TGI Fridays

Reviews 4

BE

Ben Cruz

My wife and I wanted to celebrate our anniversary which fell on a Tuesday this year. So we resolved to go out to a casual, conveniently-located restaurant and then do the upscale celebration on the weekend when we were not so pressed for time. Going out for dinner twice in one week would be a real treat and would emphasize the auspiciousness of the milestone. Although Fridays seemed like it would fit the bill, it turned out to be a truly poor choice. I wish I had checked Yelp first as I normally would do. But Fridays is a national chain which has clearly been successful for many years so I figured it would have to be at least a 3-star casual restaurant. My appetizer, pot-stickers (fried Chinese dumplings), had a texture suggesting they were frozen in a half-fried state and then reheated prior to serving. The portion seemed ample as there were six dumplings on a nice, oblong plate. But some of the dumplings were virtually empty and the container for the dipping sauce was too small to readily dip the dumplings into. This lack of attention to detail is like when a restaurant puts black pepper into shakers with holes too small for the grains to fit through. You kind of wonder how management doesnt notice something so obviously out of proportion. Both of us ordered Jack Daniels Angus burgers. The beef may have been Angus at some stage but it was like shoe leather by the time it was served to us. Ive eaten at restaurants that are paranoid about being sued when someone becomes ill from bacteria in ground beef. But these burgers were not just overcooked - they had been brutally tortured as though the cook had some deep-seated anger at cows. We totally drenched the burgers in the Jack Daniels BBQ sauce but still found them tough and dry. Not wanting to ruin the vibe on our anniversary, I found the most gentle but definitive way of letting the waitress know about our dissatisfaction (not with her service but the burgers). She apologized but did not seem at all surprised at our complaint. It seemed she had heard this before. She went away, came back 10 minutes later and asked again if everything was OK. I asked her if the burger patties are pre-cooked and then reheated. She said she would check, came back after 10 minutes but did not answer the question. When pressed, she said the burger patties were cooked from a raw state and then offered to replace the burgers. This attempt at resolution came a good 25 minutes after our dissatisfaction was brought to her attention. I politely declined. At the end of the meal, she asked if Id like to take my half-eaten burger home. "Why would I want to do that?", I asked. Having been very polite to the waitress but clearly very dissatisfied, I thought the situation had elevated enough that the manager would soon be at our table. Wrong. Or perhaps the waitress would "comp" a couple of our drinks. Wrong again. Nada. An added insult when the bill arrived. Each of our glasses of unspecified "red wine" cost $8. Thats a price I might expect for a house wine at a 4-star or above restaurant - but certainly not at a fern bar.

SY

Syani Williams

Id give a star and just for our waitress Siani. She in fact greeted us and took us to a table as well after sitting in the waiting area for 15 minutes with no host coming to seat us. SWe ordered the boneless wings which were brought by a different waiter and were cold and salty. When our waitress came back to check on us we told her we didnt want them. She apologized and said she can give us something different and recommended the green bean fries. She came back within minutes with some really good fries. Our entrees came shortly after by a different waiter AGAIN. This is weird. I did actually see my waitress wash her hands after seeing her in the bathroom which is very rare and saw her sanitize multiple times with sanitizer she kept on her so I trusted her bringing and touching my food. The other waiters not so much. Our entrees were sizzling chicken with potatoes. Clearly the term sizzling would mean they were nice and hot....WRONG. And my chicken was burnt and vegetables uncooked...how I do not know. Our waitress returned right after we got them and we explained that our food was terrible again and we didnt like the fact that someone else brought our food. We were ready to go. Last time we were here our service was bad as well as our food, this was its second chance. Siani explained that whenever food is ready anybody in the kitchen at the time can take it out, and that she herself did not like this because she wasnt able to check our food before we got it. :( She was very sincere and apologetic, even asked if we wanted her to fix it or talk to a manager. We said no wed like to leave. She kindly boxed our food for us and brought us our check. She apologized again and it turns out she was new to the store and asked if we had any feedback to pass to the manager to make service better. Clearly Fridays is not what it used to be. Since you have to leave a star on here this goes out to our waiter!! If you eat here ask for Siani. They need more employees like her.

AM

Amar Sethi

Worst service I have received in my life. The employee John took more than 40 minutes for each item we ordered. We ordered the unlimited app and had a group of 6 people. I would give it a zero if I could! John did not check on how we were doing, if we wanted anything else to order or even showed his face. I had to fetch him down and even then he went into the kitchen to avoid me. We were there for at least three hours for 5 app and 2 drinks. For the drinks, I gave up and went to the bar. There we waited a good 30 mins since the only had 2 bartender and a lot of people. Overall, I hate TGIF now since of this experience. I have had minor problems in the past but nothing major but this time it was awful. I never read the google reviews but it says it all. Towson, MD TGIF is the worst restaurant I have been to. I always go to TGIF to take my employees and my friends. Its a good inexpensive restaurant but now that will change for sure. I wrote a lengthy message on the receipt, made sure no one tipped John. On the receipt it has John so not sure if that is his last name or first. The receipt came out at 10:06 April 4, 2016. So going back on the records we can determine who exactly our waiter was. I am not pleased with the experience at all, I am going to take further action on. John made me look bad because I have a small company and I wanted to treat my employees. All employees were unsatisfied and gave me a bad look. I am going to post this on google reviews, send a letter to headquarters and take any action I can. I normally do not post anything if this type but I have grown that hatred for this chain now. This losses my trust in all TGIF and I will make sure everyone and I mean everyone knows about my experience and the employee John, actions will be taken...

LO

lora Mendiola

Was very disappointed.. my 1st experience at a TGI friday and it was very poor... we arrived at noon.. only two other tables took 45 minutes to get our salad and 1/2 a turkey sandwich... .. spoke to the hostes no one came... called on the phone ask for a Manager no one came to the phone....after 35 minutes the waitress shows up and states "well I guess Ill have to bring each item as it comes out".... (2 people were served...3 others still waited).... .ask another waitress for a Manager... took another 10 minutes now other 3 of us served....at which time our waitress informed us she couldnt get the manager because she "was busy getting our food".... ( ..because the waitress we ask about the manager went and got our waitress instead of getting the manager..) ..... The Manager finally arrived at 1245..... he apologized gave a discount... then it took another 15 minutes to get our change back when paying..... we even went to the door and waited..... while waiting one in our group even had time to check her account and saw her card had already been charged.... we will be here all week for a meeting (lunch and dinner) and $100 of dollars that could be spent by a meeting holding over 100 people wont happen if lunch service takes that long.... tomorrow Ill be going to PF Changs...