Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen — Restaurant in Pooler

I rate this experience as a 3 Star! There were a few things that could’ve been done differently to enhance the experience and quality to have earned a 4 star for this visit. Please review our experience below as a benchmark. For the restaurant team, please accept my review and feedback as a gift to you to improve your craft for your guests!

My family and I (party of 4) arrived at Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen in Pooler, GA, Saturday, September 17, 2022; around 5:30pm. Please note we were exhausted from all of the walking around Savannah the whole day and was ready to eat and call it the day!

Upon arriving the parking lot was extremely full and several guests were waiting to be seated. Once checked in we were told it would be a 45 minute wait and we accepted. To kill time we went across the street to Walmart to get some personal incidentals and return.

We got back at about 6:05 pm and they were ready to seat us! We ordered drinks and food right away as we had plenty of time to decide what we wanted to expedite the wait. We didn’t receive the complimentary croissants until about the time our drinks arrived.

Pictured are both specialty drinks we ordered. The red drink was a frozen Strawberry Margarita and the other was the Cheddar’s Painkiller, which was my drink. The presentation was fantastic and the flavor was good. The glasses were overfilled and messy on the outside, ultimately dripping on the table and making our hands sticky when trying to drink them. The Painkiller was not very strong, to the point that I am questioning whether there was any alcohol at all in the drink.

For our meals I ordered the special bone-in New York Strip (16oz), cheddar broccoli casserole and Off -the-Cobb buttered corn, pictured with this post. My wife ordered the 6oz Sirloin and fries. Both steaks were requested to be cooked medium. My daughter ordered chicken Tenders with Mashed potatoes and house made ranch for dipping.

We had our food by 6:30 pm. Both steaks had great presentation, however; mine was cooked to medium-well and my wife’s was medium-rare. We did show this to the server and she acknowledged they were both not cooked correctly! The broccoli cheddar casserole was the best part of the meal and very rich in flavor! The off-the-Cobb corn tasted like normal canned corn. Plus look at the picture I provided! I have cut corn off the Cobb and it does not look like this corn. Off the Cobb corn stocks together in bunches when cut off the Cobb! I would think of renaming this or actually start cutting of the Cobb as “Scratch Kitchen”

My daughters meal came out with fries instead of Mashed potatoes and with honey mustard sauce instead of the house made ranch. The server acknowledged the mistake and stated it got mixed up when expedited to us! She did correct the mistake.

We paid the meal in full and left a reasonable tip! As a customer, I expected a manager to acknowledge us and make it right by discounting the meal for the mistakes and inconvenience, however; this did not occur.

Note: This location does not offer a military discount!

Additional Helpful Information:

We were visiting Savannah, GA for the weekend with my family. We stayed at a hotel in Pooler, GA, by the airport as it was a the price was nearly $200 less than staying downtown.

Be aware that the traffic in the Pooler Commercial area is very busy and congested during peak times such as lunch,...

April 10, 2025 I live in Bluffton South Carolina which is an hour away from Pooler Georgia I am at the orthodontist as I'm leaving I called to order two orders of spinach dip from Cheddars with extra chips they tell me it's going to take about 20 minutes I get their pull up in the slot for pickup call him and tell him only to find out the Girl place to order for one order of spinach dip. They then have to correct it and tell me it'll only take a few minutes I told him I live an hour away I'm trying to beat traffic why am I having to wait this is crazy how did they get to order wrong long story short they nuke one of the spinach dip by throwing it in the microwave it's all crusted around the edges and shrunk in the other one was done correctly they had to know to bring this out to me and I'll pay for it I'll look at it because I live so far away to make sure my order is Right horrible I called back in and tell him I need to speak to a manager the manager literally they have me on the phone for 7 minutes then the manager walks to my car with a $15 gift card I said what is this I didn't ask you for a gift card at this point I want this order, which it was $19 and some change and I want this corrected I'm offended that y'all even gave this to me like this she didn't apologize she then turns around and says oh you want the gift card and you want to come I said I never asked you for a gift card you can take your gift card back this just makes me come back horrible managerial experience I work in management and I handle customers all day for my agents I'm never rude I'm not disrespectful I'm not empty I'm not cold I'm deeply offended then she comes out to my car this is the real kicker and gives me the new spinach dip and it turns around it tells me sheped my order now I owe her $10 and something I said excuse me you got my order wrong twice I had to wait again and I said I want my order Compton now you got a problem she walked off horrible let me say that again horrible managerial service I'm from Texas the headquarters for Cheddar's is in Texas make no mistake about it I will be making a call tomorrow I've been eating at Cheddar's for over 15 years and I love their spinach dip this was the worst experience I've ever had in my life at a restaurant. My baby cousin is severely mentally disabled is she does not have empathy or those type of emotions this lady acted just like her I don't even know how she got her job . This was the absolute worst experience I've ever had in my life at a restaurant let...

This location and experience was terrible. First time visiting Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen.

Friday night and put our name in at 830pm. Took about an hour to get a table for 7. The wait time was ine and understandable.

Restaurant appeared clean and good atmosphere.

Seated in a spot with zero AC, no air movement and 100% humidity. Told staff but they brushed it off and did not really care. It was to late for us to leave and find another restaurant that would be open.

Server arrived promptly and took our drink order.

I believe each table is supposed to get a bread basket of some sort - server advised they are out and have no more rolls.

Ordered an appetizer that did not come, had to tell server when some of main course arrived at table.

She did bring the app but it was cold and probably had been sitting out for some time.

When ordering a main dish - they were out of a lot of dishes.

Some main dishes came out and 10 minutes later the rest. Food was cold to touch to somewhat warm. Ribs were not good - I’d guess have been reheated a few times. Not sure how the potato soup was cold but they made it happen.

Server was fine. She did her best with the lack of service from the kitchen. Could have done a better job with drinks - cups remained empty for most of time at table. When asked for a refill of sweet tea was told by server they dumped the tea and no more.

We did notice bread rolls being delivered to other tables after being told they were out - told server who brought a basket to table.

Asked for manager. After some time manager was nice enough and said he was in kitchen cooking. He offered 20% off. I’m not normally for getting more than an apology but most dishes were too cold to eat, poor flavor, did not eat together, hot and humid seating, no drink refill. Never a good sign when staff and manager say if we come back - not to for sometime as they are “fixing things”.

I get it was getting close to their closing time but if you’re not able to properly serve and kind of quality of food then they should not have seated us and taken our money.

Problem is they kept seating people and of course they all appeared unhappy with food and service. Sadly the server took the brunt of this poor service from kitchen and manager. She overall did a great job herself.

Overall a terrible experience from kitchen and manager. I would highly recommend avoid this location. I didn’t take photos of the food as it was not worth it - looked worse...