Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen — Restaurant in Fort Smith

In the interest of fairness, it was tax-free school supply day in Arkansas, and the entire shopping center was packed. It was 2:00 in the afternoon when we finally got there for lunch, and they were still pretty slammed. We were seated immediately, and our waiter showed up in a reasonable amount of time considering how busy it was. My daughter is gluten-intolerant, which is why we chose this restaurant, since they make a big deal of having a lot of gluten-free options available. That was really nice. She chose the bacon burger with no bun, and said it was really tasty. My son ordered the same with macaroni and cheese as a side. He loved the burger. The mac and cheese was very small. The cheese was extremely runny (we have a theme, here!) and the pasta was a little overcooked.

We had a coupon for free chips and queso dip, and the chips were light and crisp, and they didn't taste greasy. The cheese dip was much too thin, I'd say easily drinkable consistency rather than dippable, though it had a nice flavor. The kids enjoyed them. My husband and I had the leaning tower of onion rings, and he said they were his favorite of all the ones he'd had recently. The dips provided for them were flavorful, although also a little too thin. I thought the onion rings were just okay, but I'm not as big an aficionado of onion rings as he.

My husband ordered the chicken Caesar pasta salad and I ordered the half club/baked potato lunch special. The salad was unprepossessing. The dressing was good, but the 3 or 4 pieces of pasta were a little overcooked, and the large pieces of romaine looked like it was cut by a hedge trimmer.

My lunch was the worst, unfortunately for me since it was my birthday. The meat on the sandwich was wet, and kept sliding off. The bread was a little over-toasted, so that the strongest flavor was of almost-burnt bread. The texture of the meat was pressed and formed and slippery, rather than shaved quality deli-meats. The first half of my potato had 3 bad spots on it, so I gave up on the other side. And because I was already disappointed, I'll add that I'm not sure how a small potato with butter, sour cream and a sprinkle of cheese is considered loaded. I was afraid it would be too much food. No problem here, even if I'd eaten the whole thing. No bacon, no green onion or chives, just a lonely sprinkle of cheese on a little spotty potato. And to add a little topping to my whine, my coke was flat and watery.

The waiter was frazzled and overworked, with too many tables. I don't ever want to hear "Is it all still fantastic?!" in chorus again, since every wait person said it multiple times at every table. It took a while before we received eating utensils, and we never did get plates for our appetizers. Thankfully, we're barbarians and didn't mind too much.

I thought the drinks and sides were priced too high, and the appetizers and entrees were generally reasonable. Lunch for four, before the tip, was $60.00, but that did include the onion rings. They were kind enough to provide a breakdown of what the tip should be if I gave 18, 20 or 22%, and if I'd been happy with the service, I would have appreciated that. Most of it wasn't the waiter's fault, so I went with 15 (though I would have liked it if he'd been there soon after the food was delivered, when I was more interested in the fact I'd like better food and a fizzy drink, instead of when we were done and I was most interested in getting out). We didn't stay...

We went on a Friday night for my daughter in-laws birthday. We always allow the kids to pick the place when it's their birthday. We waited over an hour and a half. Seriously! Now, before you think badly, there were 8 of us. They offered 2 booths, but that wouldn't allow us to be together. Then they accidentally gave our table away. Now we're around 2 hours. Our drink orders got mixed up, and I can't blame the waitress, because it was so loud in there, I couldn't even hear my granddaughter sitting next to me. Off we go with our appetizers, they came out extremely fast. We all got the spinach dip with so much cheese, we were in heaven. Never too much cheese for my family. Then we find a strawberry on my daughter's boyfriend's napkin. Yes folks, a strawberry. Why am I talking about a slice of strawberry? He's deathly allergic to strawberries. I asked for a manager and I got one extremely quick. After we explain that even thought the hospital is right across the road we really didn't want to go there. She immediately breaks down both tables and scrubs everything for us.(No we did not ask for a discount. They handled the situation better than any restraunt I've been in. Even checked on him several times)1 So, daughters boyfriend is still alive. My food though.. I ordered a chicken fried steak, loaded mashed potatoes and corn. I also ordered a broccoli cheese casserole on the side. The chicken fried steak was not only real, it was coated in light airy crust. It was the best chicken fried steak, besides my own, I've ever tasted. It beat out the restraunt in Stilwell. The loaded potatoes were not real and they had no flavor. Corn was just buttered corn. The broccoli cheese casserole was delicious. They forgot my toast, I didn't say a word. The others ordered a smokehouse burger and said it was delicious. Chicken with a Dijon mustard sauce and it was just okay. Everyone else seemed to love their food. The buttered croissants were a hit. I didn't eat one, but they did look good. I don't know if it was the wait and everyone being hungry or if they were just that good. I gave mine to the birthday girl. I don't think I'd go on a Friday night, I think I would rather go at lunchtime or mid afternoon, even if it was just for the broccoli and...

This was my first time eating at a cheddar's. Definitely the most sub par dining experience I've ever had for such an extravagant price. Before I begin, I need to let you know that it's the little things that really tick me off. When people do just enough to get away with without doing anything crazy enough to earn a complaint, well here's my complaint. I'll start from the beginning. Me and the gf arrive and walk in. The place is PACKED. We wait about 15 minutes for a seat, no big deal, nothing to get worked up over. This creepy looking old guy who either has a high level of disdain for his job or was having a particularly crappy evening, showed up. Every exchange I had with him made me atleast slightly uncomfortable. I worked my butt off all day, I was craving a steak. They had a 12 Oz. Sirloin for 15 bucks. I'm no expert on the metric system but it was the second biggest and most expensive steak so I assumed it would satisfy my need for steak. I ordered my steak medium well, with a "fully loaded" baked potato (no sour cream and no butter). The food made it to our table in a reasonable amount of time considering how many people were there. The steak was literally 30% fat. My "fully loaded" baked potato came with cheese only. I didn't know if you put cheese on a baked potato it becomes fully loaded. I cut a piece of steak, medium rare. Of course they didn't cook my steak right.. Whatever. I'll just deal with it. I take a bite, bland. It literally tasted exactly like a steak you get from golden corral, with no seasoning, no marinade, no nothing. Just a fatty piece of meat that was cooked however the hell the guy cooking it felt like. The most exceptional part of the meal was their "off the cob corn". It was sweet and delicious and the best corn I've ever had. Other than that the whole experience was below average. I probably will never go back to another cheddar's. My advice to anyone reading this, go eat...