Kids eat free at Swiss Chalet Wednesday.

Swiss Chalet has fed Canadian families for seventy years, and it shows. The kids menu was developed using Canada's Food Guide, with balanced options alongside the chicken fingers and fries. The Family Pack is built for a household. A whole chicken, four sides, four rolls, and an extra-large sauce. Highchairs line the entrance and the pace is relaxed.

The Chicken Dinner. A quarter or half a slow-roasted chicken, Chalet dipping sauce with a dinner roll, and choice of side.

Burgers, Tenders, Ribs, Pizza

Limited to kids 10 and under, with an adult entrée.

Always call to be sure.

Swiss Chalet opened in 1954 on Bloor Street in Toronto, where the dining room's Alpine chalet architecture named a chain that has confused Canadians ever since. There is nothing Swiss about the food. Grain-fed Canadian chickens turn slowly on the rotisserie until the skin crackles and the meat falls off the bone, served with fresh-cut fries and the Chalet dipping sauce. The sauce recipe is guarded, only a handful of people know the complete formula, and loyalists insist it tastes better in the restaurant than from the grocery-store bottle.

What started as a single Toronto restaurant grew into a national institution. Swiss Chalet was one of the first chains in Canada to deliver dinner to the door, and Sunday at the Chalet became a tradition passed between generations. The Tragically Hip even name-dropped it in song. Now part of Recipe Unlimited alongside Harvey's and The Keg, the chain runs more than 200 locations, with the heaviest concentration in Ontario.