the cheesecake factory at southcenter mall

chain restaurant with amenubig enough requiring a thirty minute wait to review before you can order. the many times i've been here i've had descent food and a great martini with blue cheese olives. the cheesecakes i've tried in the past were good. tonight, i had their tataki salad which was descent.

incredible cheesecakes and other food!. my wife and i have been trying to eat at a cheesecake factory for a while now, but everytime we've been in seattle or portland area during our occasional jaunts across the border (we're from canada), the line-ups have been too long to bother (we'd end up starving in the process, kinda defeating the purpose). we finally made it to a table at this location as our meal timing was off this trip while driving to seatac, so managed to hit the place before the main dinner hour, at around 330 pm on saturday and got a table within 5 min.

at first i was not impressed with themenuofferings. despite having an extensive selection, i tend to eat healthy so only free range or organic meat, of which they offered none. i was almost tempted to leave because the only salmon they served was farmed, which in sushi places, is an indicator that food quality is not a priority as farmed salmon is akin to cat food in terms of human health. in fact, if i had a pet cat, i wouldn't even feed it farmed salmon as it's so bad for you (from my perspective as a biologist that has researched the salmon farming industry).

so we decided to go veggie and give the place a try and we were impressed! the avocado spring rolls were delicious and our server, robert, was very conscientious of my sesame allergy, which i greatly appreciated as it turned out the sauce had sesame oil so he brought a honey-mustard sauce which was great. and the tamale cakes were fantastic! if you like tamales and you're vegetarian, go for these! even if you're not veggie (like my wife), you'll love them! full of flavour! and the kale quinoa salad was very tasty, again, surprising me as i was expecting something bland and small in portion (it was neither!). very tangy flavour to it. my wife also ordered the margherita (mozzarella & basil) pizza which was very good. and then there were the cheesecakes! we had a helluva time deciding which ones to take out (since we were too full to eat anything more), but ended up ordering the chocolate mousse cheesecake (since i'm a chocoholic) and my wife got the lemoncello torte - awesome for breakfast!

would we go back? definitely yes! but if it has outrageous lines (they don't take reservations on weekends or evenings), then just go to the cheesecake counter and order dessert to go!

worth the wait. this is a amazingly busy no reservation restaurant so you will generally have to wait and wait and maybe wait a little more to get seated. once you do get seated you find a catalog of amenuto choose from and i don't think i've ever had something that was not good. the portion sizes are generous and are well presented and the wait staff is attentive and urgent in their service. prices are not cheap but worth the extra over other chains like red robin or the ram.

i love cheesecake - but not when it's packaged like this. the only focus of the cheesecake factory is found in the advertising. with it's wildly dissociative menu, ranging from american burgers, salads, and sandwiches, to it's latin american fare to it's 30 or so different kinds of cheesecake, the factory seems to be trying to appeal to everyone, and thus you end up with a really, really longmenuand no way to decide. the few times that i have been, i've had to ask the server to check back with me 3 or times because i couldn't make up my mind. instead of preparing 7 or 8 things well and perfecting them, they prepare 70 or 80 things, and they are all rather mediocre. lots of salt to cover up the okay quality of the food.

oh, and don't get me started on the advertising in the menu. i believe that their appeal to a broad audience also has the companies who advertise in theirmenuhoping to draw in the masses as well. while i'm trying to decide between a cobb salad, a plate of enchiladas, or a guacamole and bacon sandwich and/or burger, i can also decide on the best chain jewelry store to purchase my next diamond bracelet from. i think this is terrible. i spend almost all day trying my hardest to avoid having my daugther be manipulated by advertising, and a relaxing dinner with my family is the last place i want to have to fight it. i hope that this doesn't become a trend in all of these big chain restaurants, but i'm afraid that the cheesecake factory is onto something.

yum!. they have a large variety of food. i usually get pasta (bistro shrimp pasta is delicious), or steak (which is also good there too). the staff is always very friendly and helpful. they have pretty good clam chowder and an excellent list of cheesecake. a huge drinkmenuand the drinks are pretty strong and very tasty. my only gripe is that you are not able to make reservations and sometimes the wait can be ridiculous, especially if you have a large party.

great service/server. went here after we got dissed at bahama breeze. what a difference it was...the server was great, very helpful with themenuselection...very friendly. and the food was just awesome! coming back for sure...