TGI Fridays

It has been years since I was in a Fridays and now I remember why: The same old microwaved food, over fried chicken fingers, and tasteless everything else. We stopped in for a quick bite before a concert and left wishing we had opted for something else. It’s funny to see so many good reviews for what is basically a has-​been US chain. It’s true that you can buy everything Fridays serves in the frozen food section of the supermarket. Pretty much all the food comes out of a microwave. Twenty years ago Fridays was a novelty, now there are better choices.
Two stars because the wait staff were friendly.
Never again, TGIF’s.

Always a delight to eat here: ample portions served with excellent customer service and due attention; even those with a limited appetite are not made to feel different when ordering a starter while a guest orders a Warrior burger, love it!

Really can’t speak more highly of this TGI Fridays Restaurant at the moment. Have made two recent visits, party of two, myself and best friend and fellow food critic, Tomas.
I booked our table both times via bookatable, no problems the first time with the table, nice little corner number situated upstairs (my favourite area of the restaurant as the lower level seems to be filled with the walk-​in scum, basic bitches, nedy wee fuckers and non food critics). However on our second visit there was a little hiccup with regard to the table, we were shown to our «table» which was located upstairs — off to a good Start, but when I seen the table I was like fuck no!!! We would have spent the evening right next to the party of two fat chicks beside us, naturally as a handsome, skinny lad I Wasn’t okay with this, also the table was tiny and the waiting staff suggested that my chair be in the most unnatural position as any other way would be a fire hazard. Well it was a good thing I was in the bathroom when they told Tomy this, as if I had been present I would have went apeshit!!! Anyway after putting a stern word in the ear of the waitstaff we were kindly shown to our new table for the evening which was acceptable, spacious and semi-​private, and needless to say I calmed down after this.
After having been seated for a few moments our waiter for the evening, Stevie (who may I say was fantastic) introduced himself and suggested that we download the TGI Fridays app in order to get a discount off the final package! This was kind of Stevie to mention, we immediately made a connection when I noticed Stevie was gay! Anyway he then took our drinks and stater orders, two cokes as usual and I stared with the Jack Daniels glazed sesame chicken strips w/​jack Daniels dipping sauce Served on a bed of warm lettuce and red onion. Tomy went with the mozzarella sticks served with marinara dipping sauce. The starters arrived and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed mine, as did Tomas. Our drinks were constantly refreshed when empty, Stevie had our back!
Now on the to the main, I ordered the classic American cheese burger, garnished with salad, served with fries and coleslaw, Tomas went for the bbq pulled pork burger, also garnished with salad, served w/​fries and a bbq dipping sauce. I was satisfied with the dish, it was everything I hoped it would be, my only criticism is the portion size of coleslaw served with the fries being too small, I was tempted to ask Stevie for another but he had been to kind so I just left it, Stevie had hipster glasses, tattoos and was kinda ripped. Anyway I feel Tomy was less satisfied as he didn’t finish the dish and seemed to pull it apart, devouring only the pulled pork, which he more than ‘pulled’ by the time he was done with it. Anyway midway through the the main course we were enjoying our food when Stevie was behind Tomy, and Tomy unknowingly screamed at the top of his lungs and proceeded to fall to the ground. Stevie then full on shat himself after the scream, and even came over to make sure Tomy was okay. Tomy was fine and in fact was just tying his converse lace… poor Stevie was shaking though. Our drinks were refreshed! Them Tomy noticed that behind him sat a group of these hot chicks from out high school, my attention then immediately turned away from the food and toward them. I spent the next 15 – 30 mins trying to get the attention of a really kindhearted one that I’ve known for years! I was finally able to get the party’s attention by frantically waving from our table for a good 15 seconds, they waved back a Tomy then joined in. It was a pleasant exchange.
Stevie then cleared the table and it was time to order dessert. I went for the chocolate fudge brownies, drizzled in in hot fudge sauce, served with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream and sprinkled with icing sugar. Tomy went for the rocky road ice cream sundae, which I don’t know what the fuck was in it we agitatedlay waiting like a 20 – 30 mins for our desserts to arrive which was on the verge of outrageous. The brownies where acceptable, but not the best I’ve ever had a bit too chewy and chocolatey for my liking. The rocky road seemed to remember a turd in a sundae glass. About half way through our desserts, the herd of hot bitches stated to settle their bill and leave. They had to option but to parade past our table one after the other, each one acknowledged us and said, hello, have a good night, etc. etc.
Tomy and I then decided it was time to leave, we both left a small part of our desserts in a small act of defiance, or a ‘dirty protest’ hahaha, get it? Cause both of the desserts looked like turds. Anyway that was it we signalled Stevie and he was right on the shit with the card machine. Tomas kindly settled the entire bill, an extremely brash move as it totalled half his earnings for the week!

Definitely not going to be rushing back. I had a meal with my family here, picked by my mom as she remembers TGIs to be nice from experiences in the past. I couldn’t believe how much the quality had fallen! My mom had nachos as a starter and we found a sauce sticker inside. When my burger came basically it looked and tasted like a McDonald’s burger… not worth the £12 price tag. We also had the full rack of ribs — small portion but otherwise okay. The service was also pretty bad. We asked for a black coffee and got a latte, when we raised it they didn’t want to change it immediately. Overall a negative experience and wouldn’t recommend visiting.

A lot of ribs and bones it supplied… little sweety style… yummy！It worths tasting…

The cocktails are amazing. The list is varied and staff will recommend items not on the menu. Purple rain is a favourite of mine.

My friend and I decided to visit TGIs on 4÷9÷15 and booked a table for that evening. (I had no idea you could book a table now on the the TGIs website — how handy is that?!). I was a little apprehensive because my last visit wasn’t that great to be honest but we were keen to sample the new additions to the food/​cocktail menu. As we booked out table, we were seated literally minutes after arriving.
We were seated upstairs which wasn’t actually too busy (we stayed until last orders and in our little section, we were the only two left). There were others around the corner from us at the upstairs bar so it wasn’t like we were totally alone. Downstairs can be really noisy so it was actually nice to be able to chat loads (and it wasn’t like we were in a library, just quieter than usual without Happy Birthday being sung every 5 minutes).
I went for the Mexi Dog as my main course since TGIs have started offering an array of hotdog meals. At £8.99, it is one of the lower priced main courses but the waitress (who was lovely) highly recommended them. I was surprised when it arrived in a wide, horizontal bucket! It looked really good and I like the presentation. The hot dog itself was delicious; complete with jalapeños, a spicy guacamole, chillies and Monterey Jack cheese. Underneath the hotdog there was literally a mountain of chips. The waitress automatically brought me a side plate and a hand wipe to use which was definitely needed!
I love spicy food and the Mexi Dog didn’t disappoint at all. The chips were delicious and although I loved my meal, I couldn’t finish it. The Blueberry Mojito was really nice but the Bubblegum Daiquiri was a little sweet for me. The popping candy around the edge of the glass was a really nice touch though!
Overall, this has restored my faith in TGIs! Our waitress was great and really friendly and we enjoyed our food/​cocktails. I don’t think the dessert menu has been updated (which is a shame, cause I would like to try something new) but there is plenty of new items on the mains to return ASAP!

I’m afraid it was a disappointing visit. Let’s start with the good first which was we got a table yay, everyone will know they are constantly busy and your lucky if you can walk up for a table. It took a while before we got asked for our drink request bit this was only an issue as I had a train to catch and didn’t want a long winded affair. The longest wait was for our mains, none of us had ordered starters but for some reason it took ages. Once we got it my cheeseburger was cremated inc the cheese on top. I had two small pieces of onion and some white stuff under the cheese which I think was sour cream hmmm random. It was very dry and wouldn’t get again. My mums meal was supposed to have mozzarella and she had two fingernail size pieces and that was it. My sisters massive hotdog was fine, my sister had no issues with that and you get a large amount of fries. I was disappointed with our food and service and doubt it will be back anytime soon.

I love TGIs but this isn’t the best restaurant by far. Food isn’t as good as other ones (nearby Xcape TGIs is soooo much better and has better deals!!) and on two occasions I’ve found hairs and had money off my bill (but still pretty yucky!). Cocktails are nice!!! But as I’ve just said, wouldn’t choose to go here over Xcape restaurant (just a 15min drive away) as it’s got better deals and staff/​food are both superior!
Strawberry Daiquiri

