I don’t know if I can adequately describe how bad my Father’s Day brunch was today.

But, I’ll try.

We arrived at 10:50 a.m. and were told “5 to 15 minutes”. Ok, weird window, but whatever. It took 25 minutes to get a seat. Again, whatever.

The server popped by the table after we’d been sitting there for 10 minutes to day she’d be right back to get our drink orders.

She wasn’t.

I thought we were ok, though, when she finally did make it to the table. She seemed to be sharp. She took our drink orders, brought them back in a reasonable period of time, took our orders, and brought out some bread.

Then, we waited.

At one point, she came by and offered a second milk to our daughter, and brought me another diet coke.

Then, she disappeared. For a long time.

She finally reappeared at a neighboring table and we eventually got our food. It had been abut 40 minutes after we’d ordered. One meal was hot. Three were not.

My medium hamburger was well-done and room-temperature. My daughter’s sunnyside-up egg was cold.

As we sat there waiting for our server to come back so we could send the food back, the neighboring table was having even bigger problems: their chocolate-chip pancake was not made with chocolate chips. It was made with black beans.

After being assured that was IMPOSSIBLE by the manager because the two area were on opposite sides of the kitchen, they started cutting the beans and showing her the inside. Beans. They were told the waffle would be taken off the check and they’d get free cheesecakes for dessert.

By this time, I’d given up. I ate my burger. It took the server another 20 minutes to stop by and check on us, at which point we just told her to bring the check. She cleared the dishes, being told we wanted the macaroni and cheese and my wife’s pasta.

The neighboring table got their check about this time. Everything was on it, nothing had been comped. They had to get the manager again to clear it up. Why it took a manager to clear up what the server knew had been committed to is beyond me.

So, that took forever to clear up. Then we got our check. She charged us for the second milk.

Can you believe that? How bad is that, keep us waiting forever, then charge us for a milk that she never told us wasn’t a free refill?

We paid the check, then discovered that in all the confusion and time spent clearing up the prior issues, our leftovers had been thrown out! The manager insisted he could have a fresh mac & cheese made in 4 minutes, so we said fine. Fifteen minutes later, after being told twice that it was in the container, the manager came out and told us it would be right out.

Bill padding, lies, cold food, long waits, poor service. That’s what you get at the Cheesecake Factory at St. Johns Town Center in Jacksonville, Florida.

And, how are we getting our satisfaction?

We were sent there to evaluate the service as Mystery Shoppers, with most of our bill reimbursed.

Eat THAT, Cheesecake Factory!

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