TGI Fridays

...meal would be eaten in TGI Friday's. The day before our meal was due to take place, we phoned, just to make sure a table would be available for us, as after all it would be a Friday night, around tea time. The man on the phone did seem rather grumpy and rude, and bluntly told us that we couldn't be one hundred percent sure that there would be table, and we would be much better off reserving a table. We agreed, and were charged only a little extra. ...
...an illuminous pink sign reading TGI Fridays' hung above the large wooden doors.
Entering through the wooden doors, we suddenly thanked ourselves for deciding to reserve a table, as the place was absolutley heaving with people. The restaurant was really quite noisy, which we were a bit dusturbed by and were a bit worried it would ruin our meal, however after about five minutes in the building our ears all adjusted to the rambling sound of ... more

(I will try to make this review shorter LOL).

Each month I am given a challenge, and this month, it was no different from the others. I was challenged to dine out at another restaurant with the family. I was exceptionally worried about this one though, as for the past month or so, I have really been struggling and I had it drummed into my head that I wouldn't be able to manage, however, myself, being such a strong character who doesn't like to look weak, I rose to the challenge, determined to prove everybody wrong.
And so came about deciding where to go. We contemplated many restaurants in the area, however in the end, we all decided on a special restaurant we had visited often as I was a child; T.G.I Fridays.

**

T.G.I Friday's
T.G.I Friday's, occasionally known as "Thank God Its Friday", or "Fridays" is originally american restaurant which was founded in 1965. The first restaurant was opened in New York City, based on the corner of 63rd street, and First Avenue. T.G.I Fridays is famously known for its red and white striped canopes and it brass railings. Since 1965, the restaurants have now spread too 50 countries, and there are now a whopping 800 restaurants. The restaurants are placed all over the world, including diners in, Egypt, Spain, Mexico and Greece. TGI's is famously known for its classic american food.

Restaurant

After a lot of "ooohing and ahhhing", we eventually decided that our meal would be eaten in TGI Friday's. The day before our meal was due to take place, we phoned, just to make sure a table would be available for us, as after all it would be a Friday night, around tea time. The man on the phone did seem rather grumpy and rude, and bluntly told us that we couldn't be one hundred percent sure that there would be table, and we would be much better off reserving a table. We agreed, and were charged only a little extra. My mum came off the phone feeling rather annoyed about the rudeness and abruptness of the man on the phone, however we decided not too let this put us off, and the next evening we set off to the restaurant, trying to feel open minded.

We arrived at the restaurant and we were greeted by a delightful looking building. Built as a single standing building, the restaurant was a deep red brick colour, with large glass windows, however the windows were all covered with curtains so we were unable to see inside. I was quite surprised to find that there was no sign of the trademark, white and red striped canopes over the window, but instead, an illuminous pink sign reading TGI Fridays' hung above the large wooden doors.
Entering through the wooden doors, we suddenly thanked ourselves for deciding to reserve a table, as the place was absolutley heaving with people. The restaurant was really quite noisy, which we were a bit dusturbed by and were a bit worried it would ruin our meal, however after about five minutes in the building our ears all adjusted to the rambling sound of conversation, and all of the children gurgling and shreaking.

Inside the restaurant, it was fairly attractive. Dark wooden floors, were neatly polished and the cream walls looked very clean with various pictures hanging on. The tables were all wooden, and covered by a white table cloth. Sat on the table cloth were a fork, two knives, too spoons, and 2, red napkins for each place. We were quite pleased with our table for four. It was fairly spacious with just enough room to spread out, and the cutlery all looked really clean. The tables, although plenty, were spread out well so you weren't overly close to other diners. However the table next to us was quite close and each time one of them got up, we had to squeeze our chairs in to enable them to get past. However this wasn't a problem and we didn't mind doing this once or twice during our meals.

As I touched on before, the noise in the restaurant was quite loud which was a bit annoying at first however after a small while we got used too it and joined in with the gabble and the background noise. When we first entered the restaurant I never noticed if there was any music playing and it was only when I was just finishing my starter that I actually noticed there was some soothing, but very "In" and "now" music playing in the background. The songs played were fairly modern and very varied, from KT Tunstall, to an old Maddonna song. The music added to the relaxing feel of the restaurant and was a nice finishing touch.

