TGI Over (TGI Fridays)

Member Name: MaryanneH

Product:	TGI Fridays
Date:	07/11/05 (428 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good food

Disadvantages: Noisy and expensive

With a title like that you may be expecting a very negative review, but there were many positives about our experience. I will start with the natural question:

What is TGI Friday?

TGI's are a chain of restaurants that are now pretty much worldwide, the TGI bit standing for 'Thank goodness its', but as with most of our fast food chains, it originated in the States and is very much an American steak house. They are branded to the core, red and white stripes throughout, tableware, waiting staff, the lights in the toilets. As also seems standard of American restaurants they have loads of 'stuff' attached to the wall, in the one we were in it seemed to be car parts, so they went round removing number plates, indicator lights even a couple of bicycles from the local neighbourhood, to decorate their restaurant with! (In fairness it did all look very shiny and new.)

The restaurant we visited was on the Hagley Road in Birmingham following a very enjoyable morning watching Disney on Ice. It has been a long time since my last visit, and even though it was a spur of the moment thing, I was really looking forward to it. We were a little concerned when we saw a face painter in the foyer, thinking that it would be really busy and we wouldn't get in, but the greeter found us a table and we were seated straight away.

My memories of TGIs were people trying to do a Tom Cruise mixing the cocktails behind the bar, but that was not the case today as being a Sunday lunch time, and at least 3 large tables laid up for kids parties there probably wasn't much call for mixing up a large 'sex on the beach'.

The Menu

Naturally the first experience of any restaurant is the menu, it was very easy to follow and had a little section that flapped open so you could always see the optional extras, and as a marketing ploy I am sure it works, even I ordered a garlic bread. The menu was very American, lots of steak, many things cooked in BBQ sauce, and I am probably more of a continental girl myself, prefer a mozzarella with basil, to a Monteray Jack so if you are not a fan of American style BBQ smoky sauces, you may struggle. My initial reaction was the price, I did feel that for the kind of meals they were offering an average of £12.99 was a little on the expensive side. Although, I will say that the portions were good. There is a good range of food, the salmon on salad looked particularly nice and they do some good sharing options with spare ribs, and a range of dips. Although, I know its a steakhouse, but very thin pickings if you are a vegetarian.

The children's menu is very restrictive and to be perfectly honest you may as well be in Macdonalds, the only thing on there that you would me able to get is a spaghetti bolognaise. I will say though, they do provide free baby food.

If you would like to see more on the menu TGI have a very good website (well branded again) and you can check the menus for each of their branches - www.tgifridays.co.uk

The Service

Well I have to say, this was great! TGIs always seem to employ young staff and in this case there were plenty of them and they were very enthusiastic, polite, efficient and at no time were we say there thinking 'where are they?' They were incredibly busy, but we never felt we had to wait.

The Food

What you see, is what you get - it was very nice, I was watching the plates going back to the kitchen and it wasn't just ours that went back empty, and you certainly didn't feel that it should have been more. I could have managed a pudding, but my bank balance said noooooo! They did look nice though!

So why the title? This is me, being me. Today is November 6th, I really don't want to be listening to 'The greatest Christmas album in the world ever' or whatever its called, Its not Christmas yet, however much nobby whatsisname shouts that it is. It was also very loud, not possible for natural conversation. My other issue was that we were placed under a large screen television, it was only showing news but a young lad, who was obviously very bored was staring at it, and I really felt quite uncomfortable.

So all in all, an ok experience, my kids enjoyed it, the food was good and I may go back, but the value for money factor wasn't really there for me, for a little extra on the bill and go to one of our local manor houses and enjoy a unique meal cooked by a top chef.

If anyone is planning on going over the next month check out this url: www.tgifridays.co.uk/promotion/november_third_off_ partner_343/?source=search it contains a voucher for a third off.

Summary: Not a bad experience overall