On Friday, I was looking for a hamburger with fries and a drink. Just a simple "Yahoo it is Friday!" type of lunch to celebrate the end of a work week. I found a Harvey's (564 Bronson Avenue, Ottawa) to visit and headed over.
The Harvey's parking lot is tight two row parking lot fenced in with only access off of Arlington Avenue. Sometimes this tightness can be problematic if there are two many vehicles trying to enter or exit the lot. Not sure which expert designed this parking lot, but it does not work on a frequent basis with two fast food restaurants (the other a Burrito Gringo) sharing the same constrained lot. Weekday lunch times are the worst as landscape trucks with trailers attempt to navigate the narrow one entrance and exit only at the same end of the lot.
Upon entering the Harvey's, the restaurant layout appears smaller than a more traditional suburban Harvey's space, yet there is more space than the downtown Harvey's found on Elgin Street. A happy medium of space between the two.
I worked my way through the short line up to get to the counter and place my order
The Order: 1 Original Hamburger combo (medium fries and Pepsi)
I was gradually moved down to the topping and prep area of Harvey's to be served by an older lady. She topped my burger from the standard issue Harvey's stainless steel topped counter along with the semi circle of bowls of toppings and bottles of whatever liquid goulash they have.
After topping my burger, she grabbed my fries and drink. Next she inquired if I would like ketchup with my fries. An odd question considering I was having my meal at the Harvey's. I didn't think about it and said, yes please. A couple of ketchup packets were added to my tray and I was off to the condiment station.
"Condiment station" is really a misnomer. Are condiments at a burger place involve vinegar, ketchup and other "nice to haves" for the average person who have individual tastes? Thus, I would call this Harvey's station the napkin and straw station. Apparently fast food customers now cannot be trusted with dispensing their own ketchup anymore as more restaurants are moving to handing out prerationed ketchup packets. It is like ketchup is becoming harder and harder to find.
I sat down at a decently clean table and dug into my burger.
The burger tasted just like any other Harvey's Original burger. Along with the usual issue of the toppings slowly oozing out the end opposite to your mouth. Why is it, no matter what Harvey's I visit, the toppings always seem to ooze out the other end and splat on the outstreched paper wrapper? No matter if the Harvey's is in Ottawa, Aurora, Toronto or Timbucktoo, this happens. It must be Harvey's corporate policy to ensure this happens.
The fries were the average Harvey's fries in standard proportions. At least Harvey's seems to be keeping the size of their fries along with their combos the same size as opposed to shrinking them. Temperature wise the fries were nothing special, but they were not frozen cold either.
Overall, this Harvey's is a standard run of the mill place. Nothing special in terms of service or added value. Just average corporate approved levels of service. If there was something they could do about the parking lot by adding another entrance/exit and perhaps loosing the wrot iron fence, this Harvey's would be "... Beautiful Thing" to get into and out of.
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