Overall, we were all really impressed by the appearence and interior of the restaurant, and the relaxing feel of it, made or meal all the more enjoyable, and for me perhaps slightly easier to ease my anxiety and nervousness.

Service

After the enconter with the rude man on the phone we were slightly worried about wheather we'd be treated with respect and good manners at our meal. When we arrived, we did have around a five minute wait before we were seen by any of the waiters, and when we were eventually greeted by a rounded, grey haired woman, she sounded rushed off her feet, and determind to get us seated and ordered within 5 minutes. We found this a bit annoying as the second we sat down at our seat we were expected to order our drinks and to scan the menus straight away. However after ordering our drinks we asked if we could have a little while to decide on what we wanted before having too order. She seemed a bit taken a back at this, but left all the same.
Our drinks came within 5 minutes, and when they arrived we were told that someone would be back shortly to take our order. Shortly could have been an overstatement as we weren't visited by a waiter for another 15 minutes. Luckily though this meant we had plenty of time to decide on what we wanted too order.

When we were eventually seen, the lady seemed just as rushed as ever and when my brother was still deciding between two main courses she tutted and huffed like a baby. My mum quite happily, and cleverly told her, that he had been given too much time to decide and was doubting his choice as he had, had so long to wait. The waitress didn't seem too impressed by this comment but gave an obviously fake laugh, as if too sound friendly. Luckily after we had ordered we were appointed with a different waitress which pleased us fine. After ordering our starters, they only took 10 minutes to show up.

We were given around twenty minutes before the waitress returned to remove our plates and to inform us our main courses would be with us shortly. Thankfully, this time "shortly" was a short time and around five minutes later our main courses arrived. When we were presented with our meals we ordered a second round of drinks, and these took literally two minutes to appear. We were given a good long while to enjoy our main courses, just under fourty five minutes, and when the waitress arrived back to collect our dirty plates, she handed each of us a dessert menu, fully expecting us to order a dessert. Thankfully we were all thinking about ordering one, as if we hadn't been I think it would have been quite awkward saying "No" to her.

Once our desserts arrived, ten minutes later we were given a decent twenty minutes to enjoy before our plates were cleared away. What I found unusal and pretty good about TGI's is that we sat for half an hour after finishing our meal, chatting, and nobody seemed annoyed that we were using the facilities and not buying more food, and luckily we didn't seem pressurised to leave the restaurant. Overall, the service was fairly good, though the odd waitress did put us off a little bit.

Menu

As with most american diners, the choice of food was absolutley massive, and there was plenty for everybody to choose from.
**

Appetisers/Starters
The list of appetisers and starters on the menu is absolutley massive. Split into two sections; single, and sharing, it is very easy to read and simple enough to see what is what.
The single starters range greatly, including stuffed potato skins with cheese, bacon and chives, varied chicken peices/wings/legs with various different dips to choose from. Tortillas with different dips including a new spinach and artichoke dip, and delicious garlic bread, or if you want something a little different, you can opt for the tomato garlic bread.
If you wish to share a starter with a loved one, a friend, or if you simply want a humungus starter, you can opt for one of the sharing starters. The menu is absolutley massive when it comes to this part, with a total of 11 different options. Among these, Nachos with cheese, tomato sauce, jalepinos and sour cream, onion scoops which are basically onion rings served with various different dips, the "Big Share" which includes, chicken wings, loaded potato skins, mozerella dippers, and various other "pickys" with a choice of different dips.

Mains
The mains section of the menu is once again, massive. The main menu is split into around 11 different sections;
Steaks- there are various steps into choosing your steak meal. First of all you choose your steak. There are a choice of two, New York strip or the Rib Eye steak. Next of all you must choose the two side orders with your steak, you can choose from vegetables, salad, cheesy mash, fries or rice. Once you have done this, you choose your sauce, there are a huge variety of sauces including, wild mushroom and bourbon peppercorn.

