California Pizza Kitchen

CPK is usually a 5 star experience for me but tonight was lackluster.
I brought my brother and two younger cousins to try it out. We’re Asian so while we’re actually all in our early 20s, we look probably like mid-​teens. I feel like our appearances factored into our treatment.
We were seated by a lovely older group and there was another older couple across from us. The couple beside us was helped at least twice as often as us, and the waitress would glance at us and then skip over us to the other table across to ask about how they were doing. I had to flag them down to get refills on drinks, bread, and spoons because our plates of food didn’t come with spoons like usual. Kat was our waitress and while we had to flag her down to get things, she had an amicable personality.
The fettuccine was a little bland this time, and I usually love it. They were generous with the shrimp though! The pesto penne on the other hand had only a bare sprinkling of tomatoes (my favorite part). It’s kind of hit and miss with how much tomatoes are given in the penne dishes as far as my experience goes.
The bolognese and asparagus spaghettini were delicious except my cousin said that the chicken was salty. It surprised me that she had a complaint because she’s really easy to please with food lol.
The receipt given didn’t outline the breakdown of costs as well which was weird.
Overall, it was an average experience. The food was simply okay, despite spending $ 100+ for the entirety. With that much, I would expect a better experience like CPK usually offers me. The service was lackluster as well, and there wasn’t the excuse of a busy night, which I always take into consideration when rating service. I’m a little sad that it wasn’t better because my cousins now have an average opinion of CPK when I know it can and has been better.

Been here 3 times. Customer service is quick and friendly. They’re constantly checking on you to make sure everything meets your standards! It’s not to the point of suffocating you either. Servers are always around if you have a question and they make sure your entrees arrive in a timely manner — something everyone I’ve been here with appreciates.
Recently it was a Thursday night and the host reassured my group that our server will come momentarily. I think his name was Bob. He was very friendly and welcoming to us! Informative and helpful with our orders. When the check came, we asked for it to be split by entrees, which he happily fulfilled for us! Go Bob!
The food is always spot on delicious. No complaints. Perhaps if you’re hungry for pasta, you should go to another place since my friend wanted more servings of it after his plate.
Clean, professional, timely in food delivery… And is it a thing that they hold the doors open for you when you enter and exit? Because that’s pretty neat!

I just want to share a story 2 years ago I went to this place it was St. Patricks day and ordered green beer the server said they don’t serve green beer but she will ask the bartender. The guy was so nice he made one for me! Very good service and good food!

My boyfriend and I come here all the time! Staff is very nice all the time, attentive. Great food, great costumer service, reasonable pricing and great place!

It is a CPK. Not sure what else needs to be said. The staff is friendly, and the menu is corporate. They are now known for popularizing Wolfgang Puck’s (and others’) concept of «California Pizzas,» non-​traditional toppings and sauses on a traditional pizza base. The food is good and consistent, and they have decent pastas and salads as well. Like Cheesecake Factory, if someone in your group can’t find something they like on the menu, then you don’t need that type of person in your life. But if this is their favorite restaurant (or Cheesecake Factory is), you probably don’t need them in your life either.

I don’t think I’d go back. I went here while it wasn’t that busy but it still took a long time to order and get the bill. I specifically ask for goat cheese, when I got my pizza, there was no goat cheese on it! When I mentioned it to the waitress she said“I’m sorry, I wrote no goat cheese” (goat cheese is an option you request for a dollar and a half more! !!)
Later manager comes by and brings a little plate with goat cheese and says“at least you are getting your goat cheese now” !!!

This location was just fully renovated not too long ago. I attended a Unilocal elite event in Irvine and was able to try almost everything on the menu. I’m not here to write a review about their pizza even though this is a pizza place. Surprisingly the best thing on their menu is the ribeye steak. It’s USDA Prime beef and cooked medium rare to perfection. I never thought I would get a steakhouse quality cut at my local pizza place. Make sure to change it up and give a steak a try next time you hit up CPK.

