The Cheesecake Factory
reviews and complaints

On 2/18/17 I attended a party with about 16 others at the Cheesecake Factory in Waikiki, Hawaii. At the party, attendees were instructed to insert their parking ticket in the check folder for validation. Received ticket, paid bill and walked a distance to the parking garage. Upon inserting my ticket into the parking machine it said I owed $18.00 instead of $4.00. Suspected that the ticket was not validated. Had to leave the site, so upon arriving at my next destination, called the Cheesecake Factory and spoke to Yara, the manager. All she could give me was the website dpstickets.com. She said that I would have to get reimbursement from the parking company, of which, she did not even know the name. I asked for any options, but she kept saying that she couldn't do anything. Yara said that the restaurant could verify to the parking company that I was there and that they forgot to validate the ticket.
I would've been fine if the Cheesecake Factory at least sent me a gift card as a credit, but now I am faced with dealing with the parking company.
Very disappointing and poor customer service! Is there anything that the Cheesecake Corporate office can do? I love your restaurant, but now am hesitant to go there. I am just hoping that no one else at the party has experienced the same thing.

Worst cheesecake factory experience ever. I go to cheese cake factory a lot and it was one of my favorite restaurants. On January 14 2017 we went to this restaurant and it was Saturday night around 9 pm. we waited for our table for like 20 30 minutes which is understandable because the restaurant it is in Irvine Spectrum and it is always crowded. After we waited so long they gave us the smallest table in the restaurant which was surprising but we were okay and we already waited and we were hungry so we did not want to change our table. we ordered cheese burger and chicken sandwich and we both ate 1/3 of each our foods because we had an appetizers as well too. I asked our server "RACHEL N" to bring us some boxes so we can take our foods home and she said she is going to put our food into boxes for us which was really nice of her. We paid for our foods and we took the boxes to our house, next day we opened the boxes so we can eat them and we saw it was completely different foods. We were really surprised and on Monday 16th of January I called cheesecake factory and I talked to "ANNI" who was the manager of store and when I explained everything she was like this is so strange and I have to talked with "RACHEL N" and I will call you back. She did not say sorry or any apologize in this conversation. I waited for like a week to somebody called me but nobody called me. I called the store after two weeks and I the employee said "ANNI" is in the training so I left my name and my phone number for him and I mentioned pleased tell her to call me as soon as possible. I also asked him if there is anybody else that I talk to but he said "ANNI" is the only one. Until today January 31st 2017 no one called me yet and I have not heard anything about either "ANNI" or "RACHEL". This is how they maintain their customers and how they care about their loyal customer. This is going to be my last visit to this restaurant and I will never ever going to come back to this store anymore.

