Nearly 26% Said This Is The Worst TGI Friday's Burger

TGI Friday's has been around for a long, long time. When Alan Stillman opened the original location on Manhattan's Upper East Side in 1965, "Friday's," as it was known back then, it was positioned as a "single's bar" for recent college grads and the quarter-lifers that they would soon become (via TGI Friday's). With patrons six deep at the bar and customers spilling out onto the sidewalk, brightly colored fruity cocktails in hand, Friday's offered as much in the way of an informal social club atmosphere as it did in the way of reliably good burgers, sandwiches, wings, ribs, and the like. Today, TGI Friday's remains firmly entrenched as one of America's most popular casual dining brands, per YouGov, owing its impressive endurance to, among other things, its focus on offering "killer food" to go with its happy hour environment.

What TGI Friday's may not realize, however, is that when it comes to "killer food," its particular demographic is actually quite easy to please, no special bells and whistles required. For example, in a Mashed survey, nearly 25% of the 614 people polled chose the restaurant's relatively old-school Bacon Cheeseburger as their favorite TGI Friday's burger. By contrast, a full 26% of the respondents to Mashed's survey on the "worst" burger at TGI Friday's, chose one that is neither a classic nor even a "hamburger" at all.

Mashed surveyed people across the United States about what they consider the "worst" TGI Friday's burger. The choices included the Whiskey-Glazed Burger, Loaded Cheese Fry Burger, Philly Cheesesteak Burger, Beyond Meat Cheeseburger, Bacon Cheeseburger, and the regular Cheeseburger, and it wasn't even close. As it turns out, the Beyond Meat Cheeseburger is NOT what TGI Friday diners are craving, with 25.73% of 614 respondents calling it the "worst" of all of TGI Friday's burgers. By contrast, the percentage of respondents who consider either the regular Cheeseburger (13.03%) or the Bacon Cheeseburger (7%) to be the worst of the bunch (a total of just over 20% of respondents) does not even come within five percentage points of the hate heaped on the Beyond Meat Cheeseburger. 

In between, the Whiskey-Glazed Burger was deemed the worst by 22.31% of respondents, the Loaded Cheese Fry Burger by 18.24%, and the Philly Cheesesteak Burger by just over 13%. Since survey respondents were not able to explain their reasoning, we are left to surmise that what might be going on here is that, as noted above, TGI Friday's is a classic, and its customers may have come to expect classic casual dining fare. On the other side of the coin you have the Beyond Meat Cheeseburger, which is not even technically a "hamburger," and possibly even more damning, cannot even be considered a vegan option because of its cheese.