Oklahoma City Restaurants

Five reasons I hate Oklahoma City’s Cheesecake Factory

by Tim | October 27, 2007 | 53 Comments

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• Caryl says:
  October 28th, 2007 at 11:24 am   

  Tim, I actually agree wholeheartedly with everything you said, and I avoid the place like the plague (when I can — my sister absolutely LOVES it, so I have been more than once.) Every time I’m there I get a full-on blast of the kind of American consumerism that makes me yearn for the old world where dining out is an art and a pleasure for all the senses.

  You forgot to mention the extremely high fat content of pretty much everything on their menu! I mean, deep fried mac & cheese??? The first bite is kind of tasty in a guilty pleasure sort of way, but if you eat the whole thing (and it comes with 4!), it really is very disgusting.

  But some of their food is really good – if you can find it on the 34 page menu – and if you choose wisely and get the to-go box before you get the meal, you can get out without feeling too sick.

  Of course, you’ll have to take out a second mortgage to pay for the meal.

• Andy1807 says:
  October 28th, 2007 at 11:47 am   

  I agree with every point you make above and I would like to add another rule they break:
  A good restaurant will almost never have a gift shop and can never have teddy bears wearing a tshirt bearing the restaurant’s logo available for sale.

• OkPete says:
  October 28th, 2007 at 12:06 pm   

  The first rule of eating out is, you do not eat at chain restaurants
  The second rule of eating out is, you DO NOT eat at chain restaurants!
  The third rule of eating out is, if someone says stop, goes limp, taps out, the diner is over.
  The fourth rule of eating out is, one person to a plate.
  The fifth rule of eating out is, one plate at a time.
  The sixth rule of eating out is, no shirt, no shoes, no service.
  The seventh rule of eating out is, diner will go on as long as it has to.
  The eighth rule of eating out is, if you invited another out for diner, you have to pay.

• Tim says:
  October 28th, 2007 at 9:45 pm   

  Nice list, OkPete. I like that!

• Dwight says:
  October 30th, 2007 at 9:57 pm   

  I’m not all about Cheesecake Factory or anything. But, let us not forget that Applebees is the real enemy here. We can never forget.

• Tim says:
  October 31st, 2007 at 7:25 am   

  Haha, Dwight. I have to agree with you there!

• Big Bad Behymer says:
  November 1st, 2007 at 7:42 pm   

  So Tim, what is the fourth reason you don’t like Cheesecake Palace?

• Tim says:
  November 1st, 2007 at 9:43 pm   

  Haha, nice catch, Behymer. I’ve corrected that for you now.

• Rick says:
  November 2nd, 2007 at 9:26 am   

  I guess I’ll be the lone disenting voice here. I like the Cheesecake factory. Let’s go through your list.
  1. It’s a chain.
  1a – So what? I don’t get my panties in a wad over this. I don’t understand why people do. It would be different if it was selling horrible food. The fact it’s a chain is a non-issue except for smarmy food snobs who THINK they know how all things food related should be.

  2. “They do everything”
  2a – One stop shopping is great. I’ve had a variety of food there and have never been disappointed in the quality of the meal. Again, a non-issue.

  3. Selling advertising.
  3a – I agree with you on this point. It’s a little off-putting to see ads on a menu when you are paying a premium for your dinner. It would be different if they would reduce their prices for having the ads, but that’s not the case.

  4. Huge portions.
  4a – What’s wrong with that? Is someone forcing you to stuff yourself? If you can’t control your own eating habits that’s not the establishment’s fault. I like having enough to take home and eat leftovers the next day. In addition I have friends who are rather large guys (not fat, but really big guys) and they’ve conveyed that they like it because it’s a place where they know they will be full when they leave – unlike many places.

  5 – It looks like a palace.
  5a – Um…okay. *Shrug*

• Tim says:
  November 2nd, 2007 at 10:29 pm   

  Thanks for the dissenting opinion, Rick. I am thankful for the great discussion.

  I’d like to just comment further on point #1 about chain restaurants.

  I think the thing about chains is that it is harder for them to exhibit passion about their food, and passion for food is I guess what gets me excited about a restaurant.