Ambience: A
Cleanliness: A
Customer Service: A++++++
Food: A
Overall Rating: A+
Price
–Its a little price for a pizza place, but the portion sizes are huge. I wouldn’t go here every day of the week but for a special occasion it’s not bad.
Atmosphere
–It has a sort of fancy/​casual feel to it… it’s certainly not fine dining, but it doesn’t feel like you’re at a fast food joint either.
Customer Service
–I can’t say enough good things about our waitress! We had come here after a long day in Disneyland (and having a bad breakfast experience at another restaurant) and our waitress was just amazing! She was funny, spunky and had a great laugh that just made all our stress melt away.
Food
–The Waldorf salad was on point! The BBQ pizza was also delicious and the two other people at my table said their food was amazing as well.
Overall
–I love this place! Certainly will have to stop back next time I’m in Cali.

Hostess was friendly and made us feel welcomed right away. The free bread is delicious and difficult to turn down. Highly recommend the BBQ chicken pizza and harvest kale salad.

Do not order curbside!
Called and placed my order and put my name and car information no food order. My husband ended up waiting over a hour and I had to call and be transferred 10 times to replace my order only to have them mess it up.
Get it together!

First of all, I hate to give a one star.
I ordered take out in person and didn’t realize the girl never input one of the items I had wanted, whatever, I ordered more than enough food for a lunch so didn’t bother me at the time. Waited a while and finally got my food.
I ordered the Tuscan hummus with no tomato. Guess what I found when I got home, tomato! I also ordered the asparagas and spinach pasta, so disappointing as it was too salty. I fed it to my husband who usually likes his food well seasoned and he said it was unbearably salty! If I had dined in that definitely would have been sent back to the kitchen. What a sucky experience.

Oddly enough, the first time I ever went to CPK was when I lived in Atlanta, Georgia. That means I have loved their BBQ chicken chopped salad for 15 years or more. Since we’re visiting family in Cali, I was excited that they chose to meet at CPK because I hadn’t been to one since those days in the A-​T-​L.
We arrived around 4:15 and it took them a few minutes to set up the tables for nine of us. Over the next hour or so the restaurant filled up, but at the time we ordered, the place was about ¹⁄₃ full. Bread with olive oil and the appetizers we ordered came out quickly, but there was a long wait between appetizers and our entrees.
Our waitress was thrown off her game a little when she accidentally spilled a large soda and it splattered all over the table and some of us. It took a while to clean up and after that she seemed a bit sheepish, although she was very attentive to our drink refill requests.
I would recommend CPK of you have 1. a lot of time and 2. a large family or kids. Overall the process of getting your food takes a while. And it’s so loud in there that it doesn’t matter if your kids are being loud, it just adds to the noise. It was perfect for us because there were two little ones and two teens in our party. But I remember seeing dismayed looks on couples’ faces — maybe at not having received their food or because they couldn’t hold a conversation with each other.
Overall it was great to spend time with family, but the speed and execution of the service could stand improvement. The reason I’m giving three stars instead of two: the BBQ Chicken Salad is just as delicious as it was all those years ago.

Can’t go wrong here… always new items to try and service is tops!

Good great
Service good
Noise level ridiculous was told knob broken and the volume was as low as it could go!

Meeting a few a my kids for dinner so my son came up with CPK. of course we’ve been to this and other locations many times over the years, just wanted to mention this particular visit.
The staff was extremely friendly and very helpful. They did recently remodel this local, now it has a bistro/​café feel! Food good as always as is the overall value! Of course for me seeing a few a my grown children was the biggest kick of the night!!!

Nice spot, very clean and nice staff. Food came in pretty quick. We had a party of 13 and we had a good time with the very fresh food! I got jambalaya and it was so good. Very flavorful and had a bit of a spicy kick to it.