I have to admit, I was extremely apprehensive about coming to this place. We were a group of previous American studies masters students and myself (or, easier describable as a group of friends) and we seated at a booth table in the corner, under a huge red and white lamp. Walking in, it distinctly reminded me of the Hard Rock Café, but not so in your face.
We sat down, and personally I didn’t think the seats were very comfortable and immediately my arm was stuck to the table — ew, sticky tables.
While looking through the menus, our waitress whom I thought to be very brash and slightly rude, eventually took our drink orders (two of us had already received their bottomless cokes, but us girls ordered a big glass of rose for the Belgian friend, one large frozen strawberry margarita for my American friend, something the waitress loved to point out and a frozen raspberry daiquiri for myself, the German). My daiquiri turned out to be large as well, and my goodness, it was Large. To be honest, the drinks were expensive, even considering the size of them — not that this is something to complain about, but if I am spending £8 on a drink, I like there to be a hint of alcohol in it.
A long while passed, and she came back to take our orders. We ordered: a veggie burger, a well-​done steak, a BLT chicken finger sandwich, a Jack Daniels chicken finger sandwich, and I opted for the classic cheeseburger sans tomato. Now, it was lucky that we had lots to chat about around the table because the food took at least 40 odd minutes to get to us. It also meant that by the time the food arrived, we were all actually hungry. My plate came with some sort of dipping sauce that looked like a cheesesauce. Turns out it was some sort of honey mustard, but not really but maybe something mustardy — but not awful. The fries were delightful. They were salty and fluffy and crispy and very, very tasty. The cheeseburger, arriving as requested sans tomato (big thumbs up for that), was good. It was dripping said honeymustard (?) sauce but it was not over powering. The patty slid around quite a bit so I cut the burger in half to keep some sort of dignity while eating it. The patty to brioche bun ratio was indeed acceptable, the meat was cooked well and all in all, I enjoyed my meal. The others also seemed to enjoy their dishes.
The bill came to just over £90, so I deem this place rather expensive. There was also quite a painful moment at the table beside ours, when the girl had to stand up, hold a plate when brash Glaswegian waitress shouted and clapped happy birthday at her. It was an undeniable case of Fremdschämen to me — I was awfully embarrassed for her. Brash waitress seemed to not realise that we wanted change and took her time bringing it back to us. On the whole, we saw very little of her — and that makes me think that paying £2.85 for bottomless soft drinks does not work (it does at other places, or in the states where people are usually are attentive or you are in control of your own drinks).
One thing I like about this place, although it’s loud, I enjoy the music, it’s a great combination of old school and classic tunes that reminded me of my past (in a good way).
In summary, I will say that I think I enjoyed my evening here mainly due to the company and being able to catch up with friends. I shan’t not recommend (double negatives… oh no!) coming here, but I won’t be rushing back mainly because Glasgow has places that offer better fayre for a lot less money too (student budget, people!), but I can’t say I wasn’t pleasantly surprised by the food (not the waiting staff or the random shouting and clapping of Happy Birthday. The poor girl).

Always been a TGI’s fan, it’s a fancier version of fast food. It’s higher on the scale than pizza hut but not hitting the special occasion dining.
Service is always good, happy staff that are always happy to help. The funky cocktail making is clearly a massive plus side for the majority of it’s customers.
The food is again tasty and is what it is.
4 deserved stars

I have been to this TGI Fridays a few times over the years, then i went to America! I was spoilt forever. TGI Fridays was actually my favourite restaurant i visited in USA. The service, vibe and quality of food was pretty fabulous. So coming back to Glasgow just was not the same. They clearly have not managed to carry the brand over here. The service was friendly, the burgers are really good but if they could just translate the american TGI’s it would be great.

As far as chain restaurants go, this was an excellent one. I hit upon it for lunch because it looked nice and bright. Interior is very similar to Hard Rock. The staff was excellent, from the time we entered the door until departure. Food was well prepared even if I did choose a messy burger. I was a wee bit disappointed in the choice of beers. Nothing exotic or exciting. I was really looking for a local IPA. Nonetheless, a good experience and I’d go back.

All right, time for the American to write another review of an American establishment in Glasgow. This is one of the few American sit-​in chains in the UK, let alone Glasgow. It’s MOSTLY similar.
TGIF’s prides itself on starters. You can find them in any stateside supermarket’s frozen aisle. They’re great here as well. My favourite would be the soft pretzels and cheese dip. The cheese has a sharpness to it that puts it a cut above your typical nacho cheese, and the pretzels are salty and greasy enough to satisfy your cravings. The buffalo wings are on point, too. Still not REAL buffalo wings, but the sauce is proper.
The menu is unsurprisingly small compared to its counterpart across the pond. You’ll find a good selection, but I honestly haven’t been thrilled with anything other than burgers/​sandwiches and the ribs. And even those aren’t quite as good as the ones I’ve had in the US.
As its name would imply, Friday’s also attempts to be the «party night spot» for drinks and such. The drink menu is bigger than the food menu, and it’s filled with a lot of tasty cocktails and such. Some are unique to the UK, as you’d expect. You can get a giant glass for £7−8, but drink it fast because they usually put a lot of ice in there! There’s your excuse to order more. You’re welcome.
All in all, I don’t think it’s quite as good as the Friday’s in America food-​wise, but everything else is on par. It’s a great spot for a few drinks, but they don’t take bookings so be prepared to wait on busier nights. Not as bad as Hard Rock in that regard, though.
No sense in promoting this place as it’s hard to miss, but it’s a pretty good «we’re picky» or «everyone keeps asking ‘I dunno where do YOU want to go?’» choice for lunch or dinner.

