How to eat like a canuck this Canada Day long weekend, Part II of III

My three-part series on Canadian vs. American food continues with an overview of fast food and chain restaurants.

If you missed part I of this series, which included potato chips, chocolate bars and desserts, I highly recommend checking it out!

Fast Food & Chain Restaurants

American readers, please don’t laugh at this one: until very recently–thanks in part to blogs like Serious Eats and the odd business trip south of the border–I had never heard of, let alone tried, the following fast food and chain restaurants:

• Five Guys (until I visited one in Rhode Island)
• White Castle (until Harold and Kumar)
• In-N-Out Burger
• Sonic Drive-In
• Red Robin
• Chick-fil-A
• Popeyes (until they started opening franchises in Canada)
• Jack in the Box
• Whataburger
• Hardee’s
• Long John Silver’s
• Big Boy
• Church’s Chicken
• Checkers

Here are some chains we have in Canada that I don’t think exist in the states (at least not too far from the Canada/U.S. border):

• Harvey’s – a fast food/burger chain
• Tim Horton’s (available in some of the northern states I believe)
• Cora’s – a breakfast joint
• Montana’s Cookhouse
• Casey’s Bar and Grill (I think)
• East Side Mario’s (I think) – oddly, the whole theme is based on New York City Italian food, but I’m pretty sure it’s Canadian; most similar to Olive Garden
• The Works – a sit-down burger restaurant that offers dozens upon dozens of wacky topping combinations (peanut butter burger, anyone?

A burger from The Works

• Mr. Sub – same concept as Subway and Quizno’s but not as good
• Country Style – a doughnut and coffee shop similar to Tim Horton’s
• The Keg steakhouse
• Kelsey’s restaurant
• Topper’s Pizza – your typical take-out/delivery
• Boston Pizza – a sit-down chain restaurant that offers pizza in addition to other entrees
• Mrs. Vanelli’s – a food court pizza place
• Pizza Pizza - another typical take-out/delivery
• Moxie’s restaurant
• Manchu Wok – typical food court Chinese food
• Extreme Pita

What’s your favourite Canadian chain?  How about American?

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