As if You Needed Another Reason to Never Eat at T.G.I. Friday's

If you a regular visitor to Beats & Eats, then you have probably realized by now that I do not review chain restaurants. What's the point? Do you really need me to tell you how good my Chipotle barbacoa burrito was? Or that the fries at McDonald's are superior to all others? Not likely.

However when something comes up that will alter your daily dining practices, I try to make a point to cover it. For example, the inevitable phasing out of the Double Cheeseburger from McDonald's Dollar Value Menu. Expect to see the switch to the McDouble in 2009 which is the same thing as a Double Chee, but with just one less slice of cheese for only $1. Or how about when the McRib (check this link) makes a limited time appearance in the Columbus area? I'll cover the important changes such as those that affect your lunch plans.

Back to my point. Anyone who has dined with me before knows that there are three specific chains that I refuse to dine at: Waffle House, Denny's, and T.G.I. Friday's. Waffle House reminds me of high school and making the trips down to Bowling Green State University to party it up for the night. We always ended up at Waffle House so someone could sober up for the drive home and this stop always included someone passed out in a booth, a thick cloud of cigarette smoke and terrible, disgusting late night food that always ended up on the side of a country road after we pulled over to let someone puke. Denny's spurs on the similar memories from college in the hood of Dayton where the clientele is extra unsavory. But for T.G.I Friday's, I have serious beef with the quality of their food and their attempts to pawn it off as trendy. I adamantly believe that the success of a restaurant begins with the quality of their ingredients. Just last night I made a roast turkey dinner with a Caprese stuffing. I skimped and went for the cheap fresh mozzarella rather than the ciligne packed in water. Huge mistake. While it was still delicious, I could tell a dramatic difference.

In the case of T.G.I. Friday's, I am totally skeptical about any full service restaurant that offers up three courses for $12.99. And quite honestly, you should be to. For my job, I take a lot of people out to dinner and I always let them chose where we go. Knowing this is on a company tab, I would fully expect them to go for a nice steakhouse or a crab house, but in the past year I have been to more Applebee's and T.G.I. Friday's that I would like to admit. I've had dinner with people that go with this three course option and each time it turns out to be a terrible, lack luster decision. The chicken cheese broccoli skillet has a dried out paper thin piece of chicken with a side of coagulated cheese sauce and a few minuscule broccoli florets. And for the appetizer? Deep fried green beans and everything that is wrong with this world.

With that being said, I recently bought a copy of Men's Health Magazine's Eat This, Not That! which operates on the premise that no matter how diet conscious you may be, you're always going to eat out so let's try and make the right decisions while we do it. They even have a monthly email list that keeps you up to date on these choices. They recently announced America's Worst Food of 2009. Last year Outback Steakhouse really dominated the list, but this year Friday's makes a solid contribution. I think this has something to do with the fact that the restaurant chain refuses to release the nutritional information of their dishes - only the calorie count. As in, THEY AREN'T EVEN WILLING TO TELL YOU HOW BAD THEIR FOOD IS FOR YOU.

Let's start off with the salads. Their Fried Pecan Crusted Chicken Salad brings in a whopping 1,360 calories. That's pretty much my daily caloric intake (or so I'd like to think) in one very sub-par salad. No thanks. Don't go with the protein option either as the NY Strip & Shrimp comes in at 1,660 calories. And that's before your Mud Slide, Loaded Potato Skins and Stuffed Oreo dessert.

Outback Steakhouse made it to the list several times again this year and joined by Romano's Macaroni Grill and Chili's Grill & Bar. None of these lists really come as much of a surprise - more so the actual amount of calories, fat, and sodium in the dishes. Just be smart and stick to steamed and not fried and anything drenched in sauce is ALWAYS a bad idea. But then again, so is dining at T.G.I Friday's. Play it really smart and just take your money elsewhere. You'd be better off with a can of Dinty Moore.