My best friend in the whole wide world came to Louisville for a spontaneous girls’ weekend with my younger daughter and me. Since she was traveling from wild, wonderful West Virginia we decided to begin the fun in Lexington. We browsed the shops at the Mall at Lexington Green which worked up quite an appetite. We vowed to do all the things guys hate so we felt compelled to have lunch at the Cheesecake Factory at nearby Fayette Mall. I realize it is a mortal foodie sin to patronize chain restaurants but I truly enjoy some of the dishes at CF. All the chain naysayers will feel vindicated to know that our experience was disappointing.
Traci ordered a dish she’s had multiple times before: the Skinnylicious Steak Medallions. Same for me with the Bang Bang Chicken and Shrimp. Hope ordered the Tomato Basil Pasta with Chicken. In my experience the pasta dishes leave me wishing I had ordered something else so I always steer clear of them. Today, Hope’s pasta was the most successful dish we received. Yep, it was that bad.
The Bang Bang was almost completely covered with toasted coconut. Once I began exploring I realized it was probably intended to cover up the burnt shrimp. Only one of six shrimp were edible. The rest were literally black. I rarely say anything negative at restaurants but I did report to our server the mistake with the shrimp. She came back a few minutes later to explain that they coat the shrimp with black pepper to caramelize them and what I was calling burnt was actually intentional. Obviously she had no idea that I have logged over 560 hours of food television over the past month alone. I wasn’t buying that lame story. I know that sugar caramelizes, not pepper. I did eventually receive some replacement, nonburnt shrimp but we were done with our food by then. Traci’s meal was served cold.
We ordered one piece of cheesecake to share and specified that we would like 3 forks even though this has to be standard operating procedure at CF. We received our dessert with not 3, not 2, not even ONE fork. She walked away and we were left there to gaze at each other in disbelief. Alas she did return with the previously requested three forks.
Ironically we were all given gift cards for free cheesecake with purchase in celebration of the restaurant winning an award for top performance.
After the lackluster lunch we lifted our spirits with more retail therapy, this time at the newly opened Summit. Kendra Scott, Draper James, and Frye made us feel a whole lot better.
NewtoLou 