The Cheesecake Factory — Restaurant in Newton

Years ago, there were wonderful restaurants like Paparazzi’s and Charlie’s Saloon - back then the restaurant in Bloomingdales was a really nice restaurant with the quality product and quality service. How things change.

This one at the Chestnut Hill location was sadly disappointing. I want to preface this by saying this is our opinion, and this is my opinion, based on our personal experiences after having eaten there at least three separate times. Sadly, no one around us seemed too pleased - it was slowwwwww and frantic.

It’s really nothing special, it’s nothing to write home about it… It’s pricey for what you get no doubt about it – and let me give you a few examples. The one male waiter was so unpleasant we had to move our table… He was frantic, asked if we wanted bread and butter or not… or not !!! And would we like water !!! if so, he could get us some… but he was busy !!! and he’d be back here when he had a minute.

We decide to go back about a week later - And had a very nice server - and we ordered the meso salmon which was very good and we also ordered the white fish - branzini - that was so fishy and dry - not flaky at all and tasted smelled like it came out of the bottom of the harbor.

The mashed potatoes… I don’t know what you can do to mashed potatoes, but whatever it is, they have their own way of doing them… They were kind of gelatinous, fatty tasting, and not too hot and really not too pleasant.

Here’s my opinion… A server shouldn’t intimidate the client, and the server shouldn’t make the client feel like they are intruding upon them… And you shouldn’t be afraid of your server - the server should not be intimidating. They should be friendly and warm that’s what they get their tips on. That original male server we had really set the tone and established our view of the restaurant at that location. Just our opinion, but in this day and age, you have to be so careful what you say to anyone because you don’t know what they might do and if a server is aggressive with you, how do you know how your meal is going to unfold? It’s just a horribly unsettled feeling.

The subsequent server we had the following week was delightful. Very nice, just a very pleasant, delightful individual, and it’s not their fault how the kitchen sends the food out… or how late the runner gets the food to your table… or how the cook over cooks fish they have no control over that.

We’ve been at the Burlington Mall location several times, and we’ve had several different servers, all terrific… All pleasant, all friendly, the food was always hot and on point and it was a really positive experience. Just a pleasant experience.

There can be a lot of excuses for failure, but it appears to be, in our opinion, a poorly selected or a poorly managed staff - as in the Chestnut Hill location - and that rest squarely with the manager.

Who ever is the managing the front of the house - and it seems and I’m perhaps I’m making an assumption here that one of the managers at the Chestnut Hill location was a younger man with short crop blonde hair, who kind of walks around swinging his keys on his index finger… chatting with this one and that one and looking busy - while he’s doing a lot of leaning.

The location at the Burlington mall was nothing like this. It was extremely busy, the staff was on point, they worked as a team, no one was fooling around or fiddling around.

They were all on point doing work related task and it seemed like a seamless way of managing things.

One thing about the staff in Burlington is that it is incredibly diverse, and everyone was respectful of everyone there didn’t seem to be any intimidation, there didn’t seem to be any bullying of any kind people treated people respectfully, and that really seem to be lacking at the chestnut Hill location. The Burlington location made you feel comfortable, and accepted, they greeted you - nicely, and they came to the table in a pleasant manner.

Your food arrived, warm, hot, and timely - the Burlington location we would highly recommend over the Chestnut...

My family and I have been fans of TCF for several years, and would seek out TCF if it was in a city we were visiting. But that has all changed. First, they are OVER-THE-TOP aggressive in collecting your personal data. Recently, I tried to make a reservation for my family, only to learn that you can only do that through their third party webpage/app. This site/app REQUIRES name, phone number, email, birthdate, etc. Seriously? Just to make a reservation? TCF actually GOES OUT OF THEIR WAY to hide the phone number to the actual restaurant (God forbid should you want to make a reservation without giving away all your info, that you KNOW will be sold and come back to haunt you in the form of spam. THIS IS AGGRESSIVE.

No one should have to give away so much personal information just to make a dinner reservation! Even IF you are lucky enough to get a phone number that works, it just directs you to their invasive web app. IMO, this is not a company that cares about their customers, its a desperate attempt to come up with a scheme to appease their shareholders. THIS IS A HUGE RED FLAG FOR ME.

