Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen — Restaurant in Gastonia

UPDATE: After this review, a different manager contacted me and gave us a gift card to use on a future visit. Since I am not in the area I gave it to my daughter to use. She reported that the next visit was much better. Thank you to Cheddars for allowing us to give them another chance.

ORIGINAL REVIEW:

This was my second visit. The first was good- what you would expect from a chain restaurant. This visit was a nightmare. I usually use social media for accolades and speak to management privately about concerns, but I spoke with both the manager on duty that night and sent a message to corporate. Since the problem was not handled to my satisfaction, I am now bringing it to their google review.

We were seated at 8:15 pm on a Monday. It was not busy. I was treating my daughter, her boyfriend, and his child to a dinner out on my last night visiting.

The server was never completely present. She took our orders, then wandered off, leaving me with arm mid-air to hand her the menus. She brought our drinks, but still did not take the menus, so when another nearby table left, I placed the menus on that table just to get them out of our way.

She served the salads, but never removed the plates for the rolls. I moved them over to the dirty table as well. She never removed a plate or glass from our table.

Our food took 55 minutes to be served. It may have taken longer, but when she served cold drinks to a nearby table, my daughter asked her how much longer and she replied she would get them as soon as she went back- our food was already on the tray, ready to be served.

I had mentioned a food sensitivity. It was clear from her response when she delivered the food that she had never told the kitchen about it, had not looked to see if any ingredients might cause a reaction, clearly had no training on food sensitivities, and tried to tell me that rice "inherently contains gluten". I finally lost patience and told her if she made me sick I was going to hunt her down.

As expected, the food was lukewarm, but the steak was really overcooked, cold, and the broccoli was mushy with an odd, almost fishy taste. We had to hunt down our server and ask to have the meal replaced. It took 25 minutes.

While that guest was waiting for his new meal, he was never offered an appetizer, another salad, or any kind of snack. There were no updates. By the time the new meal came out, the rest of the table was finished and we all sat there while he ate.

At this point, we felt management needed to know about our experience. Since we could not find our server and the only other server we saw was blatantly ignoring us (probably sick of hearing people complain about this server), I called the restaurant's phone and asked for the manager to come to our table.

The manager was really nice and empathetic. She said to hold off paying until she had a chance to review the bill and ensure it was all set.

The server wandered over a while later and said the manager had taken care of it and to have a good evening. The way she said it, I thought the manager had comped our meals so I told her to thank the manager for her generosity and I prepared to leave. My daughter noticed the server gave a strange look, which prompted us to review the table payment system, only to find the manager had given us a 10% discount. $4.60. That was it. There were also a couple overcharges to our order, but when the screen refreshed they disappeared, so that was apparently what the manager had "taken care of". I tipped the 10%.

By this time it was 10:10 and I was too tired to deal with it. I paid and figured I would handle it through corporate. Since it has been over a week and they have not responded, I am here to let everyone know.

Watch out for this location. When things are good, they are good, but when they are bad, you are better off grabbing a frozen dinner at the grocery store and popping it in the microwave.

Breanna- I hope this was a learning experience for you and that you figure it out quickly.

Tracy-...

TL; DR

Go for the tasty food and generous portions at reasonable prices. Bar has nice ambiance. Food might be cool.

We’ve left our little village of Denver, NC, heading to Gastonia. I’m taking Twin A back home and it is close to dinner so I’m looking for something that is not fast food. Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen catches my eye. A brief review of the online menu suggests this will do quite well.

We are seated quickly in the bar. It has a pretty nice ambience. A large aquarium backs most of the bar. It’s a really nice touch and not something you see in these parts.

We don’t wait long before the server plops down three heavily buttered croissants. Another nice touch instead of the standard bread serving. The croissants are light and the honey butter is sweet. Not overly but if you are watching your sugars, use some caution. That they are so light guarantees you won't fill up on bread. Unless you order more.

