The Cheesecake Factory — Restaurant in Novi

Disclaimer, Much of the reason i've wanted to try this restaraunt is that i've never been here and have heard very good things about it. My children and i arrived at about 6:45pm and the place was hopping. I asked the gentleman how long the wait was and was told 30-40 minutes. We agreed and gave my cell number (which would be paged when the table was ready). I've never been to twelve oaks mall, and we did some walking and window shopping while we waited for our table. At 7:23 we received our text that the table was ready and checked in with the maitre de, who asked us to hold for a minute. This guy was working hard but obviously overwhelmed and not getting support from any one else. So I patiently waited for him to have enough time. At 7:34 I sent a text page response then I got up from my seat and stood directly across from him hoping he would see me. He either didn't or he ignored me, i'm not sure which. Ten minutes after that my son asked the gentleman how much longer. He asked for our phone number, and i showed him the text we had received 20 minutes earlier. He acknowledged that i checked in with him (by saying, "yes i remember the converstation") and at this point looked very flustered. He promised i would be the very next person seated. Not 3 minutes later another person (the manager i presume) called our name, except it wasn't our name. It was someone with a last name that sounds similar to ours (in fact, people have mispronounced by last name and sounded exactly like the name he called). He asked me to sit back down because it wasn't my name that was called. At this point after being promised we would be next i about lost my cool i loudly called these people "incompetant" and i was ready to make a scene for everyone to be embarrassed by and walk out. I stood next to a man who explained to me he had 7pm reservations and he was still waiting also. I said i had never been here before and asked if it was normally this busy, he said no. So the manager (the second person to promise us we would be next) did indeed keep his word and sat us next at a very nice table next to the glass looking out into the the mall. He also provided us an appetizer of our choice on the house. As we sat at our table I saw an antire row of unused tables some still needing to be cleaned. Had they been cleaned, there would have been no wait for anyone, and the numerous people who had been waiting would have been enjoying their dinners. Now that we were seated: The building decor was amazing. Our waitress was not overly attentive but she certainly wasn't neglectful either. My daughter chose a crabsauce appetizer that was absolutely outstanding, my son chose a lettuce wrap which was equally delicious. He was unaware it would be served as a build your own, so he had a slightly difficult time with it, but it was amazing also. It can be shared that the manager kept his word and actually voided the more expensive of the 2 appetizers. my daughter had a parmessan chicken i think (will update this later if i am misremembering), my son had korean fried chicken, and i had fish and chips. We each sampled each others choices and i have to say my son made the best choice. The Korean fried chicken was astounding! Easily the best entree at the table. My daughter's chicken would be second, also exceptionally delicious. My fish and chips would unfortunately rank last. It was good, but certainly not for the price charged. In fact, i could easily compare the fish to a good National Coney Island. For desert, my son passed, and my daughter and i both ordered some sort of fudge cake that neither of us could finish and took home. I also ordered 2 pieces of Original cheesecake (to go) for my kids to give their grandparents. The bill was about $150. $170 after tip. I don't plan on returning. Unless I have a coupon and there is a change of management. Cheesecake management: look at the picture posted and please explain to me how i was made to wait over an hour to be seated! This review could easily have been 4...

I took my wife to the Cheesecake Factory today for her birthday. I had setup a reservation a week ago for two to dine at 5:00pm today. We got to the restaurant at 4:45pm and checked in. We were seated within five minutes which was great considering there was a line waiting to dine in...

This is where the entire experience turned upsidedown. We were sat at 4:50pm and by 5:20pm we still had not been visited by a server. We were given menus when we took out seats and that was it. No server stopped by to give us water, silverware or even to check on us in that half hour. We finally had to flag down someone who looked like a manager to ask if we could get some service as we had already been sitting for a half hour.

The gentleman took our drink orders. I ordered a Bell's Two Hearted Ale draft beer and my Wife ordered the Georgia Peach. Shortly after placing our drink order the gentleman returned to say that they were out of nitrous and we're not able to serve any draft beers. I ended up ordering a bottle of Samuel Adams Boston Lager. It was about 10 more minutes after that, that we received our drinks. We waited 40 minutes for our first round of drinks and we still had not been seen by a server to get our order.

Roughly five minutes after our drinks came a server was finally assigned to our table. So here we are waiting for 45 minutes for service and they can't serve draft beer. We place an appetizer order for the Crab and Artichoke dip and we are informed that they do not have this item either (just our luck...). At this point we forego any appetizer and order our entrees. I ordered the Flat Bread Everything Pizza and my Wife ordered the Tomato Basil Pasta. The server told her mother to our left that cheesecake is taking 25 minutes to serve so if they wanted some to order it now. She never told us this but since we overheard the conversation we ordered a single slice of Cinnabon Cheesecake "to go" along with out entrees.

