IMHO, Cheesecake Factory is ok, but not exceptional.
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If you want some good food in your area (ok, sort of in your area) at a reasonable price, Blue Anchor in Delray Beach and Muddy’s in Boca Raton are awesome.
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“Foodie” is, in my experience, more a synonym for “gourmet” than “gourmand” - cutesy attempt to deal with the former’s pretense. I’m only a semi-foodie - never quite had the budget for serious dining experiences, here in New York or elsewhere.
Anyway, back to CF - little to add to others’ stated opinions, other than a note on atmosphere. I’d say it’s almost impossible for any chain restaurant to aspire to much more than high-mediocre on this crucial point: what makes a truly remarkable experience is a unique sense of welcoming and caring - “coddling,” as a recent Times review put it. (The reviewer was explaining why he would not award a fourth star to Babbo, Mario Batali’s crown jewel.) Even lesser places can achieve something quite lovely that no procedural manuals can ever hope to create, because it rests on personality. It’s why I think it’s best to approach even high end chains, like Morton’s or Smith & Wollensky, with somewhat reduced expectations.
Pulp Fiction has it right: Personality goes a long way. And no chain will ever have it.
Overpriced, gaudy, and the cheesecake was nothing special, either.
We were quite disappointed.
Now, if you’re going to a Sullivans or Ruth Chris Steak House, take me with you!
- Jinx
I’ve actually been to the Blue Anchor, but only for drinking and karaoke, no food. And unfortunately, all those places are a 90-minute drive (and usually more) from where I live.
I like The Cheesecake Factory. I hate cheesecake for the most part.
The pizza and Mile-high Meatloaf are pretty dang good. So is that app that is called a “firecracker” or some such. Very very tasty.
It doesn’t break the bank and it’s consistantly tasty. I like the atmosphere too :dubious:
Right…you’re going to compare a place where you have to pay $100-150 a couple to a place that costs $50 a couple with drinks. That’s ridiculus.
I don’t literally sexually fetishize food. I mean, I don’t jerk off to cookbooks. But I do read them with the same fervor. I call them food porn, but it’s normal, right?
Right?
Oh, and I would dearly love to never hear the word ‘foodie’ again. To me it suggests that the speaker either doesn’t have the vocabulary to recognize that words like ‘gourmet’ exist, or is engaged in reverse snobbery. Every genuine gourmet I’ve ever spoken to (and I’m not including myself in this category) appreciated good food whatever the source, whether some fancy restaurant where they shape it into towers before serving, or an old lady’s kitchen, or some wonderful hole-in-the-wall.
To call yourself a ‘foodie’ implies, to me, that the ‘gourmets’ out there are too sheltered and delicate to enjoy real food, and limit themselves strictly to aforementioned ‘tower o’ food’-type establishments. People who brag about not having ‘snobbish’ tastes - you know, the ones who proudly acknowledge that they won’t watch foreign films, or brag about how they don’t read literature, or in this case proclaim that they would never go to such a sissified, high-falutin’ place - also demonstrate that, while they may enjoy the subject in question (movies, books, food), they haven’t even bothered to investigate the things they’re dismissing as snobbery. Besides, not to belittle the delights of chili dogs which, were I not a vegetarian, I probably would enjoy, certain ingredients simply cost a lot, and it’s nice to try those too.
But that’s just me.
(Plus, doesn’t anyone think the term sounds like it was coined by a six-year-old?)
As others have said, I find Cheesecake Factory to be unremarkable and bland, but at the same time inoffensive and edible. For example, I had a “blackened cajun” meal there once that was reasonably tasty, but didn’t have anything like the spicy kick I expected from the description. It’s upscale mall food, basically.
Or to put it another way: Cheesecake Factory, to me, is very carefully and consciously designed to cater to someone like My Mom— an upper-middle-class, middle-America-type person who occasionally likes to feel like she’s going out and spending some money (but not too much money) on a nice dinner, but who at the same time doesn’t want to risk the trauma of encountering something strange or unfamiliar that she won’t know how to eat. From that point of view, CF is perfect.
Aside from the food, the other reason I think that the CF is decidedly not a special occasions place, is the service. A special occasion restaurant has a professional wait staff, not a team of order takers.
To name a couple of upscale chains that I’ve had good experiences with…try The Oceanaire or Kinkaid’s and you’ll see the difference in service. It makes a huge difference your evening.
And here am I thinking Ruth Chris is expensive and nothing to write home about. The same with Three Forks (which was started by the same person who did Del frisco in Dallas). I’ve had better steaks at Outback Steakhouse and at a fraction of the cost of one of the more expensive steakhouses.
As far as the Cheesecake Factory is concerned, they’re good at cooking the kind of food you can cook for yourself but don’t.