This woman said ordering food at a restaurant shouldn’t be nearly as expensive as it is. Here’s why.
We’ve all had the experience at a restaurant where we see a simple food item—be it scrambled eggs, an olive appetizer, or a simple salad—marked up so high that we can’t even justify ordering it, knowing it’s just so much cheaper and pretty simple to make at home.
That’s what happened to this woman, who was stunned by Cheesecake Factory‘s pricing.
She said it represents a much larger issue in the United States.
Cheesecake Factory called out
In a trending video with more than 84,000 views, TikToker Daven Drew said the Cheesecake Factory’s price for a simple meal was ridiculous.
“Please explain to me why pasta from the Cheesecake Factory is $17.32,” Drew said.
Now, you may be thinking that’s a fine, even standard price for a pasta dish, but the thing is, all Drew got were plain spaghetti noodles with no sauce or anything and a dollop of ricotta on top.
Drew called to add this to her order, so she didn’t know until pickup how much it would cost.
“It’s not gonna be more than about $6,” she said.
When she picked up her order, she was taken aback by the nearly $20 price.
Realizing she paid $17.32 “for some $.98 noodles,” Drew asked to speak with a manager. Before the manager even came over, the worker was able to adjust the price to $9.18.
The jump from a dollar pack of noodles to a $17 charge equals a 1,600% markup.
“So you’re telling me if I didn’t say anything,g I would have paid $17.32 at the Cheesecake Factory for some noodles and ricotta?” Drew said in disbelief.
A larger issue
“And this is why you guys will never convince me that there’s any sort of class consciousness,” Drew said in a follow-up video.
She was seemingly referring to the rhetoric that often gets pushed (think, the American dream) that places all of the responsibility of whether a person succeeds or fails on their individual effort without taking into account how systems (like inflation, lack of universal healthcare, the school to prison pipeline, racism, sexism, etc.) affect our collective reality.
Drew pointed out that she has multiple videos of her not only cooking but also showing people how to make tasty meals on a budget.
“But I chose to eat out one day, and you guys are blaming me for the fact that a company is charging $17.32 for plain pasta noodles. And your alternative is, ‘Just go to the grocery store and go buy a box of pasta noodles.’”
“I didn’t want to. The price of pasta noodles shouldn’t have been $17.32 at a restaurant, regardless of whether I wanted to cook or not. Are you serious?” she added.
Commenters react to Cheesecake Factory dilemma
“I never understand how pasta is such a cheap meal to make at home but when you get it at a restaurant it’s super expensive. Like why is spaghetti $15????” a top comment read.
“Cheesecake Factory has never been affordable but you should’ve ordered the kids meal pasta and its a nice portion too and like $6.99,” a person suggested.
@imdaven Cheesecake Factory i love sis but that was nasty work
♬ original sound – Imdavendrew
“I’ve never been there, do they have an order for plain noodles on the menu? Because if they don’t, they’re probably just taking ingredients off of an already priced menu item. Order somewhere else idk,” another said.
The Daily Dot reached out to Drew for comment via email and TikTok direct message and to The Cheesecake Factory via email.
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