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.

Ed: After reading this review, I feel like visiting TGIF again… let’s do it together shall we?