Thank God It's Friday is a movement for many people. I have been to the chain countless number of times when in US. So, when the restaurant opened pretty close to my house in Meenakshi Mall on Bannerghatta Road, Bangalore, I just had to try it out. The mall was unusually empty on Sunday night and we actually got places to sit immediately in spite of not making advance reservations. But I definitely would recommend making reservations as this place gets really crowded on Saturdays and Fridays and waiting time can be as long as 45 minutes. We were quickly ushered to our seats and I looked around. The ambience and surroundings have been faithfully adhered to the original and looks sprightly.
They have a good selection of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages but we decided to skip it completely with the next day being work day. Looking at the appetizers, I would recommend their non-veg samplers or the veg equivalent of it, if you were in a big group. Their buffalo-style original chicken wings are extremely good with a punchy sauce to go with. We finally decided to try the Dynabites or their version of Jalapeno Poppers. Essentially cheese balls stuffed with jalapenos, bread crumb fried and served with a Tabasco - Mayo sauce.
They were crisp, perfectly fried and melted literally in your mouth. If at all I had a crib about this dish, it was that the sauce was cheese heavy and so was the stuffing the cheese balls, totally suppressing the jalapeno bite. It was tad too cheesy for me. A sharper tangier sauce to go with the cheese balls might have accentuated the dish better.
Off we went to the main course. With my wife being a veggie, she chose the Tuscan Melt sandwich - sliced mushrooms between Jack and Mozzarella cheeses, roasted onions, tomatoes on a toasted buttery bread. You can opt for this with a choice of the soup of the day or salad or Friday fries. Little doubt that we went for the fries. The dish arrived and mildly put, was a massive let-down. In my wife's words, it was like tasting a plain tomato, onion sandwich. The cheese flavoring in this case was too less and mushrooms hardly discernible. Needless to say, she did not complete it bringing a tear to my eyes considering the price of each dish there.
Saving grace being the fries, TGIF standard and awesome...!!!
I decided to try the time-tested fan favorite, the sizzling chicken fajitas. This is a meal on its own with no need for any starters or soup or sides. As a student, if you wanted just one dish and you wanted it to fill you up, this was it. Here the dish meant marinated, flame-grilled chicken with chimichurri sauce served with roasted onions , red and green peppers and rice. It is accompanied with tortillas, pico de gallo (fresh salsa), sour cream and cheese.
As the picture above depicts, I found it pretty different from what I was used to. Food is meant for all senses, especially the eyes, nose and then the taste buds (in that order). My sizzler had just a smoked smell to it, I could not smell the meat. It looked pretty bland and uninviting. The chicken fajitas sizzler is meant to be a carnival of colors exploding on your plate.. with the grilled chicken, green yellow and red peppers, bright green sauce, white sour cream and flavored fried rice with tomatoes and bacon bits in it. As the picture above shows, I was a tad disappointed. Well, 2 out of 3 senses down.. hopefully the taste works. Let's break it up. The chicken was well cooked and succulent enough but the green chimichurri sauce on it was thick, bland and not appetizing. The onions were not roasted and pretty raw. The sour cream did not have the sourness in it and the pico de gallo was pretty bland with low flavors. Salt was lacking in the dish and the flavored rice was spicy but not seasoned in balance. Put together, it drove me crazy. I just quietly finished the chicken separately, the tortillas separately and the rice at the end on its own. Quite a let-down, unfortunately.
Now to the kicker... its an expensive fine dining restaurant concept here in India and it shows on your bill. But if I am going to pay that much, which I don't mind, I expect carefully crafted dishes that explode in your mouth in a multitude of flavors. It would be a really tough day for me to venture again to TGIF... probably if i have no other choice at all and I just want to go nearby.
Location: Bannerghatta Road, Bangalore, in Meenakshi Mall
Cost: Very expensive. Above meal for two came to Rs. 1500 / -
Ambience: Nice, enjoyable and comfortable
Off we went to the main course. With my wife being a veggie, she chose the Tuscan Melt sandwich - sliced mushrooms between Jack and Mozzarella cheeses, roasted onions, tomatoes on a toasted buttery bread. You can opt for this with a choice of the soup of the day or salad or Friday fries. Little doubt that we went for the fries. The dish arrived and mildly put, was a massive let-down. In my wife's words, it was like tasting a plain tomato, onion sandwich. The cheese flavoring in this case was too less and mushrooms hardly discernible. Needless to say, she did not complete it bringing a tear to my eyes considering the price of each dish there.
I decided to try the time-tested fan favorite, the sizzling chicken fajitas. This is a meal on its own with no need for any starters or soup or sides. As a student, if you wanted just one dish and you wanted it to fill you up, this was it. Here the dish meant marinated, flame-grilled chicken with chimichurri sauce served with roasted onions , red and green peppers and rice. It is accompanied with tortillas, pico de gallo (fresh salsa), sour cream and cheese.
Now to the kicker... its an expensive fine dining restaurant concept here in India and it shows on your bill. But if I am going to pay that much, which I don't mind, I expect carefully crafted dishes that explode in your mouth in a multitude of flavors. It would be a really tough day for me to venture again to TGIF... probably if i have no other choice at all and I just want to go nearby.
Location: Bannerghatta Road, Bangalore, in Meenakshi Mall
Cost: Very expensive. Above meal for two came to Rs. 1500 / -
Ambience: Nice, enjoyable and comfortable
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