While creating this review I Googled the data (and you can to), TCF has INCREASED their menu prices by ALMOST 11% over the past year, but only saw same-store sales increase by 1.5%! Could it possibly be to the fact that consumers have woken up a bit and refuse to pay these exorbitant prices?

So lets get to the prices! While waiting to be seated, I went to the small, over-burdened bar, and ordered a Mic Ultra and a house Cab. The Ultra was $7.25 and the glass of Cab was $16.50. I was very surprised by the prices, but, in full honesty, that was on me. The prices weren't posted, and I didn't ask. I just didn't expect a $2 increase in the beer price since the last time I ordered 1 in a similar restaurant a week prior. I should have asked. My bad, and I take responsibility.

Then came the food. As is TCF's model, the portions are ample, and tasty. My family enjoyed their meal but thought them, "meh." nothing special. I was the last to order, vacillating between a flatbread and the Korean Fried Chicken. As I was ordering, I saw a waiter go by with a pepperoni flatbread. It was literally all bread with a 3" stripe of sauce, cheese, and pepperoni down the middle. No joke. This may have been an anomaly, but at their prices, I decided not to chance it. So I ordered the Korean Fried Chicken. When it came, I was psyched to see a big pile of the fried chicken, thinking I'll have plenty to take home! It was only after I dug in that I discovered that the big pile? Was actually fried rice. It had just been covered over with a single layer of the Korean fried chicken to make it look a big pile of chicken.. Ugh. To add insult to injury, the chicken was over-cooked and dry. If you've ever had this dish in any other restaurant, then you know that it's almost impossible to make it dry because the sauce is so wonderful and liquidly . Sadly, TCF doesn't even offer a side of this sauce so I ate the dinner with equal parts chicken, to equal parts water.

It saddens me to feel compelled to draft this fairly long review. My family and I have LOVED TCF for years, but, based upon our last few experiences, I feel like they have lost their focus on what is important. As a family, when we travel, we will now look for other...

Atmosphere: Okay so it is super dark in there! Like, I went for lunch and it is like romantic dinner mood lighting dark. I had the hostess try to seat me in some corner out of sight by the station where they swipe cards next to the bar. I am not a supermodel, but as I was decently put together, and smelled nice, I am not sure what necessitated this. I said no, and moved myself to another table up. The spacing in the place is also weird, There are high table tops right next to me, and so it doesn't give the servers much space to pass. Even the bathroom is dimly lit. The one place I expected there to be light. I saw other review were well lit, so maybe staff had a migraine and had to work? I have no clue, but it was dark in there. Food: My food was okay, but I am used to the Cheesecake Factory having bigger portion sizes, so I was shocked when my food came out. The food was good, but nothing to write home about. I was super disappointed by the smaller potion size of the carb for the Ahi Tuna. I also think I ended up having a mild allergic reaction, and since I made the server aware of my restrictions, I am not sure. My breathing became labored and chest tight so I had to take something and will be taking something again before bed. Not good. The Factory Turkey burger I got protein style, wrapped in lettuce and it was tasty. I got it without cheese or bun- though they do have gluten free buns available. The bummer was the Peach Smoothie. I asked him about ingredients and he told me it was just peach juice and ice. Nope strawberry syrup was put into the bottom of my glass. It was nice and thick so I didn't notice until I pushed the straw further down, and so I didn't drink the rest of it. I am off sugar as part of a needed health thing. The peaches were already a splurge- so I was super irritated by this. So why the young woman behind the bar lied about this to him is beyond me. It is dark in there do I didn't see her make it but was close enough to hear her reply to his question. Service: I think Cheesecake must be tip driven, really badly, because initially the server was attentive, but as soon as bigger parties came in who decided to buy drinks before 4PM his focus was on them, not me. I saw him see me and ignore me a couple times to check on them or serve them before me when they came after me. He also weirdly kept my gift card, and didn't give it back to me. I didn't say I was using one until I was about to pay for my meal after I ate. I also heard him talking trash about people in the place, even did it with other diners a table away. Not okay.

So good food, but maybe get it to go unless you are on a date and like a crowded dark atmosphere. Also maybe buy a couple drinks to get...