TGI Friday's in Glasgow is located in the city Centre amongst all the shops, on the popular road of Buchanan Street. I am not familiar with Glasgow as we were only there for the weekend to do some Christmas shopping as by boyfriend was currently working there for the week. However it is very easy to find as it is on the corner of one of the crossing streets, and has the large TGI Friday logo outside the building.

We haven't been to TGI Friday's before so didn't know what it would be like, but we knew that the chain of restaurants where very popular and had an American influenced menu and also décor which can be seen in every TGI restaurant you go in with the bold red and white colours and the pictures and furnishings on the walls.

We went on a Saturday night so expected the restaurant to be busy as it was also in a popular area, and we went at around 8pm when a lot of people had finished shopping and where looking for food and when people where beginning there Saturday night out.

~~queuing time~~

When we went into the restaurant there was a little queue, when we got to the front we where greeted by two members of staff who where very friendly, they informed us that there was a wait of 30 minutes for a table for two. They said that if we wished to wait we could go through to the bar and have a drink; my partner asked if we could put our name down on a booking and come back in half and hour as he noticed that the bar in the restaurant was very busy. The staff took our name and said we were welcome to come back in half an hour; we disappeared for a drink in a local pub which was definitely cheaper than TGI Fridays bar and far less quiet.

When we went back to TGI Fridays the queue was out the door, just showing what a great place it was to eat food. My boyfriend went to the front of the queue and informed the staff we had booked a table. Couple of minutes later we where being led through the doors and into the restaurant to our table, much to the disgust of the people in the queue, where the wait had now gone up to 40 - 50 minutes, lesson learnt on a Saturday night book in advance even if it is for TGI Fridays.

~~Atmosphere~~

Once we where seated at our table, the waiter took our drink order and left us to read the menu. We then realised why the wait was so long the restaurant was incredibly busy with the staff all running around trying to take orders. The restaurant bar in particular was very busy with people waiting to be seated. The fact that the restaurant was so busy did not spoil our evening as people around us where nice and quiet and we were seated out of the way so that the only people walking past us were the waiter/waitress going to the larger table nearby. If you are after a romantic meal with your beloved this is not the place to go, TGI Fridays is a lively crowed, and often busy restaurant. By no means does mean that it is bad it just means it is very popular and they try and get as many people in for food as they can.

~~Decisions ~~

One glance at the menu had my mouth watering all the delicious well known American influenced; typical restaurant food, burgers, ribs, nachos and steaks.

Me and my boyfriend finally decided to have a shared platter of Chicken Fajita Nachos, for our starter, the menu description is Crisp tortillas topped with chunks of chargrilled chicken breast, red & green peppers, spicy jalapenos, onion and melted cheese, Served with guacamole, pico de gallo and sour cream. All I can say is that they certainly didn't last long they where lovely, we have never had chicken on nachos before and it was a lovely surprise it gave the nachos more depth, and different taste sensations, my boyfriend doesn't normally eat a lot of nachos as he feels that it doesn't fill him up but he devoured these it was a race to eat some before he scoffed them all. I would recommend choosing the chicken nachos and the dips as they are nice twist and a normal nacho dish.

For my main course I had a rib eye steak with mushroom sauce and chips, where my boyfriend had a Rib eye surf and turf with Jack Daniels sauce both came with chips and two onion rings, a nice large plate full of lovely food. As usual the sauces; Wild Mushroom and jack Daniel's came in little pots along with the steaks. We both choose to have our steaks medium, I normally worry that they do it too pink but I was very happy with the steak, it had a lovely pinkish colour and was very nice and juicy with no blood in sight. This sometimes can happen with medium steaks that are just not cooked enough. Both steaks where a very good size and so was the portion on chips, for the price we paid I was happy with the portion size we roughly paid between 14.99 and 16.99 for our two main meals I am not sure but you can find a full menu specific to each restaurant on there website www.tgifridays.co.uk

What sold me the most on the menu was my boyfriends Jack Daniel's sauce it was divine. It had a lovely sweet taste that went perfect with the steak and chips. I am very fond of sweet tasting sauces so my boyfriend happily swapped his jack Daniels sauce for my wild mushroom sauce. I will definitely be purchasing the jack Daniels Sauce separately when I next go shopping as it was the perfect accompaniment to my steak. However the sauce my not suit some tastes which is why we where happy that it came in a separate pot so that you could pour it over the steak.

Dessert

When we go out for a nice meal we tend to share a dessert as we are normally so full from the meal that we cannot eat all to ourselves. The menu at Glasgow has five different individual desserts and 3 desserts that you can share. As we where very full from the lovely food we decided to share an individual dessert, we had the lovely Cinnamon swirl cheesecake. It was the right size for us to share and not overpower our stomachs as we really enjoyed the unusual flavour of the cheesecake as normally they are vanilla, or fruit flavoured.

The entire meal cost us about £53 including an alcohol drink each and a refillable soft drink. This can be on the expensive side for a meal for two but the food was lovely just what you would expect from a restaurant that is middle range, not too expensive but also not pub food.

~~overall opinion~~

I would recommend the TGI Friday's restaurants to my friends and family particular the Glasgow city centre one as my experience with them was very pleasurable and I would definitely visit the restaurant again. The food was lovely and very well prepared with options available to suit many people's tastes. The Glasgow City restaurant has lovely staff; who where pleasant and polite and very attentive though out the service. As we went on a Saturday night at peak time the restaurant was loud and very busy but this did not spoil my evening as the staff appeared to be able to cope with the pressure. The meal was reasonably priced for a nice night out together, but too expensive to make it a regular outing. I will certainly be visiting other TGI Friday's in my home area to see if also offer the good standard of service that was present in the Glasgow city Centre.