OK. These Western restaurants are everywhere. I knew it was inevitable that eventually I will be dropping by one of these famous franchise restaurants.
Tony Roma's is another American franchise restaurant that is mushrooming all over Malaysia. In other parts of the world, their specialty is their pork ribs, but because they want to ensure that this restaurant is 'halal' friendly here, beef is the substitute.
My cousin was kind enough to give us a treat at the Sunway Pyramid outlet. So how does this place rate against the likes of TGI Friday?
Let's find out.
We started with the Onion Loaf, which seems to be a crowd favourite here this night as I seem to see this at almost every table around.
The Onion Loaf really did look very impressive - the dipping sauce was great and the onions were very nicely cut before being deep fried - making large round slices. The batter felt a little salty after a few, but I can understand why this seemed to be a crowd favourite.
My aunty ordered the Grilled Chicken Breast Asian salad. The greens were fresh, and there was quite a generous amount of chicken. Funnily though, the fried won-ton noodles they mention in the menu really do not look like fried won-ton noodles... but hey, may not be an issue to some.
I ordered the grilled chicken tenders with rice. I would really have preferred it if they had mixed the vegetables up a bit instead of just giving you what looks like half a broccoli. The chicken was really not bad, but overall it was a little 'garlicky' in the end.
My grandma had the grilled cod fish with garlic scampi butter and rice. The rice and broccoli were exactly identical to mine. The fish was actually pretty good, it was fresh and not overcooked.
My cousin on the other hand, ordered the Rib Combo with the BBQ chicken. He opted for the boneless ribs. Now as I've mentioned before, the famous ribs worldwide are actually the pork ribs. However, you'll only find beef ribs in Malaysia.
The beef ribs were really ok, and because I have never ever tried the pork ribs in the other parts of the world, I really can't comment on the difference. That said, the beef ribs were not bad - and the choices of sauces you could use to spice it up was really nice.
I'd really like to try the original ribs one day. I also think the yellow rice is probably an available-in-Asia thing as well.
The service here was pretty good, and as can be expected from these sort of more service oriented Western restaurants.
Overall, this place is probably a direct competitor to the likes of Chillies and TGI Friday. Which one is better would really be up to the individual. Tony Roma's is definitely not bad, and if you're looking for food of this genre - and because most of the outlets are located in shopping centers then hey, it might be a convenient place to try.
My Rating
Food: 3.5 grins out of 5 
Price rating: Around RM20-40 for mains - depending on what you're after.
Service: 3.5 grins out of 5
Environment: 3 grins out of 5
Can tapao some baby back ribs for me when you come home for CNY? :p
My brother will happily disagree with you and state with utter disappointment that Tony Romas is not that great because they let go of their famous top selling dish (the Pork Ribs)... how can they go without what they are famous for?
Tony's here is ok. Not that great due to lack of babi...you can't do ribs without babi...if you think Tony's is good..you should try Famous Dave's....anyhow...all ribs are good to me as long as it's BABI....
i second u aikleong.
RIBS over @ bangsar behind victoria station serves good babi ribs
Tony Roma's is but one of the many restaurants to fall victim to the 'halal bug' in Malaysia. The authorities are discriminatory in laying down the conditions for business licences! Even Tony Roma's in Jakarta has its famous pork ribs and nobody bothers!
In any case, the Char Chan Teng's are simply awesome! There should be more of them!
Long live pork! Pork is power!