THE CHEESECAKE FACTORY

Where: The Cheesecake Factory, 65 Regent Street, Salt Lake City

Who Went: Chelsey & Owen

Number of Visits: 2

What We Ordered: Tex Mex Egg Rolls, Macaroni and Cheese Burger, SkinnyLicious Factory Chopped Salad, Wild Blueberry White Chocolate Cheesecake (not pictured), and Reese's Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake Cheesecake

What It Cost: $57.36 (excluding price of salad)

What We Thought: 

Keeping in the tradition of overpriced restaurants lately (sorry, I promise to get some cheap stuff on here soon!) we decided to venture to the well-known and oft-debated Cheesecake Factory. We went to the one at City Creek, though I am pretty sure they all get their food shipped in from the same provider and that it all tastes exactly the same no matter where you go so...yeah. Apply as you may. 

We started with the Tex Mex egg rolls, because you know my weakness for these special/weird egg rolls from CPK. Mmmm.. Look at that grease pile. And sooooo much sour cream. Yeah. It's all a fat bomb up in here. The egg rolls were filled with chicken, black beans, cheese, peppers and onions and were certainly flavorful. And filling. I was totally full after the bread and appetizer. 

And what else did we have look forward too -- more fat! Oh yeah! I know Cheesecake Factory gets a bad rap for being calorie-loaded and this mac & cheese burger totally lives up to that reputation. I mean, it's not like we were expecting anything else when we ordered this, but it was still pretty funny. On top of an actually decent burger, they placed a fried wad of mac & cheese, and then drizzled it with cheese sauce on top. Hahahhahahaha oh man. This thing is nuts. It actually tasted pretty good (I really liked the bun!) and the fries were quite tasty, but yeah, you can't eat anything else for a week after this not-so-little guy.

I went and ordered something off of the SkinnyLicious menu, and can I just say, it is SO embarrassing ordering off that menu. I mean, can you imagine if you were a guy ordering off the menu? Not to be sexist, but even as a female, it's totally humiliating. ANYWAY. Got the SkinnyLicious Factory Chopped Salad, which is supposed to have chicken, avocado, corn, bacon, tomato, apple and blue cheese. Immediately I was put off because, as you can see, the hunks of blue cheese were gigantic - and blue cheese is something that's better as an accent, not a mouthful! But I decided to start into the salad anyway, only to find that the taste was just...off. I'm not sure if it was the lettuce or the dressing or what, but it was bitter and weird tasting, and it totally made me lose my appetite. So I sent it back (I'm becoming quite the complainer I guess...) and then was done for the meal. YUCK. Couldn't eat it, not sure why but the ingredients were not very fresh and it was just all kind of gross.

The cheesecakes were obviously pretty good. I do have to say that I am a sucker for all of the flavors they have - it's so exciting. I really like the peanut butter one, and cheesecake is way hard to make at home, so this part is pretty good. They were both a little dry, but overall, tasty cheesecake with fun and unique flavors.

What You Should Do: The server told us that she would take the cost of the salad off our bill, so I was surprised when it still came out to be $60! It would have been closer to $75 with the salad! I don't know about you, but that is totally not worth it to me. There are a LOT of other much more delicious restaurants out there (just click here for some excellent choices!) that you can go to for special occasions. The Cheesecake Factory is just too cookie-cutter now (excuse the really lame dessert pun) and the food all tastes just kind of tired. And expensive! I'd probably only go here again for the cheesecake, and even that can have better options elsewhere. You won't have to order from an embarrassingly-named menu, you won't have to wait an hour to be seated (you may even be able to make a reservation!), and you won't have to be ashamed of all the calories you mysteriously consumed.

Read other reviews here: