T.G.I. Friday's!

When I was a teenager, T.G.I Friday's was the restaurant to go for a date, or a gathering, or just a cool place to hang out. My classmates were all raving over the place. However, I did not have a chance to go there until I was seventeen.

The first time I went there it was with my then puppy love to celebrate my seventeenth birthday. I remember he ordered a mudpie for me, and dedicated a birthday song to me on the jukebox. T.G.I Friday's was at this chic placed called The Glass House then, and the ambience was really cosy and romantic especially at night with dim lighting.

 

The second time I went there was a few years later, ironically also to celebrate my birthday, this time with the big love of my life, or shall I say, the big love of my past. It was another mudpie and song dedication on the jukebox. Because we were still studying then, so places like these were considered a luxury. Hence we only went to T.G.I Friday's two more times before it closed down and exited the country for a long time.

 

Incidentally, when the restaurant closed down, it also closed a big chapter of my life. To me, T.G.I Friday's is synonymous with the ups and downs of my life, the happier times I had, and the sadness when it closed down and my most serious relationship ended.

 

A few years back, T.G.I Friday's returned to our shores. Somehow I did not feel that excited about it coming back, as compared to the uproar I felt when I found the restaurant closed down. When it came back, it opened a small outlet at a corner of a shopping mall, where unless one looks really carefully, one could hardly see the restaurant.

 

Recently, the restaurant moved to this newly revamped shopping mall near where I stay. Last Friday, I went there for dinner. After so many years, for some reason, the restaurant is no longer that appealing to me. It used to be a real treat if we could even go to T.G.I. Friday's, but now that I can actually afford it, I find that the place is not that cool anymore.

 

Perhaps because the structure is now somewhat like Hard Rock Cafe, like a classic American diner style, so I do not find it that unique. And the menu has changed a lot. The food served is more Western / Country style, with big pieces of steak (American cut) and barbecued ribs. And the mudpie I love so much is gone. I ordered a Jack Daniel's sirloin steak, American cut, which you can read about in my food blog here.

 

Still, it was a pretty cosy place. Although now that it is situated in a shopping mall, the ambience is not as good as when it was first situated in The Glass House. Years later, it is still a favourite haunt for kids, as I see so many teenagers having dinner there. What can I say? Kids nowadays are much richer than during my time!

 

It was not too bad an experience overall. I think I would like to go back there again, because the food is good, and for the price, the servings are pretty good! Hopefully I will have a chance to go there for dinner again!