North Italia

As major national restaurant chains go, The Cheesecake Factory won us over many years ago, and we even went out of our way to visit the company’s little-known sub-brand, Grand Lux Cafe. So when we say we’re not fans of really anything about North Italia, Cheesecake Factory’s “modern Italian” sister chain, we can clearly state that our issues aren’t with the owners or the fact that it’s a chain – it’s the execution.

We visited the Irvine location twice years ago, once to dine in, once to dine out, and were thoroughly unimpresed by the experience: bad parking, cold service, a cavernous dining room with all the charm of a Silicon Valley cafeteria, and mediocre, expensive food that wasn’t great to begin with and didn’t travel well.