California Pizza Kitchen

Unilocal emailed me and told me my last review has been removed because apparently it is not primarily relevant to a consumer experience… I stronger disagree but whatever.
I would love to come back to this restaurant because the food was good. Even though we came on a Saturday, we didn’t have to wait long, but because of my experience with the female manager, Deanne, I would not be coming back. Again stop kissing and touching babies without the parents permission.

They doubled charged my credit card. And when I called them, the manager was very rude and not professional at all.

Stopped in for lunch on a Saturday while shopping at the Valley Fair mall. The wedge salad and the smashed pea and barley soup, always makes me very happy!

First time at this location even though I’ve worked in the mall for more than 2 years. Oscar gave really friendly service. The whole team actually. All were running around helping each other. You can see the kitchen. Makes it welcoming. I sat at the bar and ordered something chicken (dont remember the name but photo provided). It was great.
THANK YOU OSCAR!
Amin

Waited 20 min for the waitress to take our order and she never checked up on us once. We had to stop several other people to get refills on our drinks.

Management goes above and beyond, gave a private tour of the kitchen to my daughter. Food is prepared better than other cpk locations. Try spicy Chipotle chicken pizza (without chicken if you are vegetarian like me)

Always like pizza and salad here. Pizza is quite crisp and favorable. It’s very good to hang out with girlfriend after shopping at the mall.

I ordered off door dash and there was basically no cheese and it was ice cold. Awful!!! I also ordered a salad from them previously and it was just as awful hardly any toppings!!! I’m comparing this to a SAN FRANCISCO location which is perfect!!! I’m done!!!

I am the biggest critic when it comes to good food and especially customer service. I provide superior customer service with everything I do, so my expectations are considerably high for it wherever I bring my business to. This location specifically, haven’t failed me yet. Food is great, and the customer service always enhanced my visit. I really appreciate their customer service, especially to one of my favorites, Johnny. He really gets us and always do more than what we’ve expected of him. Always leaving here really happy and satisfied. Still one of my top go to spots.

After coming back to this place frequently, I realize I crave their pizza and quesadillas more often than usual! My most recent visit was a solo lunch and I decided to seat myself at the bar around 11:30p. Restaurant was basically empty so service was very quick. The bartender/​server was very nice and attentive. He checked in frequently making sure I had everything I needed.
I ordered the lunch combo of the mushroom, pepperoni, and sausage mini pizza with a Caesar salad and a refreshing mango mint strawberry lime refresher (yum!) * they’re croutons are home made btw *
I ordered my boyfriend lunch Togo something similar, but the BBQ chicken pizza which is also delicious.
$ 30 w/​out tip is not bad for a fast and delicious lunch. I am very satisfied that I returned and I am more and more impressed with their staff and food as I explored the menu further. :)

What a nice, spontaneous experience tonight! I was locking the door at my office the same time as the owners of the store next door were closing up. They said, «hey, we’re going to California Pizza Kitchen at Valley Fair, come with us.» Yeah, I’m in.
The California Pizza Kitchen at Westfield Valley Fair is my favorite location for one reason, the floor manager is so good. She buzzes around like a bee. Any time I have had even a tiny issue, sometimes when I didn’t even know I had an issue, she swoops in and makes things great. Tonight’s experience was trouble-​free, but she was still there making sure it was all smooth.
The new parking structure adjacent to the mall is open now and next to the entry to the restaurant so parking was the easiest I have ever experienced at Valley Fair. Nice.
Jason and his wife shared a pasta dish. I ordered the half California Cobb Salad, good as always, and tried a non-​alcoholic froufrou mango cooler drink that wasn’t half bad. We shared the Chicken Dumpling appetizer (yums) and a couple thin crust pizzas we literally chose from the pictures on the front of the menus. One pizza was Jamaican Jerk Chicken– probably not the right name for the pizza, I did not detect any jerk flavor, but it was really gooood. Thin crust, a sweet-​spicy sauce, red onion, red bell pepper and applewood smoked bacon, what’s not to like. We also had a thin crust Spinach Artichoke pizza with chicken which was also tight.
Great meal, great company. I owe them dinner next time.