I hadn’t been to a California Pizza Kitchen in such a long time. We were at the Mainplace (Westfield Mall) recently and wanted to grab a quick bite to eat before meeting our friends at the movie theater.
We were really hungry and decided to split a couple of items. We were surprised by how delicious our meals were here.
We ordered the BBQ Chicken Pizza and a BBQ Chicken Salad. Both were so good! I must admit that this salad was one of the best BBQ Chicken Salads I’d had in a while.
The service was great here too. We were seated right away. Our drinks were brought out quickly and refilled often. Our food was served hot. The employees were all friendly and helpful here too.
I’m not sure if we’ll be going back to CPK anytime soon, but if if I’m at the Mainplace Mall, I’ll make sure to get that delicious salad or order that yummy pizza to-​go!

Located at the Mainplace Mall on the second floor next to the Applebee’s. It’s a little dark inside in my opinion, but room-​y. Came during a weeknight for dinner and there was a good crowd, but not too busy.
What we got:
Complimentary Bread: first batch, the bread was super hard and semi-​cold. Second batch, bread was much softer and warm. The oil that it came with was okay… I’ve had better.
Red Wine Flight ($ 12): came with 3 oz glasses of Markham Merlot, Ravenswood ‘Vintner’s Blend’ Zinfandel, and J. Lohr Seven Oaks Cabernet Sauvignon. I didn’t try it since I’m not a wine person… but my BF said the Ravenswood was definitely is favorite one.
Kung Pao Spaghetti w/​Chicken ($ 11 + $ 3 for chicken): so my co-worker’s husband made this one day for a potluck during work so I had to try it here… my co-worker’s husband makes it better! Comes with green onions, peanuts and chili peppers. Noodles could have been cooked just a little more because it was still a bit on the hard side. Kung pao taste wasn’t that strong, but it had a whole bunch of peanuts. Small portion for $ 14 too…
Hawaiian BBQ Chicken ($ 14): comes with 8 slices with bbq chicken, pineapple, red onions, and cilantro. Good? Yes. Better than the kung pao spaghetti.
Service:
Our server was excellent. BF was having a hard time deciding what to get, but our server didn’t rush us and would come back every few minutes to see if we were ready to order yet. Water cups were always filled. Trash/​dirty plates were taken away pretty quick. Check came and left fast. To-​go boxes came out quick too.

I still love my CPK Pizzas… especially the Thai Chicken.
I pay the vig (an extra $ 1.50) and get my pizzas on thin crust. Not only do I like the crispiness of thin crusts better, it also increases the size of the pizza by about 25%. It turns a personal pizza into a huge personal pizza.
We’ve all pretty much been to CPKs so there’s not too much need for me to go on and on about them. They do try to reinvent their side dishes and experiment with new pastas and pizzas about once a year, but their core signature dishes have always remained on the menu.
Thai Chicken Pizza on Thin Crust — I love the crispy crust that is smothered with peanut hoisin sauce, chicken chunks, bean sprouts, julienned carrots and green onion slivers. It’s an unbeatable mix.
Chinese Chicken Salad — Pricey for the amount you get, but I love it. A hoisin sauce and peanut based dressing with chicken, cilantro, green onions and carrots with fried wonton skins.
The service at this location is good. They are always quick to take my order, offer me complimentary bread, and they have yet to mess up an order. They haven’t failed me yet in 10 years, which keeps me coming back for work lunch breaks.

Met up with my sister to have lunch here about a week ago. I was never really fond of CPK’s food since I thought their pizzas were small and overpriced but my sister apparently liked this place a lot so I met her here for lunch.
It was semi-​busy but the service was nice — the waitress was very friendly and quick.
We ordered two small plates and an entrée to share. We had the White Corn Guacamole and chips and the Shaved Mushroom and Spinach Flatbread. They were both pretty tasty small plates and it’s pretty filling if you order two or three of them. The entrée we had shared was the Garlic Cream Fettuccine — I was surprised that it was pretty good — the white chicken pieces were juicy and the garlic cream sauce was really good and creamy.
I guess their food wasn’t as bad as I had tried before — well at least the small plates and pasta. Though I still think the pizzas are overpriced and small.