The Cheesecake Cafe

I long ago swore off Cheesecake Café… expensive food and poor execution. I was a little iffy when Hubs wanted to try their YYC Hot Chocolate fest entry (Raspberry cheesecake) but it was his pick and we went. I felt like I had to order something so I ordered tuscan flatbread and him chicken strips to give the food another chance too.
The hot chocolate was boring but not an issue per say but the food and service made me angry for even agreeing to come back here.
My tuscan flatbread was SWEET. I love sugar but it almost gagged me like someone used sugar instead of salt. My husband’s chicken strips were a tiny bit of dried out chicken, a sugery yellow watery liquid (dip?) and a plate of fries. He couldn’t eat the sauce and the chicken was pretty terrible on it’s own. The fries were ok… but didn’t make it a $ 13 dish.
As for service we were basically an annoyance to our server. Maybe because we didn’t order a lot and she was more interested in the other tables that would have had bigger bills to tip on? We also had the pleasure of having additional entertainment which was 3 other staff members complaining about customers as they did additional tasks 2 feet away from us for maybe 30 minutes. Customers shouldn’t hear about this stuff. period. Much less have their whole dining experience be about that. Honestly I felt invisible to the staff here.
On a positive note… it’s better than last time! Back before chips and pins at the table, my server doctored my tip line and gave herself a 40% tip when it was closed out on my credit card. Management handled that well though… and the money was returned to me. This «improvement» is still not saying much for the restaurant and I’m not surprise the franchise dissolved a few years back,

I enjoyed the food, but the service could have been way better. I hope our server had a good excuse, but it really appeared like she didn’t want to be at work to serve us.

After being seated were had to wait 30 minutes until someone noticed us. Terrible service!!! They have the lowest quality food. Even their cakes taste terrible. Overall, a very unpleasant experience!

I think this is the only location left in calgary now.
Me, my sis, and her fiancé, friend went there last night.
We ordered appetizers. It was filling.
My order was given wrong. I asked for 2 portions of vegies instead of baked potato. Didn’t happen…
Don’t ever order calamari… it wasn’t cooked and doesn’t look appetizing at all.
Fish and chips being 20 dollars is kinda ok… the fish is huge.
With the sauces… if you ask you pay extra. Though they give you Über tiny. Not enough sauce.
The overall experience for 4 of us are mixed therefore 3 stars are awarded.
The server is very nice however not good order taker.
I would not go back there unless we win another gift card.
Oh…the cheesecake is good. One more thing I find the price doesn’t match… both bill and price on the menu aren’t the same. Example calamari was 12 in menu in the bill it was 10.50. Weird
Bottom line: so so restaurant. Food got good portion size excluding sauces… very tiny

Best cheesecake flavour? We asked many but finally trusted our hostess who was cleaning the table next to ours. We ordered the pumpkin praline, which is in season right now, and the salted caramel apple cheesecake. She was right. The salted apple cheesecake was the best. They were apples baked right into it and the salty caramel sauce was the perfect balance of salty and sweet. The cheesecake was like eating a warm apple treat.
The pumpkin was more delicate. We got hints of cinnamon and nutmeg and if you love pumpkin pie this is the one to try.
The cappuccino was just OK. Lazy thin foam on top and flavor was Folgers quality.
But the restaurant is clean. The menu looks pretty good, probably very high in calories so don’t fool yourself. I don’t think this place deserves three stars, so I’m giving it four. I think it’s a good spot for a late night cheesecake and coffee.

The ambience was nice, very quiet. Servers were pleasant though they forgot to give us cutleries– which was a strange cause its the first thing thats given. The food was decent though I didnt find anything special when it comes to taste.

The desserts are delicious!!. And the food is not bad. Big portions… I would go back only for the desserts… The wine is good and the service very friendly.

Worst service and food. 20 min to get drinks. Forgot our waters. Forgot to bring out 2 of our orders. No cutlery. No ketchup. Asked for peanut butter, never came. Asked for more coffee, never came. I’m lactose and the hash browns had cheese, I expressed that I’m lactose, no offer to fix the problem. One order was a Sante Fe wrap. Says guac was in it, didn’t come in the wrap, that was expressed, no discount or offer to fix the problem. I guess going to a place called the Cheese Cake Café we should of stuck to cheese cake. Which I can’t have. Wouldn’t recommend this place. Expensive and terrible food/​service.

