I'm a fast food dabbler. Like, I get it every once in a while and enjoy it. But I don't have a go-to place or go-to order anywhere — I often try different things when I go.
So I think I'm perfectly positioned to give you an honest, unbiased review of which popular fast food spot in Canada offers the best value for money.
With a budget of $15.00 at each location, I landed on McDonald's, A&W, and Dairy Queen as my points of comparison. They all sell similar products and would therefore be good to compare against each other.
This was a very difficult decision; I'm not going to lie. Because I'm not just comparing value for money, but also quality and overall enjoyment of the meal. Considering all these factors, here's which Canadian fast food chain comes out on top.
A&W
A&W meal for $15
Alyssa Wiens | Narcity
The thing is, it's just not that cheap. With a $15.00 budget for this comparison, I was already priced out of the normal burger combos (a teen burger combo was $15.46 and the others ranged up to $17.46).
So, I ordered from the value deal menu, which is all under $4.00. You can even get a small combo with a drink and fries for only an extra $3.00, which means you can get a three-piece meal for half the size of the standard combos. The portion size is also half the size, but if you're not super hungry, it's decent. I was able to add on two snack wraps (cheaper when you buy two) and a peach turnover to round out my meal. I assure you, it's enough food!
Taste-wise, it's all good. The buddy burger patty is delicious, the fries were hot, and the snack wraps had a great chipotle flavour. The peach turnover was sort of meh, but still nice to have a sweet treat at the end.
Cost:
- Buddy Cheeseburger combo (with small fries and pop): $6.90
- Two chipotle chicken wraps: $6.49
- Peach turnover: $1.99
- TOTAL: $16.63 after tax
Mcdonald's
McDonald's meal for $15
Alyssa Wiens | Narcity
My Spicy McCrispy was so good. The flavour was delicious and just spicy enough, and the bun was super high-quality. The fries, as always, were perfect. I added on a strawberry sundae and baked apple pie to bring it up to that $15.00 mark... Both were very tasty. The McDonald's pie is significantly better than the A&W one, just saying.
Price:
- Spicy McCrispy meal (with medium fries and pop): $11.79
- Strawberry sundae: $2.19
- Baked apple pie: $1.59
- TOTAL: $16.54 after tax
Dairy Queen
Dairy Queen meal for $15.00
Alyssa Wiens | Narcity
But then I saw the meal deal: a cheeseburger, pop, fries, and sundae for $9.01. You read that right — nine dollars. A four-piece meal for under $10! In this economy? So cheap.
I swapped my fries for onion rings, which cost extra. Then I debated getting something else for $4.00 from the value menu to bring it to $15.00, but it's just too much food. Safe to say that this was the most quantity of food I got for $15.00 at any joint.
The quality, though, doesn't come close to McDonald's and A&W. It's not that I didn't enjoy my meal — I did — but I didn't love it. Like, I'm not going to be shouting from the rooftops about Dairy Queen's cheeseburger. It was very basic, with decent toppings (a good amount of pickles for me), and it hit the spot. The onion rings were average at best, but the ice cream was awesome, which is on-brand for DQ. All in all, it was good, not great.
Price:
- Original single meal deal (cheeseburger, pop, sundae, and fries): $9.00
- Sub onion rings for fries: +$1.50
- TOTAL: $11.04 after tax
So, DQ wins in a value-for-money competition, but I'm not at all crowning them the best fast food place in Canada. Nope. That debate is still raging on... I know you all will have opinions on it.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Narcity Media.