The Cheesecake Factory — Restaurant in Orem

Terrible Service and Mediocre Food – Avoid This Restaurant

To say that I had the worst dining experience of my life here would be an understatement. The food was mediocre at best, but the service? Absolutely horrendous. I've never encountered anything this bad. Honestly, you can't even blame the waiter directly—he was hustling, visibly trying, but it was clear that he was poorly trained, or perhaps not trained at all. The fault lies squarely with the management.

Let me walk you through the train wreck of a night.

We arrived at 7:00 PM and were seated at a high-top table next to the bar. The waiter came over to take our drink orders before handing us menus. I asked him about the beers they had, and he had absolutely no clue. I can understand this being a potential issue in Utah County, but we were seated right next to the bar! So, no excuses. After some back-and-forth, we finally placed our drink orders along with water. But that’s when things started to go downhill.

We ordered our food after that, and waited for bread. And waited. And waited some more. After an hour passed, and seeing the manager walk by multiple times—making eye contact with us each time—I finally had enough. I got up and went to the bar myself to ask for water, which we had to do twice more during our long wait for food. The bartender was the one bright spot of the evening—he immediately gave me water when asked.

The staff appeared overwhelmed at first, which I understand, but as the night went on, we noticed that we were one of the last sections in the restaurant. Some staff members were sitting at the table next to us, tipping out for the night, while no one came to help our waiter. It felt like the staff had been told not to cross into each other’s sections, as if doing so would result in some severe consequence. This lack of teamwork only made things worse.

We finally caught the waiter’s attention after about two hours, and requested the bread. He added it to his list, which felt like a hollow gesture at that point. Around 20 minutes later, our food arrived. This was nearly two and a half hours after we had been seated. The bread? It arrived shortly after the food, almost like an afterthought.

To make things worse, my fiancée’s drink never showed up, and the drink I ordered was completely wrong. I asked for a gin and tonic, but was served a gin with carbonated water (for anyone unfamiliar, that’s a significant difference). I had to send it back.

Now, let’s talk about the food. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either. Honestly, it was the bare minimum, and at this point, I was just relieved that it showed up at all. The one positive was that all of our food came at the same time. It was a small surprise given everything else that happened that evening.

When the time came to pay, there were multiple mix-ups, and we had to ask for the bill. After everything, we finally left the restaurant at 11:15 PM.

I want to be clear: I don't blame the waiter. He was doing his best, rushing around and clearly trying to make up for the slow service. But the real issue here is the management. The manager walked by us repeatedly without offering any assistance or checking on our table. Not once did the manager acknowledge the problems we were facing. This isn't a failure of the staff; it's a failure of leadership. Either the manager doesn’t know how to properly train staff, or they just don’t care. I don’t know if he’s also the owner, but either way, the management needs a serious overhaul. The restaurant needs someone in charge who understands how to run a business and take care of customers.

I would absolutely recommend going somewhere else. This place is a total disappointment. Unless you are into that sort of thing, or are homeless and looking for a warm place to sit...

Where a reservation goes to die. 💀

🫣 Others will walk in 20-30 minutes after you and get seated first. A friend and I took my wife out for her birthday here with reservations made days in advance.

📖 Long story below, but in short, we cracked jokes about going to In-N-Out because our wait time WITH RESERVATION was longer than those without.

🏃‍♂️ Go somewhere else that respects you, your party, and your time.

⚠️ (And if it’s really gotta be Cheesecake Factory, drive to their other locations, since you’ll likely wait less than we did)

😁 [10 minutes early] We checked in our reservation 10 minutes early, and we were told we’d be seated soon. Saw outside dining where 2 seaters to 2-4 seaters had people eating there, even noting two or three people at a table.

Asked to be seated there and they said yes.

😄 [25 minutes later] Spongebob Narrator Voice… We walked back up to the desk 15 minutes later. Then other people came through and either checked in or just walked up. They were immediately taken out to the outside seating area.

