If my experience trying to get a table at Cheesecake Factory last Friday is anything to go by — there was an hour-long wait — you don’t really need to be told The Cheesecake Factory is now open in Dubai Mall. The US restaurant chain has a prime location opposite the Aquarium (some tables look directly at the fish, but the crowds of people queuing to get inside to eat may obscure your view of the stingrays) and already has something of a reputation in town. I, however was completely unfamiliar with the food when I went for a media tasting — apart from my expectations of cheesecake.
Forget the cheesecake for now. With over 250 items on the menu (not including the 40 types of cheesecake), this is a restaurant that should have something for everyone.
American comfort classics play a big role — burgers, sliders (mini burgers), a BBQ beef sandwich (that you must try) and a Salisbury steak with mashed potatoes. What’s that? Glad you asked. It’s a steak-shaped patty of minced beef which has been mixed with caramelised shallot, mushroom and fresh thyme, seared and topped with gravy. If you’re anything like me, you’re thinking right now: “American chain restaurant. Fresh thyme. Huh?”.
Cheesecake Factory makes everything — from herbs to sauces to mashed potatoes — from scratch in its kitchens, Donald Moore, the group’s chief culinary officer told me. With that many dishes on the menu, “you have to be a little bit crazy,” to do that, he said.
“But we think it’s a really big difference. Guests are not going to know that cilantro was cut fresh, but they are just going to taste the difference, the food is going to taste a little fresher. We pride ourselves for over 30 years on having the same techniques and style of cooking that you would have in the greatest restaurants in the world. It’s the same compass that Julia child and Thomas Keller would use.”
Take those mashed potatoes. They are creamy, yet lumpy (“lumpy-bumpy,” Moore says). They stood out for me for that reason — definitely not out of a box — and really tasty. “I think the difference between a lot of chain restaurants and us is we are a lot more focused on the food. We caramelize every onion, we sweat every mushroom, we butcher all our own beef.”
Other stars on the menu was a lemony, herby poached salmon, slices of near-raw seared tuna with a sesame sauce, and the avocado eggrolls — dishes from Europe, Asia and Mexico.
“Our founder would say anything can go on The Cheesecake Factory menu,” said Moore. “Food can be inspired from a food truck or from Nobu or the something that any of us had from our childhood.”
A newer addition to the menu is the small plates section for tapas-style eating. “They are pretty much other restaurants’ normal sized portions but for us they are small. You can see there is inspiration from all over the place — from samosas to kale.” Yes, there’s a kale salad. “That came from one of our chefs from the South [of the US]; it has a buttermilk-black pepper dressing.”
The samosas are perfect, crisp triangles of pastry filled with a very flavourful minced chicken stuffing. I liked them, and will be interested to see if they are popular with Dubai’s samosa-savvy population. In the US — this is the first Cheesecake Factory outside the States — the most popular dish is chicken Madeira, chicken with a sweet dark gravy featuring Madeira, a fortified wine often used in cooking. I found it rather sweet, but many American dishes tend to be, I’ve found. Replacing the Madeira was a major concern for Moore, who wanted to recreate the popular dish for the Middle East. “We’ve been able to keep nearly all of [American menu] and create gastriques [vinegar-sugar reductions] that work like the Madeira we use in the US; it gives it the same flavour profile.”
So back to the cheesecake, and there’s a real difference: they are all made in the US. Every cheesecake at every Cheesecake Factory in the US (and now in Dubai) is made at one of two bakeries and shipped all over the country, in a state they describe as “deep chilled”.
The first cheesecake made at the restaurant (and the one I preferred) was the Original, a recipe from founder David Overton’s mother. When Overton decided to make her bakery into a restaurant, he kept her name, and there’s not really been much confusion since that happened in 1978.
“We have over 40 kinds of cheesecake, that’s our real claim to fame,” Overton said. “My parents started the business with one cheesecake recipe. I decided to make it a restaurant, and I tried to think of another name but I said, that’s the name, we’ll keep it. At the beginning we were worried about [customers not knowing they served food other than cheesecake], but as you will see, we’ll be busy enough.” His favourite cheesecake? The new Oreo Dream Extreme (it’s huge, chocolately and very sweet, celebrating the cookie’s 100th anniversary). “My second favourite is red velvet, with layers of red velvet cake, cheesecake and cream cheese icing.”
