The Cheesecake Factory

Reviews 3

LU

Luis Martinez

3.5 hours of horrible service and mediocre food at best. We are in town for a special event and Cheesecake Factory has always done a great job at making the experience well worth the wait. So we decided to go there over various other options since we knew what we were paying for, or we thought we knew. Since the moment we arrived the experience went completely downhill. We had a party of about 18 so we understood it would be hard to get seated at a reasonable time so they thought it would be easier to to break us up into 3 groups so we can sit faster which we were ok with. Again prior experience told us it wouldnt matter because we would have great food and a service experience to match. Once we got seated after an hour 1.5 hr wait it took about 15 min to get someone to finally come around to take our drink orders (it was just 4 waters and 2 lemonades) and we didnt want to waste anymore time so we went ahead and put our food order with the drinks. We were so hungry I couldnt think straight so it didnt help that bread took about 10 min to come out (which was devoured in seconds) Our other group, which were at a booth next to ours, werent as fortunate. They decided to put their food order in after drinks came, so they had to wait about 30 min before being able to order food. Our water finally arrived and lemonades took an additional 5-10 min since server justified it by stating it came from the bar. After waiting for about 40 min for food to show up it was a complete disappointment. My chicken bellagio was good but the pasta tasted like spaghetti out of hot water with no taste. Very bland. Another couple shared the 4 cheese pasta and it was shy by about 3 cheeses not to mention waiting for an additional plate after eating 10 min into it. Its Saturday night but you would assume that they are built to handle large groups of people at once. After agreeing to bring it up to management the server went to get Rodney Méndez the shift supervisor. He was really inexperienced in handling complex service issues and his only rational was saying the kitchen isnt working well under pressure. Unacceptable on his behalf. Didnt even get cheesecake which is the main reason why we went there We were fed up with the experience. We just wanted to pay and leave. We split checks. Me and my wife were on one check with 2 items. Just our check took 25 min to get made up and brought out!! I couldnt believe the outrageous amounts of time we waited for things that should be seemless. Rodney told the server to tell us that if we mentioned the problem earlier they would have addressed it then and not after we ate. That they wouldnt comp any of our food or at least try to make things right with us. After the long wait for service we wanted to speak with the general manager and Joe came over. He sounded nice but it almost felt like he was trying to justify his employees actions and imply it was our fault for not saying something sooner.(we barely saw our server through the night to begin with) I was sincere with him and told him I wasnt trying to get "free food". I even said I would gladly pay, but I thought he should know how bad the evening went for us as customers. Nothing was resolved through speaking with him. We paid and walked out and as a group decided we had a horrible experience, so much so that we thought others who visit should know what to expect. After reading other reviews, Im not surprised to see the level of unprofessionalism and unaccountability at this establishment. I also notice an owner replies to people who review negatively stating they will address this with the staff and that it will be isolated. This concerns me because obviously it isnt being addressed and isolated as stated and it keeps on affecting future consumers. If you read this long into my review, be weary of this restaurant. Im not sure there is much that will change and they will only trend downward unless this is truly addressed. 3.3 stars says enough. I hope this review was useful and I will definitely be sending a formal review to corporate.

MI

Michelle A

We love Cheesecake Factory first of all and frequent this location. However, we wont be returning to this location unless management changes. My sister, husband and I went out for a celebration tonight and left feeling frustrated and disrespected. Our waitress was sweet and attentive, and deserves a 5 star raving review. Unfortunately, my sisters meal came out and it was inedible and tasted like eating straight balsamic vinegar. We asked the waitress about it and she agreed that it didnt smell or look correct, and made the situation right by bringing out a completely different dish. She also commented that she spoke to the manager and the manager would comp her meal, which we expected to mean that my sisters portion of the bill would be taken off. Then when we got the bill we were charged for her meal. They "comped" her meal she sent back (which is not a comp-- of course she shouldnt have to pay for a meal that was sent back) and charged us for her replacement meal. I politely asked to speak with the manager, thinking surely something was typed incorrectly on our receipts. Normally this isnt something I would do, but I truly thought that there may have been a mistake on the bill. Instead of listening respectfully and trying to understand our situation, the manager was incredibly rude and demeaning and made us feel stupid for thinking our meal would be comped. He immediately said "why would I comp that meal?" in a sarcastic and mean tone, then after asking why my sister didnt like the meal, coldly said "thats how the meal was supposed to taste, sorry you didnt like it. We comped the meal you sent back and got you a new one." After this argument continued going back and forth with continued rudeness on his end, I finally said to forget it, apparently we didnt understand each other. All he said was "great" and walked away. He saw my frustration and was fine with leaving the situation dealt with in this poor manner, with a completely dissatisfied customer. I was not expecting to be treated this way at all. This manager clearly does not value his customers and, despite the fact that our food ended up tasting good in the end and our waitress was phenomenal, the unnacceptable way that he treated us in the end has made it so none of us will be returning to this restaurant location again.

BR

Bree Booth

Update to owners response: thank you very much for your acknowledgement! My husband did indeed already complete the web form on Sunday and we look forward to your follow up. Im so disappointed to write this review because I love Cheesecake Factory and have rarely ever had a poor experience here. However, after waiting over 1 hour for our food (arriving in 3 different deliveries over the course of 15 minutes, so our table of 4 couldnt begin eating at the same time) which was either overcooked or lukewarm, we asked to speak to the manager, Rodney Mendez. He had kindly come to tell us earlier our food was going to be delayed due to a kitchen back up. He only apologized for the delay again, so I asked what could be done for the table since it had been such a long wait, as hed noted. He offered free slices of cheesecake for each of us (already on half-price special) and I requested a complimentary remade version of one of the entrees to-go since it had been inedible as well. It took another 30 minutes for the dessert to arrive and then another 30 minutes to get our check sorted because Rodney said it was a miscommunication and that he could only comp the already - discounted desserts or the entree, but not both. I explained how weve never had an experience like this one, weve come to expect great food from Cheesecake Factory, and that I was incredibly disappointed that both requests werent being honored after a 2.5 hour visit due to the inefficiencies of his kitchen. He stolidly refused to comp both items, a possible explanation for why the restaurant was so poorly run on a busy day (lack of managerial expertise and customer service). Our poor waitress was the one who brought over coupons in an effort to apologize and get us to return. We hope that after contacting Corporate as well, some attention will be paid to this struggling franchise.

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