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