We order the Bacon Cheeseburger, Chicken Tender Platter, and the New Orleans Pasta.

The burger came loaded with bacon and a huge portion of fries. The tenders were thickly breaded. My pasta dinner is fixed with Shrimp, chicken, smoked sausage, peppers, onions and penne pasta in a spicy homemade Cajun alfredo sauce. It comes with a side of garlic bread.with garlic bread.

It is hard to get feedback about the burger and tenders since my boys are both special needs. Sometimes I’ll take a taste if I know I am going to write a review but not this time. I did taste the fries. They had a nice flavor but were definitely on the cool side.

My pasta had a nice balance of flavors, not overly spicy but enough kick that those who don’t like spicy should not order. It too was a little cool.

Under normal circumstances, I'd have sent everything back but we didn't have the time to wait.

We did wait a bit for the order to come out but if this is really a “scratch” kitchen, then one might expect a little wait. Now, I’m not so sure and suspect our food was cooling before being brought out. It wasn't too busy. I will go back and read other reviews after I post this as I’m giving the place 4 stars which is in line with it’s average. Honestly, I’d give it 3.5 if I could.

It deserves more than 3 stars. The food is tasty with very nice portions at a reasonable price. The menu had enough interesting things on it to please most people.

If I come back, I’ll try the Loaded Potato Soup and the Painkiller. Since it is served in a large bowl/goblet, I’ll want to watch the bartender prepare it and count how long the pours of alcohol are. I’m always suspicious of drinks served in these large glasses. Just how much alcohol is in it? Is proportional to the other ingredients? Probably not. If the pours are long, I'll wonder if the bottle has been cut with some water. When it comes to mixed drinks, unless I make it, I'll wonder.

Go for tasty food and generous portions at...

The hostess was one of the rudest young girls I have ever encountered in any restaurant. We arrived knowing we may have a wait and she was telling us and everyone else "20" minute wait. It was nice so we took a seat outside to wait. Twenty minutes came and went, one hour came and went. Finally I noticed people who were just arriving were being seated ??? ( they don't take reservations) when I went in to inquire about our wait, she looked and said "you missed your call" then nothing...not let me find you a seat, I am so sorry, nothing. I had to ask " well can we get a seat. She gave a loud huff and after looking at the seating chart for several minutes lead us to a table and practical threw the menus and flatware on to the table, saying nothing and walking away.She then whispered something to the waitress and walked on looking back rolling her eyes. Our waitress did apologize for our wait and offered a free appetizer or dessert which we declined. We were not there for a free meal, just a nice lunch. At this time, now almost 2 hours from our "20 minute" given time our order is taken. The waitress did have the GM who was very nice and apologetic come to our table. But each time the "hostess" passed our table we still go an eyeroll. We were told she often got overwhelmed when they got busy. Maybe this is not her nitch. She certainly did not have any customer service skills. If I would have been rude when inquiring about our wait I may could have understood her attitude but I was not. Lots of good people , pleasant people are looking for work maybe she should be sent packing to roll her eyes at home and let one of those people have the job. And IF this is indeed a common thing for her why is she still there. What happened to customer service? She doesn't care this restaurant gets a bad review because she feels entitled to do as she pleases and is right to think so because we were told "she gets this way when we are busy". I would think this is all the time because they are probably busy all the time.I hope she realizes everyone in life is not going to take her rudeness and poor attitude toward customer service and I frankly don't understand why Cheddars would. Food was good, nice atmosphere minus the walk by eyerolls but what a train wreck on customer service. Our waitress was super nice but the bad taste of the initial greeter set the tone for our experiences. If I could give negative marks for this individuals behavior I would. But again if Cheddars continues to allow her to be in this position and behave in this manner tells me they really don't care either. Very sad. I usually just want leave a review unless it was good but this was just too wrong in so many ways not to let others know. I hope it all works out for them but we will not be going back. I like my meal with no...