T.G.I. Friday's again!

Name: T.G.I Friday's

Address: Marion Shopping Centre, Marion, Adelaide - South Australia

Burger: Ultimate Jack Daniel's Burger

Price: $23.95 (with fries)

Description: Well-known American chain, with typical American fare

After a great first experience at T.G.I. Friday's in Adelaide, I decided to visit the following time I went to Adelaide. Although the menu is quite expansive, I had to go for another burger. The Jalapeno Burger I had last time was great.

This time I decided to go with the Ultimate Jack Daniel's burger. My mate had this burger the last time I visited TGI Friday's. He said it was great, so I had to have a go. 

A bit pricey for a burger. But it does come with a fair few ingredients. And it's huge.









The burger was pretty damn big!

• As per the menu above, the burger contained:
  • Bun
  • Toasted Bun
  • Fried onion rings
  • Bacon
  • Jack Daniel's Sauce
  • Monterey Jack Cheese
  • Beef Pattie
  • Beef Pattie
  • Lettuce
  • Bun

The sexy part. Apologies for the extremely poor quality shot! 

Beef:

As with last time, the beef was pretty damn good. Not too heavy on the seasoning, and a great beef flavour. Perhaps best of all though, there were two patties! You'd be pretty picky if you could complain much about these.

Cheese:

Monterey Jack. Sharp, salty. And very melty. I know melty isn't a word, but I'm making it one.

Perfectly melted, lots of it. I could taste the cheese. It didn't go missing, as it does in many burgers. I would normally say it could have done with a little more, but this burger had quite a few non-traditional additions, so it actually worked well over all.

Bun: 

Although the bun was fairly standard, it was toasted to perfection. It also had sesame seeds. It added a great crunch and toasted flavour. Other burger vendors: Y U NO DO THIS?

Extras:

At first, I wasn't so sure about the list of extras. Onion rings and Jack Daniel's (a sweet barbeque sauce) are not so common. But they work oh-so-well together. They worked perfectly together. The sauce wasn't overwhelming (like many BBQ type sauces are), and the onion rings were extremely tasty and beautifully crunchy. The lettuce added a bit of freshness. When combined together, they worked amazingly well. One complaint however - there could have been more bacon. As you can see in the first picture, there was only one small piece of bacon. Having said that, it was very well cooked. Crispy and bacony delicious.

As you can see, the sauce was on the side. A great idea. It allowed me to control the amount of sauce on my burger. I don't like too much, as I want to taste the meat and cheese. Fantastic!

Fries:

Once again, they were fantastic. Fresh, tasty and perfectly salted. Can't really ask for more.

Verdict:

If you weren't convinced by my last TGI Friday's review, please listen this time! A great burger, regardless of the fact it's far from traditional. The only problem with this burger: It will make it very hard to decide whether or not I should try something new during my next visit to the place.

Meat

4/5
Cheese
4.5/5
Bun
4/5
Extras
3.5/5
Fries

4.5/5

Total:

4.1

(DO IT!)

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Update: Burgers and more!

Hi all.

We've decided to start doing reviews of foods other than burgers. While we are still devoted to finding Adelaide and Sydney's best burgers, we thought we would review other fast food/dine out creations while we're at it. Burgers aren't always available, or we've reviewed them before. So enjoy!

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T.G.I Friday's - Marion, Adelaide - South Australia

T.G.I Friday's - Marion, Adelaide - South Australia

Name: T.G.I Friday's

Address: Marion Shopping Centre, Marion, Adelaide - South Australia

Burger: Jalapeno Burger

Price: $19.25 (with fries)

Description: Well-known American chain, with typical American fare

T.G.I Friday's is a huge American chain. It's one of those much-maligned chains, notorious for poor quality food, albeit in large portions. TGI Friday's in ubiquitous in many areas of the US, particularly New York City (in my experience, anyway). I visited one with my sister and best mate "Buddha" in  2009. I loved it.

