Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen — Restaurant in Hendersonville

My two sisters and I came into Cheddar’s around 2PM on a Monday. The restaurant was completely dead — maybe two other tables in the entire place. We figured it would be a quick and easy lunch since it wasn’t busy at all, but the experience turned out to be frustrating from start to finish.

We placed our drink and appetizer orders right away. To our surprise, the appetizers came out before our drinks even hit the table. We also had to ask for appetizer plates — something that should just be standard. As service industry workers ourselves (I’m a bartender and both of my sisters are servers), we really try to be understanding, but this was just the beginning.

We attempted to put in our entrée orders quickly because we were on a time crunch to get to our own jobs. While trying to order, our server launched into a long explanation of the table kiosk — which none of us asked about or had any interest in hearing about. We were clearly trying to move quickly and she wasn’t picking up on that at all.

Throughout the meal, we ran out of drinks several times with very slow refills and almost no table touches. She was friendly, yes, but severely lacking in attentiveness. When our entrees finally arrived, she dropped them off and walked away without asking if we needed anything. I needed honey mustard but didn’t get the chance to ask before she dashed off. There was also a table of four sat next to us — in her section — and we watched them sit there unacknowledged for at least 20 minutes before anyone came over. It was so awkward we were embarrassed for them.

One of my sisters tried to help by catching the server’s attention and asking for honey mustard on my behalf. Still, it never came. I finished my meal without it. Pretty disappointing.

Another thing — one of my sisters asked for a to-go box before we even received our entrées. It wasn’t brought to the table until after our desserts came out… about 20 minutes later. That kind of delay makes zero sense in a restaurant that was nearly empty.

When it came time to split the bill, we told the server clearly: entrées on one check, and drinks/apps/desserts on the other. We both planned to pay in cash. Pretty simple, right? She seemed very confused and mentioned that the kiosk only accepts cards — yes, we know. We’ve worked in restaurants for years and are aware we can still pay our tabs in cash. That interaction just felt odd and uncomfortable.

Overall, the service was well below acceptable. And again — I want to stress that we do understand what it’s like to be slammed and in the weeds. But this wasn’t that. The restaurant was nearly empty, and yet everything felt slow, uncoordinated, and inattentive. Our server was sweet personality-wise, but based on this experience, she’s probably not in the right role or just needs significantly more training. We still tipped 22% because we know what it’s like to work for $2/hour, but we left really disappointed. Poor service led to a totally...

I'm not sure where to start really. We haven't been to Cheddar's in years (and after last night, I know why). We got there at 9pm and it was dead. We got sat down, ordered sweet tea for our drinks and either received unsweet tea or their tea was super watered down/old. Mentioned it to the server and she gave us all 4 new cups, which at that point was sweet tea but MAN was it OVERLY sweet. Thankfully we had the unsweet tea still at our table and were able to dilute it. My husband ordered an appetizer (which took forever) and while waiting our kids noticed a bunch of ants & bugs at the window by our table. It smelled like old mop water in there as well. The service wasn't great, it was dead in there but yet our service was SLOW. We hardly saw our waitress. No silverware at the table, so once we did receive our food, had to wait 5 extra minutes just to get silverware. Once we got our food I was shocked. My country fried steak was huge but had a TINY sliver of gravy on it, my husband's burger said it tasted sour/tangy and I smelled it and it smelled like old meat...tangy & sour like he described barf. One of our boys started complaining of bad stomach pains while we were there after eating the appetizer (fries - which were greasy) and he almost threw up while there so he didn't get to even touch his chicken strip meal. Our other son was eating off his chicken strip meal and started feeling sick. We told them to stop eating, and when the waitress came back and asked for a box my husband said no not at all, because we didn't want our kids eating any more of that food b/c it smelled old/sitting out. I hardly ate my food, my husband ate a few bites of his burger, one of our kids ate not a single bite of theirs and our other child ate a few bites. $52 later and we ALL felt nauseated with pounding headaches on the way home. NEVER again!!! Such a waste of money, and it was all to come there to treat me for Mother's Day.

(We didn't mention this to the server b/c we wanted to just go and get out of there...we all were feeling bleh). Our server had to have seen that there was A LOT of food left on our plates once we left. Sooo disgusting!!

Between the tons of bugs, old mop water smell, rotten tasting food, and slow service while being dead it was a horrrrrible experience!!

**EDIT - updated my 1 star review to a 4 star!! The way Management - (Tom & Lauren) handled it was purely amazing!! They were super friendly, caring, and concerned. They fixed our issue and we went back 1 more time and the food was MUCH better, service was great, tea was great, and we had no issues like we did before! We would go back another time because of this! Thank you Management for being so proactive on the negative matter in...

My husband and I/family came for lunch today as we haven't been in several years. The wait wasn't too bad for a party of 6, seated in about 20. We ordered food and drinks together since we all knew what we wanted. The server didn't record our orders, which is a bit of a pet peeve of mine especially with a party. My husband and I both ordered burgers. Both fries were cold, but would've been really good warm;flavor was good. The burgers were also cold, or at least they got cold because the didn't have any condiments on them, and it took a bit to get some and reassemble. My husband ordered a bacon cheeseburger (medium), but it came without bacon and well-done. I had the smokehouse burger (medium) and it came without BBQ sauce and well-done also. The flavor of the burger patty was actually fine, but very underwhelming to the point that I didn't finish the burger. Listen, typically I never leave a burger behind. I left this burger. The server came around and asked how everything was, and I was honest. I told him that I'm not sure how much of this experience even has to do with him but I listed it all, maybe worth mentioning maybe not. I didn't have expectations for anything especially since we ate most of it; we came hungry. I just resolved to not come back. The manager ended up comping my husband and I's burgers and offered an order of fries (but we turned down the fries since we were done eating). The rest of our party was checking out, and we asked the server to get some dessert to go that way we could still leave a tip. When we asked for help to pay because the POS wasn't showing our Togo order, the server advised that the entire table was on the same pos, and it was added as the rest of our party was checking out; so they paid for it. The server was very apologetic, but started in on the AC being out in the back and a crazy day. The one star was for the comped meal, otherwise it warranted 0. Oh and the water tasted...