The Cheesecake Factory — Restaurant in Salt Lake City

The Cheesecake Factory is one of my favorite restaurants that I visited for the first time and then multiple times in Summerlin,Las Vegas. This establishment in downtown Salt Lake is a complete disaster. We arrived around 3 pm, there were almost no visitors. It was my birthday. The toilet rooms at just 3 o’clock were simply in disgusting condition, as if they had not been cleaned for more than a few days, the trash cans were overflowing with napkins, the mirror was filthy, the sinks and toilets, in general, everything! The next thing is the cleanliness (or the lack thereof) in the main area: the floors there had not been washed for several days, maybe more, our table was greasy and had crumbs on it and on the benches, the menu was just as greasy. Dirty (not well washed, as if there was used no soap) cutlery just lay on this dirty table (it needs to be served at least wrapped in the napkin, it’s a restaurant in the city center, not McD’s!). I asked to wash the table, a waiter of about 16 yo came over and began to spray the table with a detergent, on top of the butter and bread that was on the table, and then wiped the open areas (didn’t even move the plates that were there) with a towel that had seen better days and most likely hasn’t been cleaned under clean water, after it was used at a different dirty table(s)!!! Is this really how it's done?! I was speechless…. I also asked twice to change the cutlery, both times they brought us dirty cutlery with literally dried pieces of food in them. Ok, I cleaned them with the napkins that I had in my purse (I’m terrified to think what they have in the kitchen if that’s how the “face” of the restaurant looks…). The presentation of the food also leaves much to be desired, as even the plate on which my $30 order lay looked untidy and dirty. Just disgusting. It was not pleasant to eat from it. The mashed potatoes were served almost cold (obviously they didn’t cook it when I order but had it already precooked, I get it, but cold?), the steak “medallions” were just an extremely small piece of beef crookedly cut into 3 pieces. Potatoes, not even a whole piece of meat, and three shrimp on a dirty plate in a dirty environment of a “fancy restaurant” for almost 30 bucks, this is of course the height of greed of the owners of this establishment, that still want to make money with zero effort. I repeat that it was my birthday and I had pre-booked a table for that day. So, what an experience, hah? When booking the table on the website, it was also indicated that I would be given a complimentary piece of dessert ( I was even offered to choose the flavor) if I register, but I was told by the waitress that this only works if the reservation was made 24 hours ago or more, and if you are local! (this information is not publicly available anywhere, so I was very surprised. In my opinion, this is a scam advertisement! If it says that complimentary dessert will be served, then it must be served, period. And if you guys don’t want to provide this service, then just don’t offer it. It's this simple!)I was suggested to return within 2 weeks for this complementary piece of cake😅 Sorry, but I will not drive to this place specifically for the cake that they were supposed to give me on the day of my visit. And I repeat it was my Birthday, so they could’ve just give me that stupid cake as a compliment of the restaurant, as it’s usually done in places of this levels and price range! That would have been a turning point, but no…. Overall, a terrible experience with a huge number on the receipt for just two dishes, two drinks and a desert. I will not return to this location again and I do not recommend others to waste their...

