The Cheesecake Factory — Restaurant in Toronto

Me and my husband are vegan and had family visiting (non-vegans) so we thought the cheesecake factory would be a cool place to take them while also being able to eat since they have a vegan cheeseburger. The menu says that the plant-based impossible burger comes with vegan cheese, so we ordered it and it came without the cheese. Apparently they were out of the vegan cheese but the server did not let us know in any of the opportunities he should have (since this would impact our order): nothing was said when we ordered, then he also didn’t let us know there was no vegan cheese when he placed our order to the kitchen, and he continued to not mention it to us when he brought our incomplete order to our table and just left it there, an open burger with just the bun and the patty (you could very clearly see there was no vegan cheese in it which was part of the burger in the menu). I figured he just assumed since we’re vegan we have to just accept whatever sloppy food they serve us with missing items and they didn’t even have to let us know or ask if this was okay for us. Would this go the same way if someone ordered a regular non-vegan cheeseburger and they were out of cheese? Lol We informed the server that our burger was missing the cheese, he took it away and after a while he brought it back still without the cheese and told us they were out of vegan cheese. Mind you, at this point 10+ minutes have passed and the burger is obviously cold. I said he should have let us know because this was part of the order and it impacts our order, to which he replied “yeah but we don’t have a lot of vegan stuff” meaning they are not the best place for us since vegan food is not their main focus. We weren’t asking for a lot of options, we just wanted one full item they have on their menu and since they don’t have a lot of options we should just be okay with being served an incomplete order? If they ran out of the buns would they just serve us the patty? The server offered to replace the cheese with more fries (???), to which we said no. Then he asked if we wanted the burger or if he could take it away, and I said we could eat some of it just to keep company to our family (they were eating their orders) even though it was dry and missing the cheese (I don’t put salad in my burgers so it was just the bun and patty, all dry) and it was already cold after all this back and forth with the server. Since it was going in the garbage, we could eat some of it as long as it was removed from our bill since this cold dry cheeseburger with no cheese was an incomplete order and far from what we had ordered, and we wouldnt have stayed there to begin with if they told us at first that they would not be able to make our order as it was on the menu. He went to check with the manager, came back and said that if the burger is taken out of the bill then it’s also taken out of the table (those were his EXACT words). I said okay and that he could take the burger away and throw it out 😊. If you don’t have all the items to make an order the way it’s listed in the menu, then you have to let customers know they don’t have the ingredients and the item you chose is not available. Don’t try to trick customers into eating an incomplete dish and then treat them very badly when they let you know the order is missing an important item in it. In the end our family had their meal and we stayed hungry. We could have gone somewhere else where everyone would eat if they let us know they could not make our order. Not to mention all of this happened after we waited almost 1 hour for a table and ate their very stale bread. This entire experience ruined our day,...

I've been to Cheesecake Factory 4 times. The first time in 2019, where I enjoyed their weekend brunch and a Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake. The second in 2021, where I had impeccable service on their patio and tried their incredible Huervos Rancheros and a Georgia Peach frozen cocktail. The third in 2023, where I arrived at opening to request space for a party of 30 and the restaurant was able to get us all seated quickly and together, which was very impressive to me. I also ate a delicious Bacon & Avocado Benedict, which was greatly enjoyed.

The fourth time I went to Cheesecake Factory will be my last.

I visited Cheesecake Factory on June 16, 2025, with a party of 8, including two infants in a stroller, which I informed the front desk were not going to eat, and was told it would be an hour or an hour and a half wait. This is very understandable, because it was after 6pm on a Monday night and we wanted to keep the stroller with us.

Almost two hours after this (arrived at 6:30pm, texted at 8:10pm), we were informed our table was ready. We made our way back to the restaurant, as we had gone upstairs to the Yorkdale food court to feed the hungrier members of our party because we had no idea how long it would take for our table, and were again made to wait for 10 to 15 minutes while the waitress slowly put utensils down on our table.

When we were finally seated (8:35pm), the tables (plural) were set up for a group of 10, which makes me think that a mistake was made and explains the extended wait. Again, we were 6 patrons eating and two infants in a stroller, so we filled up half the space and had four empty place seatings, which were cleared away and set back twice during our stay, before a busboy noisily dragged the spare table away from us.

When we were first seated, a waitress came over to ask if she could move our stroller to the side during our "dining experience". We didn't wait this long for this table to not keep the stroller with us. She understood and we were allowed to keep it, but just the fact that we were asked shows a lack of communication between the hostess and the waitress.

When we finally ordered, we got a Bang Bang chicken, a kids Mac and Cheese, a kids Cheese Flatbread, a Smokehouse B.B.Q. Burger, and a Louisiana Chicken Pasta, along with a Tuxedo Cheesecake. One of the reasons I keep coming back to Cheesecake is their efficiency in the kitchen. I was thoroughly impressed by how quickly the food came out (at 9:00pm). Everything came out together and everything was delicious.

However, the Bang Bang chicken (we asked to exclude Shrimp in this plate) had a pineapple taste to it. Since we've ordered this in past years, the strange addition was unexpected and we asked our waitress if the recipe had changed. She informed us it was the same and took the plate back to the kitchen to investigate. Finally, the manager came to our table to inform us that the chicken for this meal had some cross contamination from another meal that features pineapple, so the two were mixed. The manager apologized profusely and offered for us to order another plate, but at that point everyone had finished eating and we were ready to leave. We got another dish to go, but it was not very good.

Due to this experience, and because of their issues last year with the health inspection, I doubt I will go back. For the amount I am paying, I need to have a better experience and, for the first time, Cheesecake has...

Extremely overcrowded and loud. You can't make conversation without yelling at each other. Hard to navigate inside the restaurant because of the crowd. Also, questionable hygiene because the cutlery seems to have quite rough surface as if tiny bits of food got stuck in them and got dried without being washed properly. Also, i saw quite a few servers dropping them on the ground. The table had some tiny crumbs left and the cutlery was just laid on the table. One of our cups had some food bits floating in water and had to be replaced. Due to the number of customers, not enough attention is given to each dish, and they take forever to come. Also, the bread they give before the main meal ran out. I believe our server has forgotten our table because we saw a few tables that arrived later than us getting those bread with their drinks while we only got drinks. We were told that the bread had run out when we asked for one. Then, we were given two pieces for 5 guests.

Shrimp bistro pasta has very small portion, while the Louisiana chicken pasta had double of that portion. The bistro pasta literally had maybe 5 to 6 bites at most. The Louisiana chicken pasta was tasteless. The pasta tasted like it was cooked without being salted. All we could taste was raw pasta even with sauce. The tomato basil pasta tasted like typical canned tomato sauce from grocery store. I wouldn't recommend if you are looking for something new. If you want a safe dish, this could be one because you already know how it tastes.

The everything Flatbread pizza was alright. But, keep in mind that it is smaller than two average women hand size.

Bang-bang chicken and shrimp was a extremely salty disaster. No wonder why they included so much rice and so little sauce although they managed to put a very thin layer of this sauce around rice to fit the plate. You need to eat a handful of rice without sauce for each shrimp because it seems they put these shrimps in salt water for several days to make sure every juice of these shrimps is saltwater. I was drinking a lot of water unlike my usual eating style. I guess in the end, it balanced out with so much rice and so little but very salty sauce. But, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone as it was quite painful to finish. I wouldn't have finished the dish if it weren't my sister paying for the food. It's strange that I chose this dish because it was pretty good when I tried it some time ago when the restaurant was less busy.

In total, I believe my sister paid about 230 (more or less). I know this isn't a fancy restaurant but 230 for this quality of food and service? I would not recommend this place, and we will...