California Pizza Kitchen — Restaurant in Oak Brook

I haven't been to California Pizza Kitchen in a few years, although my family and I dined at this location quite often before the pandemic. Since it was my son's birthday, he chose to celebrate at California Pizza Kitchen in Oakbrook because it's always been his favorite restaurant. It was 45 minute drive for our family, and when we arrived there was a wait because it was busy. We asked to be seated at one of their large booths and we're told the one next to the door would be available because the party was almost finished. We were happy and said it would be perfect unless there was another booth in the center somewhere. The people sitting at the large booth next to the door left, but no one went to clean it off. We sat and waited, and taken into the restaurant and were seated together at 3 hightop tables that were pushed together and shared by a long bench seat on one side of the table. Chairs were on the other The other side. Where I sat was located directly on the crack between the two bench cushions and my place setting was also situated between 2 of the tables right on the crack. The bench seat was incredibly uncomfortable because we are not tall, and the foot rest was situated too low to the ground, so we were unable to reach it to rest our dangling feet. Also, the bench seat was not wide enough to rest our thighs, so we had to hold our legs up the whole time. Not an enjoyable or relaxing dining experience whatsoever. In fact, it was quite a workout just to sit and eat. Also, the food was not as good as it has been in the past either. My husband and I got salmon which was pretty dry. I remember it melting in my mouth. My daughter got Fettuccine Alfredo that did not look appetizing at all. The pasta was dark colored and gray in appearance. It was also very hard. Perhaps the pasta was slightly undercooked or had been reheated. The rest of my family ordered pizza which they seemed to enjoy. We decided not to complain about the quality of the two salmon meals and the Fettuccine Alfredo, nor did we complain about how extremely uncomfortable the hightop bench seating was, although I'm pretty sure it was obvious because we kept squirming and shifting our weight. I wanted to ask for a different table when we sat down, but a few that were sitting in chairs discouraged me from doing so since we had already waited for quite some time to be seated. They didn't know how uncomfortable we were, otherwise they would have agreed. I think they wished they had becauze we were sitting directly across from the kitchen and got so overheated. I hope my review helps others wanting to dine at California Pizza Kitchen in Oakbrook. My recommendation would be to ask for a regular height table/booth as you check in. I really wish we were given the option before sitting us at the hightop. All I know is that we asked for a large booth that would accommodate our family, but instead got a side with a booth and the other with chairs. Not at all what...

Changing my rating from last time we were here: We went after girl's flag football State game. Waited for 10-15 minutes to be acknowledged at the door. There were only 2 other tables with multiple employees, so it was not like they were busy enough to not address us. Lights are burnt out in the bathroom. I had to use my phone's light for my 6 year-old to do her business. The light showed the grossness and broken aspects of the women's bathroom that would otherwise to unseen. When they finally sat us, the table was sticky and matched the bathroom. We should have left at that point, but this is a special treat that we only pick once every couple of years... and we thought it might just be bad luck on our part. Server barely acknowledged us the whole time we were there. Service took forever. We watched other people who came after us and order after us get their service from our server and food before us. Food came out cold and incorrect. When we addressed it with our server she lied to our faces and told us that's just how they make it here and the pictures and on the menu and flyers on the table were wrong. Even the bus woman came over and asked us to pass her our plates. She had waited for every other table to leave before bussing them but ours apparently needed to be taken care of while we were still there. We took the food home for our teenager to eat at a later time. Husband didn't mind the mistakes and optimistically said it was a way to try new things. My 6 year-old ending up refusing her mac and cheese because it was cold. Mine was drowning in BBQ sauce which was under the pizza and then zigzagged over the pizza (not like the picture but they do it differently there according to our server because a chain restaurant apparently doesn't make good consistenly). Interestingly enough, the bill with the survey disappeared after our card was returned for payment. However, I had a feeling this might happen. I took a picture of it before it originally left the table. I was very surprised when my husband voiced similar opinion that I was feeling about our experience when we got into the car. There are many other options to where to can get food in the Willowbrook/Oak Brook...

Went there at 5:00 today (Monday) and there was probably only 5-6 other tables being served. I arrived before my friend who was en route upstairs. I told the hostess I would wait for her to arrive. After only a minute of standing there, the hostess said she would be seating me now even though I explained I was waiting for a friend. Fine, not a big deal. We were seated at 5:05. 5:35 rolled around and we still had not been seen by a waiter or waitress though multiple servers including the same hostess from before AND a manager had passed us. There was probably only 3-4 other tables that had been seated in that amount of time and half the restaurant was still empty, so it was not by any means chaotically busy. We finally flagged down the hostess and said we’d been waiting here for 30 minutes, and instead of an apology or offering to get us waters all we got as an “Okay I’ll find your waitress.” It took another five minutes before we finally got a waitress who gave a half apology with the excuse that no one had told her it was her table. Perhaps this was true but I was still a bit upset that literally no one questioned our presence for the last half hour. We were luckily able to get our drinks and food in a fast amount of time. However, it had maybe been just 10-15 minutes later while we were both still actively eating when the waitress rounded on us and asked if she wanted her to take our plates. We were both still actively eating and there was nothing to indicate we were done eating; in fact I was mid-bite! All that sitting there and waiting and now it felt as though we were being rushed out.

I have prior serving experience and am one to sympathize with understaffed and overworked restaurants, but that was not the situation today. There was a clear lack of communication, willingness to act, and hospitality and I will not be dining at this...