The Cheesecake Factory Toronto
The Cheesecake Factory has its first ever Canadian location in Toronto at Yorkdale Shopping Centre.
The epic chain restaurant is known for its gargantuan menu of over 250 calorie-laden items in overwhelmingly generous portions, and of course over 50 even more over-the-top cheesecakes, all made in house with fresh ingredients.
The 287-seat restaurant is capable of adding a total of 94 more seats in the summer when they open their two patios. The sprawling space is decked out in the exact same style as every other Cheesecake Factory with warm tones, huge pillars, and sweeping curves.
They’re known for fusion-style snacks like avocado eggrolls, which are crispy on the outside and creamy and soft on the inside, cut on a delightfully extreme bias. Stuffed with avocado, sun-dried tomato, red onion and punchy cilantro, they’re served with a thin but tasty tamarind-cashew dipping sauce.
Alternately there are the Tex Mex eggrolls, stuffed with individually roasted chicken, corn and peppers with onion, black beans, melty cheese, served with an avocado cream topped with a spicy oil as well as chunky salsa.
A variety of mini tacos including grilled steak are on offer. Chargrilled steak strips are juicy, topped with tomato, avocado, a spicy chipotle sauce that runs down your arm, cilantro and crispy onions for texture, all in a soft corn tortilla shell.
The “Everything” pizza seems a tad oversold to me, topped with pepperoni, sausage, onions, mushrooms, and mozzarella, but it’s a classic combo of toppings with the option to add Kalamata olives.
Truffle-honey chicken sees fried chicken breast drizzled with a sweet coating atop a mound of mashed potatoes flecked with red skins and asparagus.
The presentation is a little dated, the chicken a little like an overgrown tender and the truffle-honey flavour is pretty subtle, but the veg are surprisingly good, and this is one of those hearty dishes that'll have you calling uncle halfway through.
Rich, decadent, creamy cheesecake comes in popular flavours like strawberry or red velvet, which features layers of original cheesecake and red velvet cake topped with cream cheese frosting.
They’re also no stranger to trendy confetti-covered, colourful pastel birthday cheesecake.
The Oreo dream extreme cheesecake is a winner for me. Oreo cookies are baked right into the cheesecake layered with fudge, Oreo mousse, and milk chocolate icing.
A special machine contains cream with a nozzle that whips it fresh every time as it’s squirted onto each plate of cheesecake.
There are as many options for mojitos and martinis as everything else here, including passion fruit or pineapple.
Yorkdale has also been home to Rainforest Cafe, Milestones and even a Jamie Oliver restaurant over the years, and now Cheesecake Factory joins that illustrious legacy.
Hector Vasquez