The Inside Track

This past Sunday we decided to hit The Cheesecake Factory in the Atrium Mall (in Chestnut Hill) to take my “Insider’s Table” member card for it’s initial spin.

I presented the hostess with my card when we arrived and she was aware of program (I had heard some people went to Chestnut Hill with the card and the staff had no idea what it was). She swiped it in (not sure what this tracks) and told me the manager would bring my card back to the table.

After we were promptly seated (the place was empty… the card doesn’t allow you to cut lines), our waitress came right over and introduced herself (I’m not convinced that she knew we had “the card”). The manager stopped by a few minutes later, gave me the card back and said if we needed anything that he would help us. He was very friendly, but that was the last we saw of him. He did not stop by to see how the food was nor did he stop by at the end of the meal to gauge our overall satisfaction (which is supposed to happen). All in all, as far as I’m concerned, no special treatment with the card.

For food, I had The Navajo sandwich — Warm fry-bread stuffed with grilled chicken, avocado, lettuce, tomato, red onion and mayo. It was ‘okay’. The chicken was too thick (it was a big chunk of breast, rather than a pounded-thin one) and I could barely cut it with the knife it was so tough. The sandwich in general was very bland… nothing special. The French fries were good… they always are.

Dan got a breakfast special… the Monte Cristo — a ham and egg sandwich that is dipped in batter and then fried (like French toast) — it was served with powdered sugar and a fruit [dipping] sauce. He said was very good.

Lastly, I had a coupon for an “off the menu” cheesecake, which came with my membership card. Off the menu was defined on the coupon as “one of the house special cheesecakes, not offered on the menu”. When I presented the coupon to our server, she had no idea what it meant or was. So… she gave us the standard menu and let us pick. A little disappointing… Since we had no excuse to splurge (by selecting a special cheesecake slice), we opted for a slice of the plain, low carb cheesecake. It only has 6 grams of carb b/c it is sweetened with Splenda. We ate it at home later and for plain cheesecake, it was quite good.

Overall, ironically enough… after the tons of times we’ve been at TCF, this wasn’t one of the more memorable times — despite our Insider’s Card. We’ll be back next month to use my February coupon… so we’ll see if that is any different!