Examiner reviews The Cheesecake Factory

The Cheesecake Factory is located at 101 Jordan Creek Parkway in West Des Moines' Jordan Creek Town Center.

Much like it's surroundings in Jordan Creek, The Cheesecake Factory is a huge, fancy building full of overpriced items that you can't get a parking space anywhere near.  Don't get me wrong, if you want somewhere to go  for a fabulous, decadent dessert, The Cheesecake Factory is the place.  However, if you are looking for a place to eat a full meal, you might want to go somewhere else.

The Cheesecake Factory offers a 13-page menu of American, Cajun, Italian, Mexican, and Asian cuisine, breakfasts, salads, steaks, seafood, sandwiches, and, of course, desserts.  With such a variety of dishes, there is something for every taste.  The problem is that by dividing their focus between all these different dishes, they have spread themselves too thin.  Their prices are too high to do anything average, and that is what most of their entrees are...average.  When your prices go up to $31.95 for an entree, people expect better.  At those prices good is not good enough.

There is one thing, as stated above, that The Cheesecake Factory does do spectacularly well...desserts.  With 31 different flavors of cheesecake and 14 other specialty and ice cream desserts, TCF knows how to satisfy your sweet tooth.  Pictured on the right on a full-sized entree plate, their 30th Anniversary Chocolate Cake Cheesecake is a rich, fudgy, truffle cream-topped masterpiece big enough to be dessert for two. 

So don't let the fancy building and the novel-sized menu fool you.  The Cheesecake Factory is all about average meals at extraordinary prices.  So for once, it is o.k. to skip dinner and go straight to dessert-- in fact, I highly recommend it.