On December 29th, 2016, at approximately 9:20pm, my friend and I visited the Cheesecake Factory in Redondo Beach, CA for dinner, like we have countless times before. We were promptly seated in a booth, and we were told that Antoinette would be our waitress. She had never before been our waitress. She took much longer than usual to take our orders, and then we waited for our food to be brought out. As we waited for nearly an hour, Antoinette must have passed our table nearly 10 times without saying a word. After we sat down, an African American family sat behind us and Antoinette stopped at their table 4 or more times, and they received their food before we did. By the time we began eating, the African American family had already left, and I made an effort to check by looking behind me. I watched Antoinette, and she was waiting on 4 different tables near us, but never once stopped to ask us if we needed water, NOR did she tell us "your food will be out shortly, sorry for the wait, etc." She also was not knowledgeable, and wanted to charge me extra for a turkey burger patty. She told me that if I wanted the turkey burger patty wrapped in lettuce, that it would be considered protein style, and that it would be an additional charge. However, in previous times that I have asked for a side of a turkey burger patty, they have brought it with a lettuce wrap, at no additional charge, and with barbeque sauce.
I told my friend that I was going to wait till 10:25pm, more than an hour after we arrived at the Cheesecake Factory, to inquire about the whereabouts of our food. At 10:25pm, I walked up to the hostess and told her that we had been here for more than an hour, and we did not have our food yet. I then saw our "waitress" Antoinette, and asked her "where is our food, it's been an hour" and she rudely said "I DON'T MAKE THE FOOD, WHY DON'T YOU GO BACK INTO THE KITCHEN AND ASK WHERE YOUR FOOD IS." I was shocked and speechless, and then I told her "isn't that your job?" and she rudely responded "YOU DON'T TALK TO ME THAT WAY." I told her that I had the right to ask where my food was and she stormed off and once again said "YOU DON'T TALK TO ME THAT WAY."
It became crystal clear that my friend and I were being directly targeted, and this was a clear case of discrimination. I spoke to the manager, Aurelia, who was polite and professional, and she immediately brought out our food. It turns out that our food was just sitting on the counter, and ANTOINETTE WAS AWARE OF THIS, BUT SHE PURPOSELY DID NOT WANT TO BRING OUR FOOD OUT. Antoinette never apologized, she just walked by and gave me nasty looks.
I will remind all of you that Antoinette is an employee of The Cheesecake Factory, and represents the company, and according to a legal doctrine, Respondent Superior, a company is liable for the wrongful actions of their employees. Antoinette failed to conduct herself according to the code of conduct of Cheesecake Factory, and failed to perform her duties, and went as far as telling me to perform her duties for her, when she told me to "go back into the kitchen and ask where my food was." In addition, she used insulting language when she raised her voice and told me that "she doesn't cook the food." I am well aware that she doesn't cook the food.
I will not stop until Antoinette is fired, and Cheesecake Factory is once again a welcoming place where customers are not sized up and treated like worthless garbage. I am in the process of contacting different news media outlets, and while I have a law degree myself, am consulting with my own private legal counsel in the case that Cheesecake Factory defends Antoinette and tells me that she did nothing wrong. I will never allow this disgusting conduct to go unnoticed, and while employees sometimes make mistakes, this was a CLEAR CASE of malicious, hateful, and purposeful conduct that Antoinette carried out with the specific intent of ruining our dinner experience; therefore, I will not show an ounce of leniency throughout the process. I am 100% convinced that Antoinette was completely aware of the fact that our food was ready, and was purposely neglecting us, and she was just waiting for me to inquire about my food so she could lash out.
I emailed the district manager, Chris DeMoro, on Dec. 29th, 2016, and he never responded to my email. I had to call him, and he's like "Oh I forgot to respond to your email." How stupid, careless, and irresponsible can a district manager be to not respond to a customer's email. It begs the question of how did Chris DeMoro become the district manager in the first place? Then guest services sent me an insulting $40 gift card, where there is no way in hell that I will accept a measly $40. Then I had to call Chris DeMoro again, and he told me that Antoinette offered NO reason or explanation as to why she acted the way she did, and that disciplinary action had been taken against her, but refused to tell me what it was.
I want Antoinette terminated immediately from Cheesecake Factory Inc. for violating the code of conduct for employees, and someone needs to sit Chris DeMoro down and teach him how to properly respond to emails and speak on the phone. He is incredibly inept and speaks like an individuals in elementary school.

I took my family (wife and twin daughters) to the Cheesecake Factory on Saturday, December 17, 2016 for dinner. It was my twin daughters golden birthday. After a very lengthy delay, we were seated in an area that over crowded. We asked for other seating arrangements but were told it would be another 40 to 45 minutes. We decline and took what they gave us. After a 10 minute wait our waitress walk up and introduce herself as Erika. Erika took our drink orders. I specifically asked for a drink from the bar called Easy Living. Erika informed that the bar tender wouldn't know how to make this drink. This is strange because we just had this drink prepared for us at this same restaurant several weeks prior. Needless to say we just order Strawberry Lemonades. It is during this time I notice the waitress was not friendly at all. I told her that it was my daughter golden birthday. We are expecting some cheesecake after dinner for them and for the traditional Happy Birthday song. The waitress just seem to shrugged me off with a OK. Finally after what seem like an awful long time Erika return to take our dinner order. It was then I asked if could have some bread and butter on our table. She stated she forgot. It is at this moment I should have asked for a manager or better yet just get up and leave. Obviously this waitress had a problem serving my family.

