American (New) Restaurants

The Cheesecake Factory is different from other Charlotte restaurants. Love it or hate it you have to respect what they do and how they do it. They did over $12 million in sales in 2010 which put them atop the Charlotte restaurant leaderboard for gross sales.  Wow. The menu is huge and they are famous for their large portions. They literally have every major cuisine on the menu.

Here is the amazing thing, this past Labor Day weekend I took the family to Cheesecake on Sunday at 4 in the afternoon so no problem getting a table, right? Wrong.  I soon learned as we approached the host stand. 30 minute wait. Oh well, we waited. We tried a couple items on the new small plates menu.

The Arugula Salad was such a hit we ordered another one after the first arrived.

The $5 pizza.

Cole went with the chicken, mashed potatoes and broccoli.

Leave it to my wife to go to a restaurant with 500 items on the menu and to order something not on it.Behold the Dynamite Shrimp, which believe it or not are NOT on the giant menu. You have to ask for them. My wife and a Hollywood movie star- two of the same.

I went with the boring Cobb Salad. After seeing my photo on the Vapiano post I decided to start the long-awaited diet. The camera does add 15 pounds, right? Right?

So lets hear it from you. Do you love or hate The Cheesecake Factory?