Originally Posted by
TWA884
I remember when they first opened on Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills and their focus was cheesecakes. They also served salads, sandwiches and a few other savory dishes. However, over the years, their menu expanded; there are way too many items for them to be able to prepare any of them well. Their menu items are simplified, so that they can be quickly prepared by line cooks. The food has been dumbed down to appeal to the masses, for example, pasta puttanesca prepared without anchovies and Vietnamese summer rolls without mint.
The dish process simplification must be a reality if the food is supposedly all freshly prepared in house as the article claims. The number of line cooks they'd have to have who be impossible, but they seem to have the volume and the article claims they test every dish for reproducibility and probably ergonomics. Can't remember what I ate (Bellevue Mall) but it didn't leave any impression. As for leaving seemingly-essential ingredients out, I suspect it is because people don't care for it? Been a long time since I've had a Caesar salad anywhere that had any hint of anchovies.