Why do you hate to say it? I'll admit, I loved Cheesecake Factory as a kid, but then as an adult I feel bad to say I was afflicted by a bit of the "anti-Cheesecake Factory snobbery": it was too kitschy, too "chain theme restaurant", too "American excess" with its giant portions and million menu items. I hadn't been in years (there is also not one close to where I live).
I then went recently as part of a family get together, and it was just plain great. My meal was really, really good: well seasoned, not overly salted/cheesy/creamy but still delicious, the veggies were crisp and fresh. Service was fantastic and prices were great.
In terms of the portion sizes, go for their "skinny" or whatever they call it menu. I had a shrimp pasta dish - it didn't taste like it was "light" or "diet" at all, but primarily the portion size was just much more reasonable. If you do get one of their giant dishes, lots of them, especially their Italian dishes, make for great leftovers.
I think you answer your own question with this bit:
> I'll admit, I loved Cheesecake Factory as a kid, but then as an adult I feel bad to say I was afflicted by a bit of the "anti-Cheesecake Factory snobbery": it was too kitschy, too "chain theme restaurant", too "American excess" with its giant portions and million menu items. I hadn't been in years (there is also not one close to where I live).
A lot of my friends and coworkers have the same view. If it is a chain, it is most likely bad (which is a statement that has a decent chance of being correct) but then extends to "and people who like to eat at chains are bad eaters."
My experience with The Cheesecake Factory is like yours:
> I then went recently as part of a family get together, and it was just plain great. My meal was really, really good: well seasoned, not overly salted/cheesy/creamy but still delicious, the veggies were crisp and fresh.
It's really good food. My wife and I eat there a couple of times a month for "fancy dinner". I feel like so many independently owned restaurants go overboard in either their "conceit", trying to find a way to stand out that winds up being over the top and puffery, or they are aiming for an experimental/possibly-outlandish food menu that winds up falling flat. So many of these places feel like "celebrity chef wannabe outlet that sells a ton of alcohol to make up the profits."
Meanwhile, The Cheesecake Factory merely...exists. Doing its thing, pretty well, with enough variety that it doesn't get boring.
I agree with what you say but I try to not make value judgements about people based on what or where they eat.
One time back in the day I was dating a girl and she somehow got gift certificates to eat at a place called “Golden Corral” which is a buffet. It was not the kind of place I’d considered eating at.
We get in and are sort of shocked at the place - you go through a literal corral after paying and they give you a massive cup for soda. There’s food everywhere and the place is anarchy. But the food was, to my taste, terrible and made from cheap, processed ingredients (too much salt, sugar in everything, fats were cheap oils, select grade meat, etc) and just bad. And the people there seemed to love it. So we had a laugh about the place and food and people that ate there.
But it occurred to me that those people worked hard to afford to take their families there and it was special to them. So better not to judge them and just be grateful that there’s places for different tastes, cultures, and budgets. To them, they were eating like kings.
I think it's actually the opposite, ignorance is why people go to chains. They eat their steak well done because they've never had a good steak. Most chains like Applebees are using a lot of Chef Mike (the microwave).
It -is- snobbery, but the reverse of what you are thinking.
Someone who grew up only knowing about Velveeta, and never experiencing a French fromagerie might think, "Hey, I like this but it seems there's more to the world than Velveeta, I wonder what those thousands of other cheese are like." But instead of curiosity, many turn into this insane Trumpy parody like "Velveeta is the greatest cheese god and america ever created and all other cheese is evil commie propaganda!" bullshit. Its like they have to build their identity on the virtue of being proudly ignorant snobs and then accuse people that call them on it for being educated snobs.
No skin off my back, but try to consider the breadth of what is going on here.
A lot of chains can do better than Cheesecake Factory though. Back in Beijing there was a chain called Element Fresh that offered mostly western fusion, portion sizes were much smaller, the food was more tasteful.
Denny's is a surprisingly high variance experience in the US. Some regions are great, some are terrible. There are heuristics for finding a good one but I haven't eaten there in ages in any case.
I've only eaten there once or twice, I think they expanded to my area too late. One chain that stands out for huge portions was called Claimjumper. Looks like it's still around.
Claim Jumper is barely around, they have closed many locations in the past decade and Landry's sold the entire chain to a group of franchisees, if I remember correctly.
CJ was quite good back in the day but I have not been to one in years -- in my opinion, quality declined a bunch and doesn't match up with their prices. Cheesecake Factory, on the other hand, has maintained high quality, tasty food in generous portions (in my opinion).
I then went recently as part of a family get together, and it was just plain great. My meal was really, really good: well seasoned, not overly salted/cheesy/creamy but still delicious, the veggies were crisp and fresh. Service was fantastic and prices were great.
In terms of the portion sizes, go for their "skinny" or whatever they call it menu. I had a shrimp pasta dish - it didn't taste like it was "light" or "diet" at all, but primarily the portion size was just much more reasonable. If you do get one of their giant dishes, lots of them, especially their Italian dishes, make for great leftovers.