Results tagged “cheesecakefactory”

Lakers 108, Mavs 104, OT - The Laker's season just keeps getting sweeter. This time, it was all Kobe Bryant -- who managed to score even when triple-teamed. End result? 52 points, including 22 in the 4th quarter and 8 in OT. It was the first game between the refurbished Laker's (Pau Gasol had 17 points and 14 rebounds) and the refurbished Mavs (Jason Kidd had 15 points and 11 assists).

So I'm at the Cheesecake Factory in the Sherman Oaks Galleria one night - you know how that goes - and my dinner companion and I decide to order some appetizers, even though the Cheesecake Factory practices the most horrible crimes of unhealthily-large-portion-sizes ever committed upon humanity. I want something light to start, so I tell the waiter: "I'll have the bruschetta, please." "One order of the bru-SHET-a?" "Um, yes. And I want the...

LAist has been giving a lot of love recently to the many fine eating establishments that exist all over the basin. No matter what type of cuisine you like, there’s a long list of restaurants that can meet the grade. However, there’s also been a noticeable lack of Orange County representation in these reviews. True, 95% of the non-five-star restaurants in OC are chains not worthy of being reviewed, unless you want to debate...

Columnist Art Buchwald passed away peacefully on Thursday at the age of 81. He was best known as a political satirist who helped keep the Washington establishment in check. Though, as he observed, "If you attack the establishment long enough and hard enough, they will make you a member of it."

We'll confess, Studio City's Asanebo was not our Plan A for sushi eating. Our visit to this small, strip-mall sushi spot located in the middle of the Valley's boulevard of sushi bars happened on the fly, a Plan B that was put into action when Plan A failed miserably. What was Plan A, you might ask? Well, we'd been plotting a trip to Hollywood's Sushi Ike for ages, only to discover that they'd opted to pull lunch service for the time being. So there we were, hungry for lunch, pouting outside a storefront barricaded by metal bars. It was a sad sight, indeed. But because we keep a running list of places we want to try (we've had to start an Excel spreadsheet out of sheer overwhelm, and for those of you who are keeping track, the words "Cheesecake Factory" do not make an appearance on that list) we remembered one place that had popped up in the September issue of Los Angeles Magazine in their feature on sushi: Asanebo. So it was back over the hill for us, and onward to what was feeling like a hard-won lunch.

We were starving. We'd wandered the barren Valley, fruitless in our search for somewhere new and charming to eat. It is not without a twinge of irony that we wound up at The Grand Lux; how the mighty (and very hungry) have fallen. Our dining companion endorsed the restaurant, and she had that gleam in her eye that signalled indulgent dining that would break a girl's healthy eating regimen and mean an extra pilates routine to offset the damage. There was a short wait, which gave us ample time to people watch some very interesting people, and to start studying the menu, which was as long and weighty as a Hemingway novella.

Inside was surprisingly cavernous, like a barn, we surmised--how apropos! After having restauranted meal after meal recently together in New York, my dining companion and I couldn't help but remark on how large LA restaurants tend to be. And, as a bonus, staffed with male servers who obviously do a little acting on the side. We were seated promptly, and with a smile, and we set out to the business of ordering. Our kind and friendly waiter explained the many specials, and we perked up at the Asian Seafood Salad description. Our server, in his infinite attentiveness, even went so far as to ask if the chef could make an intricate alteration for us (South Beach is a killer, isn't it?). Even though the answer was no, we were impressed that he asked, and even more impressed when our meals came out quickly from said chef's lair. Our companion had what she called a glorified BLT on grainy bread, with flavorful Applewood smoked bacon and a house salad that had her gushing over its dressing. We were thrilled with the Asian Seafood Salad, with its spicy flavors and variety of bits and chunks of tasty fish and shellfish, none too overwhelmed by dressing in the least. We ogled the brownies and other sweet treats being served up nearby (double duty with ogling the wait staff), but we stayed good and kept away from the goodies (in all respects). We had a nice experience down on The Farm, and we're glad we have a slightly more subtle eating option at the beloved Grove.

We here at LAist know that without tourists, well, Los Angeles would be a city with far fewer Cheesecake Factory restaurants. But the nameless, camera-toting visitors to our city have their own opinions and thoughts about the City of Angels.

There's nothing like a chain restaurant to get the juices flowing.

We can't be too hard on this latest Grove news, though. At the very least, we're hoping this new Factory outpost will siphon off just enough business from the other Cheesecake Factories in the area to make them easier to get into. And that alone tips the balance just slightly towards making the impending Cheesecake Factory a part of the Good Grove.

Waiting tables is a hard job, not just because of how exhausting it can be but because LA is full of arrogant and entitled people whose twin passions are eating out and treating people like crap. Let's make this clear: Just because you're spending twenty bucks on lunch at the Cheesecake Factory doesn't make the woman taking your order your personal slave for ninety minutes. Serving you is part of her job, not her mission in life. You don't like it when your boss yells at you, so when you're on the other side of the table, show some damn respect.