There are a few TGI's in Melbourne. When I heard they were opening a store in Adelaide (my home town, which I visit a few times a year), I put it on my list of things to do.

 I'm glad I did. Jalapeno burger for me. I'm a burger purist, but I do love a bit of spice. 

The burger, in all of its gloriousness.

As per the menu above, the burger contained:

• Toasted Bun
• Jalapenos
• Pico de Gallo
• Shredded Monterey Jack Cheese
• Tangy roasted green chilli sauce
• Beef Pattie
• Lettuce
• Side of Guacamole
• Bun

The cross-section. Delicous (trust me)

Beef:

The beef tasted like beef. Good start. It was juicy, tasty and plentiful. Oh, how I wish all burgers were as slutty in the beef department.

The only thing that could improve the beef, would be more beef. Mmm, beef.

Cheese:

Shredded
Monterey
Jack

For those of you who haven't experienced the delight that is monterey jack cheese: I feel sorry for you. But I shall explain. It's American. It's melty. It's slightly sharp. It's very salty. It's everything you want in a burger cheese. As George Costanza from Seinfeld said: "If it were socially acceptable, I would drape myself in Monterey Jack cheese". He may have said velvet. I don't remember.

Bun: 

Soft. Sesame-ish. Held together, and actually had a good flavour. About as good as you could get.

Extras:

Not your usual pub/cafe/chicken shop extras here. The Jalapenos weren't excessively hot. The Pico de Gallo was fresh and tasty. The chilli sauce was very tasty and not over bearing. This burger tried hard. But it succeeded. And for that reason, I would love to have its babies.

Fries:

Great! No American eatery can survive without doing fries right. Very fresh, and very tasty. And not too salty. Although I managed to shove half a dozen (awesome) potato skins down my oesophagus before diving into the burger, I managed to polish off the fries. Mainly because they were so damn tasty. I may even cheat on the burger extras for these things.

Verdict:

Go and get one. TGI Friday's, although not your high-class joint, serves up some fantastic food. Burgers, Tex-mex, amazing fries. What else could you want? There's even a bar! One of my favourites in Adelaide. Just goes to show that the "big boys" can serve up something pretty special. It's just my hope that they can maintain this, as they are fairly new to the Adelaide market.

Meat

4/5
Cheese
4.5/5
Bun
4/5
Extras
4/5
Fries

4.5/5

Total:

4.2

(GO NOW!)

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An un-named Cafe - World Square, Sydney.

An un-named Cafe - World Square, Sydney.

The cafe, at World Sqaure. To the left of the left-most pillar.

Name: Can't Remember (not worth remembering)

Address: Cnr. Liverpool & Pitt Streets, Sydney

Burger: Beef burger

Price: $16-$18 (with fries)

Description: A cafe in the expensive part of the city, with a very limited menu

This review is from a cafe I visited with my parents while they were last in Sydney. It was a few months ago, but I've been busy with uni. Holiday time now, though!

We were shopping for a new TV for myself near world square, and got a bit hungry (after we found it near impossible to find a good deal). My Dad saw a nice coffee machine, so decided that the above mentioned locality should be the place we have lunch. The cafe was located on the same block/complex as world square. I don't remember the name, but it was very small inside, and had a few outside tables.

The coffee wasn't bad, apparently. That was the only thing that wasn't bad though. Apart from the can of "V" I guess - it was cold at least.


The burger was similar to any other cafe burger.. in ingredients anyway.

"Burger"

The contents were as follows:

• Bun
• Onion
• Egg
• Beef pattie
• Lettuce

Beef:

A more accurate description would have been "wet cardboard". In fact, I would much rather eat wet cardboard, as not only would it taste better, but its nutritional value would likely have been much higher. You could probably put a dozen clowns in a room with a pile of mattresses, and they'd likely be able to come up with something more convincing.

The beef was VERY dry. It was tasteless. It was quite obvious that beef was a minor component, with bread crumbs and I'm guessing some sort of desiccant being the main ingredients in the pattie. 