  I mean, with a chain, especially a large one, you’ve got a big corporate mindset where the guys running the place are pretty far removed from the people who founded it and really lived for it.

  There’s just something special about seeing the energy involved in a local place that’s planting something unique, taking a risk, and seeing if they can make a go of it. That’s what makes the dining experience interesting to me.

  Of course, these are just my opinions and I have enjoyed reading yours. Thanks again and please, everyone else, why not join in the discussion?

• Andrew says:
  November 4th, 2007 at 9:17 pm   

  I have eaten at Cheesecake Factory twice this week. I don’t hate it, in fact the Apple Streusel cheesecake is pretty rockin’ awesome. Food was pretty good. However, for the same money at a local specialty restaurant, like a Cheevers for instance, you get so much more for the money, in my opinion.

• PDB says:
  November 9th, 2007 at 10:45 am   

  I will agree with your list but I have to go there on occasion for business and if find yourself there for whatever reason, the STUFFED CHICKEN TORTILLAS are quite tasty – really spicy compared to most chain food.

• OkPete says:
  November 10th, 2007 at 9:21 am   

  Rick,
  There are a number of reasons to abhor chain restaurants aside from the (lower) quality of the food. For example, some portion of the profits from chain restaurants go out of state. Bad for our local economy. Second, chain restaurants tend to go up exclusively in newly constructed strip malls in suburbia. This promotes the strip-mall-ification of the city and urban sprawl.

• Heather says:
  November 14th, 2007 at 10:38 pm   

  I absolutely agree with Tim. Amidst all the hype last year when “The Factory” arrived, we made plans to celebrate a family birthday there. We were eager to taste the infamous cuisine. Sadly, every person in our party was very disappointed with their entree. First of all, the menu is so large it is overwhelmig! It gives the impression that they specialize in nothing because they try to do everything. The dishes we tried were unimpressive, yet the portions were huge. The redeeming quality of the evening was the cheesecake. Of course, the slice was generous, easy for a couple to share. *FYI: You can buy an entire “Cheesecake Factory” cheesecake at Sam’s for $10.

• William says:
  December 6th, 2007 at 8:04 pm   

  I used to work at what i like to call the Cheesecake Asstory. If you want a nice dining experience, it is the last on my list for Oklahoma City. I’d rather head over to Coit’s for my next big date (That was a bit of a hyperbole).
  If you noticed the banquets that they use to try and fit customers into every possible inch of the restaurant. You end up knowing your neighbors before you leave. Which in Oklahoma can sometimes not be the best experience.
  But for anyone who works in the restaurant industry, you might want to know this fact: They treat their employees like crap. No one ever learned my name or anything about me.
  Also, I don’t like going to restaurants where these are the conditions:
  -I can’t hear anyone sitting beside me because of the booming echoes of the thousands of people inside on room and the blasted music.
  -The chef has no idea what any of the ingredients he is using are; he just follows the chart.
  -They have a $6 grilled cheese that is nothing different from the elementary cafeteria.
  Overall, I think The Cheesecake Factory in Oklahoma City should be burned down.
  …just a suggestion?

• Dana says:
  December 10th, 2007 at 5:23 pm   

  Let me start by letting you know that I’ve only been to The Cheescake Factory once. What I ate as good but….

  1. The menu was huge and confusing. There were way too many choices. After looking at the menu for 10 minutes, I gave up and just ordered a chicken Caesar salad.

  2. The salad was good but it was absolutely enormous! I couldn’t even eat half of it.

  3. The salad cost WAY WAY more than I would normally pay for a salad. (I must clarify that my boss was treating me to lunch and she paid for the enormous salad…)

  4. I ordered cheesecake and let me be honest – it was one of the best pieces of cheesecake that I’ve ever had. However, it cost something like a million dollars for the slice and because it was so large (and I ate the whole thing) my stomach hurt for hours afterwards.

  5. My stomach hurt even more when I saw the bill. Now, I realize that I’m known for being cheap but the price for 2 salads, 2 pieces of cheescake, a glass of iced tea and a water was really over the top. Too much food. Too much money.

  6. The restaurant had a very commercial feel. I felt like I was at Disney World or in Las Vegas. Same prices, too!

  All that being said, I enjoyed my meal but don’t know that I’d ever go back.