I begrudge using tgi’s however it is one of the few established restaurant chains in the city centre that can actually deal with groups and has a wide enough menu to deal with most of my fussy eating friends.
The food is only ever ok never excellent and the service can be slow. We waited 20 odd minutes to receive beers to the table on the last visit.
They have a large cocktail menu that seems quite overpriced. With the 2 sizes not exactly giving much value for money.
The service can be very hit and miss it depends who serves you. One visit the girl was lovely efficient and had a great attitude. The next visit the guy we had was terrible very disorganised slow and not particularly good at getting the right things to the right people.
It really isn’t worth the prices but if you have groups of 6 or more it is very hard to find a place that will take you, although even these guys don’t take reservations.

I know chain restaurants like this are not for everyone but personally I’ve always quite enjoyed TGIs over the years.
The restaurant is bright and airy and on this visit we managed to wangle a booth style seat looking out to Buchanan Street. The servers are all super smiley American style and our waitress, Jill actually was American, so that added to the experience! Sometimes I’ve found the music a bit loud in here but on this occasion it was nice having some cheery tunes in the background.
The menu is focused around a variety of burgers, sandwiches, fajita dishes, ribs and other American classics. The burgers are now all served in brioche style buns and come with a choice of fries/​sweet potato fries or salad.
I opted for the veggie sandwich with salad and balsamic dressing hold the cheese!
For some reason they call it a sandwich but it was just a veggie burger really, all be it a pretty tasty one with beans and spices. The brioche bun was sweet and tasty and the salad was pretty big with a pot of dressing on the side.
I noticed that my dressing didn’t look like balsamic but was too busy with the ketchup to bother, but our lovely server Jill noticed on the way past and quickly swapped it for balsamic.
My dining companion opted for a chicken sandwich (burger :)) with fries and really enjoyed it, although she did say the fries were nothing special.
Now you can’t go to TGIs without getting a dessert and the classic one I love which has remained unchanged for years is the chocolate fudge cake.
Two spoons, don’t bother with the icecream please and we were in sweet chocolate heaven. This isn’t just any chocolate cake. This is TGIs chocolate fudge fixation cake — three layers of chocolate cake sandwiched with chocolate sauce and chocolate runny fudgy yumminess with more chocolate ganache sauce yumminess round the sides. I’ll stop now — anyway it was good!
The service was fast although it was only a mid– week night. I would say I always fine that TGIs is slightly overpriced– roughly £10 for a burger and accompaniment and about £6 for dessert (but desserts easily would do two people). Cocktails aren’t really my thing but I know a lot of people who love them and from a quick look at the menu there’s some unusual and tasty sounding ones to choose from.
Overall a tasty meal and great service and somewhere I’ll definitely continue to visit.

I’ve been to TGI Fridays in the states on many occasions when l lived there and when you compare what we have in the UK to the states they are at opposite ends.
I find the food not quite right but l suppose if you have not been to an original TGI Fridays you would not know any better.
I took my partner with me on a week day for a late lunch, there was not a server designated to our table as we had three servers coming back and forth to our table, I think there was a shift change of staff.
I find the food basic and over rated, not quite worth what you pay for.
Food 2
Atmosphere 3
Service 3
Value 3

I’m not so sure about this place…
The floor was sticky. Like, my feet stuck to the floor. The table was sticky as well; very unpleasant.
I had one of the cooler summer drinks, which tasted pretty much only like ice infused with a sad bit of fruit syrup. The whiskey (I think?) sauce that came with the chicken wings was amazing; the wings didn’t blow me away. The dessert — toffee popcorn brownie sundae — was spectacular. Overall, everything seemed a bit overpriced.
The service was ridiculously bad — we had to wait ages for some drinks; and we were trying to catch the staff’s attention for about 15 minutes straight while three of them were standing at the bar having a nice chat with each other…
Overall, you pay more for the brand than anything else.

