Although I knew about the Cheesecake Factory for over a decade now, I never really had the opportunity rise at the same time as a want to go and eat there. The last time I was in San Francisco, I tried the Macy’s store but remember the ever long queue. I never checked to see if New York had one with so many great eateries and the when I stumbled across the Las Vegas outlet, I had just eaten breakfast and eating was the last thing on my mind.
We came here for dinner and I can tell you the line up hasn’t really changed. Constant streams of people come to put their name down at the reception area. Large families wait. Couples wait. Sometimes an individual comes and heads to the bar where you can watch sports on their giant TVs and probably fight your way for a seat pretty much immediately. We were told it’d be about a thirty minute or forty minute wait, and it was closer to an hour by the time we finally got seated. We got this buzzer where we headed outside (where you could also get seated immediately but had to brave the chilly evening air that I didn’t have the right clothing for).
Fortunately we had enough things to do to occupy our time. We took some pictures from the terrace as the sun went down, stood around people watching and trying to predict how much of a queue we had. Another thing we did was to peruse through the long menu. It’s a good thing we did as well because the menu was almost like a book with so many pages. I have no idea how big their kitchen is to deal with all the food and worried a bit about exactly how good the food was going to be.
They had sections for pizzas, pastas, salads, asian food, mexican food, mixed food, some american diner classics and a “small plates” or “appetiser” section that spanned at least four pages. The dessert offerings had at least two full pages describing all the types of cheesecakes on offer. They brought bread, although I tried to avoid it considering they had a reputation for bringing huge servings of food. The table next to us ordered the burrito almost the size of my head. The gentlemen didn’t finish it though made a good dent on it.
We split a popcorn shrimp as an appetiser. I was drawn in the by thought or rock shrimp, but instead turned out to be an extremely generous serving of medium sized shrimp battered and served with a spicy mayo and tomato sauce. A good starter and worried about the main meals to still come.
My sister ordered the Madeira chicken that I never really tasted though it looked pretty good. I couldn’t fathom exactly how many calories sat inside the humungous scoop of mashed potato that landed on the plate. No need to say she didn’t finish it.
Not sure that I’d make it to any restaurants serving southern fare, I decided to go for the bowl of gumbo. When the steaming bowl I arrived I was very impressed by the size. I immediately shoved the bowl of rice away, choosing to savour the tender chunks of chicken, prawn and sausage dotted throughout the succulently dark gravy. I’m no expert but it was pretty good and had a good enough heat throughout the dish.
Although many other desserts looked enticing, I’m not sure we can visit the Cheesecake Factory without having a cheesecake. I love key lime pie (it’s hard to get in the UK) and so while my sister ate a weird carrot-cake chunk cheesecake, I tucked into a huge slice of pie that I failed to finish. I told the attendant that I didn’t want any whipped cream and asked if I could replace it with ice cream. As you can see from the photo, it failed and he managed to bring both.
Anyway, despite the bustling crazy speed of the restaurant, it was nice to be seated and the food was pretty decent. I’m not sure it’s the sort of food you really want to line up for, but the experience is one you probably won’t forget for a while.
Name: The Cheesecake Factory, San Francisco Outlet
Found at: 251 Geary Street (in the Macy’s building), San Francisco, CA 94102, United States
Website: http://www.thecheesecakefactory.com/