However I proceed to place our order. We ordered Cheese Sticks as an appetizer for the girls. When ordering we were corrected by the waitress that it is Fried Cheese. For dinner my wife ordered a Caesar salad, One daughter ordered a four cheese pasta with chicken and my other daughter ordered Chicken Alfredo. I ordered a Steak well done. The first thing I tried was the steak which was rare to raw in the middle when I asked for well done. My daughters meals were cold and my wife asked for several times for the waitress to bring Parmesan Cheese which we never received. The lighting in the restaurant was really dim but our table was even darker. It was as if we were in an area that really wasn't setup for dinning. I couldn't see what I was eating at all. This entire dinning experience was absolutely horrible and disgusting on so many levels, especially our waitress. After our complaints went unheard, I asked for desert. Our girls were brought cheesecakes and we were given our bill. I asked are you going to sing Happy Birthday to our girls and was told by Ericka we had to asked in advance. Now here is the kicker. Exactly one table over from us is a family of four who came in after we did with a young boy. We made small talk with parents and could every word the had with their waitress. At no point in time did these people ask their waitress to sing happy birthday. Additionally I spoke with the dad and he said all he did was tell his waiter they were there to celebrate their sons 8th birthday.

I was outraged by Erika's attention to our needs and request. I am never one to bring in race relations but this was very obvious. As a Professional Doctor in the community and neighborhood, who takes great pride in servicing my patients, I find it appalling and disturbing that I cannot get the same treatment at a restaurant of this magnitude. This person identified as Erika W who serve us at table 46 in Orland Park made a bad situation even more unbearable.

Unless I hear from senior management, I and my family will not be returning. I will let as many people as I can know of my experiences and dissatisfaction. I would hope management would take the initiative to resolved this situation to my satisfaction.

