Horrible Service
My mother and I go out for lunch on Saturdays when her health allows it. She is eighty years old; movement is very difficult for her.

We went to the ABC location at 10410 158 St., Surrey, BC. The washrooms were out of order and we had to go down the hall, into the hotel. We came back up to have lunch, one waitress whips by and says sit anywhere close. That was the last we saw of any server until we got up and walked out.

We were given no menus, no coffee, no friendly greeting, nothing. There was a lady standing at the till when we left, I said we were leaving because of no service; her comment was where were you sitting? Obviously she didn't look very hard. I can understand waiting when they are very busy, but there were maybe eight tables with people at them, not busy at all.    [30 Sep 2002 05:05:27]

Food:    Service:    Ambiance:    Overall: 
Recommended Dishes: none

     ­Susan Gjendem, surrey bc   suegee28 at netscape dot net

Heat a TV Dinner and Pocket the Difference
It never fails to amaze me what people consider to be "good" food and how customers allow themselves to be ripped off to such an extent. Where is the line between profit for a company and just outright stealing from people?

Now to the food, here is what you will get at an ABC Restaurant, these are all franchises, so the food is basically the same at all the places: instant or microwaved food! WHY would you want to pay for this? Better to stay at home and prepare a frozen dinner.

I'll give an example from one of their entrees priced at $11+, the turkey dinner: consisting of the generic microwaved, previously cooked turkey slices, the mashed potato is instant, if you order the "baked" potato, you'll be presented with a microwaved version, (there is a difference in taste, the baked potato has better texture and is much more delicious) the stuffing is instant, the veggies consist of frozen spears of broccoli, and big slices of carrot, boiled and sprinkled with a bit of parsley.

WHY would anyone want to pay for, and subject themselves to a meal which would frankly be as at home at an old people's care facility? I'm not dying, I have taste buds, I can see ... that I'm being ripped off!

Now let's contrast this with another local restaurant, albeit a more expensive one, who also uses the word fresh in their slogan and advertising, but they actually deliver -- Earl's! Everything's cooked from scratch and fresh there!

To those of you who eat at ABC, you deserve your fate, as for me and my moolah we're walking on over to the restaurants who actually deliver, if I don't want to cook at home, I expect the restaurant food to at least be made from scratch, if I wanted instant slop I'd go to the numerous fast food restaurants available. This place isn't cheap, and at these prices, I would like a freshly cooked, flavourful meal, cooked with wholesome ingredients, not tonnes of margarine and -- gasp -- how about some freshly baked bread or something.

Why don't our restaurants smell of cooking? Why do I smell franchises who offer me very little value-added food instead?    [22 Apr 2003 22:16:08]

Food:    Service:    Ambiance:    Overall: 
Recommended Dishes: Don't you own a microwave?

     ­gita