TGI Fridays: Croydon, London

TGI Fridays

Date of Visit: September 2013

Ambience

We went to TGI for lunch so it was pretty quiet but the interiors were dark and they appeared to have changed the theme to comic books with marvel stars appearing on walls etc.  The tables were sticky and the restaurant had a funny smell.  It wasn’t a pleasant ambience at all but we were hoping the food would be better.

Food

One reason why we opted for TGI was for the new Tapas menu which was only available on Fridays so we tried five dishes including Cajun shrimps served with Jack Daniels dipping sauce, pretzel bread served with a chilli and cheese dip, mini meatball sliders, BBQ chicken skewers and bacon taquitos.  The better dish was the shrimps which were crispy and the JD sauce is always good.  The pretzel were huge pieces of bread which resembled cut up French buns but it was soft and had the salty pretzel topping but I preferred dipping them in the JD sauce as opposed to the cheesy one.  The meatball sliders were just about warm but not particular tasty – it lacked flavour and oomph.  The BBQ chicken skewers were not served on skewers but as fillets of chicken breast which were dry and you could tell it had not been marinated but instead the BBQ sauce was slopped on the top.  As for the bacon t taquitos – what bacon?  We saw and tasted chopped up tomatoes and onions wrapped in tortilla (cut up in bite sizes) but where was the bacon?  I didn’t find these appetising at all.

Drinks wise we had a couple of non-alcoholic cocktails which were half filled with crushed ice… meaning you didn’t get much juice if you drank it slowly.

Service

There wasn’t many servers around but it was fine because it was quiet and we had no issues/delay with the service. 

Summary

It had been several years since I visited this TGI branch (the last time, a friend puked up after a birthday celebration so we avoided it for a while) but it became apparent why we were not regulars.  The food was neither disgusting nor delicious but it can definitely be improved on.  Surprisingly the portion sizes weren’t bad for “tapas” dishes but there is no use in bigger portions when the food is not up to scratch!  Two words: Disappointing experience.