Dear Sir/ Madam; The Cheesecake Factory Corporate; November 20, 2016

I am contacting you to voice my concern towards a situation which occurred Saturday evening between myself and a member of your management team. I am an employee at your West Nyack, NY location. Over the past several weeks, our restaurant has undergone several changes. It has been somewhat of a tumultuous time, unfortunately. I truly believe, however, that our staff has been pulling together despite such drastic changes. This I feel is a display of our teamwork and perseverance. I am proud to work with such a dynamic team despite the challenges we have undergone.
I was hired as a server for your West Nyack team over 4 ½ years ago. Almost 4 months ago, my radial nerve in my upper right arm was pinched causing several weeks of paralysis in my dominant hand. I was unable to write and even lift the lightest of objects. For awhile I didn't work, believing the break would expedite the healing process. However, this method proved fruitless. About a month ago, rather than not work, I decided to pick up hours as a front desker. With two young children to support, not working for an extensive period of time was not an option. I have been working this position since then to the current time. Fortunately, my hand has been improving, and I hope to once again serve in the near future.
This evening, I was working the front desk as I have been recently. I still have issues with my right hand and wear a brace. There was five of us at the front desk as it was a busy Saturday evening. The ladies' restroom had not been checked or cleaned in awhile, so because we had about a 40 person wait with hardly any tables becoming available at the time, I kindly volunteered to clean the ladies restroom. As I have done this before since resuming my position at the front desk, I removed my brace so I could put on gloves for sanitary reasons. This slows me down a bit but I feel it is extremely important. Between having to wait for our guests to finish up in the individual stalls so I could tend to them and due to the fact that the restroom hadn't been checked for awhile, the cleaning process took about a half hour. Also, during the cleaning process, I sliced my hand open on a sharp piece of metal from the bathroom, further hindering me as I had to stop and request some neosporin and a band-aid from the office. While I was in the back area of the restaurant, I also restocked the paper towels, garbage bags and toilet paper as the bathroom bag was close to empty and so it would be prepared for the next bathroom check.
I returned to my post at the front desk and I saw that the wait had increased from 40+ to 60+ names on the wait list. I jumped right back into gear feeling satisfied that the ladies restroom was clean and that I had chosen the right time to tend to it. About 10 minutes later, a member of our support staff, Miss Stephanie Bucciarelli, called me into the office. She had claimed that I was “unaccounted for” for a 40 minute span. She said that I basically defied our mission statement because I was absent from the desk for an extended period of time. Isn't part of the guest experience having piece of mind, however because they choose to dine at a venue with presentable restrooms as this issue has affected the SMG scores drastically in the past? Also, when Miss Bucciarelli made the decision to send me home, I asked her if this was a good idea as we were still busy on a wait. Wouldn't sending home a front desker during such a busy time go against our mission statement? She told me that our “dinner rush” was over. So why is it that before I cleaned the ladies room there was 40 people on the wait list and afterwards there were 60 names on the wait? She had a slip all written up for me and decided to send me home. She pretty much bullied me and acted extremely callus. She claimed that she was at the front desk during the entire time that I was tending to the ladies restroom and was trying to insinuate that I wasn't there. I'm not sure if she realizes that I have had an injury, but according to the American Disabilities Act, she had no premise to bully me like that or send me home. I am not vexed with the company at all, however I believe that you should make an attempt to hire more compassionate people and educate them in regards to disability laws.
I am very upset and disgusted with the manner in which Miss Bucciarelli treated me. The fact that she was so unprofessional in accepting my present disability and my strong attempt to still do my job despite this just displays her managerial weakness. I am requesting that this write up be taken off my record as I feel that I did nothing wrong. I was merely doing my job. I will also be pursuing ADA litigation against Miss Bucciarelli personally if I don't receive a direct apology. This is all I want. I performed my job duties this evening and I did them well. By sending me home early for frivolous reasons, Miss Bucciarelli not only inconvenienced me, but she also inconvenienced my two young children whom I need to support on a daily basis.
This letter is my heartfelt feelings towards the situation. I have so much pride in working for such a wonderful company. I do, however, believe that you need to use more discretion in selecting some of your managers.

Sincerely,
Christine D. Michalchuk

On 7/15/2015 @ 6:00 PM came in with my family for dinner then catch a movies after that. Service was despicable and rude! Management just did not care. Had to scarf down my food and hurry to a movie with the family. What started out to be a good night out with family ended up being a night of stressed out family. At this point I would want a refund of my entire meal and an apology from the manager on duty that basically dismissed me when I confronted her to let her know what happened and that I was very upset with the performance of everyone involved. Server was Joan M table 243 @ the Cheesecake Factory in Providence Place Mall

On Friday June 19, I decided that I would take out lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. I skimmed through the menu and ordered linguini pasta with chicken. The lady who took my order asked me if I also wanted bread. I said No. She told me to sit down and wait 20 minutes. My order was $13.99 plus a $2.00 tip which I gave her. Kind of expensive for a lunch if you ask me. When I got home, I opened the plastic container and began eating. I took a few bites of the penne pasta and something else which didn't taste like chicken. I don't know but my tastebuds weren't liking the food. I took a few more bites and the meal tasted weird. I was really hungry and wasn't going to drive back to exchange my wrong food order. I grabbed the receipt from inside the bag and bingo! The order was wrong. My order was linguine pasta with chicken. The receipt said Linguini pasta shrimp sausage. First of all, this pasta wasn't linguini. It was Macaroni and Cheese dipped in tomato sauce. There was no shrimp, only sausage. In addition, my order also included a few pumpernickel bread, which I specifically said that I didn't want. I was annoyed! Immediately, I called the restaurant and asked to speak to the manager and addressed the issue. The manager was like oh do you want to come in and return it? And I said No. I already ate it. He started chuckling like this was all a joke. A good manager would have apologized first of all for the inconvenience and either given me a refund or given me a free meal. Always check your order before leaving an establishment. I usually do if I order from a fast good restaurant just didn't think that this sort of thing would occur at the Cheesecake Factory.

