Cheesecake Factory

Kiwi and I went to the new Cheesecake Factory at Polaris on Saturday. It was around 5.20pm when we got there. Waited for about 10 minutes for a seat.

I ordered the Factory Appetizer Sampler, intending to share it with Kiwi, and no entree for myself. I made the specific request to not to include any/all cilantro in the dishes, because Kiwi was very sensitive to it. Kiwi ordered a chicken dish.

We waited, and waited and waited.

The table next to us (3 girls) got their appetizer plate. Then they got their entrees. Then they had their plates taken away to be boxed up. We were still waiting for our food. I made a comment to Kiwi that if I had to wait 10 more minutes, we'd just walk out.

5 minutes later, the food arrived. I pointed at the shrimp spring rolls and said, "that looks like cilantro." The server said, "Oh no, that's just scallions."

So I picked off a tiny cut up leave, handed it to Kiwi, and asked him to taste it. He put it in his mouth and spit it out immediately. It was cilantro. So the server took most of the appetizers off the table to bring it to the kitchen.

Kiwi was eating his meal, and I was cooling my heels and getting hungrier and crankier. Later the manager came, and said, "I'm going to comp you this dish. Most of it is pre-prepared, and there's no way to take the cilantro out. But I'm going to bring the calamari and other stuff that does not have cilantro for you."

We expressed to her that the sampler was for sharing. That I'd have no problem with cilantro, only Kiwi. And if it was pointed out to him which dishes have the herb, he'd simply leave that alone. But we'd like to have the meal.

So ok, we waited another 10 minutes for the appetizers to come out again. By then I was too hungry, I got nauseous and could not eat much anymore. So we had the server box up all the food after Kiwi was done with his meal.

He brings the boxes to us, plus the bill. It did not look right. We were charged for 1 entree, 2 appetizer samplers and had 1 sampler taken off. Is this the meaning of "we'll comp the appetizers?" I don't think this is the meaning of a complimentary dish.

I don't this so. If you were to take my appetizers from me in the first round, I'd surely expect not to pay for it then. So Kiwi went to speak to the manager about it, and got the other appetizer deducted off the bill. We'd only have to pay for the entree.

We discussed about how much of a tip we'd leave. Kiwi said if he were generous, only 10%. And we are normally generous tippers at full service restaurants. If it's good service, it's about 20%.

I had my wallet out, waiting for the server to take my credit card. Kiwi had already picked up all the bags of food, looking like he was ready to go.

I made a comment to Kiwi to be careful and not spill the sauces. So we open up all the boxes to check. No dipping sauces, no salsa, no guacamole, on sour cream, and worst of all, one of the appetizers were missing - the spinach/artichoke dip with chips.

We expressed this to the server. He said, "Oh, I had someone in the kitchen box this up for me. Let me fix this." He brings another bag of stuff after 5 minutes.

Okay, the sauces are there now. So what of the spinach dip?

By now, the credit card was already swiped. I was too aggravated and Kiwi didn't want to bother the manager anymore. We did not leave a monetary tip. However, we wrote on the back of the slip the reasons why he was not getting a tip.

1.Service too slow, example of table next to us.
2.Cilantro in dish
3.Trying to say cilantro is scallions.
4.No spinach/artichoke dip after 2 tries.


This place left me with a bad taste in my mouth. We went at a reasonable time, before rush hour. No reason to be kept waiting for so long for service/food. And just generally poor server skills/training.