In a late decision, I had Christmas off after all.

Leah was also off. Same off day for both of us. Doesn’t happen much these days.

So the question then became … where to go to deal with Leah’s sudden (but emphatic) repudiation of Indian and Lebanese food? (Which accounts for more than half the restaurants in the city, including my favorite, Nihal.)

She said “burger.”

And I said, well, we’ve avoided it for more than a year, but there’s a Friday’s in town.

And how did that turn out?

Pretty much as I might have predicted.

Back up for a moment. From the outside, it looks like all the other TGI Friday’s you’ve seen, and apparently more than 1,000 of them are scattered around the world, in 51 countries. Including in the UAE, in what is known as the Tourist Club area of Abu Dhabi.

Generally, when traveling or living overseas, you ought to avoid chains from back home. Because when you get home you can go to that place all the time, if you want. And the other really good reason not to go … they probably are not going to be able to pull off a big chunk of the menu you’re thinking of because of supply/production problems.

So, anyway, Leah wants a burger, and I’m thinking I’ll roll the dice on whatever I have, so we made the trek downtown, which has been difficult the entire time we’ve been here because of the local Big Dig, which involves running a freeway underground, below downtown, and then over to the port. The place has been torn up for a year, and it’s very hard to maneuver around. It’s made a couple of hotels,  a mall and a big grocery store pretty much no-go places.

So, yes, it looked rather like any other Friday’s. Red-and-white stripes. The “In Here It’s Always Friday” awning over the door. And inside, the frenetic, busy, almost disturbing decor you might expect. (Maybe it was worse than usual because of the “New Year” theme that had going on. I think that’s what the blinking lights and balloons were about.)

The menu was recognizable. But without pork and alcohol, of course.

So, Leah went for the Swiss-onion burger. I took a shot at a big salad, since those are rare here. Especially the sort of big salad that someone from SoCal is used to. I mean, I don’t expect them to nail it, but maybe they will get close? The regular local places, you don’t even try the salad. If they offer one at all.

The Friday’s burger turned out fine. Almost a half-pound of meat, with cheese, and Leah was well pleased with it.

My Cobb salad … not such a success. No bacon, I knew that, but very little chicken, very little blue cheese, lots of diced cucumber and sliced carrots. And the basic lettuce had the bits of red cabbage you associate with the cheap packaged “mixed lettuce” we might buy back in California. Actually, I bet that’s exactly what it was, and shipped over.

And I had the honey-mustard dressing, which was just kinda creepy. A big bowl of a yellow, pasty substance that was so thick you could have stuck a screwdriver in it and it would have stood up.

So,  not a success, the Cobb with honey-mustard-paste. My mistake for ordering it. I also had French onion soup, which was a bit too viscous (flour added?) and not quite hot enough. But it was better than the salad.

Anyway, now we know. If someone here has a craving for a burger, then Friday’s is the place. It’s loud and almost a nightmare, visually, but they can do a burger and fries.

Salads? Uh, no.

And that was our Christmas dinner.