The Cheesecake Factory — Restaurant in Town of Colonie

My 17 year old picked a prom dress! So we rewarded ourselves with some cheesecake factory! We waited about 15 minutes on a Saturday afternoon. Totally fine. We got a booth. SUPER! I felt a little rushed to order my drink and panicked and ordered a kettle one Cosmo. The Cosmo was great. Once opening the menu I wish I tried the pineapple Moscow mule. Oh well. We ordered chicken pot stickers and snap peas and peppers in some kind of vinegarette. Both delicious. The server took the plates before my 17 year old was done eating the beans. She said out loud I would have eaten the rest of those! Oh well we're getting more food. I ordered chicken Parm pizza dish. Crispy breaded chicken with red sauce and cheese like a pizza topped with a spaghetti nest in Parmesan cream sauce, I'm sure you've seen the picture. Chicken good mozzarella cheese was like when you go to someone's house and they have great value cheese. The parmesan cream sauce tasted exactly like a box of pasta roni sauce. Couldn't get over that cheap ass mozz cheese. We're snobs. That's fine. She ordered orange chicken. Yum. I should have gotten that. Delicious sauce perfectly cooked veggies crispy chicken and ole reliable white rice. We wait for ever now. For boxes. We basically came here so my daughter could bring cheese cake home to her boyfriend for that night. So we want dessert. And Togo dessert. Meanwhile. I finished my Cosmo. And had a water cuz I'm with kids. Asked for more water. Didn't get it. Even when I put my cup at the end of the table. Then finally get boxes. Wish I could have had that pineapple Moscow mule. Oh well. Whatever. I'll have an espresso martini. It took about half an hour. Thank goodness it was absolutely delicious. That martini stole the show. And I make espresso martinis for a living. We got literally five desserts to go and the check and paid right away. We tipped 18 percent half cash half credit card. I think what happened was we were there between shift change or something. Maybe. He was rolling silverware and trying to cash out tables. We sat with our desserts and no silverware totally calmly and not caring for 15 minutes. My 17 year old used her finger and we laughed. I would totally go back. (If they'll have me 😉) I would not order Italian. The deserts were all amazing. It's three days later and there's still half a carrot cake cheesecake in the fridge right now. That espresso martini was...

I had been wanting to try Cheese Cake Factory for a long time. Finally did and I was unfortunately, disappointed. My biggest issue was the cleanliness. 1st, I was off put the moment we were seated at a table to see the silverware placed directly on the table. They have these nice cloth napkins folded nicely ontop on small appetizer plates, yet place the silverware settings directly on the table itself. Why not inside the cloth napkins? Or at the very least, ontop of the napkins that were placed on the plates?? 2nd issue was they stuck to the table when we lifed them. Absolutely disgusting. ..I understand they were probably set down before the table had a chance to dry but regardless, disgusting. 3rd issue was I watched a table being picked up and cleaned while waiting for our food. The guy cleaning the table pulled a wet rag off the dirty tray he was carrying around with all the dirty food plates he collected. Table wasn't sprayed with any type of cleaning solution and even if the rag he had come from a bucket of some sort with cleaning solution I never seen it and why would it be placed of a big tray with dirty dishes. 4th issue was the amount of crud where the seat of the booth meets the back rest. I had to sit in a way to avoid my shirt dipping into it. 5th issue- when the waitress asked if we needed refills, she took our glasses with the straws in them and refilled them and brought them back. Ive never been to a restaurant where you werent given a new glass or at least a fresh straw. Watching her walk away with my straw touching her hand was... isn't that a big no no in the food industry?! 6th issue was the fruit flys. Flying infront of my face and even once, one landing directly on my food. If that had happened and all the other things hadn't, I would have just brushed that off but come that point it was really hard to get past. 7th, the food wasnt terrible, it just wasn't that good. Once looking through the gigantic menu, I was figuring thats exactly how the food would be. Ok-ish. You cant have a menu of that size and have THAT amount of food actually be fresh. A menu of that size screams- you're taking a risk if you eat anything seafood and or meat related. Eh, what a bummer the whole experience was. A $130.00 bummer of...

EDIT 11/30/24: This used to be our favorite restaurant and I wrote a ravishing review (which I deleted b/c it's not worthy anymore). We waited 1hr for our food and it was the wrong order. My husband ordered a TURKEY BURGER with a side order of fries. The waitress brought out a turkey sandwich on plain white bread, with no tomato just sliced lettuce. Not only did the presentation suck...the sandwich they presented to us (yes the WRONG ORDER) looked juvenile, as if I made it for my daughter to take for her school lunch. The waitress should have written the order down... because we waited an HOUR FOR THE WRONG ORDER.

We returned it to get a turkey burger...and what did we get the second go around....A TURKEY BURGER ON WHITE BREAD (This time "toasted" as if they did some work)! *Look at the pictures. We did complain and we didn't have to pay for the turkey burger "sandwich" and to "keep good customer relations" she also deducted our soup (which we had as an appetizer) Which absolutely was nice but at the end of the day (not sounding ungrateful...but it's about Business and The Principle) she should have. We did not eat there but took everything home which is noted in the pictures below.

A restaurant we frequently visited at least once a month either date nights or date lunches .... that we gave ravishing reviews.... and each time a star got deducted... Either due to lack of cleanliness, customer service, or poor meals, The Cheesecake Factory needs to get their act together or else they will be closed just like the other Cheesecake Factory Restaurants across state lines. *I still cannot believe...a turkey burger on white bread! A happy meal at McDonald's is better than this!

EDIT 11/9/24: My husband and I were here today and this place really needs a makeover. MORESO than a makeover, the staff really needs to learn how to clean. The salt and pepper shakers were filthy with crusted food and grease on them, the utensils are always dirty in which I ALWAYS ask for hot water (and I bring my own sanitizer) and the walls are encrusted with debris. I left a picture below. Also, it seems as if the lights are dimmer than usual, and this is during the daytime. My guess.... Hygienic rituals are lacking within...