California Pizza Kitchen at The Shops on El Paseo — Restaurant in Palm Desert

The worst CPK experience I’ve ever had bar none and this was not my first bad experience at this location. The last time half of my to go order was wrong when I got home. I learned the lesson of always checking a to go orders before leaving a restaurant. Since I rarely get take out I missed that lesson previously. This time we dined in for lunch. We ordered the avocado egg rolls and a bar-b- q chicken salad which I’ve ordered many times without incident over the many years of CPK patronage. The egg rolls tasted fine but I did observe they were overcooked in the fryer. Not enough to not eat or send back. We had split the salad and as I ate part of my half I commented that it didn’t taste right Something was changed or missing. It was then that I figured out the key ingredient…..the bar-b-q sauce had been left off. I brought this to the attention of our server and since we were under a time constraint I didn’t have time for them to make a new one. I did ask why food was leaving the line without being checked for accuracy and quality. Her answer was to send her surly poorly customer service trained manager CJ Lamb over. He proceeded to tell me he would give me a partial credit for the portion of the salad we had eaten. I told him I didn’t seek or want a credit, I just wanted the food that I ordered to come out right. I insisted on paying the full price. With no apology offered he took my folio and went to the register only to return after applying the discount that I had insisted he not do. Clearly the customer’s wishes mean nothing to this guy.. Rather than argue further I just added it back to the tip and left vowing never to return. I rate the food quality a 1 and the service a strong 0. Clearly this is a management issue at this particular location since I’ve had nothing but the exact opposite experience at the many CPK locations around the country. I rate this location a...

We were here at 1:30 pm on 11/19/23 for lunch with my girlfriend and they gave us horrible service and the food was disgusting. Place wasn't even busy but you can tell it was so disorganized. Took 15 minutes from the time we sat down in the bar area at a high top table before someone came to us to ask us for a drink. Ordered everything one shot drinks and food. First the drink came out espresso martini it had a small fly or mosquito floating on top with the coffee beans. Got sent back for a sprite took took 10 minutes for server to bring sprite. Next the food we ordered a Caesar salad with no chicken extra dressing on the side and vegetarian pizza with goat cheese. Food came out together. The salad had chicken when we didn't order it with chicken and told him from beginning we don't want chicken on salad please. Then pizza came out it was hard, cold and no goat cheese on top when we ordered with goat cheese. Told waiter there is no goat cheese on top of pizza said it was on the ticket he turned in maybe they forgot to put it on top. He said he would get us on the side goat cheese we said no it's ok but we were upset and really didn't want to eat. We did hear many people around us complaining about the service and the food. We asked for the check left most of the plates full and told each other never here again. Even if you’re short staffed there is no excuse for not presenting good food and service. Can't give that kind of presentation to a paying customer. It would be easier for everyone employees and customers to close up shop for the day and start fresh the next day if having issues with employees and service. No excuses from management. If there are any managers or supervisors...

I was excited to try this for the first time. Parking is in the back of restaurant, no problem with that, but the walkway going into the back of the kitchen was filthy and sticky and you had to walk passed and on that if you stayed on the sidewalk. This was not one days dirt and a sadly overlooked detail which is your first impression of your restaurant. We waited about 20 minutes as third in line not terribly bad and hostess was pleasant. Table service was slow and it wasn't packed. I ordered chicken picatta and my guest had the pizza and salad combo so we could try a couple things. The entree was very small and the chicken tasted like frozen tenders. I had to waves down a server after several minutes of being served asked if it was a lunch portion. I was curtly told no and not asked if everything else was OK. The sauce itself was OK. The pizza was actually really good. They should stick with that. The other turn off was the lack of overall cleanliness. The wood floors had a film of grim that can't be swept away, ( floors again ) the barstools at counter being used for to go orders only, were caked in dust we could see from quite a way off, pizza boxes under counter thrown under the serving table and falling over everywhere, and steel appliances obviously needing to be cleaned. We were there early in the day for lunch so it started this way. This is probably why most restaurants don't have their service exposed to customers. We left feeling if the front of the house and the sidewalk leading into to the kitchen is this dirty, I shudder to think what the back of the...