American Reacts to A&W | Canadian Fast Food 

What I really like about A&W is that when you buy the burger the burger looks exactly like the picture!!!

A&W here in Canada used to have drive in service (not drive thru). You'd park in your car and a server would come out, take your order, bring it out and hook the tray on your window

I'm a 74 y.o. Canadian who was a teenager back in the 60's. When the first/oldest person of my group of friends got a car (a 1954 Chev), we all piled in, gave Eddy some change for gas, and of course headed to A&W Root Beer. We parked in the A&W parking lot which was two long rows of cars facing each other with a walkway down the middle of the cars where the carhops (made up, almost exclusively, of teen-age gals working hard at their first jobs) walked down to take our order and then later brought us our food and, of course, our giant mugs of root beer. The food and root beer were brought on a tray which attached to the driver's side rolled-down window. A typical A&W order included Papa Burgers, Mama Burgers, Chips, Onion Rings, and a round of Grampa sized mugs of Root Beer-it still amazes me, to this day, how those young gals managed to carry those huge, heavy trays of hamburgers and giant glass mugs of ice cold root beer. As young guys, yeah, we were there for the food, but we were definitely also there to check-out the girls. This was Canada back in the 60's-no drugs and Playboy was just starting up. It was a good time to grow up and A&W was a great place to hang out with friends.

The mugs are stored in a freezer at -15c. When the rootbeer is poured in the mug a very tiny layer of ice forms in top. There is nothing better than authentic frosted rootbeer.

Best onion rings EVER!

as a classic car guy..we used to go to A&W every sunday ,where we all meet ..order food, and compare our hot rods..good times

We blew Tyler's mind today with the grass fed beef, chilled mugs and paper straws. 🤣😂

Yes you get a mug if you dine in, if you want one, you can ask for it to go; in a paper cup too. The mug is chilled and you don't get to keep it unless you buy one and if you do buy one you get a clean one to take home. A&W is my fav fast food restaurant and the food is awesome. The onion rings are epic! It used to be a drive in restaurant where you ate in your car, the waiters wore roller skates and they delivered your order to you in your car with this tray that would sit on your window. It was very kewl! If you're ever in Canada you should definitely go there.

I know you're referring to Canada's A&W but there's a funny story from the 80s involving US A&W. They introduced a 1/3 pound burger at the same price as Mcd's 1/4 pound burger to try and compete. It failed miserably. They did focus groups to try and figure out what went wrong. They found out that average American's thought 1/3 is smaller than 1/4. They thought they were paying the same price for less burger.

To answer your question, Poutines are very normal at fast food restaurants now. Mcdonalds, Wendy's, Harvey's, all of them have it.

"Imagine the A&W root beer, AT an A&W restaurant, IN an A&W mug..." Come to Canada so you don't have to imagine it any more! It IS a spiritual experience.

A & W not only has grass fed beef, they also have organic coffee and have cane sugar in their pop/soda (no high fructose corn syrup). The only fast food chain I eat at.

When someone says A&W i think restaurant, the rootbeer is just a part of that.

A&W serve great spicy chicken at a reasonable price. Many years ago, they had a product called Chubby Chicken. It was really tasty, but, for some reason, disappeared. This was when it was a mostly drive-in business. The mugs of root beer are still served chilled.

Those mugs are frosted too, they store them in a cooler so when you get your root beer it's icy cold and oh so good! They also have a great full bacon and egg breakfast that's excellent!

The mascot is a bear... The A&W Root Bear...

My favorite meal is the Teen burger, fries and a Rootbeer in a chilled mug. Every Canadian knows the A&W theme song.

The crazy thing is A&W came out with a 1/3 pound burger to compete with McDonald’s 1/4 pounder but it failed because most Americans thought 1/3 is less than 1/4

Hey! As a A&W employee I can unbiasly say from well facts and from experience making the food, its one of the healthier if not the healthiest Fast Food chain in Canada. A&W is known for its Root Beer, The Burger Family, Its use of food free of plethora of antibiotics other places use and the iconic mascot the Root Bear.

