California Pizza Kitchen at Willow Bend

Extremely disappointing experience with this location.

I ordered from California Pizza Kitchen through Uber Eats. My order went through, the app showed a driver on the way, and then things went completely sideways.

I got a call from someone at the restaurant claiming their point-of-sale system was down and insisting he had to “verify” my order. He was rude, confusing, and kept asking for unnecessary information (like my phone number while already on the phone, and my email address, which he partly read back to me). Meanwhile, he also claimed my food was already prepared. If that were true, why was “verification” even needed?

Even if there was a legitimate reason for what was happening, he should have explained the situation to me instead of being rude and repeating the same unclear statements over and over.

He later texted me information related to DoorDash, even though I had used Uber Eats. When I asked for a refund or confirmation that the food was being delivered, he refused. According to Uber Eats, the driver had “picked up” the food — but the food was still sitting at the restaurant. That meant I couldn’t cancel without being charged for a meal I never got.

I want to be clear: I have no issue with the Uber Eats driver getting paid for their time. The real problem was with California Pizza Kitchen. The employee on the phone was dismissive, unhelpful, and outright refused to resolve the situation. Instead of simply sending out the food I had paid for or refunding me, I was left with no food and pending charges on my card.

All of this could have been avoided with basic customer service. Instead, I was stonewalled and treated poorly. I will not be ordering from this CPK again, and I strongly caution others to think twice before doing so.

Service: 1

With Macy's and Apple Store gone from Willow Bend and now Neimans is pulling out, how long until this place closes its doors?

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 3

Service: 3

Food was great! Server was great! However the gift system was broken :(

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 4

Service: 2

We had a Costco gift card foe the location but they wouldn't accept it. First they cites an error on Costco's part, so we had to call Costco customer service while sitting in the booth. Then they cited that it was an error with their internal system and basically told us we had no options. One of our serving plates was also super dirty. Overall felt quite unwelcoming/unaccommodating.

Atmosphere: 2

Food: 3

Service: 2

It was well worth the 40 min. drive to dine again at CPK. Had been years with the closing of the Grapevine and Preston Center locations. Will definitely be returning.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

I got the Chicken BBQ Pizza to go during their Mon/Tue 10.99 promotion. The pizza crust is thin and the red onions are also thinly sliced, it goes really well with the juicy chicken and sweet bbq sauce. It is on the smaller side but perfect for a very hungry single person or a light bite for 2 people.

It said it would take 45 minutes, I got there by 35 minutes and the pizza was a bit cold already - the app never refreshed the ready time. Still delicious, though.

Food: 5

Man we love this place. Being from Southern California this was a staple for us growing up. The food is still Amazing unfortunately the staffing is very very lacking. Everyone was nice but it took forever for everything...15 min to get water, 15 min to get drinks, 45 min to get food, no refills had to ask a manager for our bill so we could pay and leave. There was only 5 tables of people and no big parties. We did see multiple door dash pick ups and they seemed to be the priority of the staff. I think for us we will probably be doing take out from this location until we see staffing get better but again the Food is Wonderful!!!

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 2

Came here with family. Our sever Jair made the whole dinner experience great. From recommendations, to fast refills and jokes, he made the night go by. To the point that they closed and were still eating and joking around. Definitely coming back!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Great food and clean establishments

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

It’s sad when you come back to a once great establishment only to find it ran down by lower quality ingredients and an overall lack of professionalism with the staff.

We dined in today and were greeted by one of the least customer service oriented employees I have ever encountered. Flat out rude and put out by our presence. (She later shows up in the story and just for the sake of any potential management reading this - she is a somewhat more elder African American woman.)

We were lucky to be sat with the waitress who served us. She was the nicest part of the experience and was a delight to order from and be served by.

Food was average, but not bad. Seems like the days of walking out stunned by how great the food was are gone.

Here’s the fun part.

We were sat in a booth next to an unattended child of one of the kitchen staff employees. We only ascertained this as they all seemed to get off work at the same time as 4 employees walked out to their car with said child simultaneously when we departed. While we ate the child was standing in the booth, sitting playing on her phone at what seemed max volume, getting up every 5 minutes or so and running into the kitchen doors, coming back and dropping her phone / toys on the ground, picking that up, standing back up in the booth, singing to her phone etc. It was hard to ignore.

While all that happened basically the entire time we dined in, the hostess we previously mentioned was sitting two tables away folding silverware in napkins when she received a phone call and commenced yelling profanity at whomever was on the other end of the line. She then cussed at a co-worker about whose responsibility it was to bus a table. This was super exciting to watch.

At the same time there was an employee literally sitting on the bar on the employee’s side of the kitchen / bar area doing what looked like Snapchat on her phone for about 20 minutes of our time in the restaurant. We found that funny to be honest.

At this point my wife and I weee discussing all of this and chuckling to ourselves. I decided to snap a photo of the kid’s playground next to our table and of the hostess who was cussing people out and I’m fairly certain I was busted snapping photos. The reason I felt this way is the scene that played out afterwards. The employee who saw me proceeded to tell everyone in the store and then we received bad looks from everyone who worked there until we left as the word got around to each employee. At no point past this did I not have eyes on me staring as if I was the one who did something wrong here.

The sad part about all of this is that whomever was managing the restaurant knew all of this was happening and couldn’t care less. I saw them witness the cussing out by the hostess, the girl snap chatting, they even came out and hugged and kissed the kid whose playground was the adjoining booth.

They get 2 stars only because of our waitress who seemed to know all of this was happening around us but was trapped by the need to make money and inability to change anything. Maybe my read was off on that, but she seemed nice enough.

(By the way, the photo is just of the kids belongings left at the table in one of her numerous trips to the kitchen. Thought it would be weird to take a photo of a kid.)

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 3

Service: 5

Excellent bbq chicken pizza with gluten free crust. Nikiya took my order and was a lovely hostess while i waited.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

I haven't been in town or to a California Pizza Kitchen in years. It was fantastic. Avacado egg rolls and peach tea were phenomenal. Great service. They were a bit busy and apologized for wait. This was refreshing.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

I just had to take a moment to commend the incredible team at California Pizza Kitchen. Like many in the restaurant industry right now, they are working with a lean staff, but you would never know it from how smoothly and beautifully they operate. Watching them in action is honestly like watching a well-rehearsed performance, with hosts, servers, kitchen staff, and even managers stepping in wherever needed and helping each other out seamlessly. It is clear that teamwork is at the heart of this place. And on top of that, the food is absolutely top notch. Fresh, flavorful, and consistent every time. Huge kudos to the staff. You all are rockstars.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Best place to enjoy with family

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

The pizza was delicious.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5