So my friend had £180.00 worth of vouchers for TGI and being the generously, selfless soul that he is he decided to let his friends abuse his hospitality. Que extravagant cocktail order: «Yes I would like to make all 10 of those cocktails ultimate» or buying enough food to feed a small country.
I don’t love TGIs and this review is definitely biased owing to the fact that I paid £10.00 for two courses lots of drinks and that still left a generous tip. Lets be fair it’s not TGI’s fault that my friend has more money than sense. It was a busy Friday night so we were split between two medium sized table that were beside each other. Not ideal but we were a walk in on a Friday night so I can’t really fault them for that.
Four of us shared the times square plater. Despite the fact that this said serves 2 – 3 people it more than filled a hole and gave us a delicious variety of things filled with cheese, not so great if you’re on a diet, and a heap load of chicken wings and other things. Everything on this giant plate was delicious and they didn’t scrimp on the portions, if you fancy a good greasy eat this is for you.
So what do guys order when there being treated to pretty much free food? Monster burgers apparently: «A 12oz* burger heaped with crispy bacon, sliced Colby cheese, Cajun-​battered onion rings and Friday’s® mayo on a toasted seeded bun, with fresh cos lettuce, red onion and beef tomato. Served with extra Friday’s® mayo» Please don’t sue me for copyright Mr TGI’s lawyer.
Sounds good, tasted great again the only fault I can make of this monstrosity was that either it or the starter was too big as I couldn’t finish the beast, which was literally the size of my face. As I said before not the biggest fan of TGI’s but in general terms I think their chips could be up there with the best around, the saltiness, the crispyness and the little bit of skin left on makes them a real force to be reckoned with.
Had several ultimate cocktails which certainly did the job as I stumbled out the place when we were done, they were delicious, not sure what they were but they were all different and all nice.
All in all a great evening, we even tricked them into thinking it was one of our birthdays which lead to one slice of free cake and a long protracted happy birthday, followed by three cheers, followed by for he’s a jolly good fellow, followed by some more cheering.
The atmosphere in TGI’s is great as dinners eat, drink and be merry. While I think the food is overpriced, it is delicious and I think it is nice to come here every once in a while just to be reminded how a good chain works. Those opposed to restaurant chains need not apply.
I definitely think the TGI’s in Glasgow is the best in Scotland, but I can’t claim to say that I’ve been in all the TGI’s in Scotland.

The other night was the first time I ever went to TGI’s, because I’d never really fancied it and this specific one is always absolutely mobbed. With promise of large tasty cocktails though, I managed to head along.
It’s absolutely huge inside, with two floors of seating and a giant bar you can chill at, and the cocktails are glorious, but I can’t really find much else good to say about it. The staff, on the most part, are incompetent and incredibly slow, apart from one waitress we had who was great. The food was meh, and the atmosphere is a bit chaotic when it’s full.
If I was going back here it would definitely be for the cocktails. The large ones come in huge fishbowl glasses and are only about £8. Decent value for money!

Ist nun schon né Weile her, dass es uns in diesen Tempel der «lukullische Genüsse» verschlug. Angesichts desse, dass mein Schwager mir diesen Laden als solchen anpries, hätte ich eigentlich schon stutzig werden sollen, denn wer morgens schon gebackene Bohnen, Grillwürstchen und Orangenkonfitüre in sich reinkippt, Marsriegel frittiert oder Schafsdärme mit Innereien und Grütze füllt, sollte eigentlich nicht als kulinarischer Reiseführer gelten oder aber Tipps über gutes Essen geben.
Die Einrichtung ist als US Kette wohl im großen und ganzen auf die US Touristen ausgelegt und eben wie fast alleFressalienketten nicht meins. Zu bunt, zu grell zu kitschig im Retrolook und was weiß ich nicht noch alles. Aber immerhin es ist alles sehr sehr sauber gewesen, sowohl im Gastraum, als auch die Sanitäreinrichtungen. Das Personal ist freundlich und schnell — das wars dann aber auch schon. OK, für die Region ist es auch né sehr preiswerte Alternative um satt zu werden. Nun aber … Für wenig Geld kann man sich also an den Rand der Herzkranzgefäßverengung fressen — die Hamburger sind né wahre Freude für jeden Kardiologenkongress — eben diese typischen Massen. Dazu noch die größte Blasphemie — die hauen Whiskey ins Essen! Schlagt sie ans Kreuz! Lyncht sie! Stellt sie vor ein UN Gericht! In der Heimat dieses bernsteinfarbenen Goldes — panschen die, wenn auch nur Jack Daniels oder wars Johnny Walker unter fast jedes Essen. Schmeckte einfach nur penetrant nach dem Gesöff, nahm jeglichen Eigengeschmack des Fleisches — hat einfach keinen Spaß gemacht.
Naja es gibt Sachen, die macht man nur einmal — ein Besuch dieser gasronomischen Einrichtung zählt hierbei mit dazu!

Friendly service, nice location, mediocre food :)