I only went to the Cheesecake factory only once before and it was a pretty good experience. In fact in was over 10 years when I first went. Now that I am going again and this time I am taking my wife and my newborn. I went to the closest one to my house. The restaurant is located in Bella Terra of Huntington Beach near several shopping centers and near a Barnes and Noble. Outside it seemed already big, but when I went inside, it was much bigger and very spacious. The interior was really nice and plenty of room for incoming traffic. The hostess did not greet us when until we came in and asked to be seated. It was really packed even for a weekday/weekend. It was Friday night so I kind of Understand. Even though it was packed, it was a total of 15 minute wait for us.
While we were waiting we took a glance at the menu and saw picture of foods on the hanging TVs. While we were looking over the menu, I guess it was easier to look at picture of the food on the TV. The atmosphere was great. It was really dim lighting, something like to 1980’s style. The style was kind of like a bar almost except it was restaurant. To the right of us was the huge bakery with neon signage behind it. Seemingly hundreds of appetizing cheesecakes lined the cooler. To be honest this place was not as fancy as I thought it was. The layout seemed really crowded and there was absolutely no space for walking. The hostess then took us to the table, but she told us to leave the stroller behind and just carried the baby seat. I was right on, it was too crowded, but still we followed “orders.” The waitress that had seated us was named Hailey, my wife orders a diet coke and I got myself a glass of water. The menu was really tremendous but luckily I saw the pictures of the food prior to seeing the menu. My wife got the “Seared Tuna Tataki Salad” and I got myself Hibachi Steak. There was complimentary bread which was great appetizers and when I asked Hailey for more, she seemed annoyed and came back and dropped it hard on the table. I was not impressed by that attitude.
The Seared Tuna was smaller than it was portrayed in the pictures and the hibachi steak came out less portioned also. There was a total of 6 pieces on each plate. We were a little disappointed. However, the Tuna was good, and it just melts in my mouth. The steak was average. It perfectly cooked, but the thing that was not pleasant was the fact that my meal contained a piece of aluminum. I was surprised because that came from a cleaning utensil. I immediately lost my appetite. I called the waitress Hailey and showed them a piece of metal that was in my meal, she told me she was going to inform her manager. About 10 minutes later, a really nice lady who happens to be the manager herself, Holly, came out and apologized to us. She took back the food away and going to get us a brand new plate of the same order. We waited about 20 minutes for the new food to arrive. I was already full and had lost my appetite, so I decided to get it to-go. We decided to get dessert, and we shared a tiramisu cheesecake. It was really delicious but we couldn’t finish it. We decided to get the check, and surprisingly that my Hibachi Steak was free. So we ended up paying only for the Tuna Salad and Tiramisu cheesecake. We were kind of content and left with a happy face.
