Cheesecake Factory Lunch Menu: Where It Saves You Money, and Where It Doesn't
Lunch Favorites is mostly the dinner menu in smaller portions at lower prices. Mostly. The flatbreads cost more at lunch for exactly the same calories, and nobody prints that.
Short answer
The Cheesecake Factory's Lunch Favorites menu lists 39 dishes at $12.50 – $29.50. 37 of them also appear on the dinner menu. 28 are cheaper at lunch, by $5.76 on average and up to $10.00, usually in a smaller portion. The 7 flatbreads go the other way and cost more at lunch.
I expected a simple rule: lunch is the same food, smaller and cheaper. For pasta, salmon and salads that holds. For flatbreads it doesn't, and the gap runs the wrong way by several dollars.
Where lunch saves the most
Cajun Salmon tops the list at $10.00 less, and the calorie columns show what you're giving up: 1,250 calories at lunch against 1,570 at dinner. For most people the smaller plate is the better lunch anyway.
Where lunch costs more
Every flatbread on the lunch menu is priced above its dinner version, and the calories are identical, so you aren't getting a bigger portion for the money. The listing doesn't explain the difference. Until it does, I'd order flatbreads from the regular menu.
How much smaller the lunch portions are
Across the 28 dishes that shrink at lunch, the calorie cut runs from 6% to 43%, with a typical dish about 27% lighter. That's a real difference on a menu where dinner pastas pass 2,000 calories. 9 dishes don't shrink at all, the flatbreads and Renee's half sandwiches among them.
See every lunch dish with prices
When lunch is served
The Cheesecake Factory doesn't publish one national lunch schedule. The Los Angeles restaurant's own page, for example, lists its happy hour and weekend brunch times but no separate lunch window. If timing matters, call the restaurant, because a page online can't answer for your location.
Find your restaurant's hours and phone number
The lunch dishes people look up most
For what the rest of the menu costs, section by section, the price guide has the full breakdown.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Is the lunch menu cheaper than dinner?
- Usually. Of 37 dishes sold at both lunch and dinner, 28 cost less at lunch, by $5.76 on average. 7 cost more, and they're all flatbreads.
- Are lunch portions smaller?
- For most dishes, yes. 28 lunch plates carry fewer calories than their dinner versions, a median of 27% fewer. 9 show exactly the same calories at both meals.
- What time does lunch end at The Cheesecake Factory?
- There's no single national cut-off published. Restaurants set their own schedules, and even the restaurant's own location pages don't always list a separate lunch window, so call your restaurant before you plan around it.
- How many dishes are on the lunch menu?
- 39 items, priced $12.50 – $29.50, covering pastas, salads, salmon, flatbreads and sandwiches.