Was pleasantly surprised by this place on a busy Friday night.

Couldn't get into the Churrasco in Dempsey this evening (can't eat at 9pm with kids in tow) so carnivore lusts turned into a hunger for lots of good ol' American food.

Hadn't tried TR before so did not have any reputation/ preconceptions except that we knew it was an American chain.

After queuing up for 20 mins outside (a bit annoying as they have an internal entrance- albeit smaller one), we were ushered to a decent table. The service was friendly and quite efficient once getting inside. Actually the bar and high stool tables weren't being offered to the long line of punters which I found a bit odd- but these got filled up much later in the night.

Anyway, we were 3 adults, one 4 yr old and a newborn baby so we had 3 combo platters with the 4 Original Cokes-for-$10 promotion. Didn't bother with starters as we could see the portions were huge. The only slightly interesting one would have been the onion 'loaf' but it looked a bit soggy and carb-laden on other tables.
We were served some tasteless white mini baguette with some herb butter which was a bit nasty (dried herbs and garlic salt only), but at least they had warmed up the bread.

We had a steak and rib, 1/2 chicken, and 4 rib platters. Was a bit hungry when ordering so we eschewed the usual baby backs for the normal ribs. The food arrived quite promptly despite how busy the kitchen must have been on the night. Actually the normal ribs are quite tender and had plenty of meat so did not miss the baby ribs one little bit. I thought they were every bit as good as I'd hoped for. The tangy sauces had their own distinct characters and it was easy to differentiate one from another.

The steak was surprisingly meaty and juicy- don't think it was promoted as being Angus or anything special. We were also asked to check for its doneness when it was served just in case we needed to send it back which was a bit of a service revelation for a chain restaurant.
As all too common these days the steak had not been properly seasoned before grilling so did not have the slight 'salt crust' taste- but the Long Bar Steakhouse didn't either so its quite forgiveable. I thought it was quite tasty and was perfectly medium rare which makes it certainly one of the better steaks I've had in Sg (allowing for price) which is saying quite a bit.
The Chicken was Big- I mean the 1/2 bird wasn't much smaller than the normal size chickens in chicken rice stalls. The sauce was just enough and the skin was crispy enough. The fact that the breast was still quite juicy was also a pleasant surprise.

The sides were quite disappointing. The corn on the cob might have been tasty about 4 hours ago but had been boiled beyond recognition. The french fries were only so-so. The baked potato was better and seemed to have real bacon bits, not the veggie dyed fake stuff.

Next time I have a hankering for ribs, I'll be back- it was really quite a nice experience and I did like the service very much and had enough to ta pow for a midnight snack ;)