Ribs- If you prefer ribs to steak, you can opt for one of TGI's delicious looking ribs. There are a choice of 3- BBQ ribs, Jack Daniels ribs, or sweet southern ribs. Each rib comes with fries, onion rings, and your own choice of sauces, including mango chilli or texas BBQ.

Grills- in the grills section you can choose from a wide variety of different grilled foods, including shrimp, chicken, beef and steak. Each grill comes served with chips/mash, onion rings, and some come with vegetables, salad and extra glace and sauce. If the glace and sauce doesn't come in the price, you can request it for a little extra charge.

Burgers- perhaps the most tempting part of the entire menu. The choice of burgers is huge, and if you are a burger fan, this will be heaven. Among the choices, you can choose from chicken burgers, veggie burgers, beefburgers, cheeseburgers, cheese and bacon burger, and various others. All burgers come in two sizes, and come served on a toasted bun, and served with chips. If you want to go one better, you can order "the ultimate" which is two burgers, served with chips and onion rings!

Chicken- if you want something a little healthier you may want to look towards the chicken part of the menu, however not all of these are as healthy as you may think they are. Among the chicken dishes, are chicken stir frys, chicken breasts in various sauces. Most of the dishes come served with fries, and most with salad or vegetables.

Seafood- i'd never opt for something seafood off the menu however if you are a fan of fish, then TGIs may just have the perfect meal for you. Among the options are salmon and shrimp, each coming served with either chips or mash, and both with a choice of salad and fresh vegetables.

Sandwiches- Sandwiches may seem like a lunchtime meal however at TGIs, a sandwich can be devoured at any time of the day and will not only provide a filling lunch, but a filling tea too. Each sandwich comes served with fries, or salad, and with a choice of chicken finger BLT, which is battered chicken breast with cheese and bacon on a delicious peice of ciabatta bread, served with mayo and and salad, or a cajun chicken sandwich which is a delicious peice of grilled cajun chicken on a ciabatta with melted cheese , mayo and salad, your sure to find something for your taste.

Southwest- the Southwest part of the menu provides some more delicious sounding meals. A huge choice of fajitas including chicken, steak and chicken and vegetable fajitas, and a choice of cajun chicken quesadilla and vegetable quesadilla are among the options.

Salads- if you wish something a little lighter and perhaps slightly more nutritious and healthy, you can choose one of the salads. The choices range from a BBQ chicken salad, a salmon salad and a chicken ceasor salad. Be careful though if choosing this for the healthiness of the dish, as most of the salads come with fried cruitons and a mayonnaise. You can swap these for a low fat dressing or balsamic vinegar though, but make sure you tell the waiter this before you order.

Pasta- something I find unusal about american restaurants is that they always seem to sell pasta? Isn't that an italian dish? Anyway, the choice is as huge as ever. An italian chicken pasta is one of the plainest dishes, served with cheese breadcrumbs and real tomato peices, aswell as cheesy pasta dishes, lingueine and spicey vegetable pasta.All pasta dishes are sprinkled with a generous helping of mozerella cheese.

Side orders- if you are just popping in for a quick bite too eat, or wish to add extra onto your already massive meal you can choose something from the side order menu. These include, fries, onion rings, garlic bread, aswell as various others. From this part of the menu you can also order a choice of different sauces and dips.

Desserts
If you still have room after your massive starter, and huge main course, you can order off the delicious dessert menu. As with the starters the dessert menu is split into two sections; single and sharing desserts. The choice of them both is huge.
The single menu, includes delicious sounding desserts such as Dirt Cake, which is a chocolate brownie fudge base, layered with chocolate mousse and topped with marshmallows, oreo cookies and clotted cream. If you like the sound of that you will also enjoy the Chocolate Fudge Fixation- which is three layers of delicious chocolate cake, rich chocolate and fudge cream filling, and it comes served with a delicious vanilla ice cream. If you aren't a fan of chocolate though, you can choose from a variety of different desserts including, Cinnamon Swirl Cheesecake, Apple Waffle crunch, a Sorbet Martini and Dessert mini mousses including flavours such as chocolate oreo mousse, mint choc chip and blueberry mousses.
If there are two, or even three of you, you can choose on of the sharing desserts, which include a popcorn brownie sundae , a Brownie Obsession and another option of the dessert mini's.