• JJR says:
  December 14th, 2007 at 3:27 am   

  Ok so i agree, but disagree with everything you said Tim, I personally work at a cheese cake factory, and it as you said a chain, more corperate than any of you can imagine. I have worked there 4 years and still do not understand why they put those adds in their menus, its tacky! But where i disagree is there passion for food.

  The amount of precision that goes into making each sauce (all 60 of them) is unpressidented. Ever 60 minutes a line check is made by one of the kitchen managers and they temp every critical item on the line, ensuring quality. I agree the mark up is a bit extreme, but the quality of produce, meat, and seasonings are top of the line. so i guess the next time you come in, come in before 5 and get a lunch portion, th eprice is better and you can still leave with a bit of left overs. (next time you visit, ask for a lemon and check out what they bring you, it still gives me a crack)

• Liv says:
  December 18th, 2007 at 2:02 am   

  I have been a patron of Cheese cake factory one time and NEVER again. It was the worst dining experience I have had in a long time. Between the poor hospitality and the appalling noise my husband and I could not even begin to enjoy a meal there. WE were brout poor quality bread that was so hard we couldn’t eat it and when we asked for butter to attempt to soften it we were sneered at at brout 2 pats that had some substance stuck to it
  Although I personally was not put off by the advertising, I am of the opinion that fro the price charged per item one SHOULD be able to feed four people.

• DByrd says:
  March 18th, 2008 at 4:23 pm   

  I instantly clicked on this article, Cheesecake Factory in OKC has to be my least favorite place to eat…….Something about the place is depressing to me, can’t quite figure it out. I’ve been there twice and neither has been enjoyable and the above list of 5 reasons is right on the money. Advertisements on the menu? I mean seriously if you want added income just raise the price of the food, don’t make me read about termite control at the table……….

• JJOKC says:
  March 23rd, 2008 at 4:34 pm   

  Hi all.

  Great post Tim. I agree with you on all of your counts and especially the sentiments offered by OKPete.

  To succinctly summarize, The Cheesecake factory is a chain restaurant that does nothing extraordinary, has corporate headquarters dictating recipes, spice content, music and even where to place the ads in the menu and contributes to both the obesity and the wasteful nature of our society.

  You’ve been to the Cheesecake factory in Chicago, you have been to all of them. I sadly went there with an old girlfriend, which is one of reasons we broke up.

  It’s the corrosion of conformity that Jello Biafra and others speak out against in our ever increasingly heterogeneous society.

  I think that it was Rick who defended the Cheesecake factory and chains in general. You don’t get it brother. It has nothing to do with being epicureans or food connoisseurs but everything to do with eating and shopping local from small businessmen and women, buying organic/fair trade and proper portions.

  Here’s a few choices for excellent local dining and not so local:
  Saturn Grill in Nichols Hills.
  Rock Cafe in Stroud on Route 66.
  Meers restaurant near the Wichita Mtns.
  Saigon sandwiches-Milk bottle building on 23rd and Classen
  Pete’s Place in Krebs (Take at least 3 or 4 friends)
  La Baguette in Norman or on North May
  County Line BBQ 63rd just off of MLK by the Cowboy Hall of Fame museum.

  Enjoy yourselves and have a great Spring. I love your town when I am here.

  JJ

• J2O says:
  April 17th, 2008 at 12:39 am   

  I agree with everything you said…

  …but…

  …sadly, everything that I have eaten there has been pretty good and I really enjoy trying different things without worrying about if I’m goin to hate what I ordered.

  But if it makes you feel better: I hate everything else about it

• David&Cathy says:
  April 20th, 2008 at 8:01 am   

  The more I read comments on this site the less I believe I could use it as a “ZAGAT of OKC”. How sad though I had high expectation about site when I friend told me to check it out. Instead of being a guide with suggestions for good dining experiences it seems like all the comments are focused on negativity. I have a sister who owns a restaurant in Florida and anyone who is in this business would agree with me – it is a hard business to be/stay in. The devotion has to be endless and the possibilities of something not being perfect from one second to the next are enormous because you are dealing with too many variables food, employees, customers, etc.

