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Here's the letter we received in response to our written complaint to the Palo Alto Cheesecake Factory.

Dear Mr. & Mrs. Mantel:

Thank you for your letter. Many of our menu items do have an eclectic twist on traditional recipes and I regret that you did not care for our Cajun Jambalaya pasta.

I appreciate your feedback and have shared it with our company executives. Our menu is extensive and I hope that you will not give up on us. I am confident that we offer something that better meets your expectations.

Sincerely,

Patricia O'Neill
Guest Services Supervisor
The Cheesecake Factory Restaurants, Inc.

The Cheesecake Factory did not offer to either substantiate the claim that the Jambalaya Pasta is their "most popular seafood dish" or to remove this claim from their menu.

Here's the response to the complaint sent to the BBB:

Company states that had Mr. Mantel requested that they prepare him a different dish that was more to his liking, they would have done so. Instead, as per his request prepared a sauce to take home with leftover.

and our response to their response:

Cheesecake Factory's position is that the Jambalaya was properly prepared, yet there was no sauce as the menu promised. Nothing in their response indicates that they intend to either correct the inaccurate menu description or to substantiate the claim as to the popularity of this menu item.

Subsequently, Cheesecake Factory sent the following letter:

Here's the letter we received in response to our written complaint to the Palo Alto Cheesecake Factory.

Dear Mr. Mantel:

Enclosed please find a gift card in the amount of our Cajun Jambalaya Pasta. I regret that you were disappointed with our version of this dish.

Because we believe that your meal was prepared according to our specifications, I can only recommend that you try one of our other offerings, should you wish to try us again. Although many of these offerings vary from tradtional recipes, our management is very knowledgeable and will be happy to answer your questions prior to ordering or if possible, attempt to meet a specific request.

Although we are unable to meet the remainder of your "demands", we do hope that this provides you with some closure to this matter. Again, I am sorry. I hope that we will se you again.

Sincerely,

Patricia O'Neill
Guest Services Supervisor
The Cheesecake Factory Restaurants, Inc.

I'm not sure what the lesson to be learned from this experience is.

I hope it's not that enough badgering can obtain a minor concession. I sincerely believe that the menu describes a dish as more appealing than it actually is, in spite of the claims of popularity (of course, that claim could be a self-fulfilling prophecy, since it would be measured in terms of the number of people who ordered it, rather than the number of people who were pleased with it).

On the other hand, I have to wonder why they were so reluctant to offer some compensation. If they're willing to refund the price of the entree to anybody who's unhappy with it (and we'll count the gift card as a refund), then my complaint is moot. It's surely a case of pennywise and pound foolish... aside from the correspondence that could have been avoided, as well as the potential harm to their reputation, giving someone a gift card costs them next to nothing, when they consider that I'll almost surely be ordering a second entree as well as beverages. The prospect of retaining a customer while hardly paying anything for it is a no-brainer, and the value of having a reputation that you make sure every customer is happy is priceless.

To those who would raise the issue as to why I didn't send the order back, all I can say is we waited quite a while for the meal; sending it back would have caused further delay, especially with the kitchen as busy as it apparently was.

My advice is obviously to avoid ordering this particular entree unless you really like your jambalaya dry. Alternatively, if you want to try it anyway, make sure you go on an evening when you won't mind waiting for them to fix the problem after you send it back.

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