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Cheddar's Casual Cafe

Cheddar's Casual Cafe

7961 W Commercial Blvd.
Tamarac FL, 33351
9545970551
Overall Rating
2.8
Food
Service
Ambiance
Last Review
09/16/2014

Details

Hours: Mon–Thu 11am–11pm Fri–Sat 11am–midnight Sun 10:30am–10:30pm
CC: Yes
Reservations: Yes
Delivery: yes

Pros

Good Value
Flexible Menu
Decent Food
Big, Comfortable Restaurant

Cons

Basic Recipes
Off the Beaten Path

Critic's Review

Cheddars is a bit off the beaten path and I'm not sure why I even thought about it, but I'd heard some things and I was curious. It's a franchise operation but they're not growing very rapidly; sort of like Famous Dave's and other big chains that we don't have in Southeastern Florida. They bill it as casual dining at a fair price; the latter of which probably isn't allowed in Fort Lauderdale.

It was raining so outside dining wasn't an option; they have a pretty nice patio.

Cheddar's Outdoor Dining

Hostess training is about the same in these parts, as she tried to put me in the noisy bar area in a largely empty restaurant. "Got anything in the dining room?", I asked. A long walk to the other side of the restaurant landed me a booth.

The place has odd lighting; very bright lights on the table and darkness between; so servers appear as silhouettes. I had to crank up the ISO on the photo. The place reminds me of Chuck's.

Cheddar's Interior

Iced tea came with one extra wedge of lemon; but the second one came with extra lemon also, which is a sign of a server who is paying attention. Most servers deliver refills without lemon; as if they forgot already how you like it.

Cheddar's Ice Tea

They have a lot of entrees for $10 to $14 and combos (think steak and ribs) for under $15. A salad is an extra $2.99; I went with the 8oz sirloin with a salad with blue cheese dressing. Steaks and combos come with 2 sides; I went with cole slaw and broccoli with cheese.

The salad came out immediately.

Cheddars House Salad

A pedestrian house salad. I prefer onions to carrots, no cucumbers, and the outer leaves of romaine lettuce that should be at worst mixed with iceberg or hearts. Good dressing; better than field greens.

The dining room is very quite; apparently they do the noise in the "lounge" and let people talk in the dining room. It's not a bad model. I don't need music to eat lunch.

The steak came about 5 minutes after I'd polished off the salad.

Cheddar's Sirloin with 2 sides

A very casual presentation. I'm not a fan of the side plates on the plate, but it does keep things from running into each other. The steak was cooked medium rare, as ordered.

Cheddar's 10oz Sirloin

Some things about the food. The cole slaw was lousy. Typical chain restaurant recipe where no-one actually tastes it before serving. The broccoli was VERY cheesy, which I guess you should expect at a place named Cheddar's. The steak was, well, unmemorable. It had char marks but no char taste; it was largely unseasoned and not very beefy tasting. It was also flawless in that there wasn't a strand of sinew and zero fat. 100% edible. The onions were soggy but not bad tasting.

Conclusion

Cheddar's is the kind of restaurant that every restaurant in Fort Lauderdale promises to improve upon. Tired presentation of basic food; basic ingredient salads. While I find it difficult to buy their claim that this is a "scratch kitchen"; the meal was fine, there was a lot of food and it was under $20 including tip. Not as good as the Outback; but a pleasant place to gather, be left alone and to have some food.

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This place is up for sale; just 4.9M; includes the building.
Administrator
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Cheddars offering $5 off 2 adult entrees, so if you're dining with kids or alone, go somewhere else.

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