California Pizza Kitchen at Plymouth Meeting Mall — Restaurant in Plymouth Township

It felt like we waited for an eternity last night. Right when we stepped in CPK, there was no host to greet us. At a distance, there was a group of workers talking to each other. No acknowledgement of for 2 minutes. I was so confused that I needed to check their hours on the door just to be sure they were not closing. Finally a host comes over and asks us if we needed two menus. We asked if there are any dairy free options on the menu. He was very confused, as if that was the very first time someone has asked him that question. He went back to check with the staff for a few minutes and returned confirming their ability to accommodate us.

We waited another 10 minutes at our table before being greeted. My wife ordered a glass of sparkling wine. I asked if the moscow mule could be made with Ketel One. The server wasn't sure and requested me to spell out the name of the Vodka. I thought to myself, clearly our waiter is very young. I figured we should put in our food order because only God knows how long that will take. Another 10 mins go by before he dropped off our waters. He said, "let me check on your drinks." I still didn't get a clear answer if they had Ketel One vodka or not. Another 5 minutes go by and then someone comes our with our food. I was blown away that our food came out before our cocktails. We took a glance at the bar. There was only 1 person sitting at the bar. The restaurant wasn't busy at all. So I was wondering why it was taking so long to pour a glass of sparkling wine and make a drink that has 3 ingredients.

We waited almost a total of 30 minutes before our server returns with our drinks. He confirmed that the mule was made with Ketel One. My wife and I were talking when we noticed the waiter was having a hard time opening the little individual bottle of wine. He finally gave up and asked my wife to help him. He stated, "the bartender told me just to open the wrapper but it is not coming off." She peeled the top tin wrapper easily and gave it back to the server. He looked at the bottle briefly and happily realized it was a twist off. He returned the bottle to my wife and said, "oh you can just pour it in the glass." All I could say is "wow." I felt bad because the server was young but clearly was not trained well. He doesn't have the knowledge of the various drinks and type of alcohol, but also didn't know the basics of serving etiquette.

I must say the food was surprisingly decent. Both pizzas we ordered were cooked just right. The margarita on cauliflower crust had good flavor. I enjoyed the variety of vegetables on the California Veggie pizza. The vinaigrette was spot on with the Roasted Veggie salad.

The staff needs a lesson on food/drink and customer service. The first thing you need to get to table are the glasses of water. No more than 10 minutes should go by, from when the server writes your drink order to when your drink is made and hits the table. It is sad to say but the food runner was the only good worker out of the bunch. She asked us if we needed plates to share...the only one who anticipated what we needed! I requested a box to wrap our pizza before paying our bill. We waited another 5 minutes and the server realized he forgot our to-go container for our leftovers. I was praying that this server just started working at this restaurant and is still learning the ropes.

1 star for the service, 3 stars for the food. In the end, the amount of time you wait at CPK is just not worth your...

Food was excellent but the service is much to be desired. Starting with the host, she was not very attentive focusing more on the board in front of her than us. I would understand if the restaurant was busy, however, only 5 tables were seated and she told us we had to wait to be seated in a totally empty restaurant with more servers than seated tables. We were seated and greeted almost immediately, order taken and given drinks promptly. The server was friendly, pleasant, and patient with our 2 toddlers. Then, we waited.... and waited.... and waited some more for our food which eventually came almost 40 mins after we placed the order. Again, the restaurant was not at all packed so I'm not entirely sure why it took so long to deliver salads and pizza lunch combos. When we finally got the food, it was absolutely delicious and very flavorful. After our lunch was finished, and plates stacked for easy pre-bussing, our server kind of forgot about us as he attended to new tables coming in. At this point our kids were getting a bit restless and we attempted to wave him down, he said he would bring our check and continued to assist other tables for the next 5 minutes. Finally, the check came and as quick as he was dropping it off we were pulling out our card to pay but he left again and came back after 10 mins to take our payment. It was all rather frustrating that after the initial drinks and order we we're pretty much ignored. All in all, this was a pretty awful service experience from the host to the kitchen to the server which is a little disappointing since the food is actually phenomenal (especially for the Plymouth Meeting Mall). I would not recommend this restaurant for someone who has kids or on a tight time crunch as it was painstakingly slow. However, I would recommend this place for take out since you just order before hand and pick it up at a designated time.

Hope this...

For my first time ever it was the worst experience. It started off with waiting almost 10 minutes before someone even coming over to the table. Than we ordered lettuce wraps they brought the wraps we had no silverware and no plates we had to ask for them. Then from there we asked for more napkins. Our server Jake brought us drink napkins instead of dinner napkins. Our entrees were not brought out together. When everything was finally out the food wasn't bad. Combined with the service,no where near worth the price. We noticed the host sit people at a filthy table that wasn't cleaned off. Keep in mind there were empty clean tables that could have been used. Once we finished our entrees,we ordered desserts and I ordered a cup of coffee. The 1st cup was delivered in a filthy cup which had coffee stains all over it. It looked like it wasn't washed. They took it back. 10 minutes later a different server brings the coffee back. This time there is coffee spilled and dripping down the front of the cup. She didn't have the common courtesy to wipe it off. We finally get the check. Jake brings back my card and receipt to sign. I open the book and there is pen to sign with. At this point I walked up to the host station and used her pen. I made sure I put a big fat zero for a tip. I probably should have demanded having my bill taken care of as well. I let her know how awful the service was.

I will never stop foot in California pizza kitchen again. Anywhere. Problems like this just isn't a bad server. It's a culture of poor management that has this place infected. After observing the manager listen to some of the complaints it was obvious she really didn't care. I use the term manager loosely because based on her appearance she probably should have been washing dishes. If I was associated in any way with this business I would be...