dip fried calimari and cheese sticks into tomato sauce? Why? A squirt of lemon juice can be nice, but marinara just makes so many things muddy, imho.
The major chains like McD’s, Wendy’s and Burger King all have extensive Canadian operations but many of the others mentioned in these posts don’t. From the comments I am seeing I don’t think we are missing much! In any event, A&W Canada (not connected to the US A&W) is head and shoulders above the US fast food burger chains that operate here. They are more expensive than the others as the quality of their products is better.
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That reminds me, in Australia and the UK, the sausage roll (a sausage in puff pastry) is widely available. However, in Australia it is common to drown it in tomato sauce but not in the UK. When I ask for tomato sauce/ketchup for my sausage roll in the UK, they look at me in disgust.
Yeah there are a ton of Kum & Go places here in Iowa, but their 400 locations were sold to Utah’s Maverik company. Lots of Casey’s General Store locations which have good [breakfast] pizza.
The one Canadian A&W that I’ve been to must have had an off day. My reaction was that I would have been better off finding a Mickey-D’s. 
Every chain has its weak links.
Downtown Montréal. I had been in an office very late, and I was tired and didn’t want to spend another 90 minutes finding and waiting for real food by myself. It was open, on the way to my hotel, and not terribly busy…and I should have considered the implications of that last detail.
Yup. I have a rule to never go into an unfamiliar restaurant if it is almost empty….
My dislike of crowds and asocial nature has gotten me into trouble more than once.
Of course, it has also led to some pleasant surprises.
I’m headed to Toronto in the not-too distant future, and I noticed there’s a Loblaw’s a couple of doors down from the hotel. Am I going to regret it if I try to get a premade meal or two there?
The Loblaws on the site of the old Maple Leaf Gardens (on College, east of Yonge) is a great store and is worth visiting even if you buy nothing.
Loblaws is the premier grocery chain in Canada and can usually be counted on for high quality food. But don’t blame me if you pick a weak link in the chain.
There’s probably also a Tim Horton’s nearby….
We had the opposite here until fairly recently. We were very close to the corporate HQ of McD and they operated a McD restaurant right next door to the HQ. The food there was so much better than your standard McD. But they bulldozed the restaurant when they moved the HQ.
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I forget whether I’ll pass two or three when walking between the hotel and the office.
It’s not, however, the level of insanity I saw when I was a regular visitor to an office in Boston – four Dunkin Donuts in the not-very-long walk from my preferred hotel to the office.
Anthony Bourdain also had some good suggestions on what to look for in a bad restaurant.
…actually, thank you very much for this. I just checked the map, and that is the Loblaws I was referring to.
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Good! I think we are talking about the same store but I forgot that College Street changes its name to Carlton Street after it crosses Yonge. The Loblaws store is thus actually on Carlton Street.
I lived in an apartment in a sketchy area just two blocks further east on Carlton Street when I was first married so the Leafs games were just a short walk away in those days.
“The main east-west street at College station on the TTC” is good enough for me. 
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Lol college station
Wup Wup everywhere wup
Join the core ahahaha
Speaking of two blah corporate entities merging…
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