The Cheesecake Factory in Beijing is one of the few remaining American franchise brands that retains almost 100 percent of its international authenticity. Located in WF Central Mall in Dongcheng District, the restaurant’s warm and homey decor completely resembles any other Cheesecake Factory in the world.

Business is already bustling at 5pm on a Friday night, and for good reason. There’s a nice mix of international and local patrons at the restaurant enjoying themselves – the bar is especially hopping with action, so I’m guessing the drinks are good. But I’m gunning for the food that night, having fasted since breakfast that morning in anticipation of this meal; I’m hoping the portion sizes are just as I remember them back in the States and Middle East. I am not disappointed. The entrees are large enough to share and still have leftovers for the next day!

The menu at the Cheesecake Factory is extensive, with well over 30 different mains from pasta to chicken to steak to gumbo. We had some of our favorites that night – Crab Rangoon (RMB 88), pork belly sliders (RMB 118), chicken and biscuits (RMB 158) – and all the dishes tasted exactly as I remember: rich with flavor, crispy where they should be, and comforting. It’s just what the doctor ordered on a cold wintry night.

But no matter how tasty the food is, the restaurant is called the Cheesecake Factory, after all. And you cannot leave without trying at least one of their rich cheesecakes. The currently in-season pumpkin cheesecake (RMB 75) is such a crowd-pleaser that both my husband and my son (who never eats any pumpkin) inhaled it before I could even get a photograph. Classics like the strawberry cheesecake (RMB 77), Hershey’s chocolate bar cheesecake (RMB 77), and the caramel pecan turtle cheesecake (RMB 77) are always available to give you that oh-so-satisfying sweet ending to your meal. Oh, and the massive hot fudge sundae (RMB 108) is a fantastic dessert for sharing.

The Cheesecake Factory isn’t your everyday dinner place, considering its price tag and location, but that’s one of the reasons why making the trip to the restaurant here in Beijing is a little treat that the whole family can enjoy. The service staff there is great with kids and families, and the quality of the food and drink is as well-established as the brand itself.

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Images: Vivienne Tseng-Rush

Living downtown, I don’t make it out to Shunyi much. So when the opportunity arose and my family was in the neighborhood for an event, we decided to make the most of the trip and check out a Shunyi-only restaurant. The name M.E.A.T By Ernest popped up, courtesy of TripAdvisor’s Best Steak Places list, where it is incredibly ranked 13 (Spoiler alert: don’t believe it). I verified the place on Dianping, where it has a 4.6 rating and rather rave reviews from locals, so off we went.

A two-hour car ride (both ways) and RMB 3,980 later, I wish I had never heard of the place.

Heads up: We knew heading into the restaurant that it was going to cost more than your average meal – we were celebrating a little – and we were prepared for five-star prices (RMB 68 for fresh-squeezed juice, RMB 188 for Caesar salad, RMB 1,888 for a 1kg USDA porterhouse…) as long as the food was five-star as well. Sadly, it was far from it.

The small-ish restaurant is located to the side of Tongli Market – where many a Rumble in the Jumble has taken place. The interior mimics most steakhouses – with an open kitchen concept and dry room that displays the meats, white tablecloths and low light. The atmosphere was nice enough, though a big turn-off about the restaurant is that it has no washrooms of its own and requires customers to walk through the building to get to a squatting public toilet which is one of the worst I’ve experienced in an urban building in Beijing. As I washed my hands, thankful they had running water, a man blew cigarette smoke in my face as he exited the men’s. Certainly, it’s not the restaurant’s fault for all this, but it did not help the experience.

Service at M.E.A.T was … inconsistent. One server stands out for being extremely prompt and helpful – rushing out into the cold to help us when he saw us dismounting from the car hauling our bicycle. However, the rest of the service staff needed a lot of prompting to even get them to fill our glasses and clear our plates, while the maître d’ for that evening was rather aloof and never once smiled or said a friendly word. He gave off an impatient vibe while we browsed the menu and wouldn’t repeat my order.

Even after all this, we would have been fine with the place if the food made it all worth it. But as you already know, it wasn’t. But let’s go into further detail. For starters, we tried the Brussel sprouts served with apple slices (RMB 138), which was a fun pairing, though the thoroughly blackened Brussel sprouts had too much vinaigrette for my and my child’s taste, and were a tad bitter due to being overcooked. The Canadian scallops with Beluga caviar (RMB 888) were decent, but the slightly fishy scallops would have been so much better if they were chilled and not served at room temperature.

My child wanted a burger (RMB 258) but had to settle for the fish and chips (RMB 898) because the burger was only available Mondays through Thursdays. The fries were overcooked, managing to be dry and oily at the same time. The Atlantic cod which we paid to fly first-class from France apparently, was tender and tasty, but not worth its price tag.

My husband and I decided to share a 400g Wagyu Ribeye steak (RMB 1,388), cooked medium rare (level 5 in Chinese terms). It was more done than we had requested, and far chewier than it should have been. We would have paid half the price for such a steak.

Dessert-wise, the homemade vanilla ice cream with house-made marmalade (RMB 58), which we ordered on the recommendation of the maître d’, was not even as good as store-bought Häagen-Dazs vanilla bean ice cream to be honest. My child enjoyed the crème brûlée (RMB 98), but a more discerning palette would tell you that it was subpar. What we did enjoy completely was the dulce de leche with Parmigiano Reggiano chips (RMB 98) – that classic sweet and salty mix really worked.

At the end of the day, the food at M.E.A.T by Ernest isn’t horrible – if you were paying a quarter of the price. But you’re not, and it just isn’t worth it. For about the same price, you could enjoy an absolutely amazing dinner at TRB Forbidden City, Iberico, or Morton’s Steakhouse instead.

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Images: Courtesy of Vivienne Tseng-Rush

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