The wait was so excruciating long, my friend and I almost gave up waiting on numerous occasions, but we had a free appetizer coupon so we stuck around.
Finally our names were called and we were seated at a high table, which I didn’t really enjoy. Our waiter was very friendly and attentive, although some sports game was on and a lot of the staff were distracted.
For food:
— Weird deconstructed salad wedge thing with eggs and bacon… It looked like a dish I made myself by throwing together the leftovers in my fridge. I suggest you pass on this one.
— Combination pizza was pretty good. Could tell it was freshly made.
— Creamy pasta with sun dried tomatoes and chicken: Great! Loved it! My favorite dish of the evening. I love sun dried tomatoes because they add such wonderful flavor to a possibly plain dish like pasta.
— Lemonade: I liked! Sweet and tangy, quite refreshing.
They messed up on our bill at the end. Had to point out that they shouldn’t have charged us for the lettuce wedge appetizer. Took a little longer than necessary to fix the mistake. It was a good meal, but not a place I think «Hey lets go there tonight».

Even though this place is in a mall, we come here from time to time for lunch (no shopping involved). They have a nice long bar with plenty of seats that we like. A decent beer selection and reasonably priced and healthy lunch combos keep us coming back.
The beer selection is pretty corporate, big names only. It would be nice to see some more local brews on tap but all in all there is always something that I want to drink on tap. My last trip I went with the Sam Adams «Rebel» IPA, yummy!
I have a favorite lunch combo I’ll share with you. The Pepperoni Sausage and Mushroom mini (more like micro) Pizza with the Spinach Salad. Here’s an embedded tip… Ask for the salad to come out first otherwise you will get your pizza and salad served together. I personally like to eat my salad first and have an internal struggle when something awesome like a pizza has to compete with a salad sitting next to it… So the Pizzas are really small (6″) but teamed with a small salad it’s just about the right sized lunch for about $ 11. Chunky Tomato Sauce, Cheese, Pepperoni, Sausage, and Mushrooms on top of perfectly gooey and crispy dough is a real treat, even if it’s micro sized. The Spinach salad is really awesome, it’s served with a sweet and tangy dressing on the side and topped with candied nuts, crisp apple slices, Quinoa, and some slivered carrots. Delicious!
This is a solid stop for lunch, even if you’re not at the mall to shop and it’s priced much better than anything at Santana Row across the street… Give em a try!

This place reeks unprofessionalism. The hosts were making small talk while guests like myself were waiting sitting down right in front of them. The lady manager also was openly yelling at her hosts like she was scolding one of her daughters. Then, a server was yelling at one of the hosts that the host didn’t inform a busser a whole table was going to the bathroom. What happened was the busser cleaned the table and took away their leftover pizza boxes. But why didn’t the server tell the busser herself? Seems like they hire high schoolers. Maybe they do, considering I have a friend that used to work here and she said it was REALLY easy to get hired here and they do hire people with no prior restaurant experience. You could get hired here if you simply knew the dishwasher.
On to food:
Only order the pizza because at least you know they make it fresh. I believe the spinach artichoke dip and the soups are frozen and reheated and come from bags. The bread is amazing though accompanied with the savory olive oil dip.
On another note, one of the managers Josh checked up on us to make sure we were having a good experience. He was actually doing it to every table which is something you don’t see nowadays. He’s a great representative of the restaurant, probably should be general manager with all the good vibes he carries if he already isn’t. Ashley our server actually happened to be amazing as well and full of good vibes too. At least SOME people care about the representation of the company.

25 minute wait for two on Friday night. We shopped around for a bit and were seated after coming back. Lots of families with strollers parked around the waiting area. I’ve never seen this place so busy, and with lots of kids. My friend and I sat at one of those high tables in the rear meant for four so we had plenty of room. It was a lot quieter since the kids that could sit on those chairs had to be old enough not to fall. Sarah was prompt to ask for drink orders and brought them out with the bread I asked for (upon request). It comes with olive oil dipping sauce and the bread was toasty warm.
She proceeded to take our entrée orders: wild mushroom pizza and half Thai crunch salad. Both were delicious and a portion of the pizza had a lot of cheese and herbs on it– so good and fragrant with every bite! I finished my half salad and was surprised I didn’t have to ask for less dressing. Last time I ate at a CPK it was almost drenched, not at this location though. Salad presentation was great! I dug in without taking any photos, sorry! The greens, edamame, cucumber slivers, and peanuts were evenly coated in sweet peanut dressing, generously topped with thin rice sticks that were drizzled beautifully with more dressing. For $ 11.50 it was very filling. The $ 15 full size would’ve been too much.
While service was always polite and friendly, our waitress wasn’t around much aside from taking our orders and asking how we were doing. I think her other tables were far from ours. We asked a different waitress for napkins and she obliged. Payment was quick and the leftover pizza boxed up. Our water wasn’t refilled so I assume they’re still conserving water.
Turns out the Take Out area was on that end of the bar behind us. It’s not the best location for that. Stanford shopping center has a designated take out area right behind the hostess stand, which is a lot more convenient than walking all the way to the back of the restaurant. I ordered a take out CA club pizza from this area and it was so busy no one came around for five minutes. With a 15 min quote, I told the manager (?) who rang me up we’d come back after shopping. Well, I came back half an hour later and this lovely lady named Sheena with stylish crimped platinum blonde hair and black roots tied up with a bandana headband already knew the CA club was for me (was she psychic?). She assured me twice the staff was preparing the salad topping fresh. I didn’t mind the wait as my friend and I took our seats at the bar. It’s rare to encounter smiling upbeat workers so near to closing, but she made my CPK experience end on a brighter note. Thanks for the great service!

