Fooled at Harvey's / Swiss Chalet

We received coupons in the mail recently and decided to head over to our local Swiss Chalet (1 Henderson Drive, Aurora, Ontario)

The coupons included:

1. Two can dine for $13.99 (Basically 2 quarter chicken dinners) but was only valid for Monday to Thursday.

2. 20% off 2 piece Fish & Chips valid only Monday to Friday...Never had Fish & Chips with Swiss Chalet. They are not known for Fish & Chips.

3. $2.00 off the purchase of a Family Pack (we went for this).

4. $3.00 off a Quarter Chicken and Half Rack of Ribs Combo. We thought about using this but a 20 minute wait in the dining room for a seat when there was already a table for two open and not used seemed ridiculous.

So we went for #3 above on the Harvey's side. The Harveys side serves Swiss Chalet take out but has the regular fast food seating of a traditional Harveys.

The Order: Swiss chalet Family Pack (2 fries, 1 coleslaw, 1 corn) and two cokes

We ordered the Family Pack at 5:50 P.M., but did not have the food in hand until 6:00 P.M. Swiss Chalet has a way of providing poor service times. Apparently I'm a fool. Harvey's and Swiss Chalet promise fast efficient take out service with the pimply faced teenaged staff running around wearing hair nets. But when it comes time to deliver chicken and sides that they have based their business on for an eternity, they fail. I was fooled into believing I could get my simple food order in five minutes or less.

Nonetheless, the food was of usual Swiss Chalet quality (perfect temperature and preparation). Really nothing to complain about there.

Later I filled out the Customer Satisfaction survey. My receipt said "Tell Us How We Did Today for a chance to win a * $500 HARVEY'S CARD *" So I went to the Harvey's feedback website indicated on the receipt. Within about two steps completed on the survey I was switched from Harvey's to the Swiss Chalet feedback. I soldiered on to completion where out of the blue I was given a survey code for "a free soup, salad or perogies with the purchase of an entree during your next visit to Swiss Chalet." Um....what happenned to my chance of winning a "* $500 HARVEY'S CARD *"

Oh but wait, there is a chance for a "$500 Swiss Chalet Gift Card" if I spend another 2 minutes filling out yet another online survey. I've been through this before already with believing I could get my food quickly and efficently and then fooled again into believing I had a chance at a "* $500 HARVEY'S CARD *". So I refused to go along as I'd been burnt at least once by Harvey's / Swiss Chalet.

Apparently this is false advertising, I never stood a chance at winning a Harvey's gift card as no where did it say I had one or not. Does this mean I could still win a Harvey's gift card? I won't keep my hopes up as I've been fooled too many times on this visit.

Meanwhile Christine....

Growing up as the oldest of three children you make some observations about your sometimes annoying yet lovable siblings.

My brother Peter is the sporting and active one of the family. He was known for playing baseball throughout the summers in Aurora and accross southern Ontario. The entire family used to come along to the baseball games. My father either coaching or enthralled with the baseball game and my mother sipping her coffee cheering on the team.

My sister Christineloves books. She would be at the same baseball game curled up in a lawn chair reading a book. Any indication that Peter was up to bat she would look up from her latest read and yell like any little sister would "Peter! You suck!" Which would get my brother laughing. My sister would return her gaze to whatever she was reading as if nothing happened. She sure does love reading!

In fact she loves to read so much that she wrote a terrific blog entry on it here.

Not one Lone Star at the Lone Star Texas Grill

This afternoon my wife, a friend and I visited the Lone Star (9301 Yonge Street, Richmond Hill, Ontario). We arrived shortly after 1:00 P.M. for lunch and were immediately seated. The hostess, while were on our table asked if we had ever been to a Lonestar before. That is all I could hear as we were moving through the restaurant single file due to how wide the aisle between tables was. Perhaps she should have seated us first, handed us the menus then asked if had been there before and then blathered on about here are the washrooms, etc. and who our waiter is.

Our waiter came by took our drink order and returned quickly. However, after dropping of our drinks he dissappeared for a few moments instead of inquiring if we were ready to order (which we were).

The Order: Southern Po' Boy Sandwich with Fries, Baja Tequila Shrimp with Seasonal Vegetables, Steak Ceaser salad (substitute chicken for steak), coke, water and coffee.

The food, once ordered came fairly quickly (15 minutes max). My Southern Po' Boy Sandwich arrived on a oven baked hero you would find at a Mr. Sub shop (read: no real specialty made bread there...it even had the same bread pan marks as Mr. Sub...Mr. Sub should sue for copyright infringment on their tradmarked (????) it is so obvious) with chicken covered in Jack & Chedder Cheese. From the side of my plate I added diced tomato and guacamole. The only complaint about garnishing my own sandwich was the lettuce leaves were not sliced to sprinkle on the sandwhich. I had to hand shred them to my liking, which seemed a little much. The fries that came with the sandwich were warm but weren't anything to write home about.

My wife had the tequila shrimp which she liked. However, she did point out the "seasonal vegetables" was an uncut piece of broccoli that you could find in the produce section in the local No Frills that at least appeared to be steamed.

The Steak Ceasar salad was o.k. but nothing to write home about. Our friend subsituted chicken for the steak and that was perfectly done by the kitchen.

During the meal our waiter came by and refilled our drinks. His attention to detail was better than at other restaurants where sometimes you have to wave your hand like a banchee trying to get a refill on your overpiced soda.

Overall Lone Star Richmond Hill is a decent place to eat.

Is this New York?

Last night I had dinner with my wife in Richmond Hill and took VIVA Blue home. This VIVA ride was a little more interesting than normal.

Instead of the usual quiet ride home with the business people half asleep, reading a book or staring forlornly out the window, we had some interesting characters.

The first we noticed was the black man, "Rapper", sitting on top of the standing room area in the middle of the articulated section of the bus. He was literally sitting on the top of the place where riders are supposed to be leaning against the backrest and holding the pole. He had his rap music blaring from a cell phone sized piece of equipment. Periodically "Rapper" would tap his hand against the poll. This caused even more noise as the metal from the rings on his hand met the metal of the poll. Other passengers just gave him the lazy dissapproving look or were trying to ignore him to the best of their ability. Trust me on this, it was not easy to ignore him.

Across the aisle from my wife and I were and older gentleman and a lady. The lady and man were talking about relationships and how there never seemed to be any women interested in the man. This lasted for about halfway on the trip from Richmond Hill to Aurora. Then she started saying he shouldn't be drinking. I looked over and he has a LCBO special pulled out and proceeded to drink straight from the bottle. It seemed I was surrounded by loonies on this bus.

At Bloomington Road on our trek northward three young teens get on the bus. One of the three was no more than five feet tall, 100 lbs (soaking wet with a brick in his pocket) wearing an earing with a huge rock. Man was this shrimp trying to look tough to his "Homies". At least this was somewhat typical of the area, a suburban kid trying to look tough. I laughed later that this kid probably wouldn't last five minutes in Long Island or Yonkers nevermind Brooklyn or the Bronx. In fact the kids I taught in Rockaway Park (Queen's) would've eaten this kid as a small snack nevermind lunch.

At one point I thought I was reliving my days of weirdos on the New York City Subway. But then again, it truly wasn't like New York, in the half hour trip not once did I see someone selling DVDs. Alas, this wasn't a true New York experience.