TGI Fridays — Restaurant in Fort Smith

UPDATE: TOTALLY DIFFERENT EXPERIENCE and now the bad reviews make sense. REMOVING ALL 5 STARS BECAUSE OF THE RECENT VISIT..

We went back for a date night Saturday. We arrived around 7:30, it was only maybe 45% full (but more likely 35% full). Our server was nice but not attentive, she spent most of the time in the kitchen cutting up with the rest of the staff. We ordered basically the same meal as before but it wasn't the AMAZING taste of our previous experience. It was 15 minutes before the appetizer came, and almost as long until the entrée arrived. Though we ordered the same meals, THEY TASTED NOTHING LIKE the meals we had a week before on a Sunday evening. I have no idea how they can have such wildly different tastes and textures when they are supposed to be the same. The fries were half as many as before and mostly hard burnt ends. The bread was almost tough and was room temperature. The beef was vile, seriously, it tasted like beef from the freezer section of Walmart. There were more onions on it than meat, cheese, and bun combined. I like onions but c'mon. We were gave up trying to choke down this terrible food, we sat for almost 15 minutes waiting for the server to come back so we could as for our check... If we go back, it will only be on a Sunday evening. The entire staff that was working Saturday night, August 9, 2025, should be fired. ...ORIGINAL REVIEW BELOW... My husband and I had dinner at TGIFridays this evening and our server, Catrina, was beyond amazing. The food was incredible, we really didn't need to ask for anything as "Catrina the amazing" seemed to know what we wanted before we even asked. We couldn't be more thrilled with the experience!! We've recently been re- trying the local restaurants and TGIF exceeded our hopes, while longhorn and outback are the absolute worst east of Kansas. We were traveling the eastern us for union work for many years so we know from experience. Thank you so much Catrina for making our evening so...

This place was ooookay. I hadn't been to a TGIFridays in years and decided to give the one in town a shot. There were four of us eating lunch at around 2pm. It wasn't crazy busy, and we were seated quickly. The waitress was very nice and courteous and took good care of us. Our food took a really long time to come out, but whatever, I'm patient, I understand the kitchen gets busy and what-not. I ordered the BBQ Chicken Salad based on the description in their menu which reads:

"Grilled BBQ all-natural chicken, romaine, kale, green onions, tomatoes, black beans, corn, cucumber, red onions, cilantro, Monterey Jack, cheddar, avocado, bacon, tortilla chips and BBQ Ranch dressing.Topped with Cajun-spiced onion strings."

Sounded pretty good to me. I like salads with a lot of things in it. Anyway, I get my salad, and the thing is SUPER sparse. I'm attaching a photo of my salad, in case you're curious, along with a stock photo of the same salad as advertised by TGIFridays. Did the salad have chicken? yep. Romaine? yep. Kale? nope. Green Onions? nope. Tomatoes? nope. Red Onions and Cilantro? nope. Cheese? Yes! There was cheese! Avocado? One tiny bit of a wedge. Beans and corn? nope. Bacon? nope. Tortilla chips? a few tiny bits. Onion strings? yes, three strings. The thing looked sorrrrrrrry. I could've had chicken and lettuce at home for less than $13.00.

To be fair, the manager did come by and made real attempts to make it right by bringing me little cuppies of things that were missing from the salad. Overall, I was pretty underwhelmed. The staff was friendly, but the kitchen was far off point. This place is a pretty big "meh" for me. Will I come back? Meh,...

I am a very large, unattractive woman. I understand that. I’ve lived with it all my adult life. It is something that causes me to be very timid and afraid of calling attention to myself. Ok, so my husband and I had been driving for hours, we were tired and hungry. We went into the TGI Friday’s in Fort Smith Arkansas. It was not crowded. The young lady at the hostess stand looked very, very carefully over the seating chart and carefully selected just the right table for us. She handed us off the another person who led us, very, very slowly through the restaurant, (it felt like the walk of shame) past dozens of empty tables an booths, to the very back corner of the place, next to where they refill glasses. It was next to a window where the sun was blazing in. It was CLEARLY the least desirable table in the place, and we had been sentenced to sit there. My husband, who is not fat or unattractive, asked for a different table, so she offered us the table next to it. He asked for one further down where at least the sun was blocked. She acquiesced, and we sat down. Meanwhile, everyone was looking at me. I cried. I can’t tell you if the food was good or bad, I just wanted to finish and get out of there. I complained to the manager on duty as we were leaving, and he pretended he didn’t know what I was talking about. He spewed some lame excuse about rotating tables for different servers. Anybody who can read knows that restaurants, especially chains, put unattractive people next to the bathrooms or at the most undesired table in their building. I wish they would understand that all their customers deserve respect and dignity. Even...