Do Servers At The Cheesecake Factory Actually Need To Memorize The Entire Menu?

The Cheesecake Factory is known for a surprising number of things, from the fact it started with a couple producing cheesecakes in a literal factory to its truly bizarre decor (but really, who hasn't wanted to have their meals watched by the Eye of Sauron?). But if the chain is known for any one thing, it's that The Cheesecake Factory has the longest menu of any chain restaurant, a labyrinthine maze of not just dishes, but advertisements for The Cheesecake Factory itself. (Presumably to encourage someone who is already there to ... go there even harder?) Most restaurants require servers to memorize the menu, but that can't possibly be true with The Cheesecake Factory's Ulysses-length tome, can it? Oh, yes it can — servers at The Cheesecake Factory have to learn the entire menu by heart.

If you've been to the restaurant, you've probably spent time marveling at (and talking about, which is the whole point) the menu, but one thing you might not have ever considered is how the restaurant's servers have to interface with it. 

The short answer is "yes," but the long answer gets even wackier. One server who worked there called the training process (via Insider) "hands-down the longest and most rigorous training program I've been through at any job." Apparently, it's a two-week crash course — far, far more than any other restaurant (outside the fine-dining sphere) — of which one entire week is devoted to memorizing and understanding the menu.

The Cheesecake Factory understands that this is a daunting task. The company gives new employees flash cards containing the dishes' pictures, names, and descriptions. It's not unusual for new servers to have to take a written or verbal test at the end of the training period to prove they've learned the menu, but what makes The Cheesecake Factory's process unique is that the employees have to take multiple tests. (Given the size of the menu itself, that kind of makes sense.)

You might think that, given the absurdly long menu and the restaurant industry's reputation for burning out employees, The Cheesecake Factory is a terrible place to work. That's where you'd be wrong. 

The Cheesecake Factory is one of the companies with the highest rate of employee satisfaction. It's been named to Fortune's "100 Best Companies to Work For" list 10 times and is one of only two devoted restaurant chains on the 2023 list (the other, perhaps surprisingly, is a fast-food company, Panda Express). This is partly due to the fact The Cheesecake Factory is a steady income source — it's so popular, you're pretty much guaranteed to make money waiting tables there — but also due to a reputation of treating employees well, especially by industry standards.

The Cheesecake Factory may have an absurdly long menu (and require you to know all about it if you want to work there). It seems, though, that no one who works there is complaining.