TGI Friday's 3 Course Meal for $12.99 Review

It’s tradition of That’s All Folks to take advantage of low-priced quality food from chain restaurants and when TGI Friday’s relaunched their 3 Course Meal for $12.99, we weren’t gonna miss it this time.  Our first restaurant chain review of Applebee’s didn’t go well at all and our second chain review of Chili’s was pretty awesome.  TGI Friday’s has always been a favorite in the Smith household but how would their menu options and food quality hold up this time?

As is standard operating procedure, we patronized the TGI Friday’s restaurant located in the Biscayne and 146th Shopping Plaza.  The Mrs. and I have been to this one a few times before, always walking away satisfied.  We arrived at 6pm sharp and after a 15 minute wait for the dining room, we were promptly seated at a wobbly table next to a screaming brat!  If any of you reading this are married, then you know that when your wife is not happy, she can stare a burning laser through your eyes right into the back of your brain.  Well the second we sat down, I could feel that laser and knew that we had to move.  Luckily for us, there was an open booth available and we quickly scampered over.

Our waitress found us fast and promptly brought out the Pepsi and water, ready to take our orders.  Mrs. Smith decided to go with the Pot Stickers as an appetizer, Parmesan Encrusted Chicken as the entrée and finished off the meal with a Brownie Obsession.  I on the other hand opened with the safe selection of Fried Mozzarella Sticks, ventured into new territory with the Ultimate Sicilian Chicken Sandwich and closed shop with the Vanilla Bean Cheesecake.

The appetizers came in good time and were both delicious.  You simply can’t go wrong with mozzarella sticks, no matter you situation or your tastes and the pot stickers that the Mrs. ordered were quite tasty.  Portions were six a piece and unlike the deals at Chili’s and Applebee’s, these were regular sized and very fulfilling.

Just as we were wrapping up our first course, out came the second.  My chicken sandwich looked quite impressive, with a good size chicken breast hidden underneath a healthy helping of cheese, pepperoni and ham.  The chicken across from me also had a nice appeal and including with the wife’s meal was a tomato and mozzarella salad and some crazy lookin’ orange and green three cheese tortellini in spinach Alfredo sauce.

I swear I looked away for a second and by the time I brought my eyes back to the table, Mrs. Smith had finished everything.  For me, I was somewhat disappointed because with my first bite, I knew this was going to be a difficult finish.  The pepperoni that was on my sandwich, while not of great quantity, had such a bite to it that it’s the only thing I tasted.  After eating half the sandwich, I had no choice to but to remove the red monster, at which point I tasted all of the other things.  The sandwich without the pepperoni wasn’t bad at all but with it, was almost inedible.  Booooooooo.

Needing something strong to wrap up the meal, the desserts arrived in decadent fashion.  My vanilla bean cheesecake was like something out of a magazine, elegantly pieced together, drizzled with chocolate sauce and vanilla chips on top.  Just thinking about it makes my mouth water and sadly, I must admit that I couldn’t even finish the whole thing.  The chocolate mountain of chocolate that Mrs. Smith was working on had pecans on it, which are little pieces of certain death for me so I couldn’t tell you how it tasted but her reactions tell me it was pretty awesome.

All in all, if you remove the bumps that are the wait and the initial seating arrangements, the overall experience was fantastic.  With tax and tip, the bill was $35.00 and had my entrée selection been different, it could have been a “perfect” meal.  The value and portion size of the 3 course meal for $12.99 is fantastic but just make sure that if you visit a TGI Friday’s, you avoid the pepperoni.