They have no concern for people's health. I stated i have allergies to mushrooms, they brought me the food with the mushrooms, i sent it back, they send out the food again. It looked like it didnt have mushrooms in it but then i start feeling sick 10 minutes after eating a few bites of it, i look into the food and discover 3 mushrooms. I call the manager & tell him in tears that I am allergic to mushrooms and thats why i ordered it without. He assures me they made it new and doesnt know how the mushrooms got in the new order. He goes to the kitchen and comes back & apologizes because they were busy and used the same utensils and food and just picked the mushrooms out of the order. I was already sick taking my medication. This is not how you treat someone with allergies. I dont care how busy you are. No excuse for making me sick. He had me fill out a incident report and that was it. Didnt offer anything to make up for making me sick or for making me pass a horrible time. He didnt comp the check, just took the pasta off the bill, that was it. Had no concern for my health or for making me feel better about the situation.

Ive been to two Cheesecake Factorys. One in California and one in Dallas, Texas.

The one in Dallas I ended up leaving. I stood there for 15 minutes waiting to be seated, and nobody ever showed up to front of the restaurant. I never even saw any waitstaff. And yes, they were open, there was people in there eating.

The one in California...I was taken there by a friend as a "thank you" for doing some work for her. The wait for a table was short. We got our table and the waitress disappeared.

About 30 minutes later she shows up with menus and asks for our drink orders.

About 20 minutes later she shows back up. She takes our orders and then disappears again.
Our drinks were empty and she didnt even offer to refill them, or give us a chance to ask for refills...she just disappeared. We had to grab another waitress to get refills.

Other people had come in, sat down, ordered, ate, and left by the time our waitress brought our food! As soon as our plates were on the table she disappeared again. We didnt have any silverware, so we had to grab the other waitress again to get us some.

I had the fried fish and cole slaw, my friend had the pork chops and potatoes. Her chops were tough and she could barely eat one of them (there were 2). My fried fish was COLD and the cole slaw was HOT!

Again, we had to grab the other waitress to find our waitress and get our check so we could get out of there.

A 1 hour meal at any other place...a 3 hour catastrophe at Cheesecake Factory.

Never again.

On May 9th 2010, I attended a Mothers Day Brunch with three other mothers. The morning started out great until I decided to request grill chicken instead of bacon bits in my omelet. The omelet was initially made to order with these items; spinach, mushrooms, cheese and bacon bits. This switch was fine with our waitress. The omelet took an additional 15mins to arrive after the other guests. The manager visited our table to ensure me that the omelet would be arriving shortly, it did arrive shortly. When the omelet arrived, it included bacon bits along with grill chicken, I requested grill chicken instead of bacon. The omelet was taken away. The manager apologized. A freshly prepared omelet arrived; this time the omelet appeared to be fine. I once again checked to verify that it was made to my specification, it wasn’t. This time the cook placed bacon bits at the bottom of the omelet instead within the omelet to appear that it was prepared properly. The second manager apologized and told me that the chef would prepare my omelet. I declined, because at that time my party had finished their meal, I had lost my appetite with all the back and forth with such a simply request.

You would have thought that the manager would have just comp the entire bill, not!

I will never attend another brunch at this location of Braintree, MA

I order a dinner from the Cheesecake Factory threw Dinning In Services.
I ordered the meatloaf dinner asked that the corn be replaced with green beans. That didn't happen even though it was maked by the Cheesecake

Factory ticket, but worse of all the meatloaf was burn. It was dry and black inside and out. I've just come home from the hospital and was looking forward to that dinner. I've used Dinning In before and never had a bab meal. This is the first time I order from the Cheesecake Factory.

