Disclosure
This post is written using a $10 gift card given by White Spot.
Suanne has a big collection of coupons like you never believe. She clips coupons from the papers diligently and stashes it in her small drawer. So we get a lot of them. Some of them are sent directly from businesses to us with the hope that we will write about it.
Over the Christmas holidays, Suanne took out all her coupons and checked the expiry dates. She knows that a lot of them expires at year end.
She found two from White Spot. There is a coupon for a free Legendary Burger Platter which is worth about $9 which Nanzaro got for doing some community work. We also had another gift card (with $10 value) which White Spot gave chowtimes.com four months ago when they were promoting the Pirate Pack.
So we decided to go and use them before they expire.
It had been very long while since we had been to White Spot. It must have been at least 5 years already. Which is kind of strange I guess for a Vancouver food blogger not to have written about a very successful Vancouver based chain.
White Spot started in 1928 and that make it over 80 years old. Given that long history, White Spot claim themselves to be the “oldest successful chain in North America”.
We went to the White Spot in No 3 Road and Ackroyd. There is another White Spot in the Richmond Center but we decided to go to this one which is bigger. Our boys did not want to go out because they were “too busy” … with their new PS3 games and notebook they got over Christmas. Nanzaro had always wanted to use the coupon for himself but this time he just said “It’s OK, mum. You just go ahead with dad.” — without taking his eyes from the video game.
We were rather surprised how busy White Spot is. There is a wait for tables despite that this restaurant is quite big. We are thinking that it could have been the holidays where people tends to eat out than cooking at home.
White Spot has a weekly Bar Specials. We ordered one of their frozen cocktails called the Mango Madness which costs $4. It is a frosty blend of mango and rum.
It was good. It was more mango than it was rum actually. I can tell because my face did not turn red.
I got a question. How do you get to the sugar at the rim of the glass? I mean, they provided a drinking draw. If they did not have the straw, then drinking straight from the glass makes sense. Do you drink from the straw and then lick the rim? Is that how you do that?
Suanne was hysterical when I did that and the people at the neighboring table laughed too. *shrug*
We got their biggest burger platter. It is called the … Double Double Combo and costs $11.50.
It is a 1/2 lb beef burger made with double patties and double cheese … double everything …
… even double dills. We are not fans of the dills anyway.
What makes White Spot’s burger famous is the Triple “O” sauce. Forget the picture above … that is not the Triple “O” sauce. It is just that I like lots of ketchup with my burgers.
I once assumed that Triple “O” is named that way because they ring three type of sauces on the burger. That sounded logically right?
However, I remember there was one writeup by Ho Yummy about the secret recipe of the Triple “O” Sauce. You want to know what the secret recipe is, check it out here. I hope you don’t get confused after reading all the comments! 🙂
Whatever it is, the Triple “O” Sauce is what defines White Spot’s burgers. It is really good … super moist and juicy and most important of all … huge!
For as long as I remember, I had the Beef Dip every time I eat at White Spot. I am not sure why but I just love it.
White Spot calls this The Original Beef Dipper and costs $10. It is beef piled high on a lightly garlic’d panini loaf.
Served with au jus, which is a little saltier than I remembered the last time I had this years ago. But despite that saltiness, it was really flavorful.
Yeah, I remember a friend telling the first time I had the beef dip in White Spot about how they were once sued for food poisoning over the same beef dip. The customer won and that set a precedence case law in the determination of whether the restaurant provides a service or goods.
Oh well, I am sure that was a once off incident and it is perfectly safe to have beef dip.
Their fries are really good too. It is kind of short and stubby but I like it a lot.
But they were too much for us. So we asked for the fries to go because our two boys love fries.
We were surprised how nice the box they gave us for the fries to go. Sure is classy huh?
I know that Suanne will add this to her collection of plastic containers. She can’t bring herself to throw away plastic containers. I know it is a waste to throw them away but we have so many in her cupboards that only she knows how to arrange.
So the meal was only $7.70. Howzat?
The $17.70 total due amount was before the application of the $10 gift card. You can’t go wrong with White Spot really. The service is great and the staff is well trained. As for the food, most Vancouverite will know what to order even before they look at the menu.
i like your solution to the impossibly placed sugar. i think it’s only there for asthetic reasons but i would lick it up too!
I like their Mushroom Swiss (?) burger I get that everytimeee!
Never go to the UBC one if you ever do =P horrible service and takes an hour to get the food out!
errr… the tongue pic doesn’t fit very well… 🙂
Hi Suanne, Ben, do you mean gherkins (and not dill) on your double double HB?? It looks like gherkins to me.. 😀
Duh! Thanks for pointing that out, Chai Leng.
You’re welcome, Ben.
You know I read this yesterday morning and I was craving for a White Spot burger soooo bad the entire day. I thought I was going to die because I was trapped at work and I haven’t been there in ages. =P
Nevertheless, I dragged my boyfriend there for dinner and had my usual, the Monty Mushroom burger. Nomnomnom. I didn’t have one but their shakes are a total guilty pleasure too.
Oh, I ordered the mushroom burger in it’s “old/original” size because they upgraded it and made the beef patty bigger on the menu which was wayy too much.
Hi Katy: I know exactly the kind of feeling. For me it had been Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup lately. Each time I drive/walk past a place, I just wanted to go in. Needless to say I had been having quite a lot of TBNs lately. It is at places I had blogged about before.
I have been to Canada many times but I have never heard of White Spot or its famous sauce until today. I did not recognize some of the ingredients in the secret recipe, either. Red sauce/hamburger relish/Bick’s brand?
Is it kind of like Red Robin?
Hi etranger: Yes, White Spot is very much like Red Robin. The menu is very similar. Strange you had never heard of White Spot before but it is very much a Vancouver institution. The founder of White Spot, Nat Bailey, even have a stadium named after him here. You should check them out the next time you are in Vancouver.
YUM…I’m in Toronto right now and have a huge craving for White Spot after reading your post! The next time you go, ask for extra triple-o on the side to dunk your fries in. So unhealthy but so delicious! 🙂
Hi Gigi: You could ask for extra Triple “O”? Oh, I wish I knew that. I drench my burgers with ketchup but I can think how delish it would be with Triple “O” sauce instead. Yum!
Health-wise, it is quite deadly…but it’s so good, how can you resist? 🙂
This is my favourite White Spot for service. I have always been happy with them.
The one on Gilmore and Lougheed (Burnaby) sucks!!!!!!