At California Pizza Kitchen You Can't Go Wrong With Having Dessert First

You know those places that you just haven't gotten around to trying, but always say you will? California Pizza Kitchen has been one those places for me, so I was excited when I was recently invited to visit CPK as its guest. My experience with it only extends as far as BBQ Chicken Pizza, which is the only kind of frozen pizza I'll eat, so this was definitely an opportunity to expand my horizons.

I invited my lovely wife to join me and we decided on the location at The Domain. We started with the tortilla spring rolls as an appetizer, which were baked and sprinkled with a nice mix of herbs. We each ordered one of its newer cocktails. My lady had the coconut blossom, a fresher version of a classic Pina Colada and I had the citrus crush, a hard lemonade. We would surely order those again.

On to the main course! I chose the Alaskan