As an employee at an a&w, my go to is either the chubby chicken cruncher (extra chubby sauce or mayo) with rings, or i get a poutine but i add a seasoned burger patty broken up on top and grilled onions. Both are so good, especially with a strawberry shake!

The frosted mug was used instead of ice because when the ice melts it waters down the flavour of the root beer. There’s no ice in a root beer take out drink either.

A&W in Canada when I was young, The servers would roller skate around bringing your order to your car window. They have great burgers and onion rings. Yum!

Growing up, we used to have franchises that were drive-in where they came to your car window wearing rollerskates. I miss those days!

A&W has the Best quality burgers out of the usual fast food spots in my opinion. Not to mention a mug of ice cold root beer is just awesome.

Best thing about A&W is their onion rings. They are made in store, thick, and breaded with a crispy crumbling breading. If you get a drink while eating in one of their restaurants they serve it in a cold frosted mug. You are supposed to give the mug back once done, but I think you can buy one. First tried A&W while traveling in Western Canada as a kid, but we did not get an A&W in my city till I was in my mid teens, and now we have two (at one point we had three) in our city. The government made plastic straws illegal, so we have to deal with paper straws, and it tastes awful.

Canada has banned single use plastics, so most restaurants have paper straws now 😢 There are a few that have found biodegradable "plastic" straws, and those are so nice to have.

You wanted to know how common A & W is in Canada... so I looked it up. Here's the number of locations of a number of chains in Canada (from most to least): 3,584 Tim Horton's 2,874 Subway 1,448 Starbucks 1,362 McDonald's 1,060 A & W 709 Dairy Queen 653 KFC 604 Domino's Pizza 595 7-Eleven 584 Pizza Hut 424 Wendy's 368 Burger King 291 Harvey's In the U.S., there are 506 A & W restaurants still operational. Best meal: Teen burger, onion rings, root beer. After obtaining, open the burger, add a couple onion rings to said burger, close burger, eat. This only works with place that have really good onion rings, so your mileage may vary. Also, the mascot is a bear. Have a nice day!

You don't keep the mug, but you can buy them from the restaurant. They sit in a cooler fridge, so the Root Beer is served in a frosted mug. The fries are served in a fryer basket, just for show. If you order the take out at the window, you just get the average disposable wrapping and cups. Yes, we get McDonalds Poutine

Growing up during the 70s, the A&W drive-in 20 miles away was a monthly treat. Best burgers, fries, onion rings ever... And now the best fast food breakfast in Canada! Back around 1998 I was surprised to find an A&W restaurant in the Norfolk, VA airport.

A&W is just different. Their burgers taste like actual hamburgers, they serve literal bacon eggs and pancakes for breakfast. Hot dogs, onion rings and rootbeer floats in a frosted mug. They kept to their roots as a 'diner' instead of whatever all the other fast food places are trying to do these days.

Story...In the late 60's, in Northern BC, my older sister, ( high school,) got a job at our A&W. The uniform was a white blouse, short brown jacket and brown pants with an orange stripe down the side of the leg. A kind of cadet style hat. Hair in a bun. If you're old 😅 you will remember the drive-in! You parked your car, on either side ⁸facing a long middle sidewalk and turned your headlights on. (no indoor seating) The car-hop would come and take your order. She, (no boys allowed) would bring your food on a tray and hook it on your car window. When you were done, you turned your headlights back on and she would come and get the tray. Anyway, they wanted the girls to wear a girdle! ...A tight fitting garment you wore under tight pants... The feminist movement took care of all that!.😅

A&W soda originated in the A&W restaurants. The soda was incredibly popular and was also available in gallon jugs to take home. The restaurant came first but it’s hard to think of the restaurant without also thinking of their root beer. The A&W teen burger is my all time favourite burger, always chased down with a frosty mug of root beer!

