The Cheesecake Factory — Restaurant in Lyndhurst

Pros: Our server, atmosphere, food Cons: Other staff, wait times, food

Now onto the meat and bones…so when you first arrive to this location, you don’t even realize that the building you’re looking at belongs to the Cheesecake Factory. Went with my husband and daughter today and when we drove past it I said “Oh look, they have Aladdin’s out here too”. Come to find out, that’s actually the restaurant and the theme was done on purpose. Egyptian motifs, palm leaves, not at all what I expected for my first time going here. Odd for what they sell here but let your odd flag fly, if it works, it works.

We didn’t have to wait long to be sat due to making a reservation online before arrival, however, the hostess led us to the back of the restaurant….right into the domain of several dirty tables. Uh oh, this isn’t a good start. Several tables, pretty much 85% of them were not bussed and ready for customers and the poor patrons who were stuck back here had the “amazing” display of previous customers orders and messes.

Once we found our way back up the aisle to a clean table we were sat. Whitney was our server and she alone carried our entire experience here. Truly the only reason this is getting the higher level of stars was because of her. She was attentive, friendly, and more than once she was a true advocate for us (you’ll find out soon why).

Our reservation was for 2:15, we did not leave until 4:15…2 hours for 3 people. Whitney did her best to make sure we kept up with drinks (which I have to highly recommend for anyone who enjoys an alcoholic beverage, their JW pink lemonade is FANTASTIC, just be careful it’s a creeper!) and had at least bread and appetizers but for the most part we were left to sit waiting for our food and we ordered almost immediately upon sitting down.

At one point, we overheard Whitney come to our side when discussing people getting their food. “These people have BEEN waiting..” was what we heard and I honestly could not thank her enough for being our advocate.

Once we did finally receive our food, we ate all of it (which never happens, we usually have leftovers), because due to our wait we were HUNGRY. The herb crusted salmon with asparagus and spinach was what I had, my husband had the Cajun salmon and our daughter had the Alfredo. Each dish (I sampled all) were actually quite good despite being on the cold side. I would have assumed our food would be piping hot but it wasn’t at all (which is where I messed up, I should have said something but I was so hungry, hunger (and alcohol blurred my brain).

For all of us we spent over $200 for long waits, cold food, dirty tables and a bit of food poisoning. Oh yes, I’m currently writing this while suffering from a bad bit of gastrointestinal issues.

TLDR: Long wait times (2+ hrs), dirty tables, Whitney is fantastic, food didn’t come out hot, expensive,...

This place is just a complete waste of money. The food is just so so only 2 of our items came out hot. You could tell everything else had sat. My son's bang bang chicken and shrimp had 3 medium shrimp and chopped up bits of chicken. We paid for 2 cups of brown rice. My daughters Alfredo was soso at best and the portion was definitely cut down from what I remember. It had already began to have a film on it from cooling down. The only thing that was Hot and Good were the macaroni and cheese bites but they had already become soggy from sitting in the marinara. The nachos were a huge portion but sadly do not come with the chicken as the menu reads. The worst part was our waitress, not even the 1 hr 20min. Wait and then additional 30 to 40 for food then 25 min. Wait for our cheesecake which I get it why didn't we order dessert sooner, well we saw our waitress all of 4x while dining. Yes they were busy but we spent $193 with tip and had to flag down a manager to even get one refill. She was off the bat rude and dismissive. She told my daughter she needed to speak louder when ordering, which completely embarrassed her. We came in knowing pretty much what we wanted and still had to wait for her because after she delivered our drinks she walked away. We had to ask for more bread 2x before we got a second basket even though we asked for extra when the first was brought. The second time I asked she snatched the basket looked at me and said, "you want bread and a napkin?" I said no could we have another basket of bread, it's my daughter's favorite as I said. She was helping with a large party and had 3 booths by us. We never complained about the wait. By the time we were finishing eating we had been there for 2 hrs. She only became attentive and nice after a manager saw us sitting there with all our drink cups empty sat to the front of the table because we hadn't seen our waitress in 25 min. I feel like everything we ate was completely processed buffet food that was pre-made factory food. We haven't been in, in 2 years and felt like having a treat. After she brought our cheesecake order she said goodbye to us 3x. We waited 5 or 6 more min. For our bill but she wasn't coming back. I sent my husband and son to the car and waited with my daughter at the table we stood up got our coats on watched her take another table's order and she walked away. I sent my daughter off to the car stood by a computer station and found the manager again that had helped us with drinks. I let her know truthfully we had not paid the bill but I hadn't been able to get our waitress to talk to us when walking by. We had to ask for to go boxes 3x. She helped me get rung out and the waitress snapped at me because the manager had grabbed her to complete our transaction. when she walked away saying it was my fault for not...

3 of our members of the Lake Erie Birthday Club chose to do our monthly celebration here. Most of the (ALL SENIOR) ladies were seated when I arrived.

I approached the check-in counter, stating I was with the Birthday Club. The young man said there was no such group there. I thought uh oh... am I at the wrong location?

He said, "I have a Brown. Is it a Brown!?" I said,"Right now, I can't remember the last names of the ladies, but do you have a group of elderly ladies here?" He INSISTED again saying very snarky, "I have a Brown, is it Brown!!?" I stood there a moment trying to remember any of the last names as I was flustered & confused. You see, I am (obviously) disabled with medical equipment. I am also a disabled veteran with short-term memory issues. Of course, he doesn't know that, but in that moment, he WATCHED me panic.

I said again, "Is there a large group of elderly ladies here celebrating?" He said, "How many? I said, "I don't know how many RSVP'd, but often there are 20 of us." He said, "WE DON'T HAVE A GROUP OF TWENTY, WE GAVE A BROWN!!! At this point, I am hanging on the counter, looking at this RUDE young man. I said, "Come on now! How many groups of old ladies do you have here in the middle of the day?!" He said, "IS IT, BROWN!? I HAVE A BROWN!!" By now, I am frustrated to tears!! I said, "Are you really doing this??I'll just go walk around and find them!!"

Would you believe he told me I could not do that?? And said, AGAIN, "Is it BROWN!?!"

As I began to walk away from the counter, a nice young man said, "I know where they are. I'll take you."

He escorted me directly to the tables with all the old ladies of the Birthday Club.

I would like to know why? Why in the world this young man was so insistent of having his way, of being "right", of not being helpful or courteous, and all with staring me down and using the most condescending tone & rude inflections?

One more detail that MAY be important. I am an elder Black woman with a full head of gray hair. He was White. The helpful young man who stepped in was Black.

So what other conclusion should I draw? He was having a bad day? He is routinely rude to people? What??

All I know is, all he had to do was either be reasonable and/or use some critical thinking sprinkled with some compassion or kindness, and I would not have had to endure this prolonged situation & be flustered and forced to 2nd guess myself.

Thank goodness my salad was tasty. But that will not be enough to make me return to the...