  I am curious to know Tim, what is your background and what makes you such a “restaurant connaisseur”? You are full of opinions alright but they don’t seem very educated. So I wonder if you can tell us about your relationship with gastronomy. You also don’t come across like a businessman either. So why should we value your opinions?

• Tim says:
  April 20th, 2008 at 10:12 am   

  David, I’m sorry that you have been disappointed with the site. I think if you look all around the site, you will find far more positive comments and reviews about restaurants than negative ones.

  At the same time, we try to be balanced in our approach and the fact that we share both negative and positive opinions is one of the things that our readers tell us they appreciate the most.

  As far as my personal background, I’m just a guy who likes to eat at unique, local restaurants. I have my opinions about what makes a restaurant great and I share them here on this blog. We have other writers as well who share their own opinions and we don’t always agree with each other. Not all of our readers agree with us either and they share their opinions in the comments.

  This sharing of contrasting opinions and ideas is what makes this site unique and interesting. I love to hear other people’s perspectives even when they disagree with me. I always listen and consider each viewpoint. I don’t claim that my opinion is more valid than anyone else’s, but it is my opinion and so I share it.

  I hope that you’ll share your ideas in our comments as well and let your voice be heard.

• David&Cathy says:
  April 20th, 2008 at 1:43 pm   

  I see. You seem far less aggressive when the criticism is on you. Everyone is entitle to an opinion but trashing someone else’s business is just not good business etiquette. Criticism is good because it allows improvement. You could be more respectful when making your remarks.

• Tim says:
  April 21st, 2008 at 5:46 am   

  David, I appreciate your input and I will consider it. I hope that you’ll continue to explore our site because I really do think you will find much that is of value. And, as always, please continue to leave your comments because we value them greatly.

• JJOKC says:
  April 25th, 2008 at 9:13 am   

  Tim,

  I am on your side and think that Dave and Cathy are not understanding that there’s more to dining than just ordering food and leaving a good tip.

  Where we shop, live and eat say more about us than any words or comments we utter on this or any other medium. If we don’t support local independent businessmen and women, regardless of their profession, we are part of the problem that leads to outsourcing, offshoring and a belt busting trade deficit and national debt.

  Dave and Cathy came off as very sanctimonious (My sister has a restaurant, what’s your culinary background and your opinions don’t seem well educated) and condescending to say the least on their initial post and have stayed the course in subsequent postings.

  Then, they excoriate you Tim for ostensibly not being respectful in your posts when they just posted a negative response questioning your knowledge, background and right to comment on your own empirical experiences.

  Dave and Cathy, if you don’t like this forum, please don’t use it! Try citysearch, yahoo local, msn, fodors, frommers or wikipedia.

  Oh, and my culinary background goes like this. My father has been in the foodservice industry in Chicago since the 1960′s. I have attended the National Restaurant Association convention in Chicago at Mc Cormick Place several times. I worked in my father’s kitchen for decades and also had my own mobile catering route in Chicago for several years working for commission.

  Also, since 2004 my sister was the executive chef for a Marketplace in Chicago before Marshall Fields was bought out by Macy’s and she was let go due to elimination of most marketplaces.

  I have also worked for several restaurants, delivered pizza and volunteer at a local OKC food bank.

  How’s that for experience? Besides having a sister who owns a restaurant, please tell us what qualifies you to be an expert on restaurants and pop psychology?

  If you have nothing positive to say, well there’s a place for you in higher education.

  Tim didn’t say it but I will. You seem like a negative force and I hope that you’re not like this in person too because it’s not conducive to having friends or being liked in your workplace.

  Don’t be so glum. Cheer up and use your talents for something positive instead of trying to be erudite on a forum where you only come off as bitter and sullen.

• Carla says:
  May 11th, 2008 at 8:42 am   

  I recently took my daughter there for her birthday for the first time. She really wanted to go. It was very dissapointing.

  I too thought the food was waayy over the top portion wise. I felt like I was served the entire meat loaf and it wasn’t good. Not good at all. None of us liked our dinners except my daughter, thank goodness since it was her birthday.

  The desserts were good.

  The evening patio dining was nice. The service was excellent. The waiter couldn’t do enough to make my child’s experience more pleasant. That was the highlight of our experience. Its too bad such a good staff has to serve such substandard food and wont have the volume of return customers.

