As much as I hate to say it, the food is good. They have a fully staffed kitchen at every restaurant and cook quite a bit on-site it appears. Their menu which is notorious for being huge also appears smartly designed with many dishes sharing ingredients and technique.
Their burger is actually really good.
My gripe is the portion sizes are just too big. So much waste. I wish I could order half portions at 3/4 the cost.
Why do you hate to say it? I'll admit, I loved Cheesecake Factory as a kid, but then as an adult I feel bad to say I was afflicted by a bit of the "anti-Cheesecake Factory snobbery": it was too kitschy, too "chain theme restaurant", too "American excess" with its giant portions and million menu items. I hadn't been in years (there is also not one close to where I live).
I then went recently as part of a family get together, and it was just plain great. My meal was really, really good: well seasoned, not overly salted/cheesy/creamy but still delicious, the veggies were crisp and fresh. Service was fantastic and prices were great.
In terms of the portion sizes, go for their "skinny" or whatever they call it menu. I had a shrimp pasta dish - it didn't taste like it was "light" or "diet" at all, but primarily the portion size was just much more reasonable. If you do get one of their giant dishes, lots of them, especially their Italian dishes, make for great leftovers.
I think you answer your own question with this bit:
> I'll admit, I loved Cheesecake Factory as a kid, but then as an adult I feel bad to say I was afflicted by a bit of the "anti-Cheesecake Factory snobbery": it was too kitschy, too "chain theme restaurant", too "American excess" with its giant portions and million menu items. I hadn't been in years (there is also not one close to where I live).
A lot of my friends and coworkers have the same view. If it is a chain, it is most likely bad (which is a statement that has a decent chance of being correct) but then extends to "and people who like to eat at chains are bad eaters."
My experience with The Cheesecake Factory is like yours:
> I then went recently as part of a family get together, and it was just plain great. My meal was really, really good: well seasoned, not overly salted/cheesy/creamy but still delicious, the veggies were crisp and fresh.
It's really good food. My wife and I eat there a couple of times a month for "fancy dinner". I feel like so many independently owned restaurants go overboard in either their "conceit", trying to find a way to stand out that winds up being over the top and puffery, or they are aiming for an experimental/possibly-outlandish food menu that winds up falling flat. So many of these places feel like "celebrity chef wannabe outlet that sells a ton of alcohol to make up the profits."
Meanwhile, The Cheesecake Factory merely...exists. Doing its thing, pretty well, with enough variety that it doesn't get boring.
I agree with what you say but I try to not make value judgements about people based on what or where they eat.
One time back in the day I was dating a girl and she somehow got gift certificates to eat at a place called “Golden Corral” which is a buffet. It was not the kind of place I’d considered eating at.
We get in and are sort of shocked at the place - you go through a literal corral after paying and they give you a massive cup for soda. There’s food everywhere and the place is anarchy. But the food was, to my taste, terrible and made from cheap, processed ingredients (too much salt, sugar in everything, fats were cheap oils, select grade meat, etc) and just bad. And the people there seemed to love it. So we had a laugh about the place and food and people that ate there.
But it occurred to me that those people worked hard to afford to take their families there and it was special to them. So better not to judge them and just be grateful that there’s places for different tastes, cultures, and budgets. To them, they were eating like kings.
I think it's actually the opposite, ignorance is why people go to chains. They eat their steak well done because they've never had a good steak. Most chains like Applebees are using a lot of Chef Mike (the microwave).
It -is- snobbery, but the reverse of what you are thinking.
Someone who grew up only knowing about Velveeta, and never experiencing a French fromagerie might think, "Hey, I like this but it seems there's more to the world than Velveeta, I wonder what those thousands of other cheese are like." But instead of curiosity, many turn into this insane Trumpy parody like "Velveeta is the greatest cheese god and america ever created and all other cheese is evil commie propaganda!" bullshit. Its like they have to build their identity on the virtue of being proudly ignorant snobs and then accuse people that call them on it for being educated snobs.
No skin off my back, but try to consider the breadth of what is going on here.
A lot of chains can do better than Cheesecake Factory though. Back in Beijing there was a chain called Element Fresh that offered mostly western fusion, portion sizes were much smaller, the food was more tasteful.
Denny's is a surprisingly high variance experience in the US. Some regions are great, some are terrible. There are heuristics for finding a good one but I haven't eaten there in ages in any case.
I've only eaten there once or twice, I think they expanded to my area too late. One chain that stands out for huge portions was called Claimjumper. Looks like it's still around.
Claim Jumper is barely around, they have closed many locations in the past decade and Landry's sold the entire chain to a group of franchisees, if I remember correctly.
CJ was quite good back in the day but I have not been to one in years -- in my opinion, quality declined a bunch and doesn't match up with their prices. Cheesecake Factory, on the other hand, has maintained high quality, tasty food in generous portions (in my opinion).
Or you know, just eat half and take the other half home and eat it later. Of course, re-heating doesn't work as well with some dishes. I've found there are some places that would be too expensive for me and the only reason I eat there it because I can amortize the cost over 2 meals due to their larger portions; particularly if the food is re-heatable without a large degradation in quality. Think curries or other foods with lots of moisture.
I do when possible but I don’t always want to eat the leftovers again. But often we’ll be out and it’s just sitting in a container in the car and becoming increasingly unsafe to eat.
We used to like to get a few of the small plates and share, kind of like tapas from an alternate universe. Some of them are really excellent. They rotate those a lot though and last time we went we didn't find much on that page that really lit a fire. But if you do it's really a nice time, order a drink, share some plates, marvel at the Stargate architecture.
A lot of the time in general, depending on the restaurant, a couple apps or small plates are perfect for me these days. Less filler while getting some variety especially if I’m eating by myself.
My partner and I don’t go often, but when we do we order one main and a slice of cheesecake. Maybe a smaller appetizer if we’re particularly hungry. It’s a ton of food but it’s a good amount for two.
A lot of things don’t heat up well or you’re traveling and aren’t in a position to take leftovers home. It’s not even a uniquely US thing. I’ll often get an appetizer or two rather than a main.
When we go to the CCF we plan on having it for lunch/dinner the next day.
The portions are so large that if we plan on getting a cheesecake we order it so it comes after the meal. We actually don't like the cheesecakes so much; I like a thicker/heavier or a fluffier cheesecake, and the CCF cheesecakes are kind of right in the middle.
Agree on the portion sizes. The only time I've been we were next to a table of a college football team or something - like 20 huge guys, and I don't think many of them finished their portions (none of us did, we didn't even want cheesecake afterwards!)
Maybe not the right phrase but before having kids it wasn’t a place we’d go. Nothing against it, just went to other types of restaurants for a different type of experience.
But after kids your lifestyle changes (fancy restaurants at 8:30pm fade away) and you do different things, often based on their nap routine. So cheesecake was a place we tried since it’s super family friendly and near places we shop at. And it was surprisingly good.
We tried other chains and some were ok but many were not worth it imo. Cheesecake was the best overall in our assessment.
> Cheesecake was the best overall in our assessment.
Lol, yes, exactly, that's the consensus opinion (not "surprisingly," except among food snobs), and it's why the place is packed every night while many of its competitors have gone out of business. Sorry it took you so long to realize it.
Their burger is actually really good.
My gripe is the portion sizes are just too big. So much waste. I wish I could order half portions at 3/4 the cost.