The Cheesecake Factory

The Cheesecake Factory is a chain, mostly in the western United States. It began as a small family owned business in Los Angeles, best known, not surprisingly, for cheesecake. Over time it's expanded to a number of locations. I recently visited one in Sherman Oaks, California. I've been to other Cheesecake factories before, but I generally ordered from the dessert menu. I might as well fess up; my usual practice is to order piece of cheesecake for an entree, followed by a second piece for dessert :D

This time though, we actually had meals on two separate occasions. I began with the Factory Burger; a charbroiled Angus beef burger with cheddar cheese, a slice of tomato and grilled onions on a sourdough baguette, with fries. It was tasty—overpriced, but tasty. That said it's pretty hard to mess up a burger if you start with decent meat and don't over or under cook it. My friend ordered the California Cheesesteak; thinly sliced grilled steak with sauteed mushrooms, onions, peppers and cheese on a toasted sourdough baguette, with fries. Although it's ostensibly a "specialty," the beef was overcooked to the point of being dry. My friend didn't even finish the sandwich.

On a second visit we also tried the Turkey Pastrami Reuben, which came a side of cole slaw. It was generously sized, but the bread was very dry, almost stale, and the meat was, again, overcooked. The Baja Chicken Tacos, three soft corn tortillas filled with spicy chicken, cheese, avocado cream, tomato and cilantro accompanied by sides of black beans, rice and guacamole, were fine. The beans and rice could have used a little seasoning, but overall, the tacos were quite good.

I note that we tried both the generic Ketel One Vodka martini, and the "dirty" version, made with Ketel One vodka and blue cheese stuffed olives. It's a decent martini, but the Cheesecake idea of stuffing the olives with blue cheese? I'm totally up with that. It completely made up for the astonishingly weak I-think-it-was-made-with-ink-wash coffee. We finished with a slice of the Key Lime Cheesecake; key lime filling, that was clearly made with lime juice, and cheese, on a vanilla crumb crust, served with a thin wedge of fresh lime, and thickly whipped cream. It was lovely.

I can very definitely recommend, based on previous exposure, the Godiva® chocolate cheesecake, made of two layers of flourless Godiva chocolate cake, interspersed with Godiva chocolate cheesecake and chocolate mousse. I also am very fond of the Kahlua cocoa coffee cheesecake; a brownie base topped with Kahlua cheesecake, a layer of chocolate mousse and topped with chocolate ganache. I think that if I go back, I'll stick to the martinis and cheesecake. The food wasn't terrible, but it was very much overpriced for rather ordinary fare that really should have been fairly easy to prepare. Honestly, if I hadn't been on a business trip, with limited time, I'd have gone elsewhere.