California Pizza Kitchen — Restaurant in Santa Barbara

Hate to do this because CPK Thai Crunch Salad is supreme but.. we had a terrible experience at this location. Without getting into too much detail, the things that went wrong: Vegetarians beware | Salad with sub for vege chicken came out with chicken meat, and my vegetarian SIL accidentally ate chicken meat (she's been vege for over a decade) Check your bill | Replacement salad for vege didn't have avocado in it although the additional charge for avocado was still on the bill. Not good for big groups | Table of 7, two mains came out, the others didn't arrive for at least 15min, so the two first meals had to be eaten before everyone else got their food or they'd be cold. Pizza was not hot on arrival. Not good for small children/babies | We had a 2 year old who's meal was last to come. (not sure how a salmon dish and a large pizza takes longer than salads & a child's pizza to make..) Don't expect attentive service | Asked for more menus twice (only had 2 for a table of 7) and they never came. Asked for water 3 times—luckily on the 3rd time we got some. Asked for side plates for the appetizers—never came. Dirty appetizer dishes never got cleared. Staff would drop things off and then not stick around long enough to see if we had everything we needed so it was impossible to flag anyone down for help/service. Eg. asked for fresh cracked pepper but they bought chilli flakes and I didn't have the chance to say "sorry I wanted black pepper". Never got asked how our meal was.

Usually wouldn't waste my time writing a review like this but it was for my Mother's 70th birthday (which they knew) and overall the experience was so upsetting for the entire family.

Only shout-out is to Sam, who wrote a note and left it at the front desk saying we would be coming (even though they do not take...

I have just had my first bad experience at California Pizza Kitchen. We sat outside because we take our 3 year old ShihTzu everywhere. Things got off to a bad start when our drinks came out wrong. When I mentioned this, our waiter blamed it on people ordering while wearing masks - although I don’t see how Diet Coke which my wife ordered can sound like water. This was not corrected until after the food was brought out. We waited and waited and when the food arrived the pizzas and the focaccia were cold. The salad my wife ordered had no chicken and my full salad was only the half salad. No one came to ask how the food. The waiter reappeared with a plate after 10 minutes and said “Oh we forgot your chicken “ to my wife. By this time I had already shared my chicken with my wife. The outdoor heaters were all out of gas so couldn’t be lit. The stream of people going in and out for pick up orders was constant and appeared to be prioritized over actual diners. I will definitely not be going to this CPK again.

The manager from the restaurant phoned me to personally address my concerns. She was apologetic and obviously cares about each customer. She offered me gift cards to be used at any CPK by way of an apology. We will return to give the location another try. Great response which changed my opinion of the Santa...

Walked in to the restaurant to greet myself to the hostess (went out of my way to clearly get a table) her attitude was at least positive. Then ordered my food, came in reasonable time, hot and delicious. Although everything looked good, I didn’t find a single piece of chicken bigger than my nails…. As I was thinking of asking if it was usual, the manager asked me if everything was ok. I explained and he did a phenomenal job on offering me more! He himself told me the cooks are lacking on the sizing and they will work on it. My experience was unique enough to give me reason to write this and post it. Hope y'all enjoy this review as the consumer and the people who work at this company!

P.S. The picture is a reference of the biggest piece...