TGI Friday's

500 Chapel St, South Yarra, VIC 3141

Date visited: 21st April 2012

I love this place.  We have been frequenting TGI Friday's for almost a decade now.  Good service, nice food... not to mention, it is my favourite place for... pork ribs!

AS had the Berry Strawberry and I had the Summer Cyclist, which was orange sherbet blended with pureed strawberries, grapefruit juice and pineapple juice.  It was a bit bitter and the bits of ice kept clogging up the straw.  My favourite for years had been the Perfect Ten, which has now disappeared off the Smoothie menu :(

Summer Cyclist $6.95 and Berry Strawberry $6.95

There was a new share sampler menu with all kinds of goodies.

We decided to forgo that, instead we decided to share our favourite Baby Back Ribs and Loaded Potato Skins. 

Loaded potato skins $15.95 (half serve)

Potato skins were crisp, with melted cheddar cheese and bacon bits.  We had only the half serve.

Baby Back Ribs $36.95

The Baby Back Ribs were chargrilled perfectly, fall-off-the-bone (or should I say peel-off-the-bone) tender and juicy, glazed with their gorgeous tangy barbecue sauce.  I should say, most of the time, the back ribs are amazing.  We come to TGIF several times a year, and 90% of the time I come just for my favourite ribs.  In the years we've frequented this place, I have only experienced the ribs being dry and overcooked twice.  The fries are always crispy and perfectly seasoned.  Occasionally they seem to forget the coleslaw, but I don't care much for it, so I never bother asking for it.  The ribs are slightly on the expensive side, but their portions are big.

I meant to do a post on TGIF sooner, but during my previous visit, it was at night and pretty dim in the restaurant, so my photos didn't turn out so great (and I don't like posting crap photos).  Since I'm doing a post, I might as well review these as well.

MerlinFan had the baby ribs the last time, so I tried their Jack Daniel's Glazed ribs.  These were beautiful too!  Also fall-of-the-bone tender and seasoned with Cajun spices, they were glazed with their infamous sweet, Jack Daniel's sauce.  Delicious.

Jack Daniel's Glazed Ribs $36.95

AS' usual is the Char-grilled Chicken & Beef Sizzlin' Fajita Tower.  Char-grilled chicken and beef on a sizzling platter with grilled onions and peppers.  You wrap the meat and veges in the warm tortillas (on the bottom tray) and then top with sour cream, cheese, pico de gallo and guacamole.  

Chicken & Beef Fajita Tower
(note little girl behind us kept turning around and staring at the tower)

MerlinFan's Baby Back Ribs

Other favourites of the family are the chicken nachos and the New York steak.  We've tried the burgers before and they aren't fantastic - their meat patties are way smaller than the actual buns, and in my opinion, you can get much better value for your money at somewhere like Grill'd.  Generally, TGIF has a wide range of food to please everybody and staff here are always attentive.

Unfortunately, we were too full for dessert, for I would have loved to take a photo of my favourite Brownie Obsession :(

On the way home, we were attacked by....

Aaaahhhh!!!

It's a monster bee!

No, not really.  It was actually just a regular bee which happened to land on the windscreen but on photo, looking strangely like a flying, ginormous insect.

On the way home, we couldn't resist making a small pitstop to McDonald's for their very sweet (not sweet sweet, but Dude Where's My Car "sweeeee-eeeet!") 30 cent ice-cream.

A satisfying end to a nice lunch.



<a href="http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/71/761841/restaurant/Melbourne/South-Yarra-Toorak/T-G-I-Fridays-South-Yarra"><img alt="T.G.I Friday's on Urbanspoon" src="http://www.urbanspoon.com/b/link/761841/biglink.gif" style="border:none;padding:0px;width:200px;height:146px" /></a>