The Cheesecake Factory — Restaurant in Niles Township

Updating my review from January 2024 below. This portion of the review is for my first time ordering online through their website for a pick-up. Front desk staff were pretty inefficient. 3 staff members assisting 1 person. There was no one else waiting around for assistance. I made eye contact with one of the staff and continued to stand there. After they were done assisting the lone guest, the 3 staff continued to stare and none gave a greeting of Hello, Hi how are you, Welcome, or anything. How are people hired nowadays? Lol. Anyway, I needed some assistance as to where online order pick-ups are as this was my first time. I was pointed over to the cheesecake area and that was it. After a few minutes of standing around and waiting in line, I noticed the online orders pick-up area in the corner. Would have been nice to have that communicated as well but the staff at the front were only vocal in letting people know to have a nice night. If it were not for the cooks and bar tenders whenever we dine-in, I would change my service rating to below than average. Food remains 5-stars. Updating my review from July 2023. Enjoyed a nice generous slice of the Celebration Cheesecake with a glass of Merlot at the bar. Can't recall having the Celebration Cheesecake and it is to die for if you're looking for an extra treat. You can really taste allnod the different layers: birthday cake, strawberry, chocolate, with the perfect amount of creamy cream cheese. Love to see the hustle and hustle of the bar and back areas. This place is a well-oiled machine. (Mon.07.10.23) Another "not my first time here, but first Google Review" for this place! Have been coming here ever since I can remember. Used to come more during high school days and even though the rest of the mall area has changed significantly throughout the years, this Cheesecake Factory location has not really changed - new hosts and servers for sure, but still friendly service. Usually sit at the bar and the servers there seem to have been with the company for a while. Unfortunately, there are usually fruit flies hovering over here and there. This visit, was with a group and sat in a booth which are large and spacious. I sometimes order their Appetizers since the portions are large enough to be an entree. I have other photos shared through this location's Google Maps page but linked to this review is of my recent visit order of their Skinnylicious Chicken Soft Tacos that is also served with Esabeche Vegetable Salad. First time having this entree and hard to believe good or bad that all this food is around 500 cals. The menu is enormous and I can definitely say I have not tried each entree, and each recent visit, I have tried something new. Their cheesecakes are definitely a treat and for these, I usually get their Key Lime or Plain and have tried these both in various types - classic, sugar free, Skinnylicious. This recent visit, but not pictured here, I had their Caramel Pecan Turtle Cheesecake, and as a first timer having this, was wow'd - so much flavor in a cheesecake. Until...

First of all, my family loves Cheesecake Factory. We always go here before the pandemic on the Skokie location for bdays and special occasions, and always had a good experience.

We decided to dine-in again for the first time today. This location, being in the mall, is busy.. I am aware of that. But, what a horrible experience! I'm not sure if the two hostesses up front were just newly hired, but they both lack customer service! Make sure if you do reservations, be on time or else they will punish you and won't care about you at all. We were a party of 5 with reservations made for 1:30 pm, was 20 minutes late, so we were put back at the end of the line which is understandable. We were told to wait 15-20 mins downstairs. Waited for 30 minutes and no calls, even though everybody else were being called. So I went upstairs to follow-up. The hostess said they were cleaning tables and it'll be about 10 minutes. We watched more people come and go, small and big groups, still we did not get called for the next 20 minutes. I followed-up again upstairs, wherein she claimed that she texted me "15 minutes ago" that a table's ready but I didn't receive any texts. Pretty sure she was not telling the truth because she couldn't even give me the number she said she texted. And as courtesy, couldn't they send another text or maybe call or at least check if people are waiting downstairs?? We were the last ones to be called, everybody else who came after us were seated right away. TOOK THEM ALMOST AN HOUR TO FINALLY CONSIDER GIVING US A TABLE!! The two very inconsiderate hostesses did not offer any apologies for the long wait or the misunderstanding. They both had attitudes that made me feel that I was an inconvenience to them. When we finally got seated at around 3:04 pm, it was so upsetting to see at least 3 empty big tables at the main room, not to mention the other empty big tables at the back!! Made me and my family feel that they didn't call us purposely, and they just didn't care about us.

Our server, Ivan S., was the sole reason we still enjoyed our lunch. He saw how upset we were and made sure he gave us a good service to off set the bad experience. He was very accommodating and apologetic about what happened. He was efficient and attentive. The manager also made time to talk to us which we appreciated.

The hostesses are the first people who greet the customers and can set the tone for the customers' dining experience. It's such a let down for a very good restaurant be given bad reviews and feedback because of those two hostesses' bad actions and attitude. Maybe it's time for the management to evaluate their staff's ability to provide good customer service, or loyal customers like us will end up not...

Absolutely the worst dining experience my family and I have had so far. The restaurant is not worth the hype. We were told our wait was 2 hours due to the high demand, which we completely understood; thankfully, we only had to wait about 45 minutes, but they never mentioned our service would be a 2-hour wait. We were a big party splitting the bill into two, and to make it easier on the waiter, we sat with our respective party. The waiter took our order when we came in, and after that it all went downhill. We waited and waited annnnnddd waited for our food to arrive, and when it finally arrived, one individual did not get their meal. This individual ordered a steak medium rare. The steak made us sick to our stomachs; it was so undercooked that the center was cold. They offered our guest a different meal to select from to which they ordered chicken Alfredo. It took so long that she decided to tell the waiter It was best to just take it to go only to realize that there was no chicken in the pasta it was ridiculous! I order the shrimp ángel hair pasta and I couldn’t even finish it because it was sloppy and just thrown on the plate not only that but with the angel hair pasta there chunks of a different type of pasta it was uneventful. The waiter would leave to get one item and would come back 25 mins later every time. We asked for straws, didn’t get them. We asked for refills, didn’t. We told the waiter we were interested in desert and after he was gone for 20min he brought dessert with no spoons. The manger only came once to the table and that was to address one of our problems and we never saw her again. Toward the end of the night we were ready to run out and just pay the bill. The waiter mixed up the items on the bill twice and had to keep revising the receipt… which took him a very long time every time. When I asked to speak to another manger they said they were too busy and couldn’t help us. Given that the manger new that our table was already having issue we expected to be accommodated a bit better but the restaurant couldn’t even offer that. It was absolutely the worst experience. We will not be recommending this location. Just for reference we got to the restaurant at 4 pm and were seated at 4:45 pm and didn’t leave until 8:00 pm and it was not because we were having...