The Cheesecake Factory050

This astonishingly popular chain restaurant features a huge menu, huge portions, and often a huge wait to be seated. Its opulent interior downtown belies the chain's rather cheesy name and down-home-size plates of food, but this is a comfortable place to dine with kids if only because the place is cavernous, noisy, and predictable, with affable (if not super-fast) service. Don't look for a kids' menu, although booster seats and high chairs are available. You can easily order something for children from the large selection of appetizers. Bland, slightly sweet Roadside Sliders are billed as "bite-sized burgers", although each Slider actually approaches the size of something from McDonalds. Add fries, and you have a meal for two - or three - smaller kids. Other offerings include Chicken Potstickers, Tex Mex Eggrolls, and Popcorn Shrimp. A variety of nonalcoholic frozen drinks include the yummy Frozen Iced Mango, a swirl of frozen mango and raspberry puree served in a (yes) very tall glass. Adults who successfully slog through the voluminous menu (annoyingly peppered with full-page ads) can order, well, just about anything from pasta to steak to eggs. Our appetizer-size Caesar Salad, which our server helpfully suggested after calling the dinner-sized salad "out of control", came on a plate the size of an LP. The dressing was too heavy on the garlic and oil although the Romaine was fresh and crisp; aside from taste considerations we only managed to eat one-third. Sunday Brunch is served until 2pm. The kids' brunch includes french toast, bacon, and strawberries. And as the restaurant name implies, the variety of cheesecakes (and other desserts) is quite amazing. We tried the dulce de leche cheesecake, a doorstop-sized slab of which came garnished with two huge dollops of whipped cream. The cheesecake is very smooth, but sweet rather than tangy. It's kid-pleasing for sure, but adults might find that a bite or two goes a long way.