Bar Snacks
If you visit TGI's for the bar only, but then feel the slight urge to nibble on something tastey, you can choose from the delicious options of snacks and light meals being sold at the bar. Some of these include many of the starters, aswell as a few extras such as mini burgers, and a special sharing platter.

Kids Menu
TGI's realises and takes into account that it will be mainly families dining out at TGI's. So, cleverly they have created a tempting kids menu. There are two different kids menus, the Stars menu and the Stripes menu.

Stars Menu- the stars menu is slightly cheaper, and has a huge variety of different kids meals. These include, a hamburger served with smiley faces and vegetables, tomato pasta, chicken nuggets/strips served with chips and veg, fish fingers known as "Pirates fish fillets" which come served with smiley faces and veg, or a jumbo hot dog which comes with fries and veg.

Stripes Menu- the stripes menu is slightley more expensive than the stars menu, but still rather cheap for a large kids meal, as the meals are a fair bit bigger than the stars option. Among the options, are a huge loaded burger, which is topped with cheese, and bacon, which comes served with onion rings, fries, and comes on a warm bun. BBQ ribs, spag bol, BBQ Chicken, chicken fajitas and steaks are among the other options, most coming with fries and/or smiley faces

Childrens desserts- for a small extra cost, you can choose a dessert for your little monster. Among the desserts are a traditional banana split, an ice cream sundae, chocolate fudge cake with ice cream and a delicious chocolate mousse coming served with a chocolate-y oreo cookie!

Drinks- your children can choose from a wide variety of friendly drinks, including regular fizzy drinks such as irn bru and coke which come with free unlimited re-fills. Apple, orange or pinapple fruit juices, fruit shoots, capri suns and fruity smoothies are among the healthier options, and if you want something a bit more unusual you can choose a milshake (strawberry, vanilla, or chocolate, oreo cookie), or a strawberry, lemonade, blue raspberry, orange or apple slush puppy.

Our Food

We all ordered a starter, main and dessert each, in order to sample as many foods as possible. We were thoroughly impressed with everything we ordered.

Starters- when it came to starters, it was a really tough decision but in the end we eventually decided that me and my mum would share a starter, and the boys would both get one of there own. My mum and I decided on the stuffed potato skins. 5 stuffed skins came on a bright white sparkling plate, each potato overflowing with cheese and bacon, and a side portion of spicy tomato sauce. I only managed to eat one, and my mum one and a half as they were so filling. I think this starter was aimed at around 5 people, but my brother did enjoy one of them too so they didn't go totally to waste. The cheese was extremely cheesy and overpowered most of the other flavours but they were delicious and i'd definitley recommend them. Brother #1 chose the chicken wings in a BBQ sauce. Luckily the portion was perfect for one and he managed to finish almost all of them (3). They did look delicious and gave off a real BBQ smell, much like the crisps. Brother #2 opted for the regular garlic bread which he wolfed down before really saying much- it did look nice though.

Mains- when it came to mains it was always going to be a hard choice but in the end I opted for a cheese burger meal which came with chips and vegetables. The burger was delicious but very big and I had to leave about a sixth of it. The cheese was delicious but luckily didn't overpower the whole meal. The bread was soft but with a nice crispiness to it and the burger was perfect- much better than any of the fast food things you get these days. The chips were gorgeous but absolutley boiling at first, so much so that I burned the roof of my mouth. They reminded me very much of burger king chips. My mum ordered the spicy chicken pasta. She was presented with a huge bowl of penne pasta, tossed through in a deep red sauce, and huge chunks of chicken. She said it was delicious but very hot, both in temperatre and spice. It looked scrumptious though. Brother #1 choose the huge cheesy bacon burger. And when I say HUGE, I mean huge. He only finished about 3 quarters of it, but managed to polish almost all of the chips and the onion rings off too. He said the bacon was cooked perfectly, very crispy and the buger apparantly tasted of McDonalds, but in my opinion, it didn't.
Brother #2 having a smaller appetite ordered from the Stars menu in the childrens section. He opted for the chicken nuggets/strips, which came served with chips and surprisngly apple (?), carrot and cucumber battons which needless to say, were left untouched. He was presented with 5 large chicken strips and a decent portion of chips, about half of what we had. However this was plenty for him and left him feeling very satisfyed. He said the nuggets were scrummy, which for a very fussy eater must mean they were good!

