Beechers sells mac and cheese at Costco. The food at the Beechers restaurant didn’t get the mark. The mac and cheese didn’t have enough salt. I ordered it with breadcrumbs but there were no breadcrumbs. I wouldn’t recommend this restaurant for anyone.

What the parents have to say

Beecher’s is a cheese making company from the northwest.  They have a location in Pike’s Place.  I wouldn’t have know about this cheese company if they didn’t sell their mac and cheese at Costco in the freezer aisle.  They package it as the “World’s Best” Mac & Cheese.  I checked their website and they have been honored with that title from some Northwest website and a trade show.  But what should count for you and me is what your child thinks of it.

We have bought the frozen version and my child likes it.  In fact we typically buy it for family gatherings.  A very good Costco product.  When I heard they have a brick and mortar location in NYC, I had very high expectations that my kid would love it being the mac and cheese aficionado.  From the outside the restaurant looks very nice.  Inside was well lit.  On the left side of the restaurant is a sealed room where they show people how they make cheese.  We came around 6:30 and didn’t make a reservation.  There wasn’t any seating on the main floor. So they sat us downstairs which they call the cellar.  This is where it goes downhill for us.  The cellar was super dark, cramped, and super noisy.  The have a very large bar and a very bar like menu.  They basically server cheese plates and alcohol.   If I were to blindfold you and sat you down the cellar, you would think you were at any of the hundreds of singles bars in NYC serving a happy hour menu.

My kid doesn’t like places that are dark and noisy.  We decided to order fast.  He ordered their happy hour “World Famous” Mac and Cheese.  Didn’t see anything I liked, so I ordered their chicken.  We also ordered an appetizer of Spanish prosciutto.  The prosciutto arrived with bread, a slab of fig jam, and prosciutto.  We both made the comment that the prosciutto was cut too thick.  So that killed that dish.

Main entrees arrived.  First comment he says, it doesn’t taste at all like the Costco version.  And he asked for extra breadcrumbs which it didn’t.  So this dish was a fail for him.  He didn’t even finish it all.  My half chicken was on a bed of broccoli rabe.  The rabe was overcooked and chewy.  This was also a fail for me.

I understand surviving in NYC as a restaurant is hard and they need to sell a lot of alcohol to make it.  If that’s the case, they should’ve open the place somewhere else like Brooklyn.  But isn’t the true goal is to sell thousands of boxes of frozen mac and cheese a day at Costco with a loyal following of parents and kids alike.  It’s a major disappointment to use the cellar space to make ends meet!!   If you plan to take your kids here as a stop, skip it and just stick with the frozen aisle.  That way their image of this mac and cheese will stay intact.

I had to feed my kid Chik Fila afterwards to get a smile back on his face.