Tasting Journal

Another Cheesecake Factory…

Cheesecake Factory
10300 Little Patuxent Parkway
Columbia, MD 21044
Tel: 410.997.9311
http://www.thecheesecakefactory.com

Open Monday through Thursday, 11:00 a.m. – 11:00 p.m.;
Friday & Saturday 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 a.m.;
Sunday Brunch, 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.; Dinner Sunday, 2:00 p.m. -11:00 p.m.


After a barely successful evening of Christmas shopping at Columbia mall, the girls and I decided to eat at the new Cheesecake Factory that had just opened up next door. Although I am not particularly a huge fan of Cheesecake’s, I am a huge fan of drinks and dessert…

The 102nd Cheesecake Factory restaurant opened just a few weeks ago, on November 22nd in Columbia. The new store is fairly large, and quite attractive on the outside. The interior is more or less identical to all of the other Cheesecake Factories that I have been to. It was crowded and even boasted a similar kind of wait… 60-85 minutes for a table of four, and 40 minutes just to get the pager. Hmm… how badly did we really want drinks and desserts?

The bar area was self-seating, and fortunately Kim pounced on the next available table before anyone else got to it, so we actually didn’t have to wait very long.

The four of us had eaten at the White Flint location many times before, so we were all familiar with their menu. Although I’m not crazy about Cheesecake’s food, one thing I will admit is that their portions are rather generous, and their menu offers a substantial variety, which can be nice when you’re with a group of people who either don’t know what they want or are picky.

Drinks: I ordered the “Well-Mannered Dirty Martini”, which comes with blue cheese stuffed olives, mmm… my favorite!! They only gave me two olives here though. Katherine ordered a Strawberry Lemonade, which was tasty, but can sometimes come out really sweet. Kim had a lovely looking frozen strawberry margarita, and Roman ordered a Bacardi and diet coke.

We decided to share a bunch of appetizers since we weren’t very hungry tonight. Roman wanted the fried Buffalo wings served with hot sauce, chunky blue cheese dressing and celery sticks. Kim ordered the hot spinach and cheese dip, which was large and actually the perfect amount for our table, however it tasted a little bland to me. Katherine decided on the Tex Mex egg rolls with spicy chicken, and a tasty combination of corn, black beans, peppers, onions and cheese served with Avocado cream and salsa. I was very boring tonight, and ordered myself a side of fries. I know I know… it’s not very exciting.

Dessert: To continue with the unexciting theme of our dinner, we decided against dessert. We were too full and too tired. However, I will end this by mentioning that the Dulce De Leche is my favorite cheesecake…. Yum! It’s so rich though; I normally can only eat a few bites… I’m speaking only for myself however… I’m positive that the rest of my table would have absolutely no problem finishing every last crumb!

restaurants, food, Columbia, MD, cheesecake, Tasting Journal