I love the cheesecake Café. The food here is Soo good especially there amazing cheesecake. They have the best cheesecake in Calgary wouldn’t wanna go anywhere else. The people are really friendly that work there

Whenever we’re in the area looking for dessert this seems to be the first place that comes to our mind. I’ve only ever been here for dessert, and often times we get to the restaurant near closing time, but the staff have always been kind and respectful about it. There’s never any pressure to kick us out.
The last time we visited, we had their eggnog cheesecake and blueberry cheesecake; both very satisfying with nothing too special about them. Portions are generous and we opted to take the remainder of both slices home.
Great last minute idea for those craving for dessert in the area.

I only come in here for cheesecake, so I can’t make a judgment on their food menu as I haven’t tried any of it. I absolutely love cheesecake, and I love their Turtle cheesecake. So rich and chocolatey, and they actually give you a pretty generous sized slice. I’ve always had really friendly servers, and upon reading some other reviews, it appears I’ve been pretty lucky in that department. It’s a big dining room, and when it’s very busy, you may go a while without seeing your server. One time, our server had a 13 top sit down right after she took our order, so it took longer than usual to get our coffees and cheesecake. She was sweet and apologetic, but we weren’t in a hurry and having worked in the industry, I get how tough it can be with large groups. No big deal! One thing they should work on though is discussing work matters privately. When we were waiting for a table, a server and the manager got into a very heated argument in front of the hostess stand. That was pretty awkward! Otherwise, a good place when your sweet tooth needs to be satisfied.

I had a very unsettling experience at the cheesecake café in Calgary this evening. I will never return to this establishment.
From the very beginning our service was slow and disorganized. I had two separate waitresses come to take our drink orders as they were unclear as to who’s table it was and it took a while for our drinks to come. We ordered some appetizers for the table and when they came out we were not given any side dishes for the table. I had to request these. The waitress came with some meals for the table and tried to give us what she said was the meatball pasta. I told her that no one ordered that dish. She seemed very confused (even though she took our orders) and asked if I was sure. I told her all the meals that we ordered and she eventually took the dish back only to come back with it telling me that it was in fact the jambalaya I had ordered. As she is handing me the dish she spills the seafood alfredo all over my boyfriends pants and jacket. I can tell that the waitress is mortified and she wont stop apologizing. My boyfriend gets up to go to bathroom and clean his pants while I try to clean off his jacket. The waitress tells me that we will be given free cheescake as compensation and I can tell that she feels really bad. I honestly felt very bad for her because she seemed like she was having a bad night and it was a mistake. However, she never came back to our table and other members of our party wanted drink refills. My brother gets up to speak to the manger and what happened next was appalling. He is rude to us. My brother explains the situation and wants to know how we will be compensated as my boyfriends $ 150 jeans and $ 200 jacket are now covered in grease stains, a large portion of my brothers girlfriends meal ended up on the booth, and no one feels like dessert because we are having such bad service (and to be honest a piece of $ 8 cheesecake is just not cutting it at this point). The manager tells us its busy and is extremely short with my brother. The waitress then comes back and he is rude to her in front of us and demands that she explain herself. He looked at her and said «Did you not explain to them what will happen?». He looks at my brother and said I told her you can have the cheesecake or part of the one meal discounted. The waitress brings the bill and nothing is discounted! She then brings it back with the discount and the bill is still over $ 125. In my opinion since there has been $ 350 worth of damages, half of a meal was spilt, we were brought the wrong food, they didn’t know who was serving our table, and no one refilled our drinks, we should have got a free meal. The manager told us his name was Francios and in my opinion he should be fired. It was appalling service and frankly he is not a nice person. Had he been apologetic and actually cared about our experience I would have been understanding, but since he was rude after the horrible evening that we paid to experience I will never set foot in this restaurant again.

I’ve only ever had dessert here but we wanted to try something new. Was very pleasantly surprised by the food. It was absolutely delicious. Their soup was great. Tried French onion and broccoli cheddar. Had a sandwich which was excellent! Friend decided to try the chicken strips which were more chicken nugget like however. Also got the pan bread with the olive oil and vinegar dip, I think the person preparing that one was new as they has put the dip in a bowl instead of spread out on the plate like it should be but no big deal easy fix! Overall very happy and will definitely be returning :)

Here’s the thing: they have those nice free cookies. So they get a star for that.
On the downside, everything else about this place is absolutely terrible
Last time I was there I had the grumpiest waitress on the planet serve us. She didn’t even talk to us after our orders were made: I asked for a refill on my drink and she fiercely grabbed my drink, brought back a new one and slammed the glass down on the table with the night of Thor’s hammer.
The glass was filthy by the way
My eggs Benedict was freezing cold and the hashbrowns were super greasy
Bad

Only go here for Cheesecake. The food is really mediocre reheated type nonsense that isnt really «cooked» per say.
Their cheesecake is downright amazing though. Good dessert place, bad restaurant.