🙃 [35 minutes deep] We continued to watch as we were forgotten by the wayside and multiple individuals and groups were seated before us. We were told they were still getting it ready for us.

😃 [45 minutes in] Then 10 minutes later, back to the desk a third time. A lady came to get us and seat us inside the restaurant with our request to be seated outside perhaps forgotten. We inquired again to see if that was a possibility and she said she’d check for us.

😒 We watched her go to the front and instead of coming back to talk to us, she went and got another group seated outside.

😑 [50 minutes in] We went to check 5 minutes later with the front desk and the lady said that we’d already been “seated” and so they’d have to start the checking in process all over again.

We were “seated” in the system after waiting for 45 minutes. That’s a good episode of something on Netflix man.

We got the “lemme talk with my manager” who overheard her say that and apparated right behind her who came to address that question and told us that they’re not seating small groups and that instead they’re only seating large groups outside.

⏰ I kid you not, during our 50 minute wait time, I saw multiple small groups seated outside. Even with tables to seat only 2 people there was room. 🤔

💀 The manager informed us that ages ago someone was supposed to tell us we can’t be seated outside, but their explanations were highly inconsistent, their communication uncoordinated, and hospitality incredibly sub-par.

That being said, our experience with our waiter and the food was good. Our only problem was getting seated and boy do we feel like this place wasted that trust. 🚮

Edit (I’ve noticed responses to other reviews with the classic corporate line, “Please let our managers know.” Are you for real? Nah, bro. That’s not it. It’s not on guests to play shift supervisor. Your management should be leading, observing, and holding your team...

Came in about two weeks ago on a Saturday afternoon around 1:30pm, was told it would be about a 30 minute wait. So we returned about 40 minutes later and got seated about 10 minutes later. This was the best experience of the meal. Got seated and ordered two drinks from the bar and an order of avocado egg rolls for starters. Mind you I’m a very patient person unlike my wife lol. So after keeping her calm for nearly 30 minutes waiting on our drinks I stopped our waitress and asked about our drinks. She came back and said the bar was backed up, which is no excuse for waiting that long and the bar wasn’t that busy. So we finally get our drinks and then ask about the egg rolls and we’re once again told the kitchen is backed up. They’re egg rolls throw them in a deep fryer cut them and serve them lol. So instead of our appetizer we get our meals after about 45 minutes, ask about the appetizers and are told they’re coming. So my wife’s lunch was cold and mine was luke warm. Now we ask for a manager she tells us oh I’m so sorry I’ll comp her meal and the egg rolls and we’ll give you two pieces of cheesecake on us. She then proceeds to go check on the egg rolls. What really upset me was when the table to the side of us got their egg rolls before us after arriving 15 minutes after us. So once again we ask for the manager again. This time it’s the main manager I assume and explain everything once again. She then goes to check on the egg rolls and says the kitchen is a mess and not organized, well you’re the manager manage this get in there and help your people. So about another 15 minutes goes by still no egg rolls and we summon the manager again and my wife is like this is crazy what are you going to do. So she comps everything but the drinks ok fine, I understand that. After nearly an hour and a half we finally get the egg rolls and politely ask just to have them made to go as well as the cheesecake. You would think it was over nope. So I clocked the time the waitress put the order in for the cheesecakes after 30 minutes of waiting I ask about the cheesecakes of they are putting the whip cream on right now. So another 10 minutes goes by still no cheesecakes and I ask again. She say’s oh let me check. In the mean time two other people ask if we got our cheesecake yet we’re like nope. So I’m like you know what let’s just go up and ask about the cheesecakes. We’re told they were delivered I show them my bag and no cheesecakes in there. Someone comes back and says sorry they were delivered to the wrong table, like seriously. We finally get the cheesecakes and leave. I can promise you I will never be back. I’m not a complainer and usually always leave good reviews. Which can be seen in my profile. Anyways this is the first time I’ve had a bad experience at a Cheesecake Factory. I think it’s poorly managed and everyone blaming somebody else for...