Analyzing the Cheesecake Factory

Michael Ruhlman recently blogged about his experience at the Cheesecake Factory:

"So, clearly, decent food can be had at more than reasonable prices, but it takes some careful choosing on a menu with more than 200 offerings. The biggest drawback is the mall-like atmosphere, a sense of faux everything that is perhaps inevitable in any large chain. The fact that any of the 146 CFs around the country can put out this astonishing variety of food is an impressive work of corporate organization and efficiency. But I left feeling sad, and not sure why."

It has been several years since I have been in a Cheesecake Factory; my eating tastes actually set me on a trajectory away from chain restaurants, so I tend towards local independents. There was a period in my life where Cheesecake Factory was a regular destination, and that had more to do with the people I was with than with the food.

I think a great part of CF's success has to do with the feel of the restaurant; while I find it somewhat off putting to sit in a restaurant with walls that look like cheesecake, it has the façade of being a fancy restaurant with the waitstaff in formal attire and a lobby which features their desserts in a large refrigerated glass display case. It's an American family restaurant which does everything, making it a common ground choice where there is likely something for everyone.

Cheesecake Factory's "no reservations" policy makes it a possible choice for those who decide on the spur of the moment to go eat out at a restaurant. I once waited for three hours to be seated at a Cheesecake Factory with a group of 14, which gave us ample time to talk and catch up. During this wait, I realized that while I wouldn't mind going to Cheesecake Factory with friends if we just needed convenient sit-down food, it would never be a place that I would take a date to -- the atmosphere of the Cheesecake Factory, and the quality of the food didn't put it in that class; in fact, the Cheesecake Factory seems like the kind of place that my friends and I might have gone to when we were still mallrats in high school; the food had variety, portions were large, and relatively cheap, and with food palettes raised on fast food, Cheesecake Factory would have definitely been a step up. For someone at my age who has eaten has restaurants and had some truly exceptional food, a place like Cheesecake Factory is simply a disappointment; in catering to the masses, their food lacks a certain sense of distinctiveness.

The food selection of Cheesecake Factory is a little reminiscent of being in a mall food court; every kind of cuisine you can find, all coming out of one kitchen. The Cheesecake Factory can be an introduction to the dish, but it's the generic version of the dish; nothing I've ever had at the Cheesecake factory ever felt fresh or authentic, and their food to this day remains mostly unmemorable in taste or presentation. There's a certain sameness in Cheesecake Factories throughout the United States, but where I found the most variance on a location-by-location basis was the fried items; I've had some fried items burnt to near blackness, while others came from a perfect fryer; light, crispy and burning hot. That being said, I suspect most of the food served at Cheesecake Factory is likely pre-packaged, frozen or canned, only to be fried, boiled, baked, grilled or microwaved at the appropriate time for the restaurant patron; the next time you're there, try to ask them to make the Jambalaya without shrimp, and I suspect it can't be done because the dish comes to the restaurant in a frozen plastic bag. What makes me sad is coming to the realization that for the dishes to be so consistent across the nation that the food must all come from a real factory and flown and trucked thousands of miles before it arrives at the Cheesecake Factory kitchen, and ultimately served to a restaurant patron.