  Finally, I felt it was very overpriced. Maybe if the food was better, I would feel much differently, but most of the national chains are a little less in OKC. We won’t be returning.

• Ryan says:
  May 18th, 2008 at 10:24 am   

  Tim’s palate is wonderful. He has a PhD in flava. Cheesecake Factory’s servings are the reason kids are starving in Africa. And they’re very proud of those cheesecake slices given the cost.

• Robert says:
  May 21st, 2008 at 1:41 pm   

  I bet Dave and Cathy would own one of those restaurants that charges $1.50 to use a credit card. What makes you any better judges of a restaurant than Tim? He is, after all, a restaurant CUSTOMER. You know someone who owns a restaurant- I’ll bet they care what customers think, or they won’t own one for long.

  The vast majority of restaurant customers – i.e. the people who keep them in business – neither work for nor read Zagat. There are a lot of criteria that matter to different people. Tim isn’t telling you what to think, he’s telling you what he experienced.

• katie says:
  May 22nd, 2008 at 4:08 pm   

  I I think Tim is just like my hub and me – looking for adventure. Once you are an “adventurer diner”, chains become boring. I got hooked on adventure when I went to Toronto one year. I hated to come back to chains. Some people like to dine safe, like my parents and they will find a great chain and go back again and again (yawn). It’s all a matter or preference – no need to get offended.

• Chad Jaggers says:
  August 8th, 2008 at 10:48 am   

  Tim, thank you for this article. I think that the Cheesecake factory is very overhyped for what it is. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the food and the wooly mammoth sized portions, but the whole place is just too hyped up.

  The thing that turned me off to Cheesecake Factory is the menus. The fact that they sold full page advertisements on every other page of the menu was not necessary.

• Brian says:
  September 3rd, 2008 at 10:22 am   

  I too like the taste of the food at Cheesecake factory, but as it has already been stated the portion sizes are gargantuan. Personally, I really don’t care to wait 1-2 hours for a table so I rarely consider Cheesecake Factory when deciding where to eat.

• Michelle says:
  September 10th, 2008 at 1:59 pm   

  Just to clear up all the IGNORANCE about the “selling of the ads on the menu”.. those ads are there because the store is partially owned by the malls they are located in..SIMON malls.. they dont pay for the advertising…maybe you should get the facts straight before you try to argue a subject you know nothing about.

• Michelle says:
  September 10th, 2008 at 2:05 pm   

  Also.. as much as you want to believe they dont care about there food quality because they are a chain.. THEY ABSOLUTELY DO. try to be a line cook or kitchen manager, or even expo there for ONE day and see how much is sent back and perfected BEFORE it even goes out of the kitchen.. They have food quality workshops and classes and meetings all the time. The managers order all different entrees throughout the day just to check up on food quality. They are VERY big on hot DELICIOUS food, if something looks the slightest wrong the managers will take it back and perfect it themselves… so AGAIN.. try not to talk too much about the things YOU DONT KNOW.

• doug says:
  September 19th, 2008 at 6:13 pm   

  I ate there sept. 13 or so; the firecracker salmon thingies were really good. The cheesecake was good ($8 a slice!! a big slice, but come on!)

  The actual food was ok, but nothing grand. Lots of it, though. The waiter was pretty damn good.

  Next time I need a treat I’m going for appetizers and cheesecake then hit the door.

• Jon says:
  January 13th, 2009 at 10:22 am   

  You must all be 500 pounds to go this indepth about a cheesecake factory. Get out and walk

• Wesley says:
  January 21st, 2009 at 1:45 pm   

  I am sorry sir, but I will have to disagree with you. I absolutely love The Cheesecake Factory, and, as for portion size, that is what take home boxes are for. Sure, it does not look like a factory, but their cheesecakes comes from a Factory, so I think the name fits. I like local places too, but I wholeheartedly would welcome a chain restaurant.

• Wesley says:
  January 21st, 2009 at 1:45 pm   

  Oh and I had the Bam Bam Chicken and Shrimp, and it was awesome

• Carolyn says:
  January 28th, 2009 at 3:19 pm   

  I could not wait for this restaurant to open, but when I came inside I turned on my hills and left. The noise was intense, and the clanking dishes
  yiks!

