The Cheesecake Factory — Restaurant in Madison

This is going to be long. But the short of it is, I went to Cheesecake Factory for the first and last time ever. I have NEVER had a worse experience at a restaurant ever.

On the night of December 10th, it was exactly 1 year until my wedding, so 2 weeks prior when my partner told me they wanted to go to the Cheesecake Factory, I set a reservation through Yelp.

We arrived little early for our 6:30pm reservation, by about 10 minutes and were told it would be a few minutes. No problem. We get it. Maybe 5 minutes later we were texted our seat was ready, and we're taken outside, to the patio seating. On December 10th. After having made a reservation to sit INSIDE the restaurant to enjoy the atmosphere as well as the food.

The patio seating is out in the hall for the mall. So instead of an intimate romantic atmosphere we were out in the mall, listening to loud Christmas music, about 20 feet from the exterior door of the mall with people coming and going constantly. It was freezing.

Our server arrived within 5 minutes, and we made drink orders and let him know we'd need a minute for out food order. He said he'd be right back with our drinks and bread. About 10 minutes later he came by and dropped our drinks and went back inside before we could stop him to let him know we were ready to order. Another server returned a few minutes later with our last drinks. Our server came in and out, taking care of the other tables that had been seated after us. But he didn't stop at our table again until qlmost 30 minutes after we'd placed our drink orders. We tried stopped him and flagging him down, and we're ignored every time.

He finally came over and took our food order, which we ordered appetizer, entrée, and dessert all at once, because we didn't know when the server would be back. After he left the 3 tables that arrived after us started receiving their food, which frustrated us because we had only just ordered, because our server wouldn't return to our table to take our order. Whatever, everyone had gotten their food within 10 minutes of ordering, so we decided to wait. At least if the food was good the night wasn't a total waste.

Only another 20 minutes passed of our server ignoring us and serving the other tables, we still had not received even the bred promised almost an hour earlier. We finally, drained and near tears but not wanting to cause a scene, flagged down a waitress and told her we wanted our food to go, as it was too cold to be sitting outside, so if they couldn't seat us inside, we just wanted to take our food to go.

Another 20 minutes passed after which our server came over long enough to ask if we were the table that wanted our food to go, us to say yes, and off he ran again. We got our food about 10 minutes later and left.

We got home, and started to eat, and none of the food was even palatable. My partner had gotten the pizza style chicken parm and it was gross and slimy, I had gotten the steak and chicken Madeira combo and the steak was overcooked, mostly gristle, and the chicken tasted like dirty dish water.

We called the restaurant at that point and spoke with the manager, and explained the situation. We explained we did not complain while in the restaurant because at the point we would have, we would have caused a scene and didn't want to do that. She promised us a gift card and we agreed and she said we'd have it in 7 business days.

Today, December 31st, 3 weeks later, we have received nothing. We cannot get a refund. We cannot dispute the charge. We are out the $100 for the inedible food, and terrible service. Our special date I had planned for months was ruined. And...

If I could rate this 0 stars I would. I had an online order last night on Thurs. 9/5. I had an app,dessert, and the herb crusted salmon entree. Once I got home I went to cut my salmon and noticed it was still raw. Very slimy and pink. I called the store and spoke with the manager who told me that she was unable to give me a refund because it was an online order but could send me out a gift card in the mail or I could come back in for one. I told her I will come in for the gift card, even though I just wanted a refund because after that I don’t want to spend any more money there, but I guess I’ll take what I can get. Upon arriving in person the manager brings me a newly cooked salmon saying that she had them remake it and had them do it well done this time. She didn’t even look at my original meal before telling me that it probably wasn’t raw they just don’t make their salmon well done. She handed me the food, offered a slice of cheesecake for the inconvenience and sent me on my way. No mention of the gift card that she offered me 10 mins prior when we were on the phone. I cut into my salmon in my car before leaving and the second one I received was less cooked than the first one! It was absolutely disgusting. The first meal had already ruined my appetite but this was even worse. I went back in. The manager brought out the cook, they stared at the raw salmon, glared at me and exchanged mumbled words basically making it seem like I was crazy and that the salmon was cooked. Still avoiding to take any accountability for serving this. I Asked for a refund when the manager rudely told me “ I already told you I can’t do a refund on online orders only gift cards. I said okay I would like a gift card . She then asks for my address and says it will be sent in the mail. I asked why she can’t do a refund online orders and she said because it can take 21 business days for it to come back. I’d rather wait 21 days since I’m already stuck waiting for a gift card to be sent out in the mail. What was the point of having me come in waste my time and gas just for the situation not getting resolved and not receiving a fare compensation for the $28 I spent on the entree I never got to eat! If she couldn’t even issue a gift card when I came in what was the point of having me come in. I normally don’t speak up when my order is wrong at restaurants, however I’ve been working in the food service industry for 6 years now and this is totally unacceptable. Not just the fact that I was served raw fish not once but twice, but also the lack of professionalism I received from the staff trying to gaslight me into believing that this fish was cooked. Below is the photo of the “well done” salmon they had served to me...

I just wish I could give them zero stars. I am someone who frequents restaurants. I have visited the Cheesecake Factory in Madison 3 different times since they opened. I have had 3 terrible experiences with the most recent being the worst of all. I was in to celebrate a birthday and it took more than three hours to get in and out and we only had 5 people in our group. When we arrived the "host" did not ask if we wanted a table or booth and took us to a table that has other tables all around it. We asked to be seated in a booth since we saw two booths near us empty and cleared but needing to be wiped off. The host told us it would take 15 minutes to clean them and that we could wait up front. We told her that seemed like a long time to wipe off a table and she said her staff had other things to do and they would get to it when they had time so we would wait 15 min. ( her tone was anything but helpful or kind- she was short with us and rude). Ironically 3 min later a booth had been cleared. (she walked around acting busy but would not wipe it off herself- turns out she is not the host she is a manager and wiping tables off is below her position) When we were sat we met our waiter who is the nicest man! He was so kind and nice to us! We absolutely loved him! Unfortunately, despite his kind and helpful service the our order was very late ( kitchen was backed up?) and wrong. Our appetizer did not arrive on the table for more than an hour and came when the food did. We waited in total for more than an hour to get our food and the restaurant was not on a wait. We asked ot talk to the manager- to voice frustrations with how we were treated when we were seated and how late our food was... unfortunately it is difficult to complain to someone when they are the one that was rude to you. " Excuse me I would like to complain about.. .you?" Doesn't really work. So we just talked about our bad meal experience. She said she would take off the app ( no duh- since we still did not have it and we had already eaten) and that was it. She told us it was the servers fault and spoke poorly of him after we had just said what a nice and helpful person he was. She made if very uncomfortable for us with him after that. Again she was short and rude. We will NEVER go back to that Cheesecake Factory again- 3 strikes you are out I guess. I plan to call the GM and explain how the manager treated us. I would highly recommend you choose a different place to eat! It is not worth the negative experience....