This Is Why You’re Fat: Cheesecake Factory
My problem with The Cheesecake Factory isn’t that it serves cheesecake that is merely average, it’s that it serves food in ridiculously enormous portions. I’m talking portions that leave me angry because if they would only give me half of the food (the amount I’m capable of eating in one sitting), they could charge me half the price, thus leaving me just as full but with a fatter wallet.
My general rule of thumb for restaurants is as follows: the crappier the food, the more they give you. The thing about the Cheesecake Factory that gets me, is that it violates everything I know about how to judge restaurants. Don’t get me wrong, their food is just okay. It’s not terrible, compared to say, Old Country Buffet or Olive Garden, but it is just okay. But unlike OCB or Olive Garden, it would still be good in a normal sized portions— there is no need for the insane amount of it. You know what I’m talking about- the restaurants where patrons leave talking more about how MUCH food they got rather than the QUALITY of the food. I am especially weary of those leaving restaurants who tell me “the portions were SO SMALL!!!!” You might as well tell me that you have no taste buds. Yet Cheesecake Factory patrons don’t talk about how MUCH food they got. They talk about how GOOD it is, thus violating my basic restaurant rule.
Needless to say, I think I have their marketing strategy figured out. It’s all about cost of marketing versus cost of food. It must be cheaper to double the amount of food on your plate (food being extremely cheap), than the cost of maintaining a national marketing campaign. A ridiculously huge portion size almost guarantees that you will carry your take home baggie throughout the mall, which so happens to be where all of their restaurants are located. Cheap, effective marketing.
Example A: The “lunch sized” portion of the Santa Fe Salad, dressing on the side (so that I can take home half and eat it for dinner without it getting soggy):
No wonder America is fat. This is a serving size? This can feed and has fed two people. No really, when my mom used to come and “check in on me” in college, we would meet at Old Orchard to shop and then get lunch. We would split an appetizer, the bread, a “lunch sized” salad and then a piece of cheesecake, leaving completely stuffed (and only completely finishing the cheesecake). Suffice to say, this meal was both my lunch and dinner that day.
I guess to put it simply, it annoys me that the entree portions are so ridiculously large at a restaurant where people are just waiting to get to course with the namesake dish, cheesecake.
But anyway, Grannie and I still had a great time, regardless of portion sizes.
Grannie and me, in our annual birthday lunch photo.
Can’t wait for next year!