• David W says:
  February 3rd, 2009 at 12:20 pm   

  It seems these days that anyone who can say “its a chain, so its no good” can set up a blog and pass their social bigotry under the guise of faux sophistication.

  Last time I checked, the good folks at Cheesecake Factory are local residents. They deserve more constructive treatment than to have their efforts disparaged merely because they work for a chain. Its time we stop this nonsense. Chains also employ quality control to ensure that the dish I buy on Monday is just as good when my friend buys it (based on my recommendation) on a Friday. Chains are not inherently evil, and its time we stop propagating the nonsense that implies they are.

  As for portion sizes, who cares? Cheesecake Factory, like most “local” places, offer to-go boxes. We have enough social nannies in our world right now that we don’t need still more telling us how much we should eat, or when we should eat. I’m delighted at the value I receive when a portion is large enough for me to divide into a lunch meal at work the next day, effectively halving my cost per meal.

  I love having the “insane confusion” of such a diverse menu. My family of four includes four radically different tastes, and its hard at a “we do just one thing” shop to get four smiling faces when looking at a menu. Not so at Cheesecake Factory; they have a delightful variety that makes it eminently successful for my family.

  I love the pleasant, upscale atmosphere at the OKC Cheesecake Factory. Yes, I wish they’d not advertise within their menu, but that’s a small complaint in light of an special, delightful once-in-a-while treat for myself and my family. That someone can translate diverse offerings, generous portions, consistency, and quality into something to “hate” is more an indictment of the author than the restaurant itself.

• Anon Reader Dude says:
  February 16th, 2009 at 8:26 pm   

  OKC’s Cheesecake Factory is a complicated subject, as this contentious comments thread suggests.

  In a way, the place is a crucial benchmark. People can go to CF and get a reliably OK-to-pretty-good rendition of almost any common restaurant dish, in a pleasant (though not thrilling) atmosphere with solid wine/liquor service.

  In effect, every independent restaurant in town needs to ask itself: “Do we do each of our dishes BETTER than at an upscale chain like CF?” Otherwise, why go there? The good local restaurants in OKC can easily answer yes to this question. Cheesecake Factory is no threat to them. The mediocre ones can’t.

  Two other things about CF: (1) They routinely serve full menu w/ bar service until 11:00 p.m. or later. That’s nothing to scoff at. I wish more places in OKC would do the same. I often work late. If you emerge from the office at 9:50 p.m. on a Tuesday and want a halfway nice restaurant meal with wine, you’re gonna have a hard time avoiding CF! Like it or not, that’s the restaurant culture in this town (for now).

  (2) The cheesecake is legitimately very good.

• AJ says:
  March 4th, 2009 at 12:05 pm   

  I have to agree on this one. The Cheesecake Factory is absolutely disgusting when you take a step back and look at what you’re eating. You have an instant feeling of regret the moment you take the first bite, or at least I do. Once I got the buffalo chicken weird friend things and there was a table of older ladies next to me. Literally 3 of them came over and asked how my fried chicken was, because it looked amazing. They were very disappointed to find out that it was just fried globs of buffalo chicken mush. I got a sort of chicken piccata dish once, and it came with FOUR chicken breasts. FOUR. Obviously, I had plenty of leftovers, and I am totally against the rubbery results of microwave re-heating, so I put it in the oven, where it took on a whole new level of gross. it just sat there in a pool of grease, not tasting or feeling like chicken anymore. I hate this place with a passion. But I guess I still love the banana cheesecake!

• Trina says:
  March 14th, 2009 at 12:28 pm   

  Tim,
  I agree with you that the menu offers an overwhelming amount of selections and, as others have posted here, the level of noise can be quite annoying on an evening during the weekend. But the noise is only unnerving when you don’t have the privilege of being seated in a booth. I also hate being seated right next to another party in those horrid open tables in the middle of the restaurant. Restaurant owners take note: We, your customers, want our own booth or some sort of partition so that we can ENJOY the conversation and a semi-private dining experience with our family!

