Today we dined here at the cheesecake factory in Pasadena. The reason we came to this location was because we were celebrating my sister and my son's birthday and it was a middle point for family and friends to meet. This is my first time at this location we have always had very good success, and very good food at other cheesecake factories, we visited.
This location is a different story.

The only reason it is getting 1 star is because the waitress was very nice and the cheesecake was good. I don't know if the horrible service we received was any part her fault, was it the kitchen, was it the management?

First thing we arrived at 2:30 for a 2:30 reservation, they waited to seat our party for the arrival of everyone which is normal, we were seated at 3 o'clock. All of our party had arrived by 2:45, but they did not have our table ready.
We begin ordering appetizers and drinks at 3:05 pm Our first appetizer came out 45 minutes later, the first sign that there was going to be an issue,
We began ordering our food while we were waiting on our appetitzers which did not come out until an hour later. The kitchen was extremely slow in getting our food out. The appetizers were horrid it was if they had been reheated. We had the eggroll platters. None of them were good. The entrées came and the appearance of most of the food was the second sign that this was not going to be good.

My sister-in-law sent two of her sides back. I did not even order a meal. I ordered a beet salad and the yogurt dressing tasted like mayonnaise so I refused to order anything more.
My mom had the jambalaya, she said it was spicy, not seasoned and gummy.
The black pepper chicken that my son had was probably the best entrée on the entire table. The gratuity was included as normal 18% which was $98 which I refuse to pay all of it. I did want the waitress to get her portion because she was kind and she brought the food as it was ready (I imagine) the overall service, the wait time the food items were way below average!

We don't plan on returning to the Pasadena location or recommending it to anyone again.
Over $ 600 + five hours of our time for horrible service and bad food, I could not just chalk it up to a bad day.

One last thing as mentioned it was a birthday celebration and I did not even let the waitress know because we were tired. My mom who is 94 years old was ready to go and my aunt who is 89 was also ready.
It is my hope, that your service and food improve at some point. I wish success to everyone who works to achieve and sustain it.
Cheesecake factory, you are better than this.

Note: The key lime cheesecake was the good in all of this

I am extremely dissatisfied with the service at this establishment. I brought my 77 year-old mother here for dinner at the Redondo Beach location 8/1/2022 at approximately 6:30pm. The only plus is that we were seated right away, however, we watched others around us, who were seated after us, receive their main entrees first. Given there was a couple behind us who appeared to have some friends in the kitchen received preferential treatment; that was not what upset me. What really made my blood boil was that there were larger parties seated after us who received their entrees before us. I ordered a beet and avocado salad, while my mother ordered the Chicken Riesling-two very uncomplicated dishes to make. There was a family of three, across from us,. Who received their order before us, and were seated after us. Another couple behind me came over 20 minutes after us and received their main order before us. My mother was very upset, as she has to eat at a certain time due to her disability, so she approached a waiter and told them what was happening. He referred us to a manager, a rotund and frumpish middle-aged woman by the name of Karina. She was very rude and unapologetic about the matter. I told them the optics of this event appeared to look very racist, as we were the only Black people seated in that area. This apparently was of no concern to them. She practically shrugged us off and waved us away. I stood there in astonishment as she hobbled away toward the kitchen with not even the slightest attempt at an apology. I left with my mother in a furious mood as I realized that I had to pay for valet. I returned inside and beckoned for the homely manager and asked to have my valet covered. She quipped, "Valet is covered by the city, not us!" I am not certain if that is entirely true, as the signage on their stand clearly says, "The Cheesecake Factory Valet"! After doing some further research on the Better Business Bureau website, I have learned that this establishment has issues with discrimination. They apparently don't like Black people, people in the LGBTQ community, and people who are disabled. That is just the tip of the iceberg because I am still combing through the many complaints on the BBB website where I am finding these sort of complaints. The kicker here is the BBB actually doesn't handle discrimination complaints, that's for the Attorney General, but people have felt compelled to still leave these complaints. So, to say the least, there are probably many more discrimination complaints out there, and guess what? There will definitely be another!

