NRN presents Consumer Picks, a comprehensive look at customer preference and restaurant brand strength. This annual special report is produced with Datassential. Get the full report >>
The Cheesecake Factory, with its enormous menu, scored top marks for food quality. The casual-dining chain, based in Calabasas Hills, Calif., with 193 U.S. and 16 international units, prides itself on making everything in-house.
Related: Top brands ranked by customer loyalty: Consumer Picks 2017
Unlike most chains, which vet new menu items before focus groups and tasting panels, then do operations and market tests before rolling them out, the arbiter of new menu items at The Cheesecake Factory has always been founder and CEO David Overton, whose Midas touch helped spur 45 quarters of positive same-store sales until a 0.5-percent decline in the second quarter.
See the top 10 finishers for food quality.