  Despite my rant against some of their seating arrangements, CF undeniably serves the best cheesecake I have ever tasted in a restaurant!
  While I don’t have fancy qualifications, my mom is a masterful cook. She also has corporate experience to back up her 33 plus years of cooking delicious meals for our family in that, she worked making desserts at a very posh retirement complex near Tulsa. We both love several of the cheesecakes we’ve tried at CF and their Lemon Raspberry Cream Cheesecake is a particular favorite of ours.

  The only time I’ve been truly disappointed with an entree there is when I ordered a pasta that was touted as a New Orleans style “spicy” dish, which I found to be extremely bland. But our waiter happily replaced it with another pasta selection from the menu at my request.

  I would highly recommend the Stuffed Chicken Tortillas and the Factory Burrito Grande. The Baja Chicken Tacos are great, as well. Each of these dishes are fresh and flavorful. My husband appreciates CF because he can have a fabulous burger, such as the Tons Of Fun Burger and he also loves the Spicy Crispy Chicken Sandwich, which he orders with the Spicy Buffalo Sauce. CF is one of the only places I can think of where I can eat deliciously complex Mexican food and he can enjoy American fare done just the way he likes it! In addition, my mother and sister have both have recommended the Orange Chicken to friends.

  An important note about Cheesecake Factory’s cleanliness: we have a close friend who inspects restaurants to insure their compliance with fire code and he makes a point of telling us that EVERY time he visits CF that the kitchen is absolutely spotless and is the cleanest he has EVER inspected of all the restaurants in the OKC area. The chefs at CF run a very tight ship, according to our friend.

  Hopefully this post helps those who don’t know what to order at CF who will actually give it a chance and go in there with an open mind. A restaurant should not be condemned only because it is a chain, unless the food is bland and boring! If you don’t know what to order, you can always ask your waiter and explain what you like and follow his or her suggestions. All of the waiters who have served us at CF are very knowledgeable about the menu.

  One point of contention I would argue with you, Tim, is that you did not criticize any dish in particular. Have you eaten at CF more than once? Most of your arguments have nothing at all to do with the food itself. And the food is most important factor in determining whether a new customer will return again and again to a restaurant! I, like you, have rejected other restaurants solely based on atmosphere and lack of privacy and the dreaded problem of too many tables smashed together, but I have returned again, after some time had passed, and decided to give them another shot, IF their food was delicious.

  If you have only eaten at CF once, I believe you have missed out on some of the dishes which are so tasty that they keep me and my family and friends coming back for more! May I suggest trying the take out menu, because the staff has always worked with me to get my order exactly as I requested.

• Tim says:
  March 18th, 2009 at 7:26 pm   

  @Trina, thanks for the thoughtful comment and reply. You are right, I don’t criticize any of the dishes at CF in particular. In fact, I even compliment the cheesecake. As I say in my review above, I’m not saying that the food is bad. That’s not the point of my review. Nor am I saying that all chains are bad or that just being a chain necessarily makes a restaurant bad. My article outlines five points and I stand by them as representative of my opinion. I’m glad you shared your opinion and that others have felt the freedom to share theirs.

  The diversity of opinions is what makes this site great! Keep it coming.

• JuJu Beans says:
  April 20th, 2009 at 11:19 pm   

  Food is the same as any other chain restaurant meaning it’s sometimes good and sometimes really bad, but I have to admit that I love their new wild blueberry white chocolate truffle cheesecake. Having had the real NY cheesecake at Carnegie Deli and Junior’s in NYC texture wise, I’ll say it’s not the best cheesecake I have ever had, (Carnegie Deli’s is the best ever!) but if you think of their cheesecakes as really good piece of cake or dessert then, it’s fantastic, haha!

• FeedSomeone says:
  May 5th, 2009 at 5:55 pm   

  I’ve been to CF several times to celebrate one life event or another with friends and absolutely agree, Tim. Just from the comments on this site alone, it seems to me that maybe The Cheesecake Factory should do just (and ONLY just) what their name suggests and produce cheesecakes! It seems like by and large that is the best and most commonly agreed upon part of their restaurant and they could honestly do a better job if they focused on the part they profess and their customers love. I think a lot of businesses (and organizations and people), not only restaurants, suffer from not knowing what they want to be. They try to be the Wal-Mart of their industry and fail miserably. If you are GREAT at making cheesecakes, then that’s what you should do; do it passionately, wholeheartedly and excellently every time.

