The Cheesecake Factory — Restaurant in Naperville

Last night I went to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory with my Pilates friends. It’s the typical format of this restaurant - bar area with a large indoor dining area and much more quieter outdoor patio. The noise level in this restaurant is ridiculous, as is the music they’re blaring. I could hardly hear our server Taj, who was sweet and friendly - and I was the one sitting closest to him. We waited quite a bit for cocktails and wine from the bar. We had to ask where they were and Taj said the bar was very busy and there was a new bartender. I ordered something off the Skinnylicious menu . This restaurant is on my Weight Watchers app so it makes me it easy for me to choose something within my points budget. I was surprised, however, to find some things on the Skinnylicious menu to be very high in points. Don’t let the word “skinny” fool you. I ended up ordering the Tuscan chicken with farro and vegetables. I asked Taj to switch out the asparagus for green beans and he said no problem. He came back a few minutes later and said there were no green beans that night but he could substitute carrots, which I did. When our dinners were finally brought to the table, there were green beans on someone’s plate. I didn’t appreciate that misinformation. The meat portion of my meal was generous in size, as were the carrots, however, the farro was approximately a 1/3 cup at best. At the end of the meal someone ordered the tiramisu cheesecake and I tasted it. It was delicious, but 50 points on my Weight Watchers plan. To give you an idea, I only get 23 points a day. There were some cheesecakes that were upwards of 95 points! The cheesecake here is certainly an indulgence. If I choose to come back, I would sit on the quiet patio. I missed half the conversation at our table of five people dining inside. To be honest, I don’t think I would come back to dine here unless, like last night, someone chooses the place to go for dinner. It wouldn’t...

I'm so happy we finally have a Cheesecake Factory in the Naperville/Aurora area. I showed up a little bit earlier than my friends, they had trouble finding parking because of all the construction. I was greeted right away by our server Drew, and wow what a calm and caring soul. He offered to get me started with a beverage and bread for the table while I waited for my friends. Once they finally arrived and got sat, within seconds Drew approached us with a smile on his face and had us laughing and smiling our whole stay. I could tell he was very busy, but he always made sure our drinks were filled and bread was on the table (we absolutely love the whole wheat bread)

We asked Drew some of his favorite items on the menu and he recommended the crispy chicken costoletta (not sure if I spelled that right) but it's become my favorite dish. Drew was amazing, very friendly and charming. His knowledge on the menu was pretty good for how big of a menu it is. He offered to package up our food and put it in to go bags. Once our table was clear he came over to us with the cheesecake menus and went over some of his favorite cheesecakes. I ordered the triple berry bliss to go, but ended up eating half of it at the table. I could tell he had a lot weighing on him, but with that being said he still made our experience one to remember and we will be coming back and requesting him. Such a charming and funny character he was. Everyone was so full of joy from food runners and managers. I can't wait to come back. Best dining experience I've had. Also want to give another shout out to Kim the GM, she was so fun and joyful. You can really feel the positive energy in the restaurant, even when it's packed wall to wall. Highly recommend this location. Everything was 10/10. Can't wait to come back...

Probably could’ve used a little bit more time before opening. We made a reservation for five at 12:30 today. We arrived at 12:30 and we were not seated until 1250. After about 10 minutes of waiting, when we asked about it they were like, “ Oh, they’re just cleaning off the table”. … not true or 10 minutes later “ I’m just the manager, I don’t know”. When we did get seated, it took our waiter and ungodly amount of time to come even just say “I’m your waiter. I’ll be right back.” He came and said he would bring us bread and take our drink orders… Probably 10 minutes later he came back after we flagged down a host who was walking by.

When he did come over, he was super annoyed that we said anything, and he was pretty rude. I think his name was Vincent. He was clearly mad and annoyed that we asked where he was… to the point where he pulled out his notepad mumbled under his breath a welcome, making it clear to us that he is just going through the motions, and is actually really pissed off at us, when the first person ordered, still annoyed, he said “NEXT?!” And kept doing that for each of our orders, acting like we were all in an argument or something. It was very odd and unprofessional.

I’m very go with the flow, but that was just weird. Things got better as things slowed down a little bit, but we were there for a solid two hours, even though we knew exactly what we wanted didn’t need more time for anything.

We joked. It’s like the Seinfeld episode with the car rental. “ You’re really good at taking the reservation, just not the holding… Which is the most important part. Anyone can just take the reservation.” We were nice and tried to have a good humor about it, but it was just a little disappointing and...