I am putting together a Las Vegas with Kids webpage, containing all my reviews for Las Vegas. Some of those reviews never made it to my blog, so I’m adding them now.
You can get great food on the Las Vegas strip, and you can get cheap food at the myriad of food courts, but finding tasty, affordable food is very hard. That’s probably why the Cheesecake Factory has actually become one of our favorite places to eat in Las Vegas. The food is tasty, the portions are generous and the prices are reasonable. Plus they have cheesecake! We now make it a point of shopping at the forum shops, watching the Fall of Atlantis show and then having dinner at the Cheesecake Factory every year.
I’ve been quite happy with pretty much everything I’ve eaten there. Last visit I had their Pasta Da Vinci ($17), penne in a Madeira sauce with chicken, mushrooms and onions. It was as good as it sounds. Another year I had their spaghetti & meatballs ($15) and it was as good as you can expect. They no longer seem to carry the Monterey burger ($12) I had another year. It came with cheese, onions, arugula and avocado. It was cooked to order medium rare, but it was drier than I would have liked it. Still, the accompanying sweet potato fries were phenomenal.
The Cheesecake Factory has a well-priced children’s menu. Last time, my youngest daughter enjoyed the pasta with marinara sauce. In a previous visit, my oldest had the pasta alfredo ($7) but was disappointed by the lack of flavor. My youngest had the kids cheese pizza ($6), which was the size of a regular dinner plate – basically, adult size. The pizza tasted like an Italian pizza margherita rather than your typical American cheese pizza, so she didn’t like it. I, however, did.
Portions at the Cheesecake Factory are usually large, so we get to enjoy leftovers when we stay at hotels with kitchenettes.
Of course, one of the main reasons to go to the Cheesecake Factory is the cheesecake. Slices are large enough to share and $8-$9. I prefer the plain cheesecake, but the Dulde de Leche cheesecake we had once was pretty good. The Adam’s Peanut Butter fudge cheesecake, however, was too sweet. My youngest had the kids hot fudge sundae once ($2!). It was a large enough portion that she couldn’t finish it.
There is usually a long wait when we go to have dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, but you can pass the time shopping or watching the show. Service has been mixed. The first time we went, we barely saw our waiter. The second, service was great, even though we were in the second floor.
The Cheesecake Factory
Caesars Palace Forum Shops
3500 Las Vegas Blvd. S.
Las Vegas, NV
702-792-6888
http://www.thecheesecakefactory.com/