Pasta Raphael — jasmine rice instead of pasta — My fiancé and I went for dinner here last night and I must say they have the most gluten free friendly options than any other «chain» place in Calgary. I would have never thought of ordering a pasta item but sub rice for the pasta. Ok this might be a no brainer for seasoned Celiac’s but I am a newbie and am still learning. I had the Pasta Raphael with rice and it was so yummy. Kind of like a giant plate of risotto! I am for sure going back b/​c of the choices AND because the offer G Free cheescake! I didn’t have any last night as I was way too full but it was nice to actually have a dessert option!

Meh.
I don’t think that I’d choose to come here again.
Nothing memorable.
Ordered Moules Frittes and it was definitely not that! and it was kinda gross.
Yea, I know I probably should haven’t ordered it anyways at cheesecake.
There is a ‘happy hour’ where tapas are ½ price… but yeah…
Service was also slow… at 5pm… yeah…

Review #13 of Unilocal’s 30 Day Challenge 2012
I think things used to be better at the Cheesecake. It seems they hire really young servers (I used to be a server too, ok) but that think everything is a joke and don’t really care about their job.
When I was there, there was no management to be seen and the 3 servers there were messing around and joking while cleaning and not helping customers.
The server we had did not seem to know the menu very well and when asked what could be made without eggs and dairy from the vegetarian options she suggested a plain salad. I asked if she could check with the kitchen as I didn’t want a plain salad. Finally she came back and gave me two options and so I ordered a stir fry instead.
I have been here before and had fine experiences, so maybe coming in at 10pm isn’t a good idea, but they’re still open and should want to be a little more helpful instead of trying to get you to order something quick and rush you out the door.
While their servers may be friendly, they could use some more customer service skills and knowledge about the menu.

OK we went for brunch again today and I am reducing my rating to a 2.
First of all, there were a ton of empty tables but we were seated at a TINY 2-​seater booth that I could barely fit in. In retrospect, I should have asked for a different table but I didn’t think of it at the time. I ordered coffee and an omelette (I forget the name), and my friend ordered eggs benedict. When the food arrived, both of our potatoes were cold, but our eggs were ultra hot; it seems like the potatoes were plated and allowed to sit for 5 or 10 minutes while the eggs were prepared. My toast was not at all toasted, but had been brushed with melted butter which made them a soggy mess. To top it all off, we both had HAIR on our canteloupe slices. I started joking about what kind of fat hairy man’s arm they came off, which grossed out my dining partner so that she couldn’t finish her food (haha).
We also had a terrible waiter as compared to our last visit. he mumbled so that you could hardly understand what he was saying, and he barely came around which made coffee refills next to impossible.
I am not sure if we will be going back after this visit, when we have the consistently good 99^th Avenue Café just a few minutes drive to the south.

The Cheesecake Café: AKA, the Celebration Night Ruiner.
My sister invited her friends and I to celebrate an occasion here with her son. It was a Friday night at about 6pm and the place was packed, but the wait for a table wasn’t long.
That was the only wait that wasn’t long. After we ordered drinks from the waitress, she would disappear and come back every 45 minutes or so. The only thing that kept us complaining about that, was that no one wanted to spoil the night for my sister by pointing it out. Our drinks came to the table lukewarm after sitting on a counter for the better part of an hour and half an hour after we ordered food. When the waitress set them down and asked us what else we would like, my nephew muttered loudly enough for everyone to hear that he would like some food. She replied that it would be another 20 minutes and then practically ran away from our table. When I looked over occasionally to see where she was, she was either hiding in a booth or flapping her gums away with staff.
Over an hour later and two and a half hours after we had been seated, our cold and congealed food finally arrived. It had been ready for ages, but had been sitting under heat lamps while waiting for the waitress. Not the kind of state you expect your deep fried food to be in. It was so unappetizing that we sent it back. It showed up on the bill anyway. Despite all this, my sister wanted to leave the waitress a tip. A tip for what? I talked her out of it.
We left hungry and contemplating Denny’s. I went home and consoled myself with leftover mashed potatoes.