https://www.bbb.org/us/ca/calabasas-hills/profile/restaurants/the-cheesecake-factory-incorporated-**************/complaints

On Sunday February 20th at approximately 10:30 am I called the Cheesecake Factory in Durham to see if I needed a reservation for a party of 20 to celebrate my husband and son-in-laws birthday. I spoke with Scott the manager that was on call and he told me that I couldn't make a reservation for that many people we had to just walk in and I advised him that I wanted them to be aware because we were coming over from the AMC theater which was right across the courtyard from them. We wanted to be able to be seated because my Husband and Son in law were looking forward to eating there because they like
Specific items on the menu. He didn't once offer me any advice on how to make it a easy transition to getting seating arrangements made. So when we left the theater and came over to the restaurant which he told me that around the time that we were coming over is usually very accommodating so I advise him in a joking way okay if you see a lot of black people coming your way don't be alarmed we are just trying to eat and have some fun which we have done there plenty of times in the past for birthday celebrations before Covid-19. So after we all left the theater we went over and the young lady that was working the desk told us it was a two hour wait list and that if I knew that I had a party that size that I should have come over and scheduled a time on the waiting list to be seated and they could have accommodated us that way. I informed her that I didn't know that was an option and that I called at spoke with Scott that morning and he didn't offer any type of suggestions like that or I would have done it so that they could enjoy there birthdays. Instead my son and I had to walk around the courtyard to see if we could get into a restaurant to eat and put our party plan together. We ended up at Uncle Julio's which were very nice and accommodating and the food was terrific. Scott wouldn't even come out of the office to talk to me and my husband to even try and work something out. Another lady Manager there which I was too upset at that time to get her name just kept telling me that there was nothing they could do. It was heart breaking because I wanted to eat there myself and enjoy my family and friends but it didn't happen. I would like for your customer service to be better and more accommodating and help offer solutions instead of nothing at all.

On 9/6/2021 at approximately 9:59pm, I entered the Cheesecake Factory located at 3333 Buford Drive Buford, Ga ******* *******710. Upon entering I approached the cheesecake ordering register. After waiting a period of time, I was finally acknowledged by the person that was behind the register area and asked if I needed help? I stated that I was just here to order a piece of cheesecake. She nonchalantly stated that the restaurant was closed. I was perplexed because the sign on the window said that the store hours for the restaurant were 11am-11pm Mon-Thurs, with today being a Tuesday evening. I explained to her that the hours on the door outside stated that the restaurant was opened. She continued to be dismissive and returned to what she was doing. I kind requested to speak with a manager as I assumed that the customer service experience seemed a bit out of place. She shortly returned with Brian, the restaurant's manager. I reiterated to Brian issue concerning the store hours and my experience when ordering at the checkout. He also responded nonchalantly, stating "all of the registers are closed, there is no one to take my order and the restaurant is closed". He went on to say that I should have not been able to get inside because the doors were locked. I was further perplexed because as I told the manager; I walked rights inside and the doors were not locked, based on the sign outside of the door the restaurant appears to still be open and any waiter could easily check me out just as they will need to checkout all of the other customers sitting at their tables. I asked if there could be an exception giving the confusion around the posted operating hours that are on the door of the restaurant outside. Unfortunately, Brain appeared to be rude, dismissive and gave little regard to my experience with the Cheesecake Factory.

This is problematic for me mostly because I and my have been a long standing customer and have patronized the establishment many times for many years. I have also supported the Cheesecake Factory almost entirely throughout the course of the initial outbreak of the pandemic. I have been more than understanding during times that I received the wrong order, cold food or waited extended wait periods to receive my order. I did not file one complaint. I did not give the staff a hard time. I would have expected that same courteousness and respect to be extended to me in return. I am so disappointed and sadden by the way I was treated this evening by the staff and management.