Cheesecakes By James — Restaurant in Crest Hill

Disappointing!! The service was great, but the slice of strawberry cheesecake that I got was sub par at best. There was only a very small display case with sliced showing. Not much in the way of eye appeal here. I paid $9 for an extremely thin for the cost slice of cheesecake. I was expecting given the price and the fact that it is exclusively a cheesecake store to taste something amazing. Nope! Starting from the bottom up the crust was thick, so I imagined a delicate buttery crust—maybe made with butter cookies. Nope! The crust was gritty and off tasting. Moving further up to the actual cheesecake. I was expecting something decadent, creamy, delicious, and maybe with a light tangy cheese edge. Nope! The cheesecake filing was really grainy and the taste wasn’t even better than what you might expect at the grocery store. Going to the strawberry topping. I was expecting large premium strawberries, like the ones you find on Valentine’s Day. Nope! I got average (perhaps pre-frozen tasting) strawberries. The strawberry sauce at least seemed natural, but yet again there was an off tasting element. The taste of the strawberries were off. All in all, I didn’t even finish eating the slice. Not worth...

So, I had to order a 10" turtle cheesecake at the last minute. Spoke to James and he told me "no worries, I got you. I'll make you the best cheesecake." This was my first time there and didn't know what to expect. I didn't look at any reviews. I just went with my gut. When I finally got there, much later than planned, it was 8:30 p.m.. I walk in and James walks up to me as if he knew me gives me a firm handshake and bro hug. Super cool and laid back welcome. I loved it. I felt like it was a real and unforced interaction. James, employee (didn't get his name) and myself shot the shit briefly. It was like 3 dudes hanging out. Anyway, the turtle cheescake was a WINNER. We all enjoyed it. We had no issues at all as far as the quality and taste goes. I see people mentioning price. If you shop at all, you know cheesecake in general is not cheap. This is also not mass produced like at a grocery store. Now with that being said, I do have to agree that the smaller cakes (heart-shaped) are on the higher side for what they are. Nobody is forcing you to buy them. Our overall experience was very positive. For a specialty shop for special occassions I can say I do recommend Cheescakes by...

The first time I ordered I chose a whole cake with 6 different flavors. I set my pick up time with James for 10:30am on a Sunday. When I arrived they were closed. I called and tried opening the door and finally James came to the door. He said we don’t open until noon and then had to look for my order. He found it and said he didn’t have 3 out of the 6 flavors made. Then I had to wait an extra half hour while he prepared the cake. He said I could call and order my original cake for a future event to make up for the mistakes. I called a couple weeks later and did so. I confirmed with him multiple times what the flavors were and that I could pick it up on a Monday between 10-11 and he wasn’t there. I even asked him if he was sure because it says they’re closed on Monday’s. He said he would be there. Not to my surprise when I got there at 10:45. They were closed and I called and tried the door etc. and nothing. UPDATE: They called and ended up delivering the cheesecake. They do seem to always make up for...