California Pizza Kitchen — Restaurant in Arcadia

I encourage any undercover food inspector and food critic to come and evaluate the service at this location. As a loyal CPK customer, I usually go to the Pasadena location but I was shopping at the Santa Anita mall and therefore thought I’d give this location a try, even though it was an overstimulating environment (busy Saturday nigh), for this #ActuallyAutistic.

I decided to sit at the bar due to the long wait list. The bartender and entry host are the only reason I’m giving this review a one star (otherwise it would’ve been a zero). The management team (Tai & Brittany); including their favored staff who stood idle, ate in the cooking/service area, texted and huddled in the corner, while the other team members were non-stop servicing, are the reason I’m taking the time to write this review.

I waited for approximately 15-minutes to get the attention of both management and idle staff, for a water refill. Brittany had the audacity to challenge my concern of her poor management and customer service (e.g., poor leadership - setting the example to the rest of the staff and patriarchal treatment - interacting with the gentleman sitting next to me, who came after me, while ignoring me), by invalidating my frustration of my food growing cold (inedible) as I waited for a water refill, by pointing out that I had the glass of wine I had ordered available, if I was truly thirsty.

The management duo took no ownership of their unprofessionalism and were visibly annoyed by my feedback, assuming I wanted my food to be comped (which I declined). Instead I requested that management team “do better” at their job in the food service industry. Brittany’s and Tai’s response to my customer service request, was huddling in the corner with the idle workers and looking at my direction in laughter.

As someone who works in a multidisciplinary team, I will definitely not be coming back here under this unqualified management crew. I simply wanted to enjoy my dinner while watching the Jaguars/Chargers NFL game; which unfortunately,...

How have I not reviewed this place already? I used to come here a lot when I was younger, since my cousins from Korea would like to come here. I came here for the first time in a couple of years, however, this past August with a couple of friends after we had watched a movie at AMC. The CPK is large with both indoor and "patio" seating (still indoor however) and we were able to be seated immediately. Service was pretty good since we came here for an early dinner and the place was not yet completely busy.

CPK used to have this Chicken Tikka Masala pizza that I absolutely loved, but then they took it off the menu. That upset me, which is why I avoided coming here for a couple of years--nothing here is as good as that pizza! :P Anyway, we decided to split two pizzas between the three of us. We wanted to try some new styles, so we ordered the following:

1. CALIFORNIA CLUB: Nueske's applewood smoked bacon, roasted chicken and Mozzarella, hearth-baked then topped with avocado, arugula, torn basil and Romaine tossed in lemon-pepper mayonnaise. -- This seriously looked like a salad on top of a pizza. So much arugula and Romaine! The greens were a bit overwhelming; I'm not a fan of salads so I didn't care for this pizza very much. I did appreciate that each pizza slice got its own avocado slice, but there wasn't enough bacon for my liking. My friends seemed to like this pizza though.
2. SPICY CHIPOTLE CHICKEN: Chipotle adobo sauce, shaved poblanos, Monterey Jack with housemade roasted corn & black bean salsa, cilantro and lime crema. -- While this was a bit spicier than I expected, I ended up liking this pizza more than the California Club. It was more flavourful and I do love corn on pizzas.

CPK has always been a decent choice for lunch/dinner. This location is convenient since it is at the mall, so if you are already there shopping why not stop by for a meal? I still have yet to find a pizza I really love here (that is still on the menu), but I definitely don't mind coming here every now and then...

My sister and I visited this restaurant for a mid-afternoon meal. After being seated and looking at the menu, we waited for a server to approach. Although we saw at least 3 to 4 servers delivering food to nearby tables and tried to draw their attention, including the server at the table right next to us, we were completely ignored. I asked the hostess to please find someone to take our orders and she left to do so, and I noticed after returning to our table that a couple of the servers were standing around doing nothing. The hostess brought us bread and herbed olive oil as we waited to be served; but still, nobody approached to take our orders or even bring glasses of water. I set my cellphone alarm for 5 minutes (it had already been 15 minutes since we sat down), and we decided to leave when that 5 minutes had elapsed. As we left, we told the hostess why we were leaving, and she sincerely apologized, but this was definitely the worst dining experience we’ve ever had. If you want good service, DO NOT go here. I’d give it zero stars, but the one star is for the poor hostess who tried to get the servers to get their lousy...