California Pizza Kitchen

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Quick service, quick refills, California strawberry salad thing was tasty and quite large. I have only been to CPK a couple times and this was a good experience.

From CPK
As a loyal guest we wanted to be the first to let you know that our Palo Alto California Pizza Kitchen on Cowper Street will be closed at the end of business on August 15, 2014.
We would like to thank you for your patronage and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and invite you to our nearby location at the Stanford Shipping Center. Also, please visit
for a complete list of our other locations.

Usually the CPK are kids friendly but this location disappointed us greatly. Went here with family and only one person ahead of us who just got seated and the waiter said 35 minutes wait. Seriously? Or was it because I was an Asian?
We will try again in the future to see if it happens again.

Returned there yesterday. We split a Caesar Salad. Husband had Tortilla Soup and a Chile Relleno. I had a sausage pizza. We both had Samuel Adams on tap. Everything was delicious and we’ll be back soon again. there are so few places in downtown where you can get a good meal and pay a fair price. Note: our server, Ariana, was outstanding.

I love their food. It’s a good place to come when you want to grab a quick lunch. Their staffing is just ok. I usually end up ordering their salads.

My son and I love this place. It’s tucked away and spacious. We love the bbq chicken pizza and shared a really good beet salad. I like to add grilled chicken to the salad, too! The cocktails here are very refreshing. Service is hit or miss; it was ok when we visited. But we can count on the nice ambiance and fun foods at pretty decent prices! The bathrooms are clean, too, which is comforting! Great place for kids and fun!

Ordered the chef salad (small) for lunch was really good. My son ordered the garlic chicken creamy pasta and my husband had the smashed pea and barley soup with the avocado spring rolls. Portion sizes are more than enough and we had to pack up the avocado spring rolls and the balance of the soup.

Very good food. Vegetarians get good variety. Chipotle Chicken pizza (without chicken) is specially good.

I just ate here a couple of hours ago as I was looking for somewhere to eat for dinner.
Pro: The wedge salad that I ordered for an appetizer was good with lots of applewood smoke bacon and crumbling cheese with ranch dressing.
Cons: Their specialty pizza was good. Just not great. It was pretty difficult to separate into slices, if you know what I mean. Another negative was the service. The service was so-​so. It was OK in the beginning, but not the longer that I ate here. The waiter disappeared for a long while. And when I saw the waiter, he was busy talking to fellow employees (dishwasher, servers, etc,).
I would not recommend this particular CPK.

Always a fan of their caramelized peach salad and California club pizza! Delicious. Also really enjoyed the freshly baked bread they gave to us with olive oil and basil. They gave us two portions of that — definitely very good!

Server: Richard
I had an amazing FIRST TIME EVER experience. Food was great.

I was shocked to hear that California Pizza Kitchen refuses to address the issue of dehorning by their cheese suppliers. The company has been educated about the cruelty of burning calves with hot irons and caustic chemicals as well as the proven solution of breeding for naturally hornless, or «polled,» cows. Instead, young calves fight back in pain and fear as their horn tissue is painfully destroyed.
I won’t eat at California Pizza Kitchen. I won’t remove this review until the company starts acknowledging the problem and take necessary actions.

Not a single wine glass in the entire restaurant is clean. All of them are covered with gross spots and greasy fingerprints. After asking for a new glass twice, I asked that they just take one of them and actually go wash it. They claimed to have done so, but the glass was still just disgusting. I have no idea how they thought that was clean. I ended up drinking out if the carafe, it was too gross.
The whole thing makes me worry what their kitchen is like… it’s probably filthy.
I don’t recommend this place.

Sometimes I get sick of Pluto’s, so I opt to get a Moroccan Chicken Salad at CPK. Gotta love e’m beets! The pizza is just okay. Actually, I kind of like the frozen CPK pizza more than what they got in the restaurant.
The one really cool thing about this place is that the staff is super attentive, and my girl Kelli comes here frequently enough and the waitress knows her order and is very accomodating to her barely-​any-​veggie policy.

