The Cheesecake Factory — Restaurant in Peoria

People always rave about the Cheesecake factory (some famous sports figures even admit to spending thousands a week here.) Tonight was the perfect opportunity for me to step up to the cake with a post graduation celebration.

I heard the usual wait times for Cheesecake factory was 1 hour and pulling up we saw there was a line wrapped around the restaurant. I tried calling my concierge to see if she could cut down the wait, but alas after talking to the restaurant there was nothing she could do. We ended up just getting in line and surprisingly enough it was maybe 20 minutes before we got a table.

The decor is the standard cheesecake factory setup which consists of dreary (not romantic, dreary) lighting, middle of the road tables, chairs, etc. The Cheesecake factory seems to be trying to imitate an upper class dining experience, but as the prices suggest, this is middle-class fare. I mean even the filet mignon is only $30...

We ordered lots of food, orange chicken, calamari, buffalo busters, crab artichoke dip, chips with guac, etc. It took about 10 minutes for the appetizers to come then another 15 for the entrees. Plates arrived steaming hot from the bowels of hell, but alas the food was all good, but not great. All the dishes aside from Cheesecake factory exclusives fell under "it's good, but I've had better elsewhere." It seems the Cheesecake Factory has cornered itself into an odd place where it's a jack of all trades, master of none. Still the prices were fairly decent for pretty good food and great portions. The waitress kept stopping by to make sure the drinks were full, although she did forget my margarita until I asked for it again. Cheesecake was superb, but again...it's better elsewhere (I can name a place in New York that "takes the cake")

Overall, I can see why people like the Cheesecake Factory. It has a vast menu coupled with affordable prices. They also don't seem to skimp on quality ingredients. The food however lacks the flavor profile and identity that a specialist in making the different genres of food they offer would create. Everything comes off as "generic" and lacks certain things that come from the culture behind the dish.

3...

What an absolute disaster! Go anywhere else but here. This place is a joke. Tuesday evening, 6pm dinner. No big deal. After being seated, waitress comes over to take drink order. Order some beer and after 10 minutes waitress comes back to apologize for the delay because they have a new bartender. Ok. Whatever. Wait another 15 minutes, still no drinks, waitress finally comes over and apologizes saying they are out of bread but should be shortly before they get more. Ok. Waitress leaves again. 10 more minutes and drinks finally show up. Still no bread. Decide it’s time to order. I chose the seared ahi. Waitress says I’m so sorry but we are out of Ahi. Ok, choose salmon. Waitress says again that she’s sorry but they’re out of salmon. My friend says just get a steak. Ok, I order the filet mignon full size meal. All good. Order medium rare. Waitress leaves. Comes back 10 minutes later with bread. Ok, we have beer and bread to hold us over. It’s been now almost 45 minutes. 10 more minutes go by. Waitress comes over to me and says, yet again, I’m sorry sir but we are out of filet. But we do have the “petite” filet if that’s ok. So let me understand….. you’re out of a larger portion of steak but have smaller portions? Ok. I say fine because we don’t need to be waiting any longer. 40 more minutes go by. Food finally comes out. Well, the filet was cooked like jerky. Completely brown/gray and totally well done. I advise the waitress to just take it back at this point. Wife and friends eat the food and it’s the running joke that how is this place even still in business. Finally comes the dessert time. And yup, you guessed it. The one cheesecake slice I pick is “out of stock”. She then goes to name off a good handful of others out of stock. So, save yourself a trip. This place is a disaster. While waiting for the bill I could also hear the waitress explaining to the table next to us of everything they were out of. Never again will I return to this place. It apparnelty needs some major overhaul in management and order fulfillment. It was not busy. Just out of what seemed like most of the menu, unable to cook a steak correctly and takes forever to even...

This used to be my absolute favorite place to eat. I was at this location yesterday and I ordered the lunch item of simply grilled salmon, mashed potatoes and sautéed green beans. The waiter was nice, but very talkative. After receiving my food, I noticed black charred specs all in my green beans that I had to pick out. I placed the black specs into the bread dish. There were many of the black specs. My waiter stopped at my table again. He saw the bread and butter dish containing the charred black specs that removed from the green beans on my plate and asked me if they came from my food that he brought out to me. I told him yes they did. He then asked me to give him the plate that had the charred black specs and he would take it back to show the cook. I gave him the plate. Later he returned to my table with an apology, but no indication of a restaurant or kitchen manager that would be coming to speak with me. I thought that was odd because an incident such as “charred black specs in a customer’s food” would warrant concern and prompt an immediate apology from a manager, not to mention an immediate compensation for the entire meal! But I received neither of these. Later after I got home, I called the restaurant and asked to speak to a manager. The manager basically told me it was just something that was either burned and/or overcooked in the same pan that my green beans were cooked in and that he would speak to the kitchen staff concerning this. I said ok thank you, but will you be compensating me for this? He said no and asked me did I eat the food. I said yes, after spending the entire time picking charred black specs out of my green beans which btw made my dining experience very unpleasant and undesirable. He responded by saying “well you still ate it”. At that point, I responded that I will dispute the charge with my credit card company and I terminated the call. Needless to say, I will not frequent this...