The Cheesecake Factory

The Cheesecake Factory
2 W Colorado Blvd
Pasadena, CA 91105

I do not "get" The Cheesecake Factory. I admit I am not crazy about cheesecake (or any dessert, really, except homemade ice cream and sour gummy cola bottles) so maybe my opinion on the place shouldn't count, but I have never understood why people wait in long lines to eat food that, to me, tastes like the stuff you get at Denny's for much lower prices. It is not bad food; it just isn't particularly good food, and certainly not anything worth waiting for. (Years ago my friends and I would make a point of walking by the Old Pasadena location on a Friday night, observing the more than two-hour wait, then walking down to a half-empty Kualu Lumpur and eating a Malaysian meal as good as any you will find in America.)

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I have a friend, however, who really likes Cheesecake Factory, and I would gladly eat there to hang out with her. The last time I went there I decided to try the pulled pork sandwich. I know ordering something like that at a restaurant like Cheesecake Factory and expecting great barbecue, or even real barbecue, is naive. But after eating a great pulled pork sandwich at T.G.I. Friday's, nothing would surprise me.

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Still, nothing prepared me for the sandwich I got. I can't say it was bad barbecue, because it was not even close to barbecue. It was pork that had been shreedded by machine, overcooked with a sweet barbecue sauce, and served on a stale bun.

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I am sure I will eat at Cheesecake Factory again one day, but I will go back to eating their average pizza or boneless buffalo wings.