Fun fact: A&W does not put ice in their pop/soft drinks. It is chilled enough to not need it. It is funny when people in the drive through for no ice. 😅

Something special about this place is they don't put ice in their drinks because it waters down the pop. They make their machines colder than other restaurants for this reason.

I'm 65 years old, back in the day, when you went to an A&W, it was not an eat-in restaurant rather, you drove up and put your headlight on to indicate you wanted to order or needed something, and the person would come up to you on roller-skates and take your order. When you receive your meal, it is brought to you on a tray designed to hang on your window. Today, my favourite meal is a Root beer, teen burger and onion rings or sweet potato fries. They also have their own spice that you can buy in the restaurant.

you are right that drinking A&W out of a frosted mug is a spiritual experience. They famously do not use ice in their pop (they literally wont give you ice ever), but the root beer starts to freeze a little bit around the edge of the mug so when you take a sip you get 95% root beer and 5% frozen root beer chips. only for the first few minutes until the glass warms up slightly. But yes it is a heavenly experience and its ALWAYS worth it to eat inside just to get the frozen mug.

A & W is very popular here in Canada. They used to be drive-ins, but have now become dine-in restaurants.

My dad worked for A&W in the 60’s in Oakville, Ontario. He was a go between from the kitchen to the servers who would deliver the food to car, while wearing roller skates. While we don’t have all that anymore A&W is quite good. And the mascot is “the root bear 😊”

A and W was one fast-food restaurant back when it started to have servers on roller skates that would bring your order to the car. That was back in the 50’s, 60’s. They do frost the mug of root beer and it creates ice in the glass.

The difference with A&W is that it is privately owned. It doesn't have the typical single-minded obsession with share prices that most other chains have. It can invest in ingredient quality, ethical behaviour and improved client satisfaction beyond what would be immediatly economically optimal.

The fact they have 24 hour burgers is the best. After working a long 10 hour nightshift nothing hits like a fresh teen burger at 7:30 in the morning. Best fast food burger for sure

The brew bar is a new addition in recent years, but as others have mentioned the frozen mugs are kept there, and you can get a regular paper fast food cup, or by purchase, get yourself one of the different sized mugs, why go for a small mug I would never know, but the large mug is way to go. I am commenting at the ten minute mark, so Ice Cream Floats are another A&W staple… *Must Have!!* if you’re trying their food for the first time. My favourite is the Double Buddy burger, fried onions, add bacon and cheese. Get a pair of them~. Also!! The chicken tenders if they are the same are called “Love me Tenders” in the box they come to the restaurant in.

I grew up in New York state, and A&W was just like this. It had car window service. The server used to wear roller skates came to your car, took your order, and brought it to your car.

I still have the baby mug we got when we were kids....55yrs ago🎉🎉

A&W is actually really popular for its breakfast. I've never seen an A&W that isn't absolutely packed with people eating a full or canadian breakfast.

I always assumed that the restaurant came first and the root beer was so popular the started selling it on the side

so here's a fun fact I'm not seeing a lot of people talk about. I don't know if this is just a Calgary thing, but A&W is also very closely tied to the vintage car scene. when passing by an A&W, it's very common to see people parking their old mustangs, Chevys, and sometimes those old box cars idk the name of, and just having impromptu car shows. Also, my go too at A&W definitely has to be either a teen burger or chubby chicken with extra salted fries and a root beer

The US does have A&W restaurants but only about 600 nationwide, Canada has over a 1000 as for the mugs they are frozen enought to form slush in the mugs, and can use them but they aren't free to take home, sometimes they do sell them...

'Can' you keep the mug? 'Can you' is an interesting choice of words...

When I was growing up in the 60s and 70s, we used to go to A&W and it was not a sit-in restaurant at the time. It had parking spaces under a canopy where we could order right from the car. The waitresses would bring our food right to our car on a tray that would hook onto the car window on the driver's side. They even served the root beer in a cold frosted mug. The menu has expanded since those days, and the restaurant is dine-in now-a-days (no more parking and ordering from the car). I enjoy a mama burger or a teen burger from time to time these days, and I mostly just go through the drive-through.

