Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen — Restaurant in Garland

Last night, 2/26, was one of the most horrible dining experiences I’ve ever had! I can not see myself going to a Cheddars ever again, especially at this location. My husband and I arrive at 8:10pm to reserve a table for 14, including 5 children under the age of 8 (huge party but doable). We’re told it would be a 45 minute to an hour wait and to check in every 30 minutes since they don’t do phone calls, texts or buzzers to alert the customer when they’re table is ready. I understand, it’s a busy Saturday night. We take the reservation and go to the car to wait since the front area is overcrowded. At 8:48pm my husband checks on the reservation and noticed everyone before and after us has been seated (it’s marked off on their clipboard) He even stated the hosts looked a little surprise to see him. He’s told it would be another 20 minutes until we were seated . We didn’t get seated (12 total, including 3 children) until around 9:30pm. We’re sat in the front of the dining room yet all the servers keep walking by, avoiding eye contact with anyone in the party. About 10 minutes goes by before someone walks up to our table to offer us straws of all things! The person then tells us they’re not our waiter and points out the person who will be waiting on us. We wait close to another 10 minutes before our “assigned” waiter comes to ask if anyone has been by; which of course not, because you’re our waiter. At the same time, we managed to catch the attention of a manager because we’ve been here close to two hours and there has been little to no service at this point. We’re offered three free appetizers and croissants to make up for the poor service. By the time we finish ordering it’s close to 10. Drinks, water only, doesn’t come until about 10:18pm (mind you we have small children). We don’t start getting food (appetizers, entrees, alcoholic drinks) until about 10:35ish. It doesn’t come all at one time but just begins to trickle out; as a result some entrees and appetizers are forgotten in the process. I personally ordered a Caesar salad, mashed potatoes and ribeye (medium); and a my brother in law orders a ribeye (medium as well). The lettuce is old in the salad I received and both steaks are well done. I send the salad back and we just settle with our steaks because at this time the restaurant is about to close. The manager doesn’t come back to check on us at any other time, the food is subpar (I’m sure it’s because it was so close to closing) and the waiter made little to no contact with us throughout the night. I’ve worked as a waiter before so I am very understanding of a lot of things but there was no reason for last night’s experience. Mistakes happen but once they’re made, you need to keep checking in to assure no other mistakes occur. The free appetizers/ croissants were a nice gesture. However that “nice” gesture disappears when the appetizers come with the meal if at all and then the guests are subsequently charged for the appetizers. We didn’t let the experience show in the waiter’s tip ( I personally tipped $36 on a $63 tab) but I will definitely not be returning; this is only my second time going to a Cheddar’s. I would give 0...

Let me start by saying the place was clean, and we were seated immediately. Our baby boy was enthralled by the ceiling "fans" directly above our table. While our waitress was only rated 2 stars, it wasn't due to rudeness. She was cordial and well mannered when she was around. The only problem was she was rarely around, and we even had multiple instances of trying to check out and left hanging. About 25-30 minutes between being given to-go boxes and effectively getting out of there. Before that we were only able to get one refill on drinks. The kitchen staff lady seemed overly taxed when told they had brought one side that was incorrect, and another was missing entirely. As if the fault was ours, even though the receipt reflected the exact order we had made. This was brought to her attention in a non-aggressive way.

On the food, the overall flavors were good. The sides are dramatically small when placed next to the entres, like the size of a small scoop of ice cream. We had the roasted herb chicken and cornmeal fish. The fish meat was a tad mushy to my husband, I found it to my liking but some won't. The mashed potatoes are real and not instant spuds. The brown gravy over them was limited, but well flavored. The broccoli rice casserole is still good, not as good as it used to be. The "loaded" baked potato was barely such being charged $1 more, hardly 10 sprinkles of cheese, bacon, and no green onion. I will concede the prices are certainly reasonable topping out at $15 for 75% of the meals. The higher priced ones are what you'd expect for steak, ribs, and combinations of those options, but again I think the highest cost there is around $22.

As a side note, the e-club benefits on the website are not easily or timely recieved. We tried 2 different email addresses to recieve the free chips and queso 2 hrs before going. We still haven't had an email come in about that offer in either inbox. Add to that theres 2 places on the website to "join". Only after creating an actual login did we get an email, and it said the next email we get will be for the free offer....

This has become a staple for my friends and me, because it's right in the middle of where we all live.

Service is always good and the food us tasty. We just did appetizers tonight, but they were good, as usual.

I love that this is a place we can go where they don't blast music so loud that we can't chat, and it seems to have seating available soon after arrival.

The only thing was that I was freezing in the restaurant this evening. I'm cold most of the time, so there's probably nothing they can do, but that would have made it more pleasant.

Overall a great restaurant for family and friends alike!

Update from last visit on 04/13:

This is the first time we've had terrible service at this location. Our server seemed very young, and very disinterested in taking care of us.

After the food was delivered, he stopped by once to ask if everything was okay, then we never saw him again. Well, until my friend hit the "call server" button on the touch device on the table. But even then, it took about 6 minutes for him to come back (and that was after asking another server if he was still there).

A rant about those devices: I'm not a fan for a couple of reasons: 1) I did my time as a server back in the 1990s, and did my best to take care of my guests. I have a different job now; I do not wish to check myself out (feel the same way about self checkout at grocery and retail stores). 2) many servers seem to think it's a license to ghost their tables. You may want dessert (our server never asked), or want a refill on the drink. But in their mind, their job is done once the food has been delivered.

If our server had to take care of our payment and collect his tip, he would not have disappeared. I really wish Cheddars would do away with those devices.

This experience is likely going to change my overall review of the restaurant. Just some things to think...