This is a relatively good (but relatively expensive) chain of restaraunts with several locations in
Southern California and, I suspect, elsewhere. Their
menu is incredibly large, as are the portions. Tends to be a good destination for business lunches, especially with out of town folks - the large menu virtually ensures that there will be something for everyone.
Most of the dishes are very good (much better than the typical chain) but wouldn't measure up to most upscale, independent restaraunts. Items include pizzas, pastas, salads, meat and chicken, and, of course, cheesecake. They have an incredibly large variety of cheesecakes - Heathbar crunch, key lime, strawberry, white chocolate raspberry truffle, and many more. All of them are very rich, very fattening and very good (they better be for the $5+ a slice).
Unfortunately, the Cheesecake Factory is not a well kept secret. Its almost always crowded, and at peak times waits can easily exceed 45 minutes or more. Reservations are not taken.
Their menu is adorned with occasionaly rotating advertisements for national and local businesses. Most of the local business ads seem to be for local beauty, swimsuit or lingerie shops and thus contain photos of scantilly clad, attractive women. This brings me to another point - there seems to be claim, put forth by both Cheesecake Factory and the Coca Cola Company, that the jumbalaya here is extremily spicy - see, one of the adds permanently featured in their menu shows a red fire extinguisher with the Coca Cola logo painted on it, next to a plate of jumbalaya.