This was my very first visit to a Cheesecake Factory. I will start by saying that! And was in the…read moreevening on a Sunday. (This will be pertinent information later.)
My first impression was that this place was fancy, and had really great ambience. Beautiful decorations, dim lighting, gigantic in terms of restaurant size. We were seated right away, even though it seemed to be busy still. There were only two of us, so we were seated at a small table - though we ended up asking for a booth so that we had more space. The waitress agreed to speak to a busser about this, but seemed a little disgruntled that we asked. They did move us shortly after. The booth was better for space, but it was near the kitchen, and a giant window facing the parking lot, so noise and headlights were definitely a buzzkill for the ambience.
The menu was ridiculous - the biggest I think I have ever seen. There are four pages for cocktails, another four pages for appetizers, two for cheesecake. Over twenty in total. My head was already spinning. I ended up asking a lot of questions because, despite the size of the menu, the portion sizes and prices weren't always clear. (How many tacos? How many mozzarella sticks? What do you mean, the cheesecake is between $10.50 and $12.50? How do you know which is which when it's not labeled?)
When I started asking questions, we were also told that they were out of things. A LONG LIST OF THINGS. The waitress stated that this was due to it being Sunday, as if that explained everything. (Told you that information would come in handy later on!)
Anyway, we ended up deciding on a fried pickle appetizer, a flatbread pizza to split, and a slice of cheesecake to try.
The pickles were really good, so was the spicy ranch they gave us to dip them in, and they came quickly. The pizza took.. a while. Quite a while. So long that we had started wondering if they even put the order in. It did eventually come, and it was okay. While we were waiting, our waitress had mentioned complimentary bread, but never brought it out. That didn't arrive until AFTER dessert and about three reminders. And the cheesecake itself was delicious, though the one that we ordered (Adam's) seemed like it was not enough cheesecake and entirely too much "other".
I left having stories to tell, for sure. And it reminded me of what Chef Ramsay used to say about giant menus.
Would I try it again? Probably. But next time, I would go at a different time, on a different day, with completely different expectations. Or maybe I would try a different location all together.
For now, it warrants three stars.