I would like to preface this survey by stating that I love the Cheesecake Factory and go their anytime I have friends or family come through Charlotte. It was my wish to go there for out our teams company Christmas Dinner and my team agreed. We had about 20 people both co-workers and family coming. We made a reservation and were excited about going, even though the weather was horrible, traffic was worse not to mention the Cheesecake Factory is located at the Mall and its Christmas time. All of our party did not come at the same time. We had a couple of people that got stuck in the traffic and were delayed. The waiters came over and took a few of a tables and we understood because it was dinner time. As the additional members of our party showed up we just fit them into the table situation. We understood. We still had two more guest to our party that were on the way but stuck outside in the Mall in traffic. He had called to advise they were still coming. We talked to the waiter and were told that was okay so they were told to come on. When they got there we fit them into to our seating arrangement and thought everything was fine. The manager came over and told the last two, a father and his fourteen year old son they could sit there but they would not be served. It was seven o’clock. When other members of the party ask why they could not be served the manager turned around and advised we were lucky we had our table. We came to the Cheesecake Factory to eat and enjoy each others company, not to be made to feel uncomfortable and have to eat in front of a fourteen year old and his father who was being punished for not showing up on time. The managers was Victor Galu and he was very patronizing to the group. One of our group went over and tried to reason with him, there has to be a better answer them to just having them watch us eat, this got us no place. We had just started on appetizers and drinks a few had started ordering dinner. We had already spent over 800 dollars to that point and people started cancelling dinner orders and winding up the evening.

I understand that dealing with the general public is at times trying but to go out to dinner and not being able to order or have to deal with this type or service is totally unacceptable.

We have been to several cheesecake factories. I work across the street from one and live in the neighborhood of another. I must say the one in Sterling VA has to have the worst take-out service. Every time you call someone says they'll put you on a short hold. After waiting six to eight minutes we call back and ask for the manager and it happens all over again. Why not eliminate this problem and give the optionof ordering on-line. A short hold to me is less than a minute.

My husband and I drove from Decatur to St. Louis last night, a two-hour drive, so we could eat at the Cheesecake Factory and use a gift card we had received at Christmas. We knew the restaurant would be busy, given the holiday, so we called ahead at 6pm. We arrived about 30 minutes later, waited in line to check-in and then were given a pager and told our wait would be 10 minutes.

We proceeded to wait for 60 minutes and then waited in line again to ask the hostess how much longer our table would be. This time, we were told 5 minutes. After waiting an additional 20 minutes, over an hour and a half in total wait time not counting the call ahead time, we were forced to leave our pager and grab a quick dinner at another restaurant.

We were extremely disappointed in the way our wait time was repeatedly grossly misrepresented. If we had been told that our wait would be over an hour and a half when we first arrived, we would have known we couldn't wait that long and still get home at a decent hour. We would have declined the pager and ordered our meal to-go or, at a minimum, been able to go directly to another restaurant.
We understand that holidays are a busy time for restaurants, but we feel strongly that you should have enough professionalism and respect for your patrons to be able to give them a reasonably accurate wait time and allow them to make an informed decision.

It is such a treat to go to the Cheesecake Factory that i haven't been in 5 years! So i was surprised when my boyfriend sprung me on a trip there. The food i ordered was my favorite dish and when it arrived the noodles were not cooked all the way, there was very little chicken, mushrooms and sauce. When i told my waiter his only option was to reheat the same dish. After my very very disappointing meal i was ecstatic to order cheesecake! When it arrived it was the saddest piece of cheesecake that I've ever seen. The presentation was awful, they tried to over compensate the small portion by drowning it with caramel glaze which did not make it taste better. If i were you i would highly reconsider going there and paying $60 for a load of crap.

Responding to *Special Invitation* - Survey Code [protected]. Took Boss to lunch at Cheesecake Factory in Palm Desert, Ca. Made lunch of several appetizers. Excellent small pizzas! O.K. Boston salad. So-So clam chowder. We never received the house bread after asking a couple of times. Ordered coffee, but no offers of seconds. Received salad within 20 minutes, but took 1 1/2 hours for hot items. Was a long time for luncheon! Don't know why it took our server so long to respond when the other waiters were able to take care of the little things such as no sugars, salt/pepper, or silverware on table. Have eaten there several times and always received good service and excellent food. Sure was disappointed this time.