Cheesecake Factory

Rating:

Never mind, for the moment, whether I liked the new Cheesecake Factory in Edina's Southdale shopping center. My No. 1 job is to help you decide whether it is a restaurant that you are likely to enjoy. And in the case of the Cheesecake Factory, that's a tough assignment: It's the kind of place that some will love and others will hate.

The Cheesecake Factory just might be the ultimate mall restaurant. Shopping malls are self-contained universes: Almost everything you could possibly need -- plus a lot of stuff you don't need -- under one roof. Brand names you know and trust. No surprises. Every detail carefully planned and managed.

The Cheesecake Factory is a lot like every mall restaurant you have ever been to, only more so. In fact, it's all of them rolled into one. If you are in the mood for the mall version of Chinese food, (such as P.F. Chang's next door), the Cheesecake Factory has chicken pot-stickers and Hong Kong chicken.

If you want chain restaurant-Italian, a la Olive Garden, you can order bruschetta, pepperoni pizza or farfalle with chicken and mushrooms at the Cheesecake Factory. Or for Don Pablo's style Mexican, try the quesadillas or the fresh mahi-mahi soft tacos at the Factory. And that's not all, folks: There's Japanese, Caribbean and Thai, too, plus meatloaf, shepherd's pie and barbecued ribs.

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