The only bad thing about A&W is the paper straws! They disintegrate way before two hours and yes, it does change the taste of your drink. However, if you sit in the restaurant you get the frozen mugs so no need for straws. Unfortunately you don’t get to keep the mugs.

My dad used to work at A&W before my parents split so I have a lot of nostalgia for it. But as far as food, their onion rings are extraordinary imo.

When I was young A&W was a 50 style of drive in ( not a drive through) were servers would come to your car and hook the tray to your window. The girls served you wearing rollerstakes just like the movies. Brandon, Manitoba was the last A&W drive in North America which allowed my children had the same experienced I had as a kid!

Teen burger, fries and Root Beer in a chilled mug. Their coffee is great too, particularly in winter.

The sweet potatoe fries comes with the chipotle mayonnaise and together they're very good! One of my fav at A&W

Should we tell him about Harvey’s or keep it to ourselves?

In the 70’s, A&W Canadian restaurants used to have services that “rolled” (servers on roller stakes) to bring out your order to your car (with both front windows down to hold the bench-like orange tray that extends from one window to the other) so that you may enjoy your meal in your own car. ❤

Unilever sold its stores to a franchisees' group in 1995, so it is now an independent Canadian company.

I used to work at A&W and my coworkers used to call the “Cheddar bacon uncle burger” the “Better shaken buncle hurger.” My go to order is the Mozza Burger with either onion rings or sweet potato fries and chipotle mayo with iced tea. All the onion rings are made fresh in the restaurant, from slicing the onion to seasoning and cooking ❤

Here in Canada, A&W (the restaurant) also has discount Tuesdays. Which is usually a Canadian tradition often used in movie theaters to encourage people to go buy more on a Tuesday.

A&W stands for “Amburgers and Wootbeer” I live in a small city in BC, roughly 10,000 people. We have one McDonald’s, one Dairy Queen, no Burger King and two A&W‘s.

I have a young Japanese grandson whose family usually visits me once a year. His first visit anywhere when he arrives is to A&W. He is positive that A&W has the best food (especially hamburgers) in the world.

A&W used to have drive in restaurants with a box you give your order into and waiters on skates that bring out your food - and the root beer was the star

I love A&W and fondly remember going to the Drive-In service as a child. They used to have ‘Baby’ burger’s and ‘Baby’ size root beer in the tiniest of mugs. I still go to A&W to enjoy the best plant based burgers and cold mug root beer.

Probably the best burger joint at this point in time, their burgers aren't all squashed like most burger places, and it tastes very good, their breakfasts are also very good...

I remember when they first introduced those baskets to put the fries in. People kept throwing them out, so they had to redesign the openings for the trash cans to stop that from happening. I usually get a plain Papa Cheese Burger and an onion ring when I go.

My Favourite fast food burger is the A&W Mozza Burger. The best!! Their onion rings are amazing. They are everywhere and often in gas stations in small towns. Very popular

Now I've got their commercial song stuck in my head. "Let's all go to A&W Food's more fun at A&W Get a mug of root beer or maybe two or three Pick the perfect size from the Burger Family"

A&W is massive here in Canada, but we also have the root beer in grocery stores and stuff too. A&W’s mascot is The Great Root Bear named Rooty. The mugs are frosted but no you don’t get to take the mug home, but you can buy them. I have a tiny A&W mug from a long long time ago. The onion rings are amazing and sweet potato fries are pretty good. The teen burger is my favourite. YES! The root beer suckers are amazing!! Paper straws are everywhere here and yes they get gross! I hate them, many people hate them.

A&W was huge in the States when car hops (where the staff would bring your order to your car) was the place to hang the thing

Sweet potato fries, a teen burger and of course a frosty mug of A&W rootbeer. I only have to drive 67 km to get to the closes A&W to me.

