Last night, the wife and I had some business to take care of at the mall, so we decided to take advantage of a Cheesecake Factory gift card that we were recently given. Not being a huge fan of casual dinning, I was hesitant to even use the gift card. After working in the casual dining business for several years, I had a strong feeling of what to expect. In a word: mediocrity
To be completely honest, my expectations were slightly off the mark. Entering the restaurant, we were greeted by large crowds, pleasant aromas, and a busy hosting station directing the flow of guests to each table. So far, we are par for the course. Seating was immediate, even though the restaurant was very full. I suppose being a party of two has it's advantages on a Friday night. Once seated, we had a good 30 second wait before being greeted by our server. She delivered her canned speech outlining the evening's specials and then suddenly went silent. There was an odd pause where a "what can I get you to drink this evening" should have gone, but didn't. Assuming she simply forgot to ask us, we gave our drink orders and began to dive into the catalog that they call a menu. The menu is seriously over long. It took us at least 15 minutes to make up our minds. I can't imagine that they really need 20 items under each of their nine or ten menu categories, but they do.
After ordering we were given our complimentary bread basket. The basket held two room temperature loafs, one honey wheat, and the other a decently tart sourdough. The wife proceeded to devour the honey wheat as if it were a gift from the heavens. I found it to be... soft and sweet. Not to entertaining, but sweet none the less. The sourdough was held together with a nice crisp crust that was a pleasure to tear. The flavor was, as I said, decently tart, but nothing to write home about. Soon I received my salad, a plain house salad served with as small sauce boat of blue cheese dressing. The salad was your run of the mill house salad with little of interest. The dressing appeared to be house made with large pieces of mild blue cheese. The dressing also had a nice peppery note to it that helped liven up what was an otherwise boring salad. On to the entree's...
I ordered the Chicken Bellagio special. Two chicken breast fillets, breaded and pan fried severed with basil-garlic pasta, prosciutto and garnished with an arugula salad. The chicken was well cooked with a good ratio of crisp crust to tender chicken. The pasta was flavorful, but quite greasy. It is to be expected, but not entirely pleasant. The prosciutto was bland and unnecessary while the arugula salad offered a much needed counterpoint to the richness of the pasta sauce. As a whole, it wasn't a completely uninspired dish, but I doubt I would ever order it again.
As for dessert, we decided to share a slice of Caramel Pecan Turtle Cheesecake. The cheesecake was merely a canvas for the flavors of caramel, pecans, and chocolate. A massive blob of supremely dense chocolate ganache garnished the cake. Unfortunately, as a restaurant that is so well known for their cheesecake, they were unable to produce a cheesecake recipe that could stand up to the flavors that they decided to pair with it. In this respect, the cheesecake becomes lost in a sea of overpowering flavors, the way white cake can be lost behind a fortress of chocolate icing and sprinkles in a cheap birthday cake. Being judged on it's merits as a cheesecake, it would score fairly low. However, if the name "cheesecake" were to be removed, I might find myself much more forgiving in my critique.
Over all, The Cheesecake Factory did exceed my expectations, but not by much. Slightly above mediocrity is where I would place my experience as a whole. Will I ever return for another dining experience? Maybe with a gift card.
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