Cheesecake Factory!

Good old cheesecake factory! My wife for my birthday dinner decided to take me to Cheesecake Factory, and we had a 50 dollar gift card to spend! After work, we drove down to Huntington Beach and the Bella Terra shopping village. This was our first ever visit to this medium sized shopping village which has a beautiful design and upscale attitude without all the upscale shops.

The Cheesecake Factory building has some Mediterranean and Spanish influences with seating inside and outside in a patio area. Although quite busy, we only had to wait 10-15 minutes for a table for 2. We were seated under decorative art on the ceiling and met our pleasant server. Immediately, we were brought our waters and our bread:The white sourdough-ish bread was warm but a little chewy with a crisp crust. The dark rye bread was my favorite of the two. Although it didn't come as "fresh out of the oven", there was a sweet taste to the bread. Again the disappointment came from the too chewy texture.

Next came our appetizers; there was no disappointment here:

Crispy Artichoke Hearts in a garlic and lime sauce

The artichoke hearts were pure deliciousness. Fried to perfection, every single bite had a squirt of sour lime and a hint of garlic with each crunch.

Firecracker Salmon Rolls

Awesome dish. Salmon was cooked perfectly and sat inside the slight bitterness of spinach which was inside a crispy, fried shell with surrounding red cabbage and lathered in a spicy sauce. All the ingredients were fresh and crisp.

We decided to share our main course so we could have room for dessert!

Hibachi Steak

My dad would curse the day someone invented a sweet steak, but my wife and I thought this was a good dish. It was a hibachi steak, 2 asparagus strips and garlic mashed potatoes in a sweet Hawaiian like sauce. The asparagus strips were crisp and fresh, the garlic mashed potatoes had just enough garlic and onions. The steak was perfectly cooked to order at medium rare. It was tender and soft like a fillet mignon, although it did require a sharper knife to cut through (unlike the meat at Cut in my previous review).

Of course, when you go to "Cheesecake" Factory you must have cheesecake for dessert:Vanilla Bean Cheesecake

Yummy! What else to say... I have tried 6-7 different cheesecakes in my lifetime from here and none have disappointed. These cheesecakes are not too sweet nor too rich nor too cheesy. Vanilla bean may seem like a plain choice, but it too was excellent. All this food fit just under the amount on our gift card.

The good: Appetizers and Desserts, Bella Terra was beautiful
The bad: Bread
Overall: 4 out of 5 stars, good experience, if it weren't for the bread, I would have given 4.5 stars.

P.S. We have a new car! Review of the 2009 Nissan Sentra coming soon!