The A&W drive-ins were awesome, you would pull up to one of the spots in your car, order the food on a speaker thing sort of like what drive-in theatres had, and a girl would brong you a tray with your food on it, which would clip to the top of a partially rolled down car window. I think the US had these too, back in the day (50s, 60s, and 70s)

When I was a teen, there was an A&W in Coquitlam, BC that was like a skiing chalet inside with one of those large round fireplaces with a round bench around it as well as booths. Wonderfully cozy & enticing for our youth group. Many hours spent there! Warning: ⚠️ if you get the Root Beer Float… listen to the waitress & don’t poke the bear, I mean ice cream, as it WILL turn into a volcano!🌋 When I was a kid, my dad would take me to the drive-in on Kingsway in Burnaby, BC. Car hops, roller skates, the works! He found out they had a secret menu & once I knew they made tacos… 🌮 that’s all I ordered there. The best tacos I’ve ever had! Miss the tacos 🌮 & my dad. ❤

My favourite used to be the Grandma Burger but was discontinued. A prime rib burger with horseradish sauce. Most Canadian fast food places have a poutine offering.

I used to eat a lot of A&W when attending uni. It would be my goto dinner before late evening work sessions with other students I was teamed up with. I often had the Mozza Burger with fries. Their fries were the tastiest fries of all the fast food chains around then, and they were just crisp enough to be super satisfying.

One time I went to A&W and I ordered a double cheeseburger and I kinda got scolded by the cashier and was told “it’s called the papa!” It was hilarious. A&W is awesome

My first part time job in gr9 was A&W. I miss the whistle dog and chubby chicken meals

The story of A&W is actually pretty interesting, and it really highlights the stark differences between the American and Canadian markets.

You certainly missed a few key things about A&W here. The breakfast menu is top tier. They offer bacon and egg breakfasts with your egg cooked however you want it. The eggs are actually real eggs too. They don't come from a carton like McDonalds or come pre-cooked like Burger King. It's real breakfast food. Yes, there is a baby burger. That is part of the kid's menu. It's essentially a small, plain burger. My order of choice is a Grandpa burger with 3 slices of cheese, no mayo. I get it with either the poutine or onion rings (depending on my mood), and a root beer of course. Always ask for some root beer suckers when you order. They are free to those who ask. The onion rings are an iconic part of the A&W lineup. All of the ingredients at A&W come fresh as groceries and are prepped in the morning by the prep cook. This means full heads of lettuce for the burgers which are washed and cut up. Full sized onions which are washed and sliced up. The onion rings are fresh made in the morning by slicing them, making a batter, dipping and coating them, then arranging them on MANY flat trays to be cooked throughout the day. They are officially the best onion rings that you can possibly ever order. Wen eating in the restaurant, you can get a frosted mug for your drink. They have mug freezers at the counter for this purpose. Plastic straws were banned in Canada a few years back. I still don't understand why places use paper straws though. Everybody hates paper straws! 711 uses cellulose straws which are exactly like plastic, they just don't melt in your drink or taste bad like the paper straws.

A&W is every where in Canada. From full serve restaurant to kiosks, to gas stations. Good quality ingredients and thus not the cheapest fast food spot. Very good though, I recommend trying it. Their onion rings are killer.

I'm confused. Does he not know that A&W is an American fast food restaurant chain? 506 restaurants across 36 states. It's nowhere near as popular as in Canada (they have twice as many locations here), but it very much exists. They even use the same mugs. Where did he get the idea that A&W in the U.S. is just the root beer? There's probably a restaurant in his state or even his city.

Yes, we chill the mugs and offer them to anyone who wants to use in-store instead of paper cups and if they want to, and are at one of the locations that allow it, we let you buy them, though most people just steal them. We also serve real bacon and eggs for breakfast which is unique for our fast food market and there are off the menu items like the animal burger (a 5 patty grandpa burger) or a Frankenstein burger (a 7+ patty grandpa burger) It is the main high quality fast food option in Canada and all the burgers have seasoning salt on them

The mug are refrigirated. It's to replace ice cubes so that your drinks don't get diluted. They only hand them to those who eat inside the restorant. Then you return it to a place where the employes can grad them to wash them the good old fassion way. They also have baskets for the fries, plates, forks, and butter knives from the breakfast menu. Also, if you want to take a mug back home. You can, at a price of about 20$. Price may vary. As for the bugger menu, they also have 'Beyond Meat Bugger' which is a vegin bugger.

