| rev:text
| - I've been to more than one Cheesecake Factory over the years. I've always thought of this chain as being heavy on hype, but short on delivering the goods.
It has been a few years since my last encounter though, and naturally I was interested when they opened up at West Towne. So I paid a visit today with the family, quietly hoping for a more memorable experience than I had in the past.
The restaurant presents itself well. I like the curvy aisles and the booth-heavy seating. Let's face it, everyone wants a booth, and nobody wants to feel like they are being placed on a grid. The use of low light and warm color tones makes for a comfy environment. Unfortunately the place is a madhouse right now, but I can see it rounding into form after the opening rush quiets down.
Once I started leafing through the menu, my memory of past visits started to return. The thing is huge. Pages of small plates, appetizers, pizzas, sandwiches, every kind of specialty you can imagine. Asian inspired dishes. South Western inspired. Italian inspired. Just a flood of choices. Where's the cheesecake? Oh, it's there. Lost somewhere among all the other stuff.
It's meant to be impressive, this overwhelming barrage of choices. And, sure, it is. But it's also hard to pick one thing from a list of...everything. I felt like I might get lost and forget what looked good 3 pages back.
Now for the specifics. I ordered the Cuban sandwich with a bowl of mushroom cream soup instead of fries. Naturally it came with fries, but no big deal. Our waitress quickly brought the soup and left the fries too. The sandwich was long on bread and short on the rest. Oh, it wasn't terrible. Just average. I would have preferred more "Cuban" and less "sandwich" though. I didn't care for the soup, and found myself munching on the fries instead.
My wife ordered angel hair pasta with shrimp. It was a little dry so she asked for more sauce. Again, not bad but definitely not good, either. Her martini didn't fill the glass, although she reported that it tasted fine.
We had crab dip as an appetizer and enjoyed it. I'd say that was the highlight of our meal.
Even more impressive than the huge menu would be if they delivered it all with quality. But the reality is, they fall a little short. They have 100 choices or more, but nothing really stands out. There's no focus, and that drags everything down. Even worse, the restaurant is famous for its cheesecake. And it is probably the best thing you can get, but it's buried under the weight of all the other mediocre food.
To wrap this up, I'd like to recommend The Cheesecake Factory but I can't quite get there. It's always looked fantastic from the outside, but once you get inside the reality doesn't match the aesthetic.
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