Toronto hotel forces customer to sign a waiver just to eat a burger

A customer dining at the restaurant inside a Hilton Hotel in Toronto found themselves a little put off by their meal when it came with an ominous waiver protecting the establishment from any liability.

The meal in question was a burger that the customer made a special request to have cooked medium — a pretty normal ask at some specialty burger establishments, but not at all run-of-the-mill for the hotel in question.

"I ordered my burger medium and the waiter took it with no question or comment. She brought it and it looked great! But when I had my first bite, she brought me a release form," the patron, who is from the U.S., wrote on Reddit this week.

"I tried to be nice so I paid and left but could not eat the burger.... Like how can you sign a form like this and still eat it? Why did the waiter not say anything beforehand?"

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While some chimed in with comments about how they've never heard of this practice before, others were more confounded by the individual's response to the paperwork rather than the paperwork itself.

"You ordered what could've been a stomach bug on steroids, of course they're gonna give you a waiver so you don't sue them. Don't know why they even gave you it in the first place," one person said.

"Ordering a burger medium is actually unhinged behavior, I'm with the restaurant on this," another added.

Still others jumped in to inform the visitor of the laws surrounding uncooked meat north of the border due to the risk of foodborne illness that ground beef not processed fresh in-house poses specifically.

Per the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care's Food Premises Reference Document, hamburger is required to be cooked to at least 71 C/160 F to ensure to bacteria on the many surfaces of the meat is properly killed off.

But, Toronto Public Health confirmed to blogTO that a restaurant choosing to use alternative cooking methods or processes, such as cooking burgers to different internal temperatures, can technically do so if they successfully prove how their steps make the food safe to eat.

"Premises may be required to provide a food safety plan for the individual food item, documented process from an approved agency such as the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and may also require laboratory testing results to demonstrate that their food handling practices ensure that the food is safe," a representative said.

They added that the use of a waiver, as in this case, would not exempt an eatery from having to follow the above standards. Hilton did not respond to blogTO's request for comment in time for publication.

Fans of a lesser-done burger will recall a few places in the city that did or still do serve burgers medium rare if ordered that way, long-shuttered Parts & Labour, Bymark and Allen's on the Danforth among them.