The Cheesecake Factory - Pleasanton, CA

The Cheesecake Factory
1350 Stoneridge Mall Rd
Pleasanton, CA 94588
(925) 463-1311
thecheesecakefactory.com

This was our first visit here and we came during their "Happy Hour" (which I don't agree with because they don't have drink specials, so what exactly makes it "Happy"???) between 4-6pm on weekdays in the bar. At least there was no wait, at 5pm on a Monday afternoon.

The nice thing about Happy Hour (???) is you can get a mini-portion of a variety of dishes between $3-5 each. A hungry party of two will be quite full after sharing five dishes...with no room for cheesecake, unfortunately.

Here is my ranking order of the dishes we tried:

1. Ahi Tempura Roll ($4.95) - Absolutely, fantastically delicious!!! Why only three pieces...WHY??? Two people cannot share this dish well, but you can bet I will remember that next time it's MY turn to get two pieces!

2. Chopped Salad ($3.95) - Apples, bacon, blue cheese and corn make a yummy-licious salad. Loved the presentation as a "mountain" of salad. I will definitely order this again!

3. Avocado Egg Rolls ($3.95) - The tamarind-cashew dipping sauce can make anything delightful! At least this dish came with four pieces, unlike the Ahi Roll...

4. Fried Calamari ($3.95) - Garlic dip was good. The calamari breading was quite fragile and a lot of chunks fell off in the dip.

5. Roadside Sliders ($3.95) - Three sliders served with sliced pickles on a bed of lettuce. The grilled onions and ketchup were so very, extremely sparse on the li'l burgers, we had to ask for more. Of course, by the time the extra grilled onions were brought out, the burgers got a little cold. Had they been prepared right the first time, these would have been #3 on m list...oh, well.

Next time, we'll have to go back just to have some cheesecake!