The Cheesecake Factory — Restaurant in Santa Monica

Consumer Complaint Division was notified of our dining experience and the multiple problems we had with the extremely poor service performed during our six-hour visit for a graduation celebration, at the Marina del Rey location on June 6th, 2019 I am dissatisfied with the restaurant and the service provided because we were made to wait 3 hours for a table to be seated separately, given poor quality service and threatened.  We expected to wait which is why we arrived at 6:30 pm.  Although upon check in we were told approximately 1 ½ to 2 hours to wait, we were told at the two-hour mark that we were not assigned a spot on the waiting list, even though we were given a buzzer (#67).  A few minutes later we were told that our table was given away to another large party.  We waited another hour for our party to be seated, separately.  Upon being seated (separately) we proceeded to put in our drink and food orders.  We complained and the manager offered us 1 appetizer for our entire party of 15.  After an additional hour our party was moved together.  Yet, only half of our party’s meals arrived to the table while the other half were made to wait another half hour.  The various managers were sought yet no attempt to resolve this matter was made.  The managers were very smug.  One manager came to the table to address the issue and simply left for the evening.  He did not return to the table nor address the issue.  The only answers we received was that it was graduation season and things were busy.  Finally, our food arrived cold and inedible.  Again, we attempted to complain to a manager, and we were told that we could receive 25% off.  The graduate and her mother both cried during this experience.  The final insult was one of the managers threatening our party with calling the police if we did not pay the bill when he reduced it and returned to the table.  Not that any of us even mentioned to them that this might occur.  I have already attempted to resolve this problem by attempting to reason with the various manager whose cards were collected.  I have records of these business cards and receipt for $204.16 (after reduction of inedible and cold food left on the table) available upon request.  Yet in still, unfortunately, the problem remains unresolved.  I requested a refund of our remaining bill.  It is extremely disheartening that our graduate will remember her graduation night this way.  It saddens me that she worked all these years to graduate and this was the finale.

Yet in still corporate has denied the request stating that one of our members returned to the resturant the next day which did not occur. Additionally, it was stated that they can't tell how much food was left on the table so they don't know what to reimburse. But, the insight managers were contacted.

Humanistically corporate should see a problem in this matter and want further address this matter in addition to our multiple complaints not being addressed on sight.

Furthermore, please see the multiple recent complaints noted here from others including...

Honestly the worst service I've ever experienced in a restaurant. I walked into the restaurant with my dog (service animal) right away the front desk said the dog wasn't allowed. I told him that my dog was a service dog and showed him his ID. As soon as the manager saw the ID I was told that he wasn't allowed to check his ID. If he is not allowed to check the ID how they gonna allow people with service dogs? Then he said my dog wasn't wearing the vest. My dog wasn't wearing the vest because he was playing at the beach before. The vest can easily be bought online it's a piece of clothing. So for the manager a piece of clothing has more value than a ID issued after a dog being trained. I don't even have to say my dogs breed... one more time pitbull discrimination. After the frustration he let us sit. First of all it's not about the dog it's about the person if something had happened to me the dog is trained to do his job. I don't care if u don't like my dog! It's about human health. After all the inconvenience we got a table. To finish this terrible experience I left my wallet at the vallet. I called the restaurant because the valet had no phone to be reached. I was told my wallet wasn't there. I asked the guy to please ask the valet if my wallet was there and my answer was: I can't I'm busy. The valet is right in front of him. Ofc he wasn't trying to help so I explained him that I have a medical condition ( that's why the service dog) and my medical prescription was inside my wallet. Plus my wallet was last seen at the valet so if it wasn't there I was gonna cancel all my cards and get new ID's. He said he would ask and call me back. NEVER DID. I call again and he said that he asked but nothing was found. He said he was going to call if someone returns it. He didn't call so I called one more time and he said he was going to check. Left me waiting on the line for 15 min so I hang up and called again and he picks up right away which means that we wasn't checking anything. I was one hour away I had to drive back because i knew my wallet was there. AS SOON AS I GET THERE I ASK THE VALET IF HE FOUND MY WALLET AND HE SAID YES. I go to he front desk ask the same guy where's my wallet and he says that they didn't find. I told him that the valet just told me he found my wallet and returned to them. He called his manager then she goes inside and... GUESS what!?? My wallet was there the ENTIRE time. If I had believed the guy on the phone I would have lost my wallet, my IDs, my medical prescription plus 200 cash. Extremely unprofessional, untrained team and rude. A lunch with my family that was supposed to be a good time was turned into a nightmare of stressful events. That's how they appreciate their...

We had a reservation for 6:30; they gave our table away to another party. We weren’t sat until 7:15. The server didn’t even show up to our table until 15–20 minutes later. Took our appetizer, which didn’t show up until 30 minutes later along with the complimentary bread basket. For 5 people, I would expect 2 baskets, but no, 3 pieces for 5 people apparently is enough. We finally ordered our food and it took an additional 50 minutes.

My father ordered the steak tacos which had 2 to 3 small bits of meat per taco, and the rice and beans were ice cold. My father wanted to get another plate but got desperate because our server was nowhere to be found, so he regretfully ate the tacos. When our server finally showed up 45 minutes later, we explained that the rice and beans were ice cold and the tacos barely had anything on them. We asked if it was possible to replace the plate, and he simply said no and that he would try, then quickly left without taking our cheesecake order.

Another 20 minutes later, he finally came to take our dessert order. I mentioned I had my birthday reward and he said he would check. He failed to communicate that he couldn’t do anything about the comp until I asked him, and he said, and I quote, “The big bosses are here today, so everything has to be done according to the rules.”

If this was the case, then why was the service so bad from the start? We tried to be positive, but things just got worse as the night went on. After we ate our dessert, he gave us the check. I failed to check if everything was correct and trusted my birthday reward had gone through because once again, he didn’t mention anything. I followed him to pay with Apple Pay and didn’t think twice about the price because we did order quite a lot. But once I got back to my table, my family informed me the birthday reward hadn’t been redeemed and I had already paid the bill.

When we mentioned this, he didn’t seem sympathetic at all and just said, “You didn’t have a rewards.” My thoughts were, okay, why not inform us though? And I was sure I did have my reward. I checked my email and sure enough, I did have my reward. He finally gave me a refund and we left after almost 5 hours of this horrible dinner.

We came to celebrate our graduation and added that note in our reservation. No one even asked what we were celebrating.

Also, the bathrooms are so insanely tiny that you hit the people waiting in line when you simply open the door.

I don’t recommend coming here hungry or at all. If this is a night when the “big bosses” are there, then imagine how much worse the service is on a...