Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen — Restaurant in Virginia

I usually try to write good reviews however I have to make others aware. My family and I drive 1 hour to come to cheddars and it was the WORST experience. Upon arrival we were greeted by the hostess Delilah and was told they needed to clean a table and it would be a few moments. Well, 20 mins later we are still sitting in the lobby waiting and now listening to the hostess talk to one of the waitresses about the waitress daughter and personal after work things. Shortly after you can hear Delilah ask someone to clean the table and he told her he was busy. As some of the customers were leaving they were telling my party as well as the other parties waiting to leave due to them being out of food and the cleanliness of the restaurant. We decided not to listen and just stay and make the best bc of how far we drove. We asked for the manager and Andre Hood or JR came out. (Bald African American man) We explained we waited over 20 minutes and it would have been nice to be told when we were seated that they were out of items. Keep in mind we drove that far bc we heard the bread was amazing and of course that was one of the items that were out. He explained that’s not his job or part of his job to tell his staff to tell customers. We felt that was odd. We addressed the issue about waiting and the fact his staff had time to talk about personal things verses good customer service. He mentioned he would speak with her but was sooo nonchalant as if he didn’t care. His exact words were people run out of things and he can’t stop us if we decide to leave. 😳 we were blown away.. He never showed empathy nor did he seem apologetic. About 7 more mins went past and a young very inexperienced and rude waitress (didn’t get her name but she had dimples/light complexion) came to our table to tell us they were out of yet another food item. My immediate response was, “are you kidding me!!” I said that’s like the 4th item you all are out of. She threw her hands up and said I’m just a waitress and just work here which just tells me she is only there for a paycheck and could care less about CUSTOMER SERVICE… we asked our waitress if we could get an upgraded side at no additional cost due to the inconvenience of 2 sides being out; she said let me talk to the manager. After walking away my table were having a sidebar about the restaurant, the staff and the fact they were out of food; 10 mins later Andre/JR came back out and said what he will not tolerate is our table talking negative about his staff. Yes, his staff was ease dropping on our table. He didn’t care that we waiting 20 mins….He wasn’t concerned other customers were directing other customers to leave….He wasn’t concerned his restaurant was out of just about everything, however he cared more about his staff and there feelings. What happened to customers being right if there truly right. At that moment my 60+ mom became alittle saddened by the situation so she asked for corporate info and said we will just leave. Andre/JR which ever had the audacity to say wait by the door for corporate information as if we were not welcome. I’ve never been treated this way by a manager especially at a big establishment like this. Cheddars is part of Darden operations and they have always cared about there customers and reputation. I have included pics of this restaurants bathroom as well so you all can see our experience. I hope staff has a different restroom bc there’s no way customers could wash there hands properly bc the soap dispenser had been filled with water verses a replacement bottle. Judging by the other reviews others have had similar issues with the poor responses from management staff, inexperienced and nonchalant wait staff, cleanliness of the establishment and this place ALWAYS running out of things and not telling folks. The news would love to hear about this. Take the advice of other...

I want to start this off by saying this was my first time at this location, ive gone to others while visiting other states. This is the worst id ever been to, I have nothing but positive things to say about all other locations ive visited.

Upon arrival its a Saturday at 5pm so we are prepared for a wait. We check in, and give our number to a person at the host table. My husband noticed she put the number in, and tried to correct her. She huffed and said I got it, and confirmed it without fixing anything, told us about 20min wait.

He asks to verify the number and she says she cant and it will text us when its our time.

He goes up again to try to confirm after waiting over 20mins, she rolls her eyes and tells him he has to wait. So we do... another 25 mins go by, we all go back up, try to ask again, and this time another worker is up there chatting with her, and she tells us they gave our table away when we didnt come up, after being texted over 20 mins ago. We tell them we never got a text and that she got our number and refused to fix it. The same girl who did that just looks baffled and shocked like this was done by her evel twin or something.

The other person apologizes and has us stand there while they clean a suddenly available booth.

They bring us to a sticky, dirty, super tight U shaped booth, mind that im also clearly very pregnant. I have to push the table over and my daughter, husband and I could barely fit. We obviously were uncomfortable, and no one offered to help.

The waitress seemed straight up annoyed, she had no personality, kind of just tossed things in front of us, when I said thank you, she would huff and leave.

My daughters kids meal came out at least 15 mins before ours, and ours was room temp at best. By the time we got our room temp food, my child was done eating and wanted to go. (She's autistic and has a hard time)

We try our best to hurry along, and promise her a monster cookie, which we used to get at the other locations.

This one comes out somehow immediately after I order it. (They are supposed to be baked fresh to order) the cookie was half the skillet it came out on, which is a typical size cookie, nothing monster about it, and it was doughy, undercooked, and tasted like just dough, and I dont mean like cookie dough, I mean like a flour type thing. Raw cookie dough would of been better, it had no flavor other then moist flour. It was awful.

I asked to have it removed and she got annoyed with me. Didn't remove it. Im over it by this point, we pay and head to the bathroom before leaving, and the bathroom was absolutely disgusting. My husband tells me the mens smelled like old urine that had been sitting a long time, and both bathrooms had broken doors on the toilet stalls, toilet paper everywhere, and soap poured on the floor.

It was ridiculous. I dont see how this place is up and running.

I do not recommend this...

REVISITED July 2022 Two years ago I visited this place and decided to give it another chance after a mediocre experience the first time. The parking lot is always full so I thought they made improvements. Sorry to say, I was wrong. I don't understand why they are so busy when the food is not that great and the place is extremely noisy. The place also reeks of uncleanliness and the carpets smelled of dirt and mildew. Fortunately it did not smell bad at the table or it would have made the meal very unpleasant.

First of all, this place is not ADA compliant and a fire safety hazard. The tables are 18 inches apart and hard to get a person in a wheelchair seated. If there ever was an emergency, customer would trample over each other trying to evacuated. I plan on addressing this with the Fire Marshall and ADA lawyer.

It took about 5 minutes for a server to show up. Kudos to the server who was smiling and polite which is remarkable because she was extremely busy with all the tables she was assigned. She brought our soft drinks and then it was another 10 minutes before she came back to take our order. Then another 27 minutes before our food came out.

Ok, so the food was not so bad but nothing to write home about. My friend had the salmon with rice, green beans and baby carrots. She said the salmon and rice was good but asked me to taste the baby carrots. Sickening sweet. Why would a restaurant ruin the taste of a vegetable by smothering it in sugar.

I ordered the Buffalo Chicken wrapped grilled. I received the fried chicken in the wrap. I can understand because the server probably did not hear me say grilled because there were some really loud people drinking alcoholic beverages on both sides of me. I would give the Buffalo Wrap a 4 out of 10. The fries were a 10 out of 10. I can't understand why they call it a buffalo chicken wrap because there was no buffalo sauce or heat at all. The RANCH WRAP tasted fine but It was saturated ranch dressing that ended up giving me the worse indigestion that I have had in 20 years. It's actually the first time I had to take an antacid...