• Maddie says:
  May 18th, 2009 at 1:45 am   

  My daughter’s boyfriend works at a cheesecake factory restaurant in Georgia. He sometimes bring back food (of course paid for) and he can not get any of us to eat it. It so far has been awful. I’ve always wondered why the owners named it Cheesecake Factory. I worked in a Factory. To me it is not a fitting name for Cheesecake. Cheese cake is such a beautiful food. It should have had a softer name. Anyway Cracker Barrel has only one way in and one way out and that is through the gift shop. So they have one up on the Cheesecake Factory. They bug you to buy in the shop and the dinning room is uncomfortable. The people working there are not treated that well. You are made to feel like you are sinning if you take a lunch break or just a break after being on your feet all day. Red Lobster has never served me hot food. The commercial shows the food bubbleling hot on the plate when they serve it. Mine is luke warm and looks like it has been sitting uder a lamp and waiting on me to show up. That is some of my take on chain restaurants.

• Maddie says:
  May 18th, 2009 at 2:06 am   

  Oh by the way I want to add that Friday’s menue use to be a rare find. Now they are no better than any other chain restaurant. Golden Corral has traffic jams. The servers has to walk back and forth through every bit of that traffic just to do their work. While you are in line to get food there is a door that the servers use to go in and out of which shows all the garbage that has been cleared from tables,yuk!

• CJ says:
  May 22nd, 2009 at 6:34 pm   

  I too prefer local, and sometimes “shady” restaurants – but sometimes a chain is good. Not in this case,however. The noise level is disturbing and the menu is overwhelming. It’s a good thing the portions are huge, because for that price I expect to eat way more than one meal!
  The cheesecake is good, but there is not a cheesecake deserving of that price, unless it were served in a much, much, much different atmosphere (for example in the dining room of Bruce Springsteen’s house) Did I mention how disturbing the noise was? I would never pay to be that uncomfortable again, and I will never let anyone else pay for me to be that uncomfortable again.

• BENOKC says:
  July 15th, 2010 at 2:05 pm   

  WELL WELL WELL Never have I heard so much crying about how loud places get when there busy.I have worked in foodservice for 28yrs and I can tell you there is no place thats NO place that doesnt get really loud when their very busy.You think CF-GC-RL are loud when they are busy??? Try eating at a yachtclub countryclub or gulfclub when they have 600 to 700 people in their dinning room for one of their events.So heres a hint. If you dont like loud places when you eating go between lumch time and dinner when its slow.Better yet stay home and make your own food.As for the lady saying her food was lukewarm at RL maybe if you stoped talking and ate your food it wouldnt have been lukewarm.

• Monica Ricci says:
  July 19th, 2010 at 7:30 am   

  Dude, I’M WITH YA!! On all counts! I’m not saying their food isn’t okay — I’m a Foodie, so I avoid most chains when possible even if the food IS okay.

  But I will NOT go to the Cheesecake Factory and in fact, I use them as an example in my speaking engagements when I’m talking about clarity. As in, “they have none.” And they pass that along to their customers in the form of a ginormous menu that paralyzes anyone who looks at it.

  Less is definitely more in my book.

• Anonymous says:
  July 25th, 2010 at 8:58 pm   

  As a server at a Cheesecake Factory in SoCAL, I seriously cannot stand the place. Everything you said is so true. I will tell you this — management cares about the apathetic gaudy vibe. They really don’t care if you tell them the food sucks, they simply won’t believe you and everything is brought to blame on the servers — even if it’s a kitchen error. Cheesecake Factory is a clear example of how horrible Corporate America is. It’s no wonder why it’s labeled that way because corporATE America.

• Shane says:
  July 28th, 2010 at 9:02 pm   

  I like their pumpkin cheesecake for the holiday. As far the problems with America’s obesity the people like to enjoy to much of a good thing and not exercise. I also agree that their portion sizes are ridiculously large and that defenitely does not help with the obesity epidemic. In fact, in 1996 no state had an adult obesity rate equal to or greater than 20%. Today every state does except for Colorado. Eight states now have obesity rates higher than 30%.