California Pizza Kitchen | 56

(photos taken: July 16, 2015)

Yes, more food blog posts! Apologies if I'm making you hungry. I've always passed by California Pizza Kitchen and always say "chicken" instead of "kitchen". I've come to the conclusion I have my own accent. 

I've always wondered if their food was good and if they only sold pizza. So after having horrible experience at Bottega Louie (read here if you missed it) we decided to give CPK a try! We went for an anniversary date and let me tell you, it was a great first impression/experience! The man who attended us was super cool and helped us choose through the menu along with giving us his personal recommendations. And he hooked us up on the guacamole! This man definitely earned his tip! Very helpful and making sure to check on us, and also quick on his feet.

He told us about the rewards program they have. And basically when you sign up you get a free meal from their "small plates" section. We ordered the Spicy Chicken Tinga Quesadilla (1st picture). Milton loves tinga so we were excited to try it! Obviously it's not actual tinga, but it's still really good! And they serve it with some sauce on the side. The first time we tried it, it tastes kind of sour and wasn't so great. But the times we've gone after I feel it keeps getting better and better! He then brought us the plate of White Corn Guacamole & Chips as courtesy. I'm the type that likes guacamole plain and simple. Smashed avocado, some lime, a bit of salt and something for spice and that's good! I don't like the onion or tomato or cilantro involved. Well this is different! It has black beans, sweet white corn, jicama, bell pepper, cilantro and some chile in it! It might sound weird but it tastes really good!

After finishing the tinga quesadillas and the guac and chips, our pizza came! We ordered the California Club pizza and my ohh my...BOMB! It has chicken strips, bacon, tomato, basil, and avocado on the top...just describing it makes me crave some! Ohh and some dressing on the top. For some reason I thought the leaves were spinach so I grabbed a handful and stuck it in my mouth, that was terrible! I didn't like the taste so I sat there with the most uncomfortable look on my face trying to eat it all. But besides that and the tomato it's really good! You can say we had a delicious anniversary, and extra points for trying a new place!

Not sure how many times we've gone, maybe five? But it's like our thing to always order the tinga quesadillas first. There's other little meals such as the Crispy Mac 'N' Cheese which I have yet to try! Then we usually go for the pizza. The other pizza we've tried is Spicy Chipotle Chicken. It was good, it looks super delicious and colorful! But I think for the same reason that it's packed with a lot of things (chipotle sauce, strips of chile, black beans, cilantro), I had to scrape some of it off because it annoyed my taste buds, but still really good! 

Unlike Bottega Louie, the times we've gone we've been attended respectfully and quick. I know some waiters probably kiss butt so you can give them a good tip, but I don't mind I like hearing the compliments! The dessert is really good, we ordered the Red Velvet Cake with Haagen-Dazs. Delicious! The waiters are nice, the food is delicious and doesn't take too long for it to come to your table! Adding this to the list of restaurants I want to go back to!

(photo taken: July 21, 2015)