The Cheesecake Factory — Restaurant in Clearwater

My husband and I went today for brunch for the first time. We have had dinner at this location previously and had a good experience. We sat outside and were greeted by our server and ordered mimosas. The server brought bread to our table after a few minutes. We then waited close to 15 minutes for our drinks. The restaurant was not busy at all during this time (we both worked in hospitality for many years.) After dropping off the drinks the server then told us he would bring us bread and we told him we didn't need any more but that we would like to order. We both ordered Bacon and Avocado benedicts. Our server was clearly very new and inexperienced because he didn't understand what we ordered and we had to point it out on the menu for him. He then proceeded to ask us how we wanted the eggs cooked and we both asked for poached because that is standard with eggs benedict. My husband asked for 2 extra eggs and a side of hollandaise sauce. After ordering, our server tried bringing us another side of bread after we had already told him several times that we didn't want any. When our food came out both of my eggs were over cooked and 2 of the 4 eggs my husband ordered were overcooked, and the side of hollandaise was forgotten. We pointed this out to the server and he seemed very confused. We told him we ordered poached eggs and not hard boiled. He took my plate to bring it back to the kitchen and my husband kept his and slowly ate while waiting for my food. The manager did come out and asked if we wanted something else to eat while we were waiting and we said no, that we were sharing and that we would wait because poaching eggs should be fairly quick. My husband did tell the manager that our service had not been great and her response was "Wow, okay..yeah, I'm sorry. I will take care of you guys, I'm sorry." I'm not sure what that meant because nothing was discounted or covered on our bill. Not even a mimosa and we ordered 4 of them. By the time my food came out my husband was finished with his meal. The food was good after the egg issue was fixed but the service was not and neither was the way the manager handled the situation. We spent over 2 hours there, again, it was not busy at all. They need to spend more time training their employees, especially considering that their food is not cheap. We spent $80 on brunch for 2 and received subpar service. We will not be back...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! Cold Food & EXTREMELY LONGGGG wait times for our meals!!

The manager Ashley was very condescending and seemed to lack formal management training! Perhaps Ashley is new in her management role which would somewhat explain her level of frustration! Ashley repeatedly made excuses about the restaurant’s staffing levels. Ashley continuously stated that the restaurant was busy and understaffed as the reason for the extremely long wait time for the food to arrive, as well as the reason the meals arrived lukewarm. Ashley’s demeanor demonstrated that she was visibly upset and becoming more frustrated with us throughout the conversation. Ashley continued to make excuses for the 30 plus minute wait time for my wife’s and daughter’s meals, as well as the additional 17 minute wait for my missing meal that was made incorrectly once it finally arrived!!

Ashley neglected to offer to replace our meals with fresh hot food. My family then collectively decided to leave the restaurant without consuming any of the meals. Prior to leaving the restaurant we were directed by Ashley to pay for the (3) drinks we had consumed while waiting for our meals to arrive. Ashley could be seen exhibiting animated histrionics after she returned to the kitchen to voice her displeasure regarding our complaints to the staff.

The server Ron was very inattentive and not very hospitable! Ron didn’t greet us by stating his name, nor did he smile during any of our interactions. Ron didn’t once check on our food order that was extremely delayed arriving to the table. Ron never explained or apologized for the approximately 45 minute wait time for my meal! The Buffalo Wings appetizer was unappetizing and served lukewarm. We informed Ron that the Pumpernickel bread was stale and chewy, not the norm for the bread service. Ron elected to send my appetizer back to the kitchen and eventually returned with fresh bread. Ron never apologized or offered to have the kitchen remake my appetizer.

To state that we were disappointed would be an understatement!! This dinner was planned to celebrate my wife’s actual birthday (10/17/24). My daughter and I were both EMBARRASSED that we had chose to celebrate her birthday at the Clearwater Countryside Mall Cheesecake Factory location~ WON’T EVER HAPPEN AGAIN!!

Best...

Took my mom to this CF in Clearwater for her 85th birthday. The service was a little slow, but that’s to be expected because it was pretty busy there. The cocktails were delicious and we kinda lost track of time. At a little over an hour and a half later, we didn’t have any food and the table to my right and left. It already changed customers several times. I let the waitress know that we couldn’t wait any longer for the food because we needed time to actually eat the food before we went to my mother’s celebration concert. I had tickets to. Anyway, so she brought the food around 10 minutes later and it was unbelievably bad in every way you expect bad to be. They must’ve threw it together because the tortillas were hard and uncooked on the chicken enchiladas we both ordered. There was no sauce on it except for a streak of sour cream - anybody that’s had this dish knows that it’s cooked in a green enchilada sauce, and it has cheese on it melted. The beans were in a warmed over lump. I’ve had this dish by the way many times because it is my favorite dish since they started serving this. Weird because I did mention to the manager because we had to leave by then or miss the show which I wasn’t about to have two horrific experiences on my mother’s 85th birthday. I have to say I’ve never seen a manager react this way as if nothing happened at all to be concerned about. So please don’t write me an explanation - “Oh next time let the manager know and we’re so sorry” because no actually this manager was not sorry in the least. BTW I’ve eaten at this restaurant many many times and have never had a bad food experience. I even had this dish delivered to me via DoorDash sometimes and although it’s not steaming hot, it’s prepared properly every time so I don’t know what they did or what happened there in the kitchen that night but busy does not explain that. We ended up spending the $50 or so for our drinks and bread and had to leave...