JEDDAH, , 20 November — Friday’s is a fun place. It’s a restaurant with attitude. They play loud music and wear colorful outfits that are funny looking. The decor is somewhat strange for they have some weapons, tools, saxophones, license plates, shoes, and lots of other junk on the walls. They call it memorabilia. Allen Stilman, first established Friday’s, in the US, in 1965.

The idea behind the name is that it’s a place where it’s always Friday — in other words, it’s always your day off so you can be in a jolly spirit and kick back, relax and enjoy yourself.

When Friday’s first opened in Jeddah, people complained that the food wasn’t good. A colleague told me it was horrible. She complained of slow service and oily food. Someone else said that it was definitely not a two thumbs up place. But I think that we should cut them some slack. I’ve noticed that people in this town have very negative attitudes. I’ve been to Friday’s three times now just to make certain my judgement is correct.

Friday’s is by no means a posh restaurant. It’s a hip place for young people. It’s more like a diner than anything else. People should know what to expect before they go. The food is mostly Mexican so we should expect some oil. They have some wonderful salads and also some pastas for those who are afraid of a little oil.

The Cajun chicken salad was amazing; it comes with the dressing on the side. The Caesar salad was also good. The starters are out of this world.

They have mozzarella cheese sticks and fried calamari. They also have yummy potato skins but go easy on the sour cream, you weight watchers! I loved the chicken quesadillas and the cheese nachos. The best though was the jalapeno poppers.

Other delicious dishes were the chicken fingers and the fried shrimp. I also recommend the soup of the day. It was a heart- warming mushroom soup. The steak was very good — both tender and juicy. The fettuccine was nice and creamy.

I have to admit that most of their drinks are artificially flavored and I could tell. There was one though which was really good — the refreshing huge strawberry margarita.

And now for dessert. I have to say the chocolate cake was so rich in flavor. The mocha mud pie was so deliciously good but too cold to eat. You should definitely try it specially coffee fans.

They also have a wonderful dessert called Oreo cookie madness. And now for the absolute best dessert ever. They have an apple crumble dessert. It looks kind of strange because it’s all crumbled up on the plate. It does look kind of messy but I tell you the average length of pleasure from a bite of dessert lasts about 4 seconds for me. Each bite of this dessert lasted a whole 10 seconds. So for longer lasting pleasure, try it. It comes with ice cream and it’s filled with cinnamony goodness.

Friday’s have arranged a special Ramadan menu with reduced prices, for only SR55 plus15% service charge. The drinks are laban, gamaradeen and tamarind juice. Then there is a fatoush salad platter with either lentil soup or soup of the day. Then you have a choice of delicious combo fajitas with spicy Spanish rice or fillet steak, which is like a beef stroganoff. Also there is fish & chips and mushroom chicken.

Last but not least for dessert, they have fruit salad and chocolate fudge cake.Friday’s is on Al-Andalus Street next to Hardees’s. The number is: 6529330