For our friend’s in the US, TGI Friday’s is probably nothing special, but for us euros, it is surprisingly rare to find one of those. In fact, the Vienna TGI Friday’s is the only one in the entire German language area, that includes Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. Is it any good, though? Let’s find out.

TGI Friday’s

• Restaurant: TGI Friday’s,
• Address: Schubertring 18, A-1010 Vienna
• Date: 2019-02-19

They have a website, and it seems really nice at first (they show pictures of the meals, which is fantastic), but a closer look reveals some serious problems. While they do use the Bookatable online booking service, they do not provide SSL encryption, meaning your reservation data is being transmitted in plain text. What’s really funny about that, however, is that apparently, they didn’t get my reservation, although I showed them the booking confirmation. That means point deductions in service, more on that later.

Score: 68,49

For an explanation on how the score is calculated, click here

Honestly, the score is alright, but little negative things just kept adding up.

Burger Bread Score: 5.40

At first, I was surprised by how firm the bread seemed to be without being hard or old. I had high hopes that my burger wouldn’t dissolve into a pathetic piece of vegetable soaked sadness, but again, I was disappointed in that regard. Two of us ordered their huge Devastator burger with 3 patties of 200g each, meaning they absolutely had to use cutlery, which in turn meant their bun didn’t get soaked. Still, they lost 10 HONOR POINTS for not eating their meat the manly way: with their bare hands.

Burger Sauce Score: 5.80

Their sauces were absolute average, but funnily enough, despite being the least saucy guy in the group, I gave the highest sauce rating, simply because I liked their weird mushroom mozzarella sauce so damn much. Unfortunately, their “hot” sauce was “warm” at best, and the remaining sauces aren’t even worth mentioning.

Burger Meat Score: 5.60

Again, the meat was alright, but considering that this is the most important category, alright doesn’t cut it. My friend and occasional enemy Marcel seemed to like it a lot, but he ate it with a knife and fork, so it doesn’t count.

Selection of Side Dishes Score: 5.60

Here are the hard facts: They had a nice selection of side dishes, from broccoli to onion rings (and their onion rings were good, too), but they didn’t have wedges, and you couldn’t substitute your fries with any of these side dishes, you had to buy them extra. We ended up ordering some onion rings for the table.

Taste of Side Dishes Score: 5.60

I didn’t really enjoy their fries, but my enemy and occasional friend Ali did. He’s also the one who liked the chili brownie from last time, I’m starting to think he’s insane.

Selection of Drinks Score: 5,80

Their selection of drinks wasn’t bad, they had smoothies and milkshakes and some sodas. The problem is that those weren’t real thirst quenchers but viscous meals on their own. Would’ve hoped to have more homemade sodas or iced tea and such.

Selection of Sauces: 5.80

They did have some sauces, even fancy ones like the mushroom mozzarella sauce, but most of them seemed similar. I don’t need ketchup and slightly darker ketchup.

Payment Options Score: 5.75

Again, no bitcoin. I forgot to ask about Amex or Diner’s Club, but they did accept the usual Visa, Mastercard, Maestro, and, of course, cash.

Price Score: 3,80

I didn’t really understand the prices. A regular size burger with a minimal amount of fries shouldn’t cost € 15,00.

Service Score: 5.60

I already mentioned that they, apparently, didn’t receive my reservation, despite me having the actual email confirmation and everything. Luckily, it didn’t matter for us, since there was a free table, but it could’ve ruined the evening. The waiter, however, was a genuinely nice guy and brought our drinks and food reasonably quickly, was joking around with us and so on; the desserts took a really long time though.

Waiting Time Score: 5,00

As mentioned, the burgers came fast, but the desserts did not. Honestly, I don’t even know if that’s bad, this way the burgers get some time to settle and your stomach can prepare for round two. Still, waiting’s not fun.

Selection of Desserts Score: 4,20

They only had 4 desserts:

• Brownie Obsession
• Oreo Madness
• Pineapple Rum Cheesecake
• Fridays Sundae

That’s not too bad but would’ve been happy to see waffles and pancakes.

Taste of Desserts Score: 6,60

I have a huge sweet tooth, but I quit most sugar a few months ago, meaning the burger nights out are always special for me in that regard. The problem is that because of my abstinence, every dessert tastes like heaven, and I need to go deep inside me and evaluate if it was really that tasty. That being said, I do believe their brownie and ice cream are worth having, so knock yourselves out. Friend/enemy Marcel took a different route and ordered the banana milkshake, and he gave it 8 points so it must be good, but the ordered it because he couldn’t stomach a real dessert, so his opinion doesn’t count.

Atmosphere Score: 5,80

I would describe the atmosphere as “how a European would imagine an American establishment”. It wasn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination, but it didn’t make me wow.

Conclusion

If you live in Vienna, you should definitely go check it out to experience it once. You probably don’t need to experience it twice, though. Also, if you don’t live in Vienna, but want to come and see what the TGI fuss is all about, I won’t tell you not to do it, but I can’t whole-heartedly recommend it either.

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