Cheesecake Factory Reviews

Pros

It is a busy, busy restaurant, so you can make a lot of tips. Side-work is comparably very easy and doesn't take long at the end of the night. Scheduling is flexible and requests off are usually honored (although, they might punish you for requesting a weekend off by not scheduling you at all the whole week... it has happened.)

Cons

First of all, in Buffalo, the Canadians never stop coming. They tip 10%. Always. Second, the managers can be insensitive, spiteful jerks. The overall staff attitude is negative. The Cheesecake Factory expects a lot out of you, there are a million things you must do for every guest, it's requirement after requirement, but you won't get much in return. They really know how to make you feel bad for small mistakes and trivial things, most that aren't even your fault to begin with. It's perfectly fine to hold your employees up to a certain standard, but I feel like Cheesecake takes it too far sometimes. If it weren't for making such good money (for I am actually good at this job), I would be long gone.

Advice to Senior Management

Get it together, communicate with each other, treat your employees like people (we're an important part of a functioning restaurant, after all). Quit making it so obvious who your favorites are, and even worse, who you don't care about. Stop taking yourselves so seriously. Cheesecake factory is a restaurant. You're not saving lives or touching hearts. You're over-charging for mediocre food and the facade of a classy, high-end dining experience. Oh, and one more thing, why white?!? Do you know how hard it is to find white (shirts/pants/shoes)? And how expensive they are? And how dirty they get?!?!!! I think I speak for every cheesecake factory employee when I say that I would prefer all black.

Pros

You get to eat free food in the training. If you are a seasoned server, there is great earning potential with the "turn and burn" method. It is almost always busy.

Cons

Guests are mostly tourists and tip less than 10%, they are also rude. Management makes you feel horrible about making small mistakes. Management likes to disappear into the office at the end of a shift. The service staff doesn't work as a team. Bussers ignore stations when servers don't give them extra tips. Kitchen will presell 80% of the tickets making food runners and servers wait for the food. The glassware, plates and silverware are excessively dirty all of the time. The floors are very slippery even with sfc. The management doesn't intervene when employees are being rude to eachother. They do not allow you to take even a 15 minute break when working a double shift. Praise is only given to good shop reports and kitchen employees. The management plays favorites and the employees are afraid to speak up in fear of losing their jobs.

Advice to Senior Management

Be more open to the employees. Give more praise for doing the right thing. When coaching and developing, it is important to give good feedback as well as bad!

Pros

On a good night, you get a lot of tips. It has a very classy, casual atmosphere. It's not like working at a Red Lobster or anything, the whole vibe of the restaurant is a little high class. Therefore the sales are high, and so are the tips.

Cons

Sometimes it gets too busy, but there's always different things to do.

Advice to Senior Management

Notice when the dish department is slacking, because when they do, it affects everybody.

Pros

free food for a week

Cons

the management is so rude. I have never been treated so poorly by a trainer. I will never even eat there again.

Advice to Senior Management

Find a trainer who know how to talk to others in a respectful way.

Pros

Easy to get time off since there is so much staff, it's easy to pick up and drop shifts as you like.
A beautiful view if you work on the terrace outside, which is a luxury because most restaurant jobs don't have options to be outdoors let alone with nice views. Good tips and international cliental, relatively fair management depending on who is on deck.

Cons

Very cliquey, with over 100 servers it starts to become a bit like high school and it tends to get a bit incestuous with all the staff members. Many other servers had attitude and often seemed to hate their job, this type of environment rubs off even if I didn't initially dislike it. Uniform is ridiculous and annoying.

Advice to Senior Management

Get employee feedback more often and make the break room more welcoming, encourage the staff to become closer as a team.

Pros

They have a really good training program, the food's really good, and the schedule is pretty flexible. If you work hard and don't rub anyone the wrong way, the managers pretty much let you do your thing.

Cons

Some of the managers can be real a-holes on power trips. They're supposed to be the rock when things go down, but a lot of them panic more than you do.

Advice to Senior Management

Calm down, be fair, have fun. It's okay to say you don't know the answer once in a while, instead of acting like you do and giving out wrong information.

Pros

Easy money , flexible days to work , free food !

Cons

Fellow employees complain a lot , and are a bit lazy ! I feel all states should pay min wage at the min , I don't agree with the 2.13 an hour in some states ! Company makes servers try to push cheesecake on guests . I feel if people want cheesecake they know we have it !

Advice to Senior Management

Trust in your employees more to do the job before flying off at the handle , if people want desert they will order it !

Pros

Extremely high volume and high paced environment. We do alot of things well, and are always pushing the envelope to outdo our own accomplishments.

Cons

Long hours due to the high volume...tons of knowledge that is imperative you stay up-to-date on. or you will fall behind.

Advice to Senior Management

Never forget those that run this multi billion dollar company on a shift by shift basis. We see and talk with the guests everyday, and usually know how to handle issues that may arise form time to time.

Pros

you get to eat a lot of cheesecake and get to interact with a lot of different people at work.

Cons

working at cheesecake factory is okay but you have to deal with stuck up people all day that are sometimes rude.

Advice to Senior Management

the cheesecake factory would be a better place to work if the management team were more experienced and higher caliber

Pros

the money is amazing on the weekends
they have food runners to help you
they have server assistants to help you

Cons

you are always busy,no time for a break
the white, you will have to wash clothes daily
it is hard to get your shift covered unless you offer money

Advice to Senior Management

try to not give so many run shifts or bar shifts to one person they = no money.... everyone deserve a fair chance to make money