The Cheesecake Factory — Restaurant in City of Syracuse

Brought my daughter in from Binghamton (over an hour away) for a special college visit dinner. Everything was amazing at first. Our server was amazing. Once she went on break, however, things went extremely down hill from there. The server that took over for her came to clear our appetizer plates and asked us if we wanted dessert. When we indicated to her that we had not had dinner yet she apologized and said she must have been confused. Three tables that were sat at the same time as us finished their dinners, had dessert, and left before we ever had contact with another employee. The server that was covering never came back to us to apologize and say that our food was on the way, check on drinks or anything. The manager finally came over to us and apologized saying that they had run out of the sauce for my daughter's pasta dish and the chef had to make it from scratch. He wanted to know if we wanted the rest of the food in the meantime. He did offer my daughter a salad, soup or anything while she waited. He also said he would comp us free cheesecake for the wait. When my dinner arrived (salmon Caesar salad) the manager apologized for the size of the salmon and said he had the kitchen cooking a bigger piece. I declined it but he did bring it after I had already finished my meal. My niece's meal was completely wrong; wrong kind of taco, filling, and shell. My daughter's pasta dish was watery and had no flavor. My husband's burger was fine but, at that point, we had waited so long he wasn't hungry anymore. No one ever checked back on us to see if our food was okay. When our original server came back on she did apologize profusely. She got us boxes and offered us 2 pieces of free cheesecake. My daughter and niece both ordered something and our server did tell us that the bakery was running behind. When we got our check, the cheesecakes were on it. After about 15 minutes our server did realize and took them off. After another 15 minutes we ended up leaving without the cheesecakes because we had already been in the restaurant a little over 2 hours and we had over an hour drive back. I completely understand that the restaurant was extremely busy and, most likely, short staffed in the kitchen as well as on the floor. Someone should have taken some sort of responsibility at the beginning, however, instead of waiting until we had already waited almost an hour for our food. We all kid see the expediter, server, and manager talking about our table and pointing at us and still it took over a half an hour for the manager to come over and the server covering the shift never bothered to come over because she was probably embarrassed, mortified, too busy, or just didn't care because it really wasn't her table. I don't want to get anyone in trouble, however, paying over$200 for an absolutely horrible meal with what I consider a generous tip with the service I received is just not okay. I did report it to corporate. They gave me a$25.00 gift certificate. The chain is busy enough, they...

Good Cuban panini. The roasted pork and ham were lean, the swiss cheese was melted, the pickles, mayo and mustard were tasty, and the roll was crunchy on the outside and moist on the inside. Unfortunately, the side salad that came with it, wilted lettuce dressed with a tasteless vinaigrette, was inedible. The other side offered was fries which has to be the better choice. The cherry/chocolate cheesecake was good, as was the service and ambiance. UPDATE-1: Had the mushroom burger with a side of french fries. The french fries were very good and the burger was perhaps the best I've had in Syracuse. Two of the things that make it special are the texture of the burger and the use of fontina cheese. UPDATE-2: We ordered Buffalo Wings and Roadside Sliders as appetizers. I can't recommend the wings, but the sliders were quite good. We then shared The Everything Flatbread Pizza and requested a side of marinara to dip the crust. It was outstanding. UPDATE-3: We like the Everything Flatbread so much we decided to try the Bee Sting Flatbread. It was excellent and quite unique, but we still prefer the Everything Flatbread. Those who avoid garlic should be warned that although not mentioned in the description found on the menu, the Bee Sting includes a generous amount of of roasted garlic cloves as one of the toppings. UPDATE-4: Many restaurants shy away from putting sufficient garlic in Caesar dressings. Not so here. The Caesar salad was outstanding. Also the Thai chicken wrap appetizer with three excellent sauces, noodles, bean sprouts, carrots, and pickled cucumber was very enjoyable lunch. UPDATE-5: Tried a new cucumber salad with garlic cloves, Thai chili peppers, and a sesame oil dressing. Excellent starter. Also tried a new cheesecake flavor for dessert, coconut cream. Very good, but will probably go back to the lemon raspberry cheesecake next time. UPDATE-6: A bit of a disappointment on this visit. Second time I've ordered the cucumber salad with Thai sesame dressing it was nowhere near as tasty as my first exposure to this dish. Also, I tried the double smash cheeseburger. It wasn't bad, but it was...

Not a Friendly Location for Food Allergy Sufferers

We have been to many Cheesecake Factory’s this was by far the worst experience we have ever had and probably the worst experience I have had at a restaurant in many years.

I have an Egg and Dairy allergy so I will often just get some pasta with chicken. I ordered the Tomato Basil Pasta. I asked for no mozzarella and I notified my waitress of my allergies. Our waitress was wonderful and did almost everything right.

So about 30 minutes later my dish comes out with mozzarella cheese and pesto on it despite the server noting the food allergy on the order.

The pesto was not even listed as part of the dish on the menu. On their menu these are the ingredients they list: Grilled Chicken, Fresh Mozzarella, a Touch of Garlic and Penne Pasta. Light and Fresh. Pesto is not listed as an ingredient on the menu. I understand not all ingredients can be listed on a menu but Pesto has two major allergens, Dairy and Treenuts.

So I send back the dish and it comes back again about another 25 minutes later. No cheese this time but Pesto all over the chicken. So I send back the dish again. This time the manager comes over and apologizes but offers no compensation.

After another 30 minutes the dish came out for a third time but it was correct this time.

This is overall a very disappointing experience. I should not need to ask the manager for compensation it should be offered when it takes three times for my dish to come out right. Keep in mind I am simply asking for Grilled Chicken, Pasta, and Tomato Sauce. Why even have a field to input customers allergies when the kitchen doesn’t follow it at all.

I am extremely disappointed and have zero interest in going to a Cheesecake Factory for a while. I would not recommend this location to...