Worst service.
This restaurant should consider changing their two receptionists who worked on Jan 8^th evening. They were not responsible and skipped the people waiting in the line on purpose. They tried to justify that she called at outside of the restaurant and nobody answered. But we were sitting inside on the waiting bench, right in front of their desk, why didn’t she ask inside? If I didn’t check, we would be waiting there without knowing we’ve been skipped! She didn’t even say sorry and just let us keep waiting!
Finally we were led to a table by a girl who was much better and at least apologized to us for those two rude girls in the front desk. Then came the waiter, cold, and didn’t care about us at all. He served three dirty plates like being left on another table, with oil on it. We requested to change. Then he brought another three, still not clean. He said, «Oh we can not polish the plates». Third time, I took the picture attached with this review. What can I say? We will not be here anymore. No mention how slow the pizza was served and that they gave us another table’s receipt.
Again, worst service.
@manager: we didn’t talk to you about it because we thought you already knew it so you stopped by. Glad you will check your dish washer.

Wait time is expected during lunch time but it’s not too bad. Food was decent.
Pepperoni, spicy sausage and mushroom pizza: It was fine and definitely spicy.
Tortilla soup: pretty good
(Ordered the lunch duo which was plenty of food)
Cobb salad with beets: Good — dressing wasn’t heavy so that was nice. On the menu it says try it with beets, so I did.
Crispy chicken & broccoli: Good except the broccoli was just ok and untouched by the kids which was expected.
Blue moon: delicious
Overall, good place if you want to do a sit down restaurant vs eating at the food court.

CPK has so far been my stop for getting a bite in Valley Fair.
I’m vegan, and here are a few things I’ve ordered there:
~White Corn Guacamole w/​Chips: Delicious and refreshing! Love the corn in the guacamole. Wish there was a larger portion of the guacamole though.
~Tuscan Hummus w/​Pita Bread: Tasty, but nothing exceptional.
~California Veggie Pizza (no cheese): VERY bland and doughy, especially compared to other gourmet pizzas I’ve had.
The service is consistently good, and the ambience is comfy and laid back, which is the main reason I return.
Overall however, their food is just A-​Ok, hence the rating.

Decided to come here because I had a gift card. (They sell CPK gift cards at Costco!!) It was super crowded on a Friday night, but luckily, we only had to wait about 15 mins.
Started off with the avocado eggrolls and then got the chopped chicken salad (whole) and the Jamaican jerk chicken pizza to share.
The avocado eggrolls were good, but not even close to the quality and deliciousness of the ones at Cheesecake Factory. They’ve got cheese and chicken in them and a crispy thin shell. The chopped chicken salad was fresh and tasty. At about $ 15 a plate, it is a little pricey, but the food here is generally a little bit expensive for the quality. I always get the Jamaican jerk chicken pizza. It’s got an interesting taste to it that you can’t get anywhere else. Seems like it’s got some sweet and sour sauce on it with pepper and maybe cinnamon? Lots of interesting flavors. My boyfriend wasn’t a fan of it, but I thought it was delicious because it tasted so different from a normal pizza.
Service was great, fast and friendly. Kitchen seemed really quick which was great for getting people in and out when it’s super busy. Wish there was another CPK near here that wasn’t located in a mall as parking can be a hassle, but overall this location prepared their food well!

This CPK branch is highpy recommended. We’ve always had a great experience whether for dinner or lunch with our kids. Everyone is so friendly and welcoming. I particularly remember the mananger. She is always talking with the customers making sure that everyone’s having a wonderful experience.
The food is great too. We have not veen disappointed with their pizza, soup, appetizers and salad. I like the idea of them changing the menu once in a while. They serve quality pizza for a reasonable price.
I like how they offered the deal in Dec2014. If you get a 100usd GC, you get a $ 20 GC in return. Very good deal. I’m all for good food and great service at a reasonable price.