The Cheesecake Factory — Restaurant in Southlake

Updated review rating from 1 star after contacted by management:

I received a personal letter from the store's general manager: He specifically explained what he had done to address this, he mentioned that he appreciated this being reported to him and upper management as sometimes they do miss the mark and want to improve. He particularly addressed the way guests are treated as concerning for him and assured me he personally has seen to this with his staff. He invited me back and asked that we request to speak with him personally.

While we did have an initial bad experience, understandably things will fall through the cracks from time to time. The letter received and the managers response does seem sincere. From a restaurant guest perspective: I can't think of anything else that management could do to make us feel more welcome then to offer us a second chance to come back and experience their true hospitality. Many good reviews for this location so I'm confident things will go well.

We will provide an update after our visit. The purpose for guest reviews is to help other visitors and management to understand what guests are happy or concerned about.

Responsive management makes this a 5-star establishment.

ORIGINAL REVIEW from 3 weeks ago: Arrived at 6:15 and expected a wait… but we weren’t taken to our table until after 8:55. Not the best large group experience.

My biggest concern was the way on-site management handled prioritizing resources and handling matters when it’s brought to their attention. Our group went to this location on a busy Saturday night. While we had a large party, I simply believe that either we were “forgotten” or set aside purposely. I was pleasant and understanding every time I visited the host station for an update -maybe to our group’s detriment. Several times we were told “they are cleaning up the table now”… we would get our things and get up from waiting area… only to later see another party take our place. While I know this was a busy night, the way on-site management handled things was not what I would have expected. I’m sure things would have been different had upper management been in the building that night. Stefany the manager on site acted as if we had just walked in the door and needed to quickly find us a table – she never addressed the issue. Other then a quick “oh sorry – let me see what I can do” . Anything else was just an afterthought. Is it communication between her and the host station, was she understaffed, did she need more personnel? Not sure . While we usually dine in large groups, we have never experienced this type of wait time : 3:00+ hours. Once seated, our server was quite efficient and worked the entire table well, this was after 9:00 or so. While it was nice to see the staff trying to get our orders in quickly … as the service went on .. It seemed more like the server, Shawn Paul was trying to get our order in and rush us out. He came and visited our table regularly and removed plates very efficiently – kept the conversation short and to the point -rushed our dessert orders through and brought coffee quickly, tabs came almost at the same time our dessert did it seemed as though it all came at once: drinks, apps,dinner, dessert and coffee – he was not be seen the rest of the evening. On several occasions some of us had to get up and ask other servers for things we needed at our table. Under most circumstances late in the evening: We try to be understanding… but we didn’t walk in ten minutes before closing time and expect our large party to be served : we came in at 6:00 and were not seated until near closing time.

I pass this information to others visitors, as they might find this helpful when planning for large parties. We regularly visit several of their other locations in Houston, San Antonio and other states. We have always searched out cheesecake factory and grand lux café locations as they usually do exceptionally well at catering to large groups and their needs.

Responsive management makes this a 5-star...

Starting from the entrance we walked in and asked for a booth and was told about 20 mins, was called to our table within 7 mins. We walked up and kindly greeted by the front desk hostess wearing a purple button up (wish I got her name). We then had our server Chris introduce himself and was very attentive and kind. I’d like to give Chris recognition for being a great server and going above and beyond to provide a great experience/ dining for my family and I. Restaurants nowadays need more of these hostess and servers to give great experiences. The ambiance was very nice and music was spot on, not to mention the food was delicious. Will definitely come back again !

*Edit my review based off second visit: Went again and had a very bad experience w/ Penelope being a horrible server. It was literally a slow day Monday @3pm. Took 15 mins to bring my beer, never passed by to see how we were doing or needed anything else. I literally had to go to the bar to get another beer and lemons for my daughter’s salmon since Penelope was nowhere to be found on a slow day. My Cuban sandwich is brought out and had to be taken back since they added mustard after I requested No mustard (I get it things happen) it comes out again and now it tastes dry cause it has no mayo. At this point my wife and daughters have been eating already and they take it back to remake it but at this point I tell her and manager Chris I don’t even want anything anymore. I went there to eat with my family and that was not going to happen and they kept messing up my order. My wife felt bad and didn’t finish her meatloaf w/ a full plate still there Penelope comes up and asks her if she’s done and removes the full plate as my wife said yes. Didn’t even offer a box to go and just removed it as if she wanted to get rid of us. Requested to speak to GM Joel and he was very understanding and professional. We talked for a bit and he kindly and understandably compensated the bill. Penelope needs coaching and guidance in customer service because her picking who she provides good service to is NOT ok. Will most likely not be coming here again. My wife and I left there hungry and walked right across to Muchacho and the service was like night and day…...

Mixed feelings. Our waiter spilled an alcoholic beverage on our toddler, which was a bummer but also an accident. I was a little annoyed but also understanding that he didn’t mean it and he was very apologetic. The service was also poor. Though the waiter was nice, our food was served without silverware and I had to find him to ask for it. We asked for bread, twice before receiving it. I asked for a kids cup of water, also twice before receiving it. Maybe he was new, and for that, I wasn’t going to complain. But in all honesty, I expected something to be comped due to spilling a drink on my son and ruining his hat. I told them how much the hat was and they asked if I could get it dry cleaned and bring the receipt back. I couldn’t believe they actually asked me to do this instead of simply apologizing and comping a meal, equal to the price of his hat. It’s the Cheesecake Factory, not some mom and pop restaurant. I know they could afford to comp a few bucks off the tab to please a customer. After my husband having to suggest this, they finally did. But good service would have been to come to us with this suggestion, not some mediocre apology and ridiculous suggestion of dry cleaning and then bringing the receipt back in. After all of this, they bring our receipt out and we were charged for 4 drinks, when we only ordered 3. So we had to wait for this to be resolved as well. The experience was pretty terrible from the time we sat down to the time we left but I didn’t have it in my heart not to tip the waiter. Bad days happen. Everyone was nice but that doesn’t excuse the poor service and failure to suggest a reasonable way to make the situation right without us having to suggest something that was fair. We didn’t expect a free bill and again, we wouldn’t have expected anything had something of ours not been ruined. Unsure if I’d come back. And if I decide to give it another chance and the service is anything less than great, that would have to be...