I came here a few months ago and really enjoyed it — food was delicious and our server (he was new and I think his name was Eduardo) was really attentive and overall a perfect, friendly waiter who seemed to enjoy his job. :)
I’m looking forward to coming back and trying some other things on their menu! The BBQ chicken pizza and salad are reeeeallly good though.

Every time I have work in downtown PA, I always have to make a stop here for a mango iced tea. Theres a guy by the name of Richard. He’s an excellent employee. He automatically knows my order and also brings me complimentary bread. He also converses with other customers and makes their time spent more pleasant. He’s quick on ringing tabs and serving orders as well! He has a great personality for the job.
Make sure to stop by during lunch to get your orders from him! Thanks Richie!

Great roasted vegetable salad. Good service

Had heard of CPK before but never stopped in. Came here on a whim b/​c I was across the street taking care of some business at the sprint store. Will not be back.
The service was friendly enough, the atmosphere was nice, the décor looked a little more upscale than I expected (but then again, this is PA sooooooo)
The food was NOT good. I ordered the mac and cheese… thought I was ordering a small plate of macaroni and cheese baked with a panko crumb topping. Guess I read the menu wrong??? What I GOT was like those deep fried macaroni and cheese bites… BLECH! 1. I’m not the type that agrees that «everything tastes better deep fried»…it’s a HORRIBLE way to treat food! But I still decided to give it a try mostly cuz I was really hungry. Not only was the greasy taste overwhelming, the damned mac n cheese just tasted like mush! I tried REAALLLYYY HARRDD to taste the cheese, like– I was FOCUSED. but nope. No go.
The other order was fish tacos. I like my fish tacos on corn tortillas and they use flour, but otherwise it was «ok» nothing special. the fish was a little dry but whatever.
The chips and salsa they gave was again «ok» the salsa had some type of super bitter taste to it, threw most of it away.
OH! They gave me two sourdough bread slices and butter (not sure why, had NOTHING to do with what I ordered)…but MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM! Hellla soft and sour doughy!!! YUMMMY! LOL.

Longtime Pizza Kitchen fan as is. Eaten at a few but choosing this one to review because I used to live just around the corner.
And with 50% off ‘thank you promo card coupons’, I don’t mind friends and family joining in to chow down.
California Pizza Kitchen is consistent and reliably good. I can always find something here to satisfy my taste buds.
For appetisers, the Steak tacos were kind of small and extremely spicy, but not bad. Surprisingly tasty were the Steamed dumplings with sweet and sour sauce.
Finally tried the thing that made CPK its fortune: the signature Barbeque chicken pizza. With fresh pineapple topping, it’s really good… cannot disagree. Also have enjoyed Greek pizza on wheat crust with tzatzkiki sauce and goat cheese. Wild mushroom pizza with chicken was just kind of alright.
Besides their specialty, CPK also puts together some pretty good pasta combos. I’m not usually much of a capellini aficionado, but Grilled salmon with capers and capellini was delicious.
A friend liked the Four cheese ravioli but it really should have been a bigger portion. Tequila lime chicken, though heavy and rich, is always a winner.
Cocktails at California Pizza Kitchen aren’t powerful, but remember, this is a family place. The fact that they even offer any cocktails is already a plus. Asian plum martini was a bit too ginger-​y. Sort of reminded me of medicine too. Strawberry mojito, though, was nice and refreshing.
Seldom do I have room for a final course after gorging on the main dishes here. But there was this one ‘limited edition’ dessert California Pizza Kitchen had, years ago, which blew. my. mind. They weren’t kidding on the limited time. It was there for maybe a month, and then deep-​sixed from the menu. Not to be seen. Ever again. :{
O, Sticky Toffee Pudding Cake with scoop of Häagen-​Dazs… I’m sorry you weren’t popular enough. You’re now on the dessert menu in heaven. You must be– you were so exquisite and phenomenal. Pizza Kitchen is a dammned fool for not keeping you. But I will never forget our time together.
*cue Whitney*
«And Iiiiiiiiiiii-​ee-​iiiiii…»
Other than that to-​this-​day unexplained and tragic loss…
(well yes, the diva too, but I meant my precious dessert)
…I am quite the happy CPK kamper.
:D