First off, I'm a huge fan of The Cheesecake Factory and have been eating at different ones religiously throughout the years, but my experience at this location was a gigantic disappoint, to say the least. When I suggested The Cheesecake Factory to one of my friends, he said that the food wasn't great and overpriced at that. Since this has always been one of my favorite places to go, of course I had to argue with him. Determined to prove him wrong, I insisted that we go here for dinner. We went in, put our name down on the wait list, and went outside for a cigarette. Now this is a normal practice, and typically restaurant hosts will always check outside for the next table to be seated if nobody answers their call from inside, especially if the waiting area inside is full! They didn't even try to look for us when we were literally standing just outside of the door (which we had also let the hostess know before stepping out), and it took a leaving customer to inform us that we were up for a table. We ended up having to sit outside because they sat somebody else at our table. Our waitress was friendly (which was the only pro of the night). I ordered a rare steak Diane and herb crusted salmon. When the food came out, my steak was COLD. Not even room temperature, but cold. When I informed our waitress, she had the audacity to tell me that in order for them to cook it rare, they could only throw it on the grill for a couple seconds which meant that it was normal for it to be cold. Are you seriously kidding me? I don't ever eat anything BUT rare steak, and I have yet gone to a restaurant and been served a cold one. Furthermore, if you don't know how the steak Diane at The Cheesecake Factory is, the steak is actually thinly sliced into little pieces, about three inches in diameter. So it doesn't take much for the meat to get heated up. As a reference, I have ordered this dish before at several other Cheesecake Factories, and not once have I encountered this problem. At this point I was just bummed out, but my friend insisted on complaining to the manager, so that's who we asked for. It was a good 15 minutes before anybody walked past us or any of the tables around. We had to asked for a manager twice before our waitress came back with my steak re-cooked. The manager lingered in the background behind her and they both left after she gave me my steak. At this point we just asked for the check and a to-go box since our appetites were gone. I didn't even bother checking my steak to see if it was any good this time around. I didn't bother mentioning, but my herb crusted salmon was exceptionally bland. I had to season the life into it with salt and pepper myself. At least it was decently cooked, and with how they treated my steak, I didn't even want to complain about anything else. I don't remember what my date had to eat, but it's safe to say that we were just as impressed with his dish as we were with mine, which was not at all. I'm a very easy-going and forgiving person, so for me the big issue isn't necessarily the poor cooking, but the service and management (as I've seen other reviewers have pointed out). They should have just fixed the problem when it was presented, instead of making excuses. We were not being rude or unfriendly (in fact quite the opposite, despite of everything) and it's not like I was asking for the meal to be comped or discounted. In addition, I've never seen worse management skills. The manager never bothered to introduce himself or ask us how we were doing, even though we had specifically asked for him. Everything was a huge hassle and they made me feel like I was someone who was super picky or asking too much. My friend is right in that The Cheesecake Factory is a relatively pricey place to eat and based on my experience at this location, it is definitely not worth it. Worst $50 of my life, which doesn't even include tax and tip. It's a good thing our waitress was at least friendly and smiled through the night, because her other service skills were quite lacking. I don't even know how the manager was hired, because he showed no managerial skills whatsoever. I was so embarrassed that I insisted on going to eat here and defended this place when everything turned out to be horrible. This particular Cheesecake Factory is definitely not up to par. Avoid at all costs.
Choose: was this review given positively or negatively?
Select from: 1. negative; 2. positive;
1.