I’ve lived in Tampa for five years now, passed by Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen dozens of times but never stopped to try it out. Don’t ask me why. Maybe the name sounds like everything will be cheesy and I might not want cheddar on every aspect of my meal? Who knows? On a whim, I stopped.
If I had to label the overall menu, I’d call it comfort food. They have lots of things like chicken fried steak (I’m originally a Texas girl so I love my chicken fried steak), chicken pot pie, cheese bites, fried shrimp – lots of cheesy, saucy stuff. Oh, they have some steamed and baked things as well if you want to be good. I didn’t.
Do you reckon they serve little baskets of bread with pats of butter? No, no. They start you off with a honey butter croissant. Mm mm mm. I felt like I was back home in Conroe, Texas in the 50s. And it was pretty tasty, too.
I was amazed at how down home, familiar, and Texas things seemed. But then I looked up the restaurant and discovered it’s a chain of about 180 restaurants and its base is – drum roll – Texas. Aha. Now it makes sense.
Needless to say, I ordered the chicken fried steak with the broccoli cheese side. The flavor was good but I found that at least half of the chicken fried steak was breading. That was a little disappointing. The broccoli cheese would’ve been better if it had been warm but it wasn’t. Since it was in a perfectly round ball, I gather they’re plopped in the dishes, stored away and then microwaved when ordered. I would’ve loved some nice melted, gooey cheese on the broccoli.
And what’s Southern food without dessert? I took the waitress’s recommendation and ordered the carrot cake. Whoa. Carrot cake sprinkled with coconut, topped with honey glazed pecans and drizzled in a caramel sauce.
I love carrot cake but wow. As much as I love sugar, this was too rich. I took a couple of bites and then asked to box it up. I gave it one more try after dinner but no; I just couldn’t do it.
I may not have made the best choices at this restaurant but I’d give it another try. Certainly the flavors were there. I’m a sucker for comfort foods.
- 11004 N. Dale Mabry Hwy., Tampa, Florida
- 813-964-5300
- http://www.cheddars.com
- Hours: Sunday-Thursday 11:00 AM – 10:00 PM / Friday & Saturday 11:00 AM – 11:00 PM
- Wheelchair accessible
Lisa Browder 
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