Desserts- when it came to desserts I was a little worried as I already felt really full, but as part of my challenge I had to at least try a dessert. So scowering the menu for what felt like a life time I eventually decided on the Apple Waffle Crunch. I was presented with two sweet looking waffles on a huge white plate, with two dollops of vanilla ice cream, sprinkeld with peices of what looked like crumble from the likes of a pear crumble, and real peices of apple. The waffles were gorgeous as was the crumble on top. When the ice cream first arrived it was rock solid but by the time I tried it it was melting and reminded me very much of the real vanilla ice cream we had in New York all those years back. Brother #1 also opted for the Apple Waffle Crunch but mum chose a Cinnamon Swirl cheesecake. She was given a large slice of mainly white looking cheesecake, but with a huge puddle of caramel sauce next too it. She said the cheesecake was delicious but very heavy and she struggled to finish it all. Brother #3 ordered off the childrens dessert menu and he choose the Chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream. He was given a decent size slice of deep and rich looking chocolate cake, and a seperate bowl with two scoops of vanilla ice cream. The cake gave off a delicious chocolate smell and judging by the look on his face, he enjoyed it very much.

Drinks- Among the drinks choices are the usual soft drinks, coffees, teas, and alchoholic drinks. My mum had a caramel flavoured coffee which she enjoyed so much she ordered another, I had 2 glasses of fizzy lemon and lime water, brother #1 had 2 bottles of coke, and brother #2 had a glass of water and an oreo milkshake which we said was gorgeous. Not going to go into detail about drinks, as all drinks are really the same!

Prices

The prices in TGI's are fairly decent, not too expensive but definitley not cheap. Appetisers range from a decent £3.99 to a whopping £15. Depending of course on what you order for example, the Chicken wings are £3.99 but the huge sharing platter is almost £15.
Mains depends greatly on what you order. Prices start at around £8, and can shoot all the way up to almost £30, again depending on what you order. For example the burger meals are £8-£16 depending on what, and what size you order and most of the pasta meals are around £10.
Desserts aren't overly cheap either but are definitley worth the money. Single desserts range from £3.99 to £6.99, for example the apple waffle crunch is £5.49 however the cheesecake is only £3.99. The sharing desserts range from £6-£8 depnding again on what you buy.
Childrens meals are varied again according to size. The stars menu comes in at a brilliant £2.99 but if you want a stripe meal the price will be boosted up to £4.99. The desserts on the childrens menu are between 99p and £2.99, for example the banana split is £1.79.

Facilities

The facilities in TGI's are very good. The toilets are spacious and very clean, with six toilets for woman, and six toilets for men. There is also a disabled toilet, and disabled access into the restaurant. As the restaurant is all on one level it is easy for wheelchair access. TGI's provides "fun packs" to children under the age of 10, which include paper, crayons, a balloon and a small plastic toy. For toddlers, there are a couple of high chairs available, around 8 per restaurant which is an average number. The cleaning and upkeep of the restaurant is really good and everything is kept really clean.

Dietry Information

I am not going to list all of the ingredients and calories for the restaurant however if you want to check this out, you can visit http://www.tgifridays.co.uk/Menu-Dietary-Information. Although not all of the dishes are suitable for vegetarians, there are plenty of veggie dishes and these are clearly marked on the menu with a green V sign.

Overall i'd definitley recommend TGI's, suitable for everybody, including the disabled its perfect for a family meal out.

**

SweetTooth 93 

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