Just How Bad For You Is The Cheescake Factory, Really?

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The Cheesecake Factory is just one of those restaurants: You assume it’s bad for you, but its larger-than-life cheesecake slices are just so darn good that you’d really rather not know how bad. Ignorance is bliss, right? So if you’ve been anxiously awaiting your chance to open that dictionary-like menu at the soon-to-come Center City location, I’m sorry to bring you this heart-wrenching news: The Center for Science in the Public Interest just released their annual Xtreme Eating awards, a list of nine outrageously bad-for-you meals at chain restaurants throughout the country, and the Cheesecake Factory took three out of the nine spots.

The restaurant’s first dish on the list is the Bruléed French Toast, with a whopping 2,780 calories and nearly one full week’s worth of saturated fat, at 93 grams. Oh, and 24 teaspoons of sugar. Then there’s the Farfalle with Chicken and Roasted Garlic, which, at first glance, doesn’t actually look like it would be that terrible for you: pasta, chicken, mushrooms, tomato, pancetta, peas and onion in a roasted garlic-parmesan cream sauce. But don’t let that description fool you: This pasta dish packs 2,410 calories. In other words, FIVE single-serve packages of Stouffer’s frozen chicken fetuccine alfredo. Say whaaat?!

Last on the list is—what else?—a slice of cheesecake. The Reese’s Peanut Butter Chocolate Cheesecake to be exact. One slice will cost you 1,500 calories and 43 grams of saturated fat.

And to think, all the times I’ve wondered to myself, How bad could one little slice of cheesecake really be? Man, the truth hurts.

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