Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen — Restaurant in Cookeville

Cheddars, falling short on expectations. Yesterday, I went to Cheddars for my wife’s birthday because that’s where she wanted to go. Before this incident, I never had any problems before. I ordered the 7oz fillet mignon with a Cesar salad and fries for the price of $21.99. My Cesar salad came out as basic lettuce that you get in a bag from Walmart, but in a bowl. The dressing wasn’t in the salad, it was in a bowl to the side. This was the start of what ended up as a horrific experience. When my steak arrived, I told the waitress that I did not get the fillet that I ordered and showed her what looked like, two pieces of sirloin that was glued together and formed to resemble a fillet mignon. She said that the back of house manager will cook me another one that is a better cut of meat. Anyone who knows steak, knows the filet mignon comes from the smaller end of the beef tenderloin along each side of the spine on a cow. It is a solid piece of beef. Twenty minutes later, I finally got my new steak. The back of house manager brought it out to me himself and sat it down in front of me. I pointed out the same thing again, showing that its two separate pieces stuck together. He then told me in front of my wife, my 21-year-old son and my other two younger boys that the meat comes that way from their distributors. Then he told me to cut it into the meat to make sure it’s the medium rare that I asked for. I did and he walked off. I took the first bite of the steak with nothing else with it because I wanted to taste the beef the way it was supposed to be. What I got was a shock. It was so over seasoned that my mouth instantly was on fire. It was so bad that I couldn’t take a second bite. But maybe I thought it could have been just me, so I asked my 21-year-old son to try a bite, and he had the exact same experience as I did. I asked for the back of house manager to come back out and asked him to try a bite of the steak. He refused. I kept telling him that he needs to try it so he would understand what I’m talking about. He still refused. By this time, my family had been completely done with their meals for about 15 minutes, and I was so upset that I could eat anything else. The store manager came to our table and told me that most people can tell what a real steak is, but obviously, I can. She then informed my family and I that there were two other gentlemen last night that had the same complaint that I made with the steak that they served. She kept asking if I would like anything else, and I just...

When a local contributor, like myself leaves a review for a business like Cheddar's it asks said local contributor to rate it between 1 and 5 stars. And it explains the little further by letting you know that one is the lowest and instead of saying five is the highest, it says "loved it". Tonight this puts my integrity into a very complicated position indeed. So I do rate the store five stars based on the cleanliness, friendliness of the staff, timing, and decor... You get the point. My problem comes in when they don't just say five stars is the highest. I don't know why they chose to put oh if it's five stars I loved it. This has caused many businesses in the past to get a lesser star review from me, unfairly. Most of which obviously didn't survive that. So here's the thing, and I'm not trying to make this review of Cheddar's about me, but I was named Google's local contributor of the year in 2019 and again in 2021. So I'll probably make a phone call and just have the verbiage around their rating system tweaked a little bit so we don't run into this problem anymore. But maybe a little too much information for individuals too I wouldn't have read this far into the review, but since you have I think you really appreciate this., but I respect this business I like this business it's not my first choice and I certainly don't love it. And that's why I had to include this disclaimer with my 4 star review. 5 star business but I didn't love it. The reason I didn't love it is because there is nothing on that menu that I even like. I'm a big dessert reviewer I've also won awards for my dessert reviews. They have three items on the menu for dessert I can't be near a cookie for 30 seconds without eating it but there was nothing on there the appetized me in the least. So if you like steamed broccoli and salmon, hey this is the place for you.

*And if the general manager wants to have a fuss about this review, I'm very easy to get in touch with. And for a reasonable bribe which is common in the food and travel blogging industry, then we can chat about drumming up more business ya know. maybe getting that fifth star on this...

My daughter & I went here Saturday 8/30/25 for an early dinner. We both ordered salmon - she ordered hers cooked medium, I ordered mine blackened. Her salmon came back dry & over-cooked and my salmon was not blackened at all. We sent both salmons back. Her new salmon arrived cooked correctly - medium, slightly pink in the middle; however the manager placed my salmon in front of me and said “They added more seasoning”. They literally sprinkled on more seasoning to the exact same piece of salmon - on the same plate…I know bc I took one chunk out of the corner before calling the waitress over. First of all - you never ever bring back the same piece of protein - you always re-fire with a brand new piece of salmon or whatever the protein was. Secondly - blackened salmon or blackened anything - does not mean to slap on more seasoning! “Blackened” means to pan-fry in a hot skillet with butter or oil until a flavorful, deep brown crust forms on the exterior, without the fish itself being burnt. My old piece of salmon was literally heated up with more seasoning - there was no brown crust. It was not blackened at all. As a restaurant manager - you should know what blackened means & you should also know to ALWAYS re-fire with a new piece of salmon! Do better. Very disappointed in the lack of quality & lack of knowledge of what’s on their own menu. Research “blackened” salmon…this is not blackened salmon (see photo of their “blackened”salmon in their to-go container & the photo of what blackened salmon...