The Cheesecake Factory

The Cheesecake Factory is a popular, U.S. based chain restaurant, with about half-dozen locations in Mexico City. A single corporate franchisee operates all the Mexico City restaurants. They also operate several other restaurant brands, including U.S. based P.F. Chang’s.

The Cheesecake Factory has gained a notoriety for an expansive menu that’s more like a culinary encyclopedia than a menu. The Mexico City menu spans a whopping 48 pages, not including about 25 pages of full color photos of dishes sprinkled throughout the book.

The menu is chock-full of American-style bistro classics and a variety of Asian, Mexican, and Italian plates thrown in for good measure.

We’ve published the menu so if you finish off reading Tolstoy’s War & Peace and want to tackle another lengthy piece of literature, grab a cup of coffee or two, or three … maybe four … and peruse the menu.

What I find amazing about this menu, beyond the sheer length of the thing, is that somehow this restaurant manages to execute all those dishes with more than a fair degree of finesse.

We often see sloppy service and execution of the menu and franchise concept in these franchise operations in Latin America.

But, hands down, this franchisee in Mexico City has done the best job I’ve seen in Latin America of carrying out a franchise model.

The restaurant that I most frequently visit in Mexico City is the location in Parque Delta shopping mall. It sits in the restaurant section of the mall, alongside sister restaurant, P.F. Chang’s. It’s a huge restaurant, likely seating 200 or more diners, and during peak hours, almost every chair in the restaurant is occupied.

The design and décor of this restaurant is as nice as anything in the city. It’s beautifully conceived and executed.

The waiters and waitresses are clad in starched white uniforms. They are well-trained, efficient, and friendly. And somehow, they all seem to have mastered the content of that voluminous menu.

The restaurant serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. Service and execution of the menu are consistently good.

The prices are quite reasonable.

I’ve had pancakes, waffles and Eggs Benedict for breakfast, two or three salads, the soup and sandwich combo at lunch, and several of the main-course menu items. Not a single disappointment.