The Cheesecake Factory — Restaurant in Washington

Horrifying experience at a Cheesecake establishment. I’m very shocked. My boyfriend and I visited Friday evening for a late night dinner. It wasn’t very crowded. There are two levels. We were greeted by a hostess that asked us whether we preferred to be seated on the upper level or the lower. We opted for the upper level and asked for a booth. She advised us to go upstairs and informed us that the booth was immediately available, we just needed to approach the hostess stand and someone would be waiting for us. My boyfriend noted that she never actually communicated with anyone on the upper level. Once we reached the hostess stand on the upper level we received a different answer. We were told there would be a 20 minute wait and blatantly told the initial hostess “lied.” We opted to wait, which didn’t take that long. We were seated in the time frame that was promised. The most disappointing part of the evening came when we ordered our food. Our waiter started out consistent but, as the evening continued he gradually was very hard to find. We waited about 40 minutes for our meals. My food arrived one plate at a time (I ordered three small plates my boyfriend ordered an entree). We sat and waited 15 minutes additionally for them to bring my boyfriend’s food out. I waited for him to receive his food so that we could dine together. This was very inconvenient because my food became cold during the wait. Once his food arrived, we immediately realized that it was cold as well. Due to the food being brought out by a person other than our waiter we had to wait almost 20 minutes to inform the waiter. There was no incentive or solution offered originally for the long wait, cold food and staggering service. We spoke with the manager who offered to microwave it or give us a free cheesecake. We refused. My boyfriend gave his food back altogether. The manager also tried asking for our address offering us a bogus gift card which were sure he would’ve never mailed. If he is the manager and we were already in the establishment, why could he not provide us with the gift card then? Wouldn’t the incentive of a gift card be equivalent to discounting the bill for the inconveniences? The manager had no intention in rectifying the situation. It was all shady and a poor representation of the Cheesecake...

We were seated promptly as there were very few other parties seated. The hostess asked if we’d like a booster seat, (We had a toddler with us.) we said yes please. They seated us. Then the waitress came and took our drink orders while I held my toddler in my lap. She asked if we wanted a booster seat. We said yes. She brought our drinks after a few minutes. Waited on the table next to us a FEW times in that time. Then took our food order. Couple more minutes go by and for the third time we request a booster as my son was starting to get fussy sitting in my lap because he wanted my pretty pink alcoholic beverage that was in front of him. We finally got his seat. Food came and we notified we would be ordering dessert towards the end of our meal but needed to look at the menu. She said no problem and we were left with a menu. The table next to us then proceeded to have her full attention as she was at their side at least 8 times before she came to ask if we needed anything else. By this time all of our plates had been empty for at least ten minutes and our beverages for even longer than this. We ordered our dessert, and requested the check and a to go box for our sons left overs since we were unsure of when we’d be seeing her again. She brought the to go box for our sons food. Several more minutes go by, she waits on the table next to us a few more times then she brings the check and the dessert all wrapped up to go despite us intending on eating our dessert there. I honestly felt like an inconvenience all night and it was the first time I’ve ever contemplated not tipping my server. We did still leave ten percent but that was because I have never in my life not left a tip. She wasn’t at all friendly with us, but was especially friendly with the table next to us and put so much effort into making sure they had everything they could ever want (like what you’d expect from a server), mean while we felt ignored each time she walked passed our table to go to or from their table and waiting for her to offer us another drink or ask if we were ready to order dessert. It just was a terribly uncomfortable experience to feel like you were bothering or inconveniencing someone literally paid to be providing...

Came for dinner on Saturday, very crowded and very loud. Also very dim lighting. The wait for a table was about 30 minutes, but the section we were seated in was only about a quarter filled.

The menu is very long, with about 5 pages of entrees. The cheesecake/dessert section is the last two pages.

The food itself was decent and rather expensive. We got the Passion Mint Fizz, Guava Blood Orange Sparkler, a Shepherd's Pie to share, the Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake, and the Mango Key Lime Cheesecake. The drinks were ok, basically flavored soda water. They put a sprig of mint in the Passion Mint Fizz and it is very strong. The shepherd's pie is not actually a pie, but just the pie filling on a plate. Kinda disappointing, and the quality was not worth the price. The cheesecakes were good. The Godiva chocolate was a little too rich for me, but with a good balance between sweet and bitter chocolate. My sister thought the mango key lime was too sweet and couldn't taste the lime. I thought it was a good mix of sweet and sour, slightly more sour, until you get to the edge of the cake. At the edge, there is no sweet mango flavor and only overwhelming sourness. Note that the whipped cream served with the cakes is the type that comes from cans, so it tastes slightly bitter from the propellant. We also got an Impossible Burger to go for our dad, who is doing a study on Impossible Foods. He says it's very good, but too expensive ($17). Burger King's Impossible Burger remains his favorite.

The service is what pushed this review from a three to a two star review. Our section only had four tables filled with one waiter. Our waiter was friendly, but his service was intermittent. He frequently spent long periods of time at the other end of the restaurant, usually 10 minutes at a time. When he was in our section, he seemed to pay more attention to the other tables and was always in a hurry, so it was difficult to get his attention. We probably spent twice as much time at the table as we expected to. I can only assume that the restaurant was criminally understaffed, but it was still terrible.

In conclusion, only the cheesecake was worth the time and money. If we come back, it will only be to carry...