Celebrate with Cheesecake!

After a month of self-study, my husband passed his 1st Microsoft exam. (Yey! Cheers to that!) To celebrate, we splurged a little bit last weekend. No discount coupons this time, sad, but worthy enough for a great dinner at the newly opened The Cheesecake Factory at Dubai Mall.

We arrived at the restaurant at 4pm. As expected, the queue at the reception desk for reservations was long, and the waiting time for available seats was even longer. We waited for 45 minutes for our pager, and another 45 minutes for our reserved seats!

patiently queueing at the main entrance (in front of the Aquarium) for seat reservations

For 45 minutes, I was staring blankly at this pager, wishing it would buzz sooner.
 Quite a sacrifice for a meal!

So, after an hour and 30 minutes, we finally got a table for two! We used the back entrance, located at Treasury Dome since the entrance in front of the Aquarium was jam-packed! While we were waiting for our server at the reception desk, we overheard that the waiting time for the new costumers was already at 4 hours. We wonder, what's the big fuss about this restaurant?

Tip: There's an entrance (without the queue) inside the Gold Souk, at Treasury Dome!
Dubai Mall's Gold Souk is near the Ice Skating Rink. 

The Cheesecake Factory is huge. If I'm not mistaken, it is now the largest restaurant at Dubai Mall. Their 20-paged menu boasts over 200 selections to choose from. We didn't want to spend another hour reading their thick menu book, so we just asked our server to recommend their best-sellers.

Our Filipino food server was very helpful. He advised us to take an appetizer and a main course, as per serving is good enough for 2.

complimetary bread and butter

 Tex Mex Egg Rolls
(spicy chicken, corn, black beans, peppers, onions and melted cheese)
served with avocado cream and salsa

Chicken Madeira (their most popular chicken dish)
sauteed chicken breast topped with fresh asparagus and melted mozzarella cheese,
covered with fresh mushroom madeira sauce and served with mashed potatoes

my drink: Passion Fruit Mojito

Ed's Lemon Mint Cooler

my husband, Ed enjoying his dinner

dainty and classy decors, a far cry from the usual dark colored walls of American Bistros in Dubai   

The star of the night is in a take away box!
We were so full, we decided to take our Ultimate Red Velvet cheesecake home.
It's quite expensive at 34AED per slice, but every bite was ultimately delicious. 

The Cheesecake Factory menu prices are of the same range with other fancy American restaurants in Dubai. The place and the food are perfect if you want to divert from your regular choice, or if you're a big fan of cheesecakes. But before you indulge, you must queue, wait and be patient... It's all worth it!

Thumbs-up for The Cheesecake Factory!
PS: I'm going back soon for the Oreo Dream Extreme Cheesecake. :)

Directions to Dubai Mall and The Cheesecake Factory:
* Take the Red Line Train to Burj Khalifa Metro Station
* From Burj Khalifa Metro Station, ride a Feeder Bus (for free) to Dubai Mall, or you can walk for 10-15 minutes.   
* The Cheesecake Factory has two entrance: the main is exactly in front Dubai Mall's Aquarium (Guinness' largest acrylic panel), the back entrance is hidden at Dubai Mall's Gold Souk, Treasury Dome.  

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