California Pizza Kitchen at Lakes at Thousand Oaks — Restaurant in Thousand Oaks

CPK is one of those restaurants that I have known for decades. In that time, I have only been there a handful of times. In the past, I have tried their salads and BBQ chicken pizza. My wife loved this place. This was one of the places she would always suggest for us to go eat that I always rejected. A place she used to eat often before we met, and when the opportunity came, when I wasn't around.

Today, on Mother's Day, I figured I'd take her to it. A place that she held dearly. Based on the review ratings, I figured it wouldn't be bad. Maybe things have gone down hills lately. We came on a Saturday at around 2 p.m., and we were all starving. We tried a handful of dishes and appetizers, and they were all bad.

We got the avocado club roll, which was the only thing that was eatable besides their bread and dipping oil. The 3 tortilla spring rolls were a little too burnt and didn't taste good. My son got the chicken Piccata, and that too wasn't good. I found the fish overall very oily, and the taste wasn't good. I tried the chicken, and that wasn't bad, but the overall dish wasn't good. My wife got the BBQ chicken pizza, which i was looking forward to. I thought the pizza was like eating cardboard. We all tried all of the dishes, and none of us liked the food. I'd say we ate maybe 20% of it.

I hate eating out. Mostly because I hardly find the food good or you end up with bad service or both. It seems that lately we have been out more often, about once a week. Like I said, it is very hard to find good places with good food, good service, and / or reasonably priced. As a result, we end up mostly rotating the same places. I do like to try different places to eat, and are willing to travel for said places. I like to think that I am fair when it comes to rating restaurants. I take everything into consideration, including the price. The most expensive place, the more I expect. On the other hand, I may end up at a hole in the elwall that is expensive but has amazing food. Either way, the cost here is in the $20 range per person, but based on the food, I wouldn't have paid less than $10. The service was good, and we all agreed. The food was bad, not horrible, but closed enough.

Aside from paying a lot of money and leaving unsatisfied and hungry. What made it worse is the fact that my son knew it wouldn't be good. My son eats out a lot, and eats at very good, and it most cases expensive places. I know he is hard to please, and it sucks that I hardly ever take him to a place that he likes, or at least doesn't hate. This time, he said it was a special occasion, and we weren't coming for us. At the same token, my wife loved this place. I am certain neither of us three will ever eat at a CPK again. At this rate, I doubt this place will survive.

I should have turned around and walked away when I noticed that it wasn't busy yet the place looked dirty. I figured maybe we missed the rush hour. The place had a good amount of people so it is still somewhat popular but it never got cleaned. This place isn't a one star place but it...

We had an event at the Fred Kavli Theater at 7:30 p.m. and arrived around 6:10 to grab a quick bite before heading to the show.

We were seated immediately and while our server did take care of and got us our food, I feel as if the service could have been much better.

For one, the server initially asked if we wanted bread, and we did request it. The bread never came.

The 2nd thing that irked me a bit was we were in a bit of a time crunch (show starts at 7:30, we were there at 6:10) so we tried placing our entire order up front (appetizers, entrées, & dessert), just to make sure everything came out in a timely manner. Our food ended up coming out around 6:50 and after a majority of us were done eating (but not finished), I asked for the bill, just to save a bit more of time. The bill came out and no dessert was on it and it was already around 7'oclock so I didn't want to ask for it again because I didn't want to be late for the show.

Overall, while you could tell the establishment was somewhat busy, you could tell the server did not want to be there and we felt didn't do their best to take care of us. While I understand this CPK, and not a fine dining establishment, I think it's important to create a receptive experience to make it pleasant...

our server was great. But the young man who was seating folks was giving everyone a five minute wait even though there were half of the tables available in the restaurant. After waiting seven minutes, I asked if I could just grab those menus and sit myself at the bar. Five minutes after that, he asked if I wanted to move to the booth I originally asked to sit in. I suggest the manager be clear about how to train the front host. The unnecessary wait plus the two moves (one by me after an unnecessary wait, and one by him-- which should have happened immediately) were quite unnecessary. Also they were quite behind on bussing and cleaning tables. Show maybe the manager wants to look at the training of the host and of the bussing staff.

A great rule, as we all know, as a server: you never leave the table empty-handed. If you drop something off,you clear something off, and the busing...