Ironically enough, the server who was serving us was also serving her mother (over heard them talking) at the table besides us who was not seated until 20 minutes after we were and they had already received their drinks and placed their order. Yet here we are just now getting our drinks and order taken less the draft beer and the appetizer after patiently waiting for almost an hour.

The only reason we did not get up and leave is because my Wife wanted to eat here for her birthday. If it was not for her, I would have left after 10 minutes of no service. I do understand that the place was busy but we were seated and then ghosted for close to an hour with not a single server serving any of the tables around us taking the time to even asking if we had been helped.

Because the service was so poor I feel that I can't give the food a decent review. It was OK. By the time we received our food we were too annoyed and frustrated to thoroughly enjoy it...The Georgia Peach drink my wife ordered was the best thing we had there except that one small drink was $12.50. The Cheesecake Factory also does not list pricing for any alcoholic beverages they offer. Be sure to ask about pricing for drinks before you order.

The overall establishment was clean but very crowded. We sat at a table that was approximately two feet from the tables/guests on either side of us. There is no privacy here unless you manage to get a booth but even then you have tables within a four foot proximity. The layout is more for serving as many customers as possible at any given time than considering the comfort and dining experience of the customers it seems.

After all was said and done, the manager did comp us the dessert for the inconvenience which to me was a complete lack of customer appreciation given everything we went through during our visit. I am sure this also was/is not a common practice/issue by the establishment however it was enough of a horrible experience that I will not be going back because of it. I have never had such poor service or such a poor experience at any other...

I realize this isn't a James Beard nominated, or Michelin starred establishment, but here's why I'm never going here again. The hostess never smiled, she basically mumbled her way through "a table for two people would be about 15 minutes." There were at least 4 available tables completely open within view from the hostess station and only one more couple waiting visibly, just before 10p on a Friday, and there was plenty of staff. I understand that could be a staffing issue or other reasons unknown to me, so I didn't say anything. The hostess cared more about chatting with friends than she did greeting any customers or giving a pleasant "Thanks for coming, and enjoy your night!" to any diners who were leaving. 15 minutes up, and the table is ready, so we're led back to an area with multiple tables ready and an area (again) bustling with staff; no idea why we had to wait 15 minutes just to get a table with at least 1/3 the restaurant open at that point. After sitting, we waited at least 7 or 8 minutes before our server "greeted" us, but only after she had passed by at least twice without once acknowledging us and having greeted another table of two that was seated about 3 minutes after we were seated. It took her another 6 minutes to bring us our water and take our order, so I started a stopwatch for wonderment reasons, and I was already getting annoyed, but there was nothing else open, and we didn't want fast food. After 20 minutes from ordering, we still weren't brought the complementary bread and butter, so we asked for it. Keep in mind that after each occurrence of our server being in our area, it was another 8 minutes before we saw her again--all night. We received bread and butter luckily only a couple minutes after we asked for it, so we're 22 minutes in (after ordering entrees), and we finally have something besides water, and we asked how much longer our food would be upon receiving our bread. Lilyan responded that she would check, and "magically" a few minutes later she has come with our food saying, "It just popped up." Well, each of us ordered a chicken entree that, although tastes good, was cold--potatoes, chicken, and veggies. All that for a $24 & $26 OVERPRICED CHICKEN dish that isn't in the realm of hot or even satisfactory warm. I ate two bites and stopped to wait for Lilyan to return asking about our food. It was about 8 minutes before she showed up again to ask, and I let her know it was cold when she brought the meals. She offered another, but I asked how long that would take--it had already been over a half hour since I ordered to this moment, and she came back minutes later that it could take up to 20 minutes, which I refused, so she offered the manager. We resolved the issue by taking my dish off the bill and he threw in a free slice of cheesecake. I'd much rather order, be well serviced with good, hot food, and pay. This review isn't to bash our server (she was a nice girl), but rather to address poor service all around. I realize this is a busy restaurant most of the time, but the overall quality of everything needs to be drastically better, especially for the prices you charge. I didn't even give the manager the full story because I was only concerned about getting the entree taken care of at that moment. Look, I know this is Cheesecake Factory, and we're not expecting anything more than adequate service with decent, hot food (albeit drastically overpriced). I just don't think staff is properly trained, and I'm sure there's a very apathetic approach to some, or most, or only a few...or maybe just certain times, but I certainly will never be going back for these reasons. No one was pleasant, no one greets, no one smiles. This must not be a good place to work! How hard is it to fake a pleasant attitude?!? YOU'RE IN THE SERVICE INDUSTRY! We were nothing but kind and pleasant about the experience, but we were honest. I also never take the time to write reviews, but I had to tonight. PLEASE DO BETTER! Customers deserve it, and you're supposed to...