Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen — Restaurant in Lafayette

Not impressed.

First time there and I'm anything but impressed and tempted to just not go back. I will end up giving it one more shot.

Came here with my kids, I ordered 6oz sirloin with chicken tenders, seasoned rice and " country style " green beans. Heavy on the emphasis. My steak was cooked the right temperature and juicyness was definitely not a problem. My problem with it was it was so covered in seasonings it physically was burning my mouth making it raw. I season my food pretty well at home and I love some spicy food but this wasn't spicy heat it was just burning from over seasoning. I had 3 small bites and turned it away it wasn't enjoyable I couldn't eat it at all. I ate the seasoned rice. It was lightly seasoned. Moist and tender. No problem. I tried those green beans.... they were gross. They were only gross to me because it tasted like some one dumped 2 cups of sugar or more into the pot to cook them with. They were not savory like country style green beans should be they did not have pork in them either. It was a ton of onion and SWEET.. and it was just gross. I only managed to eat half of them..

To add to this already " awesome " first time, I didn't even get my chicken tenders.. I had to wait well over 20 minutes for a server to even walk by... I had my light on that I needed assistance and not a single person who worked there even came over for over 20 minutes. By then I was getting very agitated. My food was incomplete and over seasoned I couldn't eat it, i eventutally got the tenders about 8 or so minutes later but no sauce was given at all and there was only ketchup onnthe table.... so i waited..... again...over 25 minutes to see a server... by then they were cold and i lost my appetite. I was just ready to go home at that point. I ordered dessert for my kids the giant cookie with the ice cream.. while they enjoyed it i tried it and it was doughy in the middle and tasted of alot of flour... with a strange gritty mushy kind of texture. Not a fan there... They didn't take any of the dishes off the table from the croissants, to the appetizer to the kids plates and so on, our table was losing alot of space and movement. Maybe it's just how cheddars does things they don't clear anything at all until after? Most restaurants I've been in always come and clear a few things away to make space for additional food. I ended up leaving hungry, aggravated and tired. I'd been there over 2 hours... which was insanely unnecessary, my kids were laying up against the booths falling asleep.. I just wanted to eat and leave i went in very excited to try this place I've never been and maybe get a nice steak. I left disappointed and unsatisfied. My oldest liked her food she had the kids Alfredo penne. She couldn't eat the garlic bread it was to hard so she tried to give it to her sister who also couldn't eat it. I tried to rip the crusts of to see if it would help but it didn't. Still hard. My youngest tried the kids shrimp and baked potato, she knew she was trying something new and may not like it; which she didn't like the shrimp at all or the cocktail sauce because it was a little spicy I did try it myself to make sure , it indeed had a bit of a kick. That being said, pros: good atmosphere, clean facility, accessible, servers are very nice. Some of the food isn't bad i.e my kids.

To finish up here,

I will say that I will give them a second try but during the day and not on a Saturday.

Please...

I agree with recent reviews that there has been a deline in service. We stopped here around thanksgiving while on our way from the airport to our AirBNB in West Lafayette. We have been to Cheddar's (this location) several times in the past and have always had a good experience. This time it was terrible.

We got sat right away, but after our experience, I realized that better management would've known not to seat us yet. They were too busy and had slow kitchen staff (as he later admitted). I could tell the server didn't know what she was doing pretty early on. She was nervous, scattered, and kept apologizing.

Drinks came out after a bit of time but were delicious. We ordered two kids grilled cheese and something for ourselves that I can't even remember because we left before it was ever given to us. We forgot we wanted onion rings, so I put that in about a minute later. I tried to page the server on the tabletop screen, but she didn't hear it and later told me she didn't even know how to use it.

We waited two hours! Two hours! For our kids' grilled cheese! And we had to remind the server several times and eventually ask to speak to management before they brought out two piping hot grilled cheeses with fries. The management blamed the slow kitchen but I think the server was also bad. My onion rings were cold so who knows how long they had been sitting there. My husband and I told them to cancel our food. We would've had to stay there overnight at that pace.

Also, why did we have to be the ones to grab management? And they offered nothing except "Sorry, our kitchen is slow today."

We weren't the only ones having a horrible time. Lady next to us had wrong mashed potatoes. Table kitty-corner from us got fries that weren't prepared right, and they looked like they were going to leave after seeing what was happening with us. Guy behind us in the booth said he could've gone back in the kitchen and made it faster himself.

Just all around bad, and I was so disappointed. Felt sorry for my kids who had to wait that long for dinner. We've always enjoyed coming to Cheddar's when visiting family in our hometown but we'll try somewhere...

Pros: nice aesthetic, large aquarium, real plants, beautiful difference in dining room space, open concept, table and chairs, or booth seating, full service bar.

Cons: Servers aren’t trained in proper hygiene, or general health safety protocols, in regards to handling plates of food, used plates, napkins, and other utensils.

Servers lacked communication skills.

Observed our server, more than one time, use another patron’s dirty napkin to wipe liquid that the server spilled from a dirty dish they were carrying and holding over a table with patrons dining, and a second and third time the server from a nearby table proceeded to hand out freshly made platters of food without any concern to the wrong tables.

We had Cold food, Undercooked food, poorly plated food (items mixing), Wrong food, missing food.

The server even forgot one of our friends meals!

Management is basically nonexistent at this particular location.

We were given the wrong food.While the others in our party ate their meals, we waited more than 40 minutes for the correct food. When it arrived it was served incomplete, without any side items, cold, and over salted. We were served 1/2 glass of water per person the entirety of our experience. It was not worth the time, and was a huge distraction for all of us.

The manager visited our table only to acknowledge that he knew we had some type of an issue. He tapped the table with his hand, and walked away. He did not stay long enough for any of us to respond. It was awkward, and strange.

I would not recommend this restaurant because mainly because of the uncleanliness, and lack of good management, but obviously the food was not good whatsoever!

We paid our bill, including a 30% gratuity, gave subtle feedback to the manager prior to leaving.

We were...