I hesitated to write this review because I'm not the type of person to complain about a restaurant's service because I know how stressful of a job it is and understand how busy this particular restaurant is, but last night my husband and I had such an unpleasant experience that sleep didn't lessen it. To preface, the food last night was delicious. The food is pretty much always delicious, albeit pricey, but we go with the intent to splurge a little bit for a date night and know we will have leftovers to enjoy for the next day or two. The dissatisfaction was not with the meal itself but our server. When she first came to our table, she asked if we wanted anything to drink besides water, and we declined. She said that was a good idea because the portions are so big that it would be too much at once. That struck us as a little odd, but we brushed it off. Next, we said we'd like appetizers and ordered fried mac & cheese balls and avocado egg rolls. Her eyebrows rose as she wrote it down and then she said, "if I can give you some advice, my friends, I suggest you get an entree to share because that will be a lot of food, like you'll be full up to your eyeballs". When she left, my husband and I looked at each other and were like "that was weird, right? it wasn't just me?". She returned after our appetizers had been delivered, both as delicious as usual, and my husband said he'd like the four cheese pasta with chicken. Without a second thought, she started to close her notepad and turn to leave and I had to awkwardly pipe up to ask for fish tacos. She looked at me like I was the biggest butterball fat kid in a candy store asking for a single piece of candy and said, "oh, so you're going to... yes, okay, that's a lot of food my friends" as if she was surprised and annoyed that we would both order an entree after she suggested not to. A few minutes later, my husband, who could very clearly see her from where we were sitting, saw her look at us and then gesture to our table with her chin and say something to another waitress. Benefit of the doubt, it could've been an indication that she needed help in our area, but it was weird nonetheless, and made it seem like she was pointing us out to her coworkers to mock us for having ordered food... like that's not exactly what people normally do at restaurants. I have never felt food-shamed by a waitress or self-conscious to eat at a restaurant before but it was embarrassing enough, I would've rather paid for the check at the front of the restaurant and left without our entrees (we didn't do that). When our food arrived, I hardly touched it and it wasn't because it wasn't good--it was because I felt like I was being watched and judged on having eaten a single mac & cheese ball, a single avocado egg roll, and one fish taco. She didn't see to us the entire rest of the night. Three other male waiters brought us our food, filled our waters, and gave us the check at the end of the night. All three of them were very courteous and we wished any of them had been our server instead. I don't know if Priscilla, the waitress, had just had a long night and she was ready to be out of there or if she wanted us to eat and leave quickly so the table could be cleared and another guest seated faster, but either way, talking to us and treating us like we were 600 lbs and inconveniencing her, when we barely saw her and didn't do anything to warrant how annoyed she seemed with us, was incredibly...

I will make this simple. This was my experience with a party of 5.

1. We watched the receptionist play on her phone as we stood and waited for a table.
2. once seated, we noticed our table was sticky all over with remnants of food stuck to the top.
3. when I politely asked to have the table cleaned properly and the silverware sitting on the dirty table replaced, a bus boy quickly wiped the table with a wet towel.
4. the bus boy could not reach the end of the table since we were in a booth and it was so awkward to have someone cleaning the table while we were already sitting. So I asked if we could get up and let the gentleman clean the table without us in the way. We were told by the manager that we didn’t need to get up. So we stayed seated through the whole process. So awkward!
5. bus boy than left the table wet without drying it. Before the new silverware was put down on the wet table, I asked if the table could be dried first. (More awkward!!) . When the busboy dried the table all the forks and knives including the new cloth napkins were all piled on top of each other and left for us to distribute to each person. Really??
6. it took so long to get the waiter to our table that we decided not to order appetizers.
7. We don’t like cheap soda fountain products so we all had water and my wife had fresh lemonade. I asked the waiter if the water was filtered or just tap water. He said the water tastes weird because it’s filtered three times. When we drank the water, it was obviously tap. It was so bad. The lemon wedges we added later took some of the tap water flavor out thank goodness.
8. the lemonade was so good that we all wish we had ordered one for everybody. After my wife drank hers dry, I asked the waiter if we could get another. He quickly grabbed it and told us, “I’ll bring back a new one for you.” 20 minutes later no drink. I finally just asked for the check and told the waiter to forget the lemonade. He told us that the bar didn’t fill it like they were supposed to and he would get us a lemonade to go.

Remember, this all happened at 2 pm in the afternoon on a Tuesday, so the restaurant was not busy at all. From the very beginning, It was so bad that I tried to convince my wife to go somewhere else. It was her birthday and she was only interested in eating at The Cheesecake Factory. I told her that the reviews were not good and that I was worried she would not have a good experience. She wanted to eat here because it had been years since she ate at The Cheesecake Factory.

I was truly embarrassed by the lack of training, lack of interest and lack of professionalism of this restaurant. We rarely splurge as a family but I wanted to do something special for my wife.

The food was actually very good and that really helped the entire situation. I would quickly mention that the restaurant stuffs wax paper in their fry cups to limit the amount of fries you are served compared to what it actually looks like. I thought it to be a cheap tactic, pardon the pun. That being said, this restaurant chain is normally known for their professionalism and high standards. It was non existent at this location.

And for future clarification, I actually asked to talk with the manager at the very beginning. Unfortunately the situation...