Something A Little Different

An impromptu visit to Cheesecake Factory at Millennia Mall has me doing something a little different this week.

Picture this…
…a nice, warm but not too hot, Sunday afternoon. After taking my very first trip to IKEA, which was an adventure in itself, I decided to pop into Cheesecake Factory for dinner.

Located in the Mall at Millenia, Cheesecake Factory operates daily from 11:00 am – 11:00 pm.

I know what you’re thinking…Cheesecake Factory isn’t a pizza joint. And, I totally get it, that’s what I said, but hear me out!
This was my second trip to the good old Factory, and not going to lie to you, I took the 20 minute wait we were quoted to check out the menu as it kinda gives me anxiety, do we really need twenty pages of options?

There’s a lot of stuff on there! Flipping through, I found a couple of things that sounded delicious, but then…I stumbled upon it…
THE dish I HAD to have, and the reason for this review.

Chicken Parmesan “Pizza Style”.

The name definitely peaked my interest…I love chicken parm, and we all know Pizza is my favorite…this was it! I found the winner.

Our buzzer went off about twenty minutes later, and we were led to our table after a slight hiccup took us back to the host stand…I’m sure a table moved without the host’s knowledge, no big deal, they quickly recovered and sent us to another table. One thing I will say, and this isn’t anything against Cheesecake Factory itself, because a lot of restaurants have been doing it lately, I’m not a fan of the multiple tables on one long booth/table set-up. I find that usually the tables are usually pretty close to each other, and I’m just not really a fan of sitting that close to people I don’t know while I’m trying to enjoy a nice dinner.

Neither here nor there, but the guy next to me almost fell on me while he was getting up to leave.

Back to the important stuff…once seated, we were greeted by a very friendly server, Rich, who took our beverage and food order. We like to make it easy and get it all taken care of at once. I’m not sure what they put in their butter that they bring with the bread, but I’m pretty sure both are made with crack, super delicious!

While we were waiting for our food, Pepe came over and told us that it was shift change and Rich was taking his leave, we said a sad goodbye to Rich, we were just getting know each other, but we understand he has a life outside of work and that is important too, besides, we felt we were in pretty good hands with Pepe, and I will say I really liked the way he came to the table, introduced himself, and even repeated our order to us, so we knew he was on top of things…

For those who are wondering “What is this creation you speak of?”

Let me try to explain the beauty to you…

They take a chopped chicken breast and pound it down flat like a pizza dough, a good 10 – 12 inches, coated with breadcrumbs, covered in marinara, melted mozzarella, and top it with angel hair pasta in an Alfredo cream sauce. I wasn’t quite sure where to start, it was beautiful. I decided to cut into it like slicing a pizza, what better way to enjoy a this kind of a dish?

I must say the flavor is just absolutely amazing. The ratio of everything must be portioned out using a scientific equation because it all came together perfectly! The cheese was just right, the sauce has a little bit of a kick to it, but it isn’t overpowering. The pasta and alfredo sauce are a wonderful accompaniment, and the flavors blend well together.

I really couldn’t have expected more from this dish, even though with its size, I ended up taking more than half of it home. Come hungry is you’re going to give it a try!

For dessert, I went with a Mango Key Lime Cheesecake, which was a nice light, refreshing, and delicious choice.

I must say, I enjoyed my time with the Cheesecake Factory, and I highly recommend it. The service was great, the restaurant was clean and well maintained, I will be back to visit!

I give Cheesecake Factory a solid 7/8 slices!