AW has my favourite burgers out of any fast food and of course having a sit down with a soda in a chilled mug is awsome.

They don't do ice that's why they freeze the mug, you don't get to keep it unless you steal it.

In true 50s-60s fashion, our local A&W still does a “Show-N-Shine” once a week! (“Show-N-Shine = classic vehicles gathering to show off & have fun)

There still are a&w in the Midwest. My favorite order is uncle burger with cheddar and bacon with a side of poutine made with sweet potatoes fries. You don't get to keep the mug, but it's frozen so they don't put ice in your drink.

I do not eat at mcd's, if I want a burger, it is always A&W. Like their root beers, they would come in a frosty mug in the summer

All-Canadian breakfast is pretty fly, eggs ,sausage, bacon, tomato, toast, with orange juice

Growing up in Winnipeg in the 70's, the "A&W" on Portage Avenue by Eaton's was commonly referred as the "A& Trouble W".

A&W was nicknamed "Arrive and Wait" by my parents, as the original restaurant was the traditional drive-in where you parked your car and STAYED IN IT, while waiting for waitresses to come. When they did, they took your order, and then delivered it on window-mounted trays. I worked at a modern-day one for a full summer, and i'm telling you, it's fantastic. The coolest thing for them in my opinion is the fact that they offer you BACON AND EGG BREAKFASTS in a hurry! These are VERY popular, and VERY delish. A&W has been, and always will be, my favourite fast-food burger joint, cuz it's all that and much more. P.S., those mugs are chilled ina freezer, and are used cold instead of ice. And yes, you can buy them (last time i checked, the price was 12.99 a mug)!

The frozen glass mug is a thing but they're slowly phasing it out, probably because it cost them money to operate. It was unreal, the Root Beer would slightly freeze on the side, it was soooo cold and crisp. A spiritual experience like you said!

A&W Root Beer was a root beer and burger stand started in 1919 in California. You have to look up A&W Root Beer restaurant to find them, there are approximately 1000 left in the US.

I think you need a trip to the optometrist since the small mascot picture doesn't look anything like a beaver..lol!

"Let's all go to A&W! Get in the car! Come as you are... to A&W!" -advertisement jingle.

They were the first to reveal the "impossible" burger or the other Vegetarian meat burger that came out a few years ago. They did a whole add campaign in the UK.

I used to be a huge fan of A & W and my favourite burger was the teen burger the one time of the year I get A & W is when they are doing their burgers to beat MS

At first I was kind of laughing at how surprised you were. But when you made the Pepsi analogy I can defiantly see why you're so surprised. To answer your questions: When you eat in at A&W they give you your drink in a chilled mug, if you eat out or go through the drive thru, they give you a traditional paper cup. And no, you don't keep the mug, you leave it near the garbage with your tray when you leave. The chilled mug makes their rootbear taste much better. The foam freezes and is almost like a rootbeer slushy. Paper straws are becoming more and more common in Canada, so much so it's more common to get a paper straw then a plastic one. Mcdonalds, Wendys, etc. also only have paper straws in Canada. They don't really fall apart but they do become soggy if you don't finish your drink in a couple hours. Poutine is available at almost every fast food restaurant in Canada

A&W Drive Ins and Restaurants are an American thing, they just have changed in our disposable society. When I was growing up they had both types of restaurants and the root beer was served in a frosted glass mug. Their most popular meal was a hotdog, fries and root beer. So what you're seeing in Canada is what A&W used to be in the US.

I must say, I always keep four A&W glass mug in my freezer. Any beverage taste amazing in a frosted glass mug.