Friday's $5 Desperate Menu

"Desperation"

Might be one way to describe TGI Friday's new menu.

If you haven't heard yet or seen the commercial, TGI Friday's just launched a new $5 menu that features different sandwiches and salads.....all for $5.

This is the latest move from a casual dining restaurant to try and survive during these challenging times. In the past month or so we have seen the pricing of entrees at major casual dining restaurants steadily decline. First it was Applebee's 2 for $20, then it was Chili's 10 under $7, and now Friday's has just hit the bottom of the barrel by selling their dishes for $5.

By selling entrees for $5 this now puts Friday's head to head with Subway, Quizno's, Arby's, Domino's, and every other fast food joint out there. Think about this: You can eat a full meal cheaper at Friday's than you can at Chipotle or Panera.

Knowing that this deal at Friday's seemed too good to be true, a group of us went earlier this week to try the $5 menu.

Friday's is a very strange place.

I'm not sure when you have last been there but maybe you felt the same way I did.....sensory overload. I have never seen a corporate chain try so desperately to get me to drink and party. Happy hour signs all over the place flags dangling from the ceiling, red and black colors everywhere. I felt like I had just stepped into a once hip modernized bar from the 1980s.

There was about 7 of us in the group, so instead of trying to decide we ordered about a handful of the new $5 menu items to share that included:

California Club
Chicken Parmesan Sliders
Jack Daniel's Chicken Sandwich
BBQ Chicken Chopped Salad
Cobb Salad
Shanghai Salad
Chipotle Grilled Steak Sandwich

All of the sandwiches are served with fries and you can upgrade to sweet potato fries for $1. (Not worth it, trust me). I tried everything that we ordered and here is the basic rundown:

-A couple of the salads tasted like they were made earlier in the day and left in the refrigerator.
-The sliders and steak sandwich were a little "dry"
-For $5 the Jack Daniels Chicken Sandwich is a serious steal. Well worth the $5.

Friday's is far from quality. If anything it's like fast food in a sit down restaurant. I have never seen food come out so quickly...it literally took minutes for us to get what we ordered. However, for $5 it really isn't that bad.

The original prices of all of these entrees isn't $5. If you do decide to go and look on the main menu you will see that many of them are priced between $8-$9, so the $5 price is a very significant discount. From the looks of the inside of the empty restaurant we were in I think I know why Friday's might be offering these deals....they need customers....bad.

The restaurants want us....but do we want them?

How low are they going to have to go in order to get us in their front door? Is it really all about the price anyway?

I'll let you decide.

Now it's harder than ever to make decisions with everyone offering so many discounts. Who knew $5 could get you so far?