A&W Draws Inspiration from a Menu Hack and Multicultural Canadian Tastes for New Menu Item

Quick-service restaurants are known to regionalise their menus to suit local tastes — the McLobster might be the most famous Canadian example. Menu innovation is a massive driver in the fast food industry, but Canadian QSRs have been slow on the uptake of international flavours and food trends, despite operating in one of the most multicultural countries in the world.

This month, A&W is introducing a new menu item with an interesting consumer-driven backstory. A&W Spicy Piri Piri Potato Buddy is a limited time offer inspired by a menu hack made popular by Canada’s South Asian and New Canadians community.

For years, A&W employees have been quietly serving a menu “hack” requested by guests predominantly from the South-Asian community. In the hack, a crispy hash brown replaces the usual Buddy Burger Beef patty and is garnished with red onion, lettuce, tomato, and the spiciest sauce available. The Potato Buddy Burger is a potato option that recreates familiar flavours from India.

Priya Dhillon — an A&W operator with 40 locations across Ontario — recognised the opportunity after hearing this request in restaurants from Mississauga to Sault Ste Marie. She wanted to know how popular it was, so she raised the hack in a regional meeting with fellow A&W operators, and was delighted to learn that every operator there — from coast to coast — was serving the exact same menu hack. So, Priya flagged the opportunity for A&W’s head office. It was received as a no-brainer, and development of a new menu item was born. 

After months of recipe development, on February 12, A&W will introduce a version of the hack on its menu: Spicy Piri Piri Potato Buddy. The first-of-its-kind sandwich features a distinctive Piri Piri sauce (hot chilli pepper flavour), a crispy hash brown potato patty, topped with crisp whole-leaf lettuce, sliced tomato, and red onion, sandwiched between a freshly toasted bun. It’s at a lower price point, at $3.99 each.

“A&W is a Canadian company with strong roots in every corner of the country, and we are very fortunate to connect with and learn from the teams in our restaurants and from our guests every day. Embracing New Canadians and bringing diversity to our menu is part of being Canadian, and this idea has us all very excited," said Susan Senecal, CEO at A&W Canada.