Believe it or not, but the first time I heard about TGI Friday's was many years ago, before coming in this country, in Seoul, South Korea. I did not go for food but for drinks, before hitting a Korean BBQ joint for an amazing Bulgogi.
So, this time, I went to TGI Friday's in Iselin, New Jersey, for lunch. It was a Saturday and the restaurant was not that crowded. The service was very courteous and efficient.
It was served with a pretty good marinara sauce. I liked it: it was golden brown, tasty and not greasy at all. The inside was very gooey. It came very, very hot!
The second appetizer was spinach flatbread.
That was also very good: the flatbread was crispy and the tomatoes added some freshness to it. I was surprised to like it because I am not a big fan of spinach (except a la creme...), but I guess the cheese on top helped...
For the healthy conscious, they propose a grilled chicken cobb salad.
We got it without the chicken. It was made with slices of avocado, eggs, tomatoes, bacon and crumbled blue cheese. It was simple, but good.
The next dish was fried shrimp with seasoned fries and cocktail sauce.
I think it was my least favorite: too much breading on the shrimp. Too bad because they were perfectly cooked, golden brown on the outside, crispy and not greasy.
Then came the cheese burger.
I heard that TGI Friday's was known for the burgers so I had to try one! The burger was made of black angus beef: it was very tasty and I would add that it tasted like... meat! It was topped with two slices of cheese (I hate when restaurants only put one very thin slice of cheese on a burger!), red onion, lettuce and tomato. The bread was a brioche bread that was toasted. I really enjoyed it. Of course it is not comparable to BLT Burger, Shake Shack or Corner Bistro, but it was pretty good! It was served, similar to the fried shrimp, with French fries, regular cut that were crispy.
The last part was of course dessert! TGI Friday's serves a bunch of decadent desserts such as the Brownie Obsession (a warm brownie made with Ghirardelli® chocolate-fudge sauce, topped with vanilla ice cream, caramel and pecans).
We ordered the Chocolate peanut pie:
It was: chocolate ganache layered with peanut butter mousse in a peanut butter graham cracker crust, topped with whipped cream and a peanut butter cup. I had a bite of it and it was delcious. The ganache was very good and the layers worked extremely well together!
The other dessert was a vanilla bean cheesecake.
It was made with real vanilla beans, layered with white chocolate mousse and baked in a graham cracker crust, topped with white chocolate shavings. I liked it too although I would have preferred a more dense cake (once you tried Junior's cheesecake, you have high standards!). The white chocolate mousse was very good and light and the graham cracker crust was awesome!
So, surprisingly, I had a great lunch there! You see: it is not because it is a chain that you cannot have a great food experience!
Enjoy (I did)!