Cheese:

I love cheese. I'm harsh when it comes to cheese.

THERE WAS NO CHEESE! Burger? This wasn't a burger? It was a meatloaf with egg and lettuce between bread! Someone call those clowns. If there's any of that pile of mattresses left over, please....

Bun: 

Bland, dry. It did perform it's main function though: holding everything in. But without cheese or any type of sauce, it's job was damn easy.

Extras:

"Caramelised" onions. Egg. Lettuce. Lack of effort.

The only 4 extras that came with this burger. The onions probably met the grill, said "what's up" and left. They were raw. The egg on the other hand, stuck around with the grill a bit longer.

The lettuce, was wilted as as soft as myself whilst trying to choke down this abomination.

And, the lack of effort? Well that speaks for itself.

Fries:

The fries were fairly average. Dry (yet still oily), bland yes overly salted. How they managed that, I have no idea.

Verdict:

You are probably better off dusting off the yellow pages, opening it to "Clown" and hiring a handful of jolly (albeit creepy) entertainers and asking them to fashion a burger out of the aforementioned, althoughcomfortable ingredient. At least it would be entertaining.

Avoid, at all costs. Even if you're starving to death.

Meat

0.5/5
Cheese
0/5
Bun
2/5
Extras
1/5
Fries

1.5/5

Total:

1

(Mattress time)

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Toxteth Hotel, Glebe NSW

Name: Toxteth Hotel

Address: 345 Glebe Point Road, Glebe NSW

Burger: Beef, Bacon and Cheese Burger

Price: $16 (with fries)

Description: A nice little pub in Glebe with British and American food

My parents were in Sydney, from Adelaide recently. They were staying in Glebe, so I went to visit them and we decided to eat near to their hotel at the Toxteth Hotel. 

The Toxteth is a really nice pub. The TAB is contained within the bistro area however, which can prove to be amusing. The menu is quite different to most that of most pubs. Although there is an obvious British theme, the menu is half British and Half American (with the exception of a few typical Australian pub dishes such as Schnitzel Parmigiania). Although the Chilli dog looked great, I went for the Beef, Bacon and Cheese Burger. 

The contents were as follows:

• Bun
• Lettuce
• Tomato
• Pickles
• Beef
• House made bourbon BBQ sauce
• Mustard

Beef:

The beef was good. It was medium to well-done, and fairly beefy. Despite this, it wasn't all that flavourful. It was a good pattie, but not one that would draw me back.

Cheese:

Unmelted, and bland tasting. As is common from pubs, it was standard supermarket sliced cheese, although not the better (for burgers) highly processed cheese. I could taste it, and as such it added something to the burger. But, like the beef, it didn't really make me think twice.

Bun: 

The bun was a rather small brioche bun. It held together very well, and also tasted quite good. All in all, it was a good bun, albeit slightly over-toasted.

Extras:

The standard lettuce and tomato on this burger were decent. Not extremely fresh, but not old either. The burger had both mustard and a home-made BBQ sauce. I love mustard, but I'm always skeptical about BBQ sauce on a burger. They worked OK together. The pickles added a good crunch and flavour. I do love pickles on burgers.

Fries:

The fries were very oily (as is evident from the photos). They were soggy though, so I was fairly happy. They were well seasoned (I don't like a whole lot of salt). I'd have them again, but wouldn't rush out for them. A decent serve of fries, but nothing more.

Verdict:

A good pub burger. Although there were no individual standouts (in terms of the parameters I reviewed above), it worked well together. It just wasn't amazing. I wouldn't be upset if I had to have it again, but I'd definitely try something else next time. My Dad had the chilli dog, which he said was good, but far too small. Maybe a couple of those!

Meat

3/5
Cheese
2.5/5
Bun
3/5
Extras
3/5
Fries

3/5

Total:

2.9

(Worth a shot)

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