Via iStockphoto / @mshoekimmf TikTok
A woman tried Cheesecake Factory’s viral cajun salmon after seeing it all over TikTok, but the plate left her underwhelmed.
Foods and dishes go viral all the time, often sending paying customers straight to the restaurants serving them so they can try them for themselves.
Some recent examples include Dubai chocolate, which has withstood the test of time and can now be considered a staple menu and grocery item.
Other viral moments also happen when restaurants bring back a deal or seasonal item, such as Olive Garden with it Never Ending Pasta Bowl deal and LongHorn Steakhouse with its lamb chops and Parmesan-crusted obsession.
As one can imagine, however, what you see in a food influencer’s review isn’t always what the average customer gets, and that can lead to disappointment.
That’s what recently happened with TikTok creator @mshoekimmf, who says Cheesecake Factory let her down when she went to try its recently viral Cajun salmon.
She shared her dissatisfaction on TikTok in a video that got over 128,700 views.
What Was Wrong With The Cajun Salmon At Cheesecake Factory?
“Respectfully, whichever one of you hoes recommended this on Cheesecake Factory need your a– whooped,” the TikToker begins.
She films the dish in front of her: a piece of crispy-looking salmon sitting over Cajun sauce, with buttered corn and a lemon wedge on the side. She appears to have ordered the mashed potatoes separately.
“This not what your plates look like,” she says. “So what did I do? What did I do wrong?”
Nothing about the salmon appears to have gone majorly wrong. However, the presentation is a little more disheveled than some of the polished versions that have gone viral online.
And for the price, she wasn’t impressed.
“Mind you, this is $30 salmon,” she says. “I could have made this at Publix for $14.”
She also wasn’t happy with the corn.
“Why the corn…” she says before adding, “Y’all need ya a– whooped. I’m hot about this one.”
Hoping to improve it, she asked for extra sauce on the side and poured it over the salmon.
“This is highly disappointing for $30 salmon,” she concludes.
Interestingly, the clip doesn’t appear to show her actually taking a bite. Her disappointment seems to be based largely on how the plate looked compared with what she’d seen online.
“To the ones who got the good stuff I’m jealous! This was not it, just disappointing,” she wrote in the caption.
What Is Cheesecake Factory’s Cajun Salmon Supposed To Look Like?
The Cheesecake Factory describes its Cajun salmon as a “Louisiana classic,” a blackened salmon dish served with Creole sauce, mashed potatoes, and buttered corn.
The dish has been going viral lately.
Earlier this month, professional tennis player Coco Gauff even referenced craving Cheesecake Factory’s Cajun salmon during the U.S. Open, after apparently seeing the dish all over her feed.
A big part of the dish’s virality appears to have come from creator @slayed_byshayyyy, whose video encouraging viewers to order extra sauce on the side with it gained millions of views.
Since then, other food creators have posted videos reviewing the dish, catapulting it into viral territory. One popular example includes food reviewer Keith Lee, who gave the dish a 9 out of 10, praising it for its taste and the freshness of the ingredients. That video got 3.2 million views, with commenters realizing it would soon be hard to get.
“Ain’t finna be a salmon in the ocean after this one,” one commenter under Lee’s video joked.
While @mshoekimmf’s plate doesn’t look that different from the dish shown in other videos, it does appear less neatly plated than some of the versions that helped make it popular.
@mshoekimmf To the ones who got the good stuff I’m jealous! This was not it, just disappointing #cheesecakefactory #fyp
BroBible has reached out to The Cheesecake Factory via email and @mshoekimmf via TikTok messages for comment.