Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen — Restaurant in Florida

Okay how to say this. It will be long. Now I have been eating at this location since it's opening week. Have always been happy here, actually my favorite of the places I eat. Regulars. Depending on work season would visit sometimes 2 times a week sometimes 1 time a week and during busiest months at least monthly.

Food was always good. Corn was excellent chicken no matter the meal was always juicy and tender, steaks cooked properly and ribs moist enough to fall off the bone just pulling on them.

In the last 3 to 4 months this place has gone down hill more and more each time. Now for my last 3 experiences.

Steaks, over cooked and dry and tough. Lemon chicken over cooked, dry and tough no moisture at all. Not quite but getting close to something you would get in a cheap Hungry Man dinner. The ribs oh the ribs poor things, the ribs use to be so good if you grabbed a bone and pulled they would just seperated nice and juicy and tender. Well now they are not good. Very dry no moisture to be found, so dry in fact you had to use a knife to cut them, never had to before. Even after being cut you had to use your teeth to pull the meat off of the bone like a dog would.

Now for the sides. Baked potatoes cold the last 3 times not one but every potatoe at the table. Asked to add heat and stil comes back barley warm with butter hardly fully melted. Those had to be taken home to eat. The corn, you would think how do you mess up corn. Well this corn use to have a unique flavor due to how it was seasoned. I asked once and was told it had added bacon fat which made it so good. Not sure that is true but whatever has changed, it's generic now.

Some food comes on a bed of rice. Lemon Chicken is one. Every time I got it I would date the rice no issue. Last time I got it I did not eat the rice because it was full of onion. Never had onion before. Maybe onion powder but no pieces of onion.

I originally blamed the changes on the fact the general manager left for one reason or another. Yes I knew the managers by name always talked to them each time we visited if they weren't busy. They are all gone now. The servers and host station workers usually stuck around for awhile and as regular visitors it was not unusual for a server we knew to break a way from their section to stop over and say hello. Now of the last 3 visits everyone of those people are gone.

Now I said I thought the issue was substitute managers while waiting for a new manager. I was informed today when I inquired that there is now a new general manager in place but nothing has changed.

For the record I did contact corporate about this and was reimbursed for one of the bad meals. We used that gift card plus some on this last visit. I have no idea what is going on here but my favorite place which use to get 4.5 stars is now only worth 1 star. I have no intentions on returning for 3 months which is a record duration for me even during my busy time which starts soon

I plan my next visit in January which is prime tourist season for this area from snow birds. If they can't get it correct by then, I will have to say good bye to my once favorite place. There are just too many casual dining restaurants in the area to keep returning to one that has faltered.

I won't ask for a second credit. The first bad meal I shrugged off as they were having a bad day. Second was when I contacted corporate because we could hear several people asking for a manager, at least 3 others just in our section. Then when the third experience was bad I decided to write this.

Anyway as long time customer that started in another location that no longer exists for Cheddar's before this location opened I hope they get it together.

Good luck Cheddar's (use to be independent) now and for several years part of the Darden Family.

Just a thanks for the reply but I will let you work it out. 3 visits and 3 bad meals since last management has left was enough. You already gave me one meal credit and I won't ask for another.

Just please try and fix whatever is wrong here. See...

First and foremost, this was my first time here. I was so excited because I heard such wonderful things about this place. Unfortunately, I’ll have to say my experience was one of the worst I’ve had in my entire life. To start off, my waiter Paul, his personality, was so intimidating that even asking for a refill made me nervous. He was not attentive to my needs and any time he came back to my table it was because I asked him to assist me and there he was with his normal attitude. It’s almost like he did not want to assist me. I saw him mingling with other guests being nice to them right as they were about to pay and I figured I’m sure he’ll try the Same approach with me. About 30 minutes later my food came out. I ordered a bacon burger meal no tomato high allergy and my burger came out with the thickest tomato you had ever seen. I then asked him if he could remake the burger with no tomato like I had initially asked for. He got an attitude, rolled his eyes and said “I don’t know why they made it that way [attitude]” a few minutes late the burger comes out with no tomato which is great however, the moment I bite into it, I instantly get the urge to throw up because my burger was raw. I wanted to immediately inform my waiter Paul, however, Paul was to busy talking outside on his phone. I then spotted a manager and asked him if he could remove the burger from my order because it was not to my satisfaction. Then when Paul came inside from talking on the phone, the manager went to talk to him at the bar and I could hear the word burger so I knew they were talking about me. Paul never came by my table to ask me what was wrong with my burger. It seems as he was disinterested and lacked caring for my experience. He never once came by to Ask myself or my daughter if we wanted a refill on our drinks but he was quick enough to come with a smile on our face to show us how we could pay for our mean on kiosk machine. To make matters worse we had a fried fish order that we were taking to go and he did not offer us a bag. Another waiter saw that we were in distress and asked if there was anything we needed and we asked for a bag. Sadly this was the first time ever in my life that I have not...

2nd time here, the first time was when they literally just opened many, many years ago.

Walked in with a party of 6. The place was extremely dead, maybe 6 tables throughout the entire restaurant and it was 5pm. The host asked all the servers who were standing behind him while in front of us “hey, who wants a party of 6?” I found that very odd to do in front of incoming guests whereas the servers should be in stations or asked the group of servers in private. Only one server jumped on it and said “I guess I can”. Again, very uncomfortable feelings within our party as we were waiting to be sat!!

We were sat within five minutes of them trying to put together a table.

The server brought over some freshly baked croissants. They were very good. The first time we were here, they were not given to us or perhaps this is something new?! Definitely a plus!!

We got our drinks then we ordered our meals. Everyone at the table seemed to have ordered different meals from one another. So it made it easier to see other dishes that were offered.

I ordered the 6oz steak as they were out of the 8oz. The steak was very small but on the thicker side. It was heavily loaded with spicy seasonings;, way too much for a very small piece of meat. It literally was a spicy flavoring on the steak. I did not see that listed on the menu or on the picture of the steak. However, the steak was cooked perfectly at MR. The mashed potatoes were decent but the white gravy was extremely bland. The broccoli was cooked perfectly. I would definitely request no seasoning on the steak next time!!!! I feel the steak itself had plenty of flavor on the inside of it.

Everyone seemed to enjoy their meals.

We ordered the cookie dessert. It took quite some time to get to the table, we were told it is freshly baked and it requires time which is understandable. Presentation wise it looked really good but the entire cookie was burnt! At this point we didn’t say anything, we were just ready to go!

Service was good.

As we were leaving I would say the restaurant had more than half of the tables full. Beautiful and...