The Cheesecake Factory — Restaurant in New York

Im a big fan of cheesecake factory (CF). I've frequented them all over the US. I've had a lot of different items on the menu, and for the last couple years ive stuck with the gumbo. Mostly, every other CF gets it right. But not this location. But i didn't give up on them because of one dish, i just decided to order different items. The food here at the Queens Center mall feels like an airport version of the real thing. No matter what I or my guests order, it sucks. The cheesecakes are good, which makes me question if they are made on site. The service, in general, is comparable to an understaffed IHOp, no disrespect to IHOP. The wait staff has lost my credit card here before. The portions seem smaller here. The food takes forever and arrives cold. The steak or salmon is always over, but i just pretend im eating at the food court at this point. In hindsight, it's a huge waste of money. Today is the day i gave up on them. My son ordered the carne asada medium temp. Got it well done. My wifes' grilled salmon was so dry, it was like chewing on napkins. My steak Diane was so well done i couldn't swallow it. I wasn't too hungry, so i decided to be bold and send it back, eventho I've eaten a ton of "not good" meals here before and never complained. The waitress told me not to worry. She said she would talk to the manager to ask that it be removed from the bill. I was impressed on how she went to bat for us. After a long while and after my whole family had eaten, my dish finally arrived. I ate my steak (still not hot lol) and it was well done again. By the time i saw the waitress again i had chewed through 60% of the diced pieces of sauceless dry meat i was presented with. The waitress kindly asked how it was this time. I smiled but i was honest and told her, it was dry again. I honestly ate it because i was too hungry to wait for another one, and my kids wanted to go home. The waitress assured me she would show the manager again. I decided stop eating to leave some evidence for him to see. I had already eaten enough to be full anyway. A credit from mgmt would have shown me they cared about my business.

Bill comes and without looking i gave her my card. I didnt really look at it because the waitress told me she took my order off the bill and i didnt want to risk waiting for her again.

As I'm signing i see the steak diane is still on the bill. The waitress explained that she took ONE of the TWO steaks i ordered off the bill, as a courtesy. I just looked at my wife as she laughed and we left.

We are gonna just drive to Roosevelt Field Mall next time. Id rather sit in traffic then go back there. The waitress tried, im not sure why she led me to believe i wouldnt be charged. I never asked for a credit, i just wanted her to tell the chef to go easy on the heat when cooking so he/she wouldnt over cook the food.

Dont go here. But u should still give Cheesecake Factory a try. They are USUALLY pretty consistent with reasonably priced good food.

PS mixed drinks suck here too. Get beer or wine if...

I will start this review off by saying that the 2 stars for service has nothing to do with the waitress we had; she was lovely and was very attentive to my party and was always making sure we had everything we needed. I will however be talking about our experience with the host desk.

I had called the restaurant a few weeks ahead of time to ask about having a large party of 8 at the restaurant. I talked to who I assume was a manager on the phone and she said I could go ahead and book a reservation online, and to just add a note of how many people we would have. I called again 2 days before our reservation just to confirm we were still good to go with everything, and whoever I spoke to said yes.

Yesterday my whole party arrived a few minutes before our reservation time at 2pm and when we went up to the host desk there was a brief confusion with our booking, but the hostess realized we were the large party. She said that another party was at our table and that they had already paid and were just waiting in them to leave. We were told it should only be a few minutes and I would get a text when the table was ready.

After 15 minutes went by without anything I went inside to ask if there were any updates on our table, and the hostess sent somebody to go check. She told us the other party was still just sitting there. She was acting very confused and honestly a bit unprofessional in her mannerisms, and kept saying she didn't know why they were just sitting there doing nothing. She kept looking up at me and another member of my party like we would have the answers to her questions, when she or anyone else who worked there could've simply told the people at the table that they needed it for another reservation and needed them to clear out, especially since they were supposedly just sitting there on their phones. I have been to plenty of restautants where the waiters or hosts do this and it is perfectly acceptable to do so, especially when dealing with large reservations.

Another 10 minutes go by and the hostess switched with another one. This new person was also acting in the same confused manner, and offered us to split into 2 smaller groups instead. At this point I was talking with my party and was honestly about to suggest we just go somewhere else when the hostess runs out to us and says they're cleaning our table. So 5 minutes later, 30 minutes after our reservation time we were finally led to our table.

While I understand things happen, I feel like this could've been completely avoided if any of the hosts acted like working professionals who were completely capable of fixing the situation instead of shaking their heads like they had no power to do anything. I feel like we should've been compensated for at least something, but we were not offered anything.

Again, our waitress was great and table service was fine, but everything before was, in my opinion, unacceptable and put all of us in a bad mood. Which was disappointing because it was...

Went out here with friends on an aparently very busy sunday evening.

Pros: cheesecake was pretty good

Cons: the food was extremely disappointing to me. I got the honey truffle chicken and it was just sad dry fried chicken with some half decent mashed baby red potatoes. You'd think by the name there would be a sauce or glaze over the chicken but no. Just Dry. Fried. Chicken. With the afterthought of honey, the thought being "oh shit almost forgot the honey!!!" And ??? Truffle. Extremely sad i had to pay $25 for this because our server never rly came back to ask us how the food was, just for quick things like taking plates or giving us our to go cheesecakes. So i couldn't tell her i disliked mine and because it took so long to even put in an order i couldn't have ordered anything different anyways by the time the kitchen closed. Nor could i have asked her to take it off the check before hand because we got the check while she kept leaving (ignoring?) my plate in front of me when taking others meanwhile everyone else was boxed up and had their to-go items, only asked if i wanted a box/acknowledged me after we had paid and i couldn't ask for it to be removed atp. I understand it was very busy but the amount of times she was in and out for 1 thing (like taking a plate or giving a to go box) she could have asked if there was something wrong with the food like most servers do when someone isn't eating... i don't blame her as I'm sure she was streched thin and we were one of the last tables, its just fustrating when a barely touched plate surrounded by to go bags is ignored to the point of only being asked about til after everything is paid and didn't leave much of a window for me to ask prior while she was rushing around the restaurant or with my friends orders. A quick "how is everything" while passing would have been great so i could have explained myself... i guess thats also my fault for not asserting myself and also not wantng to talk to a manager on a busy night since thats usually what happens to take something off a bill for some reason.... $25 could have at least gotten me 2 more cheesecake slices at the very least 😔

Anyways, Ive tried the food at a cheesecake factory (not just this one) a handful of times now and yeah, i guess it's just not for me. Even my friends said a few things was lackluster but they all still enjoyed their food fortunately.

Also i gave the atmosphere a 2 because being dark and blasting music to the point where its hard to hear your friends or properly see ur food in front of you should be for clubs and concerts not family...