Contributed by Amit Uppal
[Rating:3/5]
Very few of us would have come across restaurants that serve food that actually looks like the pictures they have on the menu. TGI Fridays certainly belongs to that category. I have been a long-time patron of the restaurant, and now that I’m staying in NOIDA, I take pleasure in dining there at least once a week. The place itself cheers you up, with a country-style atmosphere, pictures of yesteryear rock stars and memorabilia hanging on the walls. The servers dressed as cowboys definitely transfer you into America’s Wild West.
In all their restaurants I have seen they have ample seating both at the bar as well as the dining area, and I haven’t seen any people waiting outside. As you enter, a cheerful hostess escorts you to an empty table, and won’t ask you that irritating “How many Sir?”. Then you’re be handed over the menus. By the way, they’vechanged their menus recently, and the new one seems to be a bit lower in quality than the old one. It’s been printed on thick glossy paper, whereas the earlier one was on paper though, was put inside a jacket. One commendable point about their menus is, they keep adding and subtracting their dishes every now and then, and I haven’t ever been able to complain about any of them.
Talking of the menus, there are three of them. One is the regular food menu, the Bar menu second, and the third is the one they keep changing from time to time, wherein they have promotional dishes which you would not find in the regular menu. The recent promotional menu has more fish and beef dishes featured. Also, they have a Happy Hour snacks menu, which is available between 5- 8.30 pm when you get two drinks for the price of one.
The NOIDA outlet, inside the Great India Place Mall, on the fourth floor, didn’t start big, as there were very few takers. Initially there weren’t many stores on that floor, so people normally didn’t go to that end of the Mall. But as more places have opened up around TGIF, it’s popularity has surged.
There were four of us on a Sunday, my pals were looking for a ‘cozy’ place to ‘eat, drink and be merry’. So I suggested TGIF. We were seated at a table facing the bar, and Ira and I (my first friend in Delhi) thought of having a look around. Though we both don’t drink (the other two were die-hard alcoholics!!), we really liked the dazzling display of liquor in the showcases. That seemed the best place to sit and enjoy your booze. We ordered drinks for our buddies, and settled at a table next to the Bar.
Now, I have been a firm believer in the maxim – if you make bad food, serve it in a way that the guest is forced to take a bite. No matter how good the food is, if it’s served badly, it won’t get the deserved response. TGIF serves their fare that looks great, tastes even better, and is guaranteed to give you a fantastic experience. We ordered Tomato & Basil Soup, that came with croutons; Dynabites, Cheese bites filled with jalapenos; Roasted Barbeque Chicken, served with two ears of corn on the cob drenched in garlic butter and mashed potatoes; a rack of spare ribs, the best ones I ever had; Broken Noodles and Sizzling Chicken & Cheese, which was a bit of a downer, the chicken and cheese were somewhat bland. Another praiseworthy point, they didn’t take too long to deliver the order, as normally would happen, considering the restaurant was more than half full when we went.
We didn’t have room for desserts, as their portions of the food are large, but I thought of trying a Tropical Delight, a new entry in the desserts section. What came to me was a glass slightly bigger than a shotglass, filled with coconut flavored custard, topped with grated coconut and a wedge of pineapple. It was good, I wouldn’t call it great, but good.
All in all, the food was good, served on time, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, though the prices might seem a bit on the higher side. Oh, by the way, for us smokers, they have a smoking room, where you can blow your lungs out.
Highly recommended for a quality experience.
After writing the above for the Noida outlet, I visited their Raja Garden outlet, at the West end mall, and I would say I was treated with the same hospitality, true to their promise, by the staff there. The service was immaculate, the food good and the environment great. Too bad they dont have a place to smoke in this one! Minus that, the experience was great.
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I have tried this rest. in noida. I’m not a foodie…..so don’t remember the food exactly……however i remember the ambiance was good.Well that dinner was good…….and i liked my stay there.
Hi Hitesh
Thanks for the comment. Surely the place has good food and great ambiance. do let me know your views on the food the next time you visit.
The food is HORRIBLE! First, its so overpriced, second, the servings are so measly which is kind of a blessing since the food tastes so pukey. The lamb on skewers was burnt and had such a bad taste that i had to order a sundae from nirulas just to get over that taste. The pork in Pork ribs was underdone and very chewy, the barbeque sauce was too sweet and the mashed potaoes were watery and yucky!
If you wanna go there for drinks, its fine, but never go there for a dinner please!
@SM: That’s not nice. Which outlet did you visit? Did the management replace your food or address your comments?
@SM: Sorry to hear that, but that happened with me as well, during one of my visits at the Noida outlet. The ribs were underdone, and when pointed out, I was offered a replacement or any other dish on the menu. They even threw in a mocktail on the house. Other than that, I’ve not had any issues with the food there. Maybe it was one of those days..
I am surprised that people have had a good experience at this outlet. I have given TGIF in GIP exactly three chances, but they have screwed up every single time. First time I went there with my friends for drinks and snacks: The drinks were OK but the Chicken wings were dry, potato mash sloppy and pasta extremely spicy and hot (chili-wise). They did not even replace the dishes despite it being sent back, they just replated the whole thing and sent it back. The second time, the food was good, but the service was extremely sloppy, even potato wedges took 45 minutes. The last chance that we gave it was on Christmas eve, we went there during happy hours, but overstayed, it should have been the case that the drinks ordered during happy hours should have been billed at 1+1 and the ones ordered after billed regularly, instead they billed all the drinks regularly, and did not rectify the mistake, saying “your drinks were ordered after happy hours”…. needless to say, I am not going back….
It’s been sliding Abhinav and teetering on the edge for a while now. Comments such as yours seem to indicate they’ve tipped over and need to pull their pants up post haste.