Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen — Restaurant in Glendale

We LOVED our experience tonight so this is my rave post 🥰 It started with the call. I've never been here but I know they are a part of Darden and Darden restaurants are usually AMAZING. I call the restaurant to see if they offer call ahead seating, which they do, so I put our party in. Chris for a party of 11. They said they would see us at 6 to 630. We're celebrating my mother in laws birthday so there's 3 small kids, 3 big kids and 5 adults. When we get there, I am taken back by how fancy it looks. Definitely not what I was expecting. They have a super cool fish tank as you walk in and the more you walk through the restaurant the better it gets. The cleanliness was spot on and it was very tastefully decorated. We waited for 5 minutes and were seated almost right away. For a party of 11 we were shocked! I'd like to throw in that the manager was up at the front with the hosts greeting and holding doors. It was very nice to see. We were shown to the back of the restaurant where they have a secluded table that easily sat the 11 of us. I was in love. The table was beautiful and it felt like we had a private room. It was perfect. Then this angel comes in with complimentary starters! The homemade honey butter bread was delicious and definitely the kids favorite. The angel introduces herself as Larissa and says she'll be taking care of us tonight which she totally did. She was so prompt with everything and knew the menu very well. Which was crazy to me because there was SO much to choose from! I was almost overwhelmed because I didn’t know what to pick.. It all sounded so tasty (which just means more trips back to try it all!) Larissa made sure our glasses were full and that we were all happy. She was also very good at recommending items off the menu. We ordered everything from grilled cheese to chicken tenders to steak and everything in between. The food took a bit to come out whicj was totally understandable since it was because we ordered SO much food and you can tell the kitchen takes pride in preparing each dish because everyones plates were picture perfect and tasted DELICIOUS! We all couldn't stop talking about the way our dishes tasted and passing around the food for everyone to try. We had an amazing time and we will definitely be back. I will most certainly telling everyone they have to try this place starting with you! If you've made it this far in my novel, go and try it! You won't be disappointed! 😊 And ask for Larissa if you want an...

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The staff was, interesting. The hostess tried not to over seat the bartender and asked us if we could wait for five minutes until more servers come in and we said that's not an issue. Then the manager told her just to seat her anyways. We were asked if our kids needed solverware, which was odd. As another hostess came to the front she was told with an exasperated tone to not seat the bartender!

The bartender came and got our drink orders, the manager dropped off the croissants immediately. But it took at least 5 minutes to get three waters and a coke. We ordered all but one meal. Before the server came back I entered the additional meal on the kiosk. Five minutes later she came back and said I saw you added a meal, I just put yours in so the other meal might come out first. That's fine. My salad came which was good as always. Then 20 minutes later our meals came, without the additional meal. It took a different server five minutes to get the missing kids meal. And our server was MIA for almost the rest of the time. The kids left and were put in the car while I waited for her to fix the payment that wasn't logged on the kiosk.

During this time, the hostess made a table move four tables over after half had already sat down. Then was short with the additional people that joined said table. The whole atmosphere was a bit, clipped, tense, not comfortable.

Now the food: The salad, ranch, honey mustard, honey lime, coke, garlic bread, and croissants with honey butter were all good.

The broccoli, Alfredo, and chicken were good. The pasta was partially good and half tasted and felt like uncooked flour.

The kids shrimp was undercooked and all the breading fell off. The fries were cold. Left uneaten.

The missing kids penne with butter was cold with a cold dollop of butter on top. The butter didn't melt and was left uneaten.

The green beans were cold and mushy. The mashed potatoes were ok but the gravy was lacking and cold. The Red beans and rice were dry, but hot and very flavorful.

My kids did love the fish tank and I appreciate the family bathroom.

Sadly, it is so hit and miss here with service and food that...

The wife and myself heard about this place and figure we give it a chance. We normally frequent Chili's and Texas Roadhouse but often enough the atmosphere is a touch loud.

I heard about this place from my boss hearing that it was a touch 'pricey' but compared to the previous places mentioned it's roughly priced the same. Love the butcherblock tables, it deffinately has a modern feel to it.

We ordered the Cheese Curd bites as an appetizer, just a hair on the greasy side however it tasted very fresh, cheese just melts in your mouth. The ranch that comes with it has a butter milk taste to it, very very good.

My wife and I ordered the Chicken Tender basket, did NOT expect 5 massive pieces of chicken tenders so that was a huge plus. Wife had corn on the side that was in my opinion the best corn we've had yet (Other than farm fresh) and I had the red beans and rice as a side. Fantastic rice (I'm cuban so I understood most of the flavors involved).

The chicken was tender and the bbq sauce that came with it reminds me of either STUBBS or SWEET Baby Rays but deffinately enjoyed the hell out of it. They also give you a croissant on the house with a light sweet butter glaze (Not bad).

We ended up taking dinner home as we did not expect to be 'that stuffed' with dinner, not including tip, came to $45, comparable to Chili's, the quality is deffinately better and we will be back.

Atmosphere was very inviting, very quiet (we were close to the 'bar area') and even that was pretty well reserved, there was even a party of 14 next to us and they were relatively peaceful. Manager even came by to chat with us about the food and answered any questions we may have had for the food and took time about the process (I'm a home chef/foodie so that was a huge turn on for me).

Deffinately will return, bring your appetite. We always go into new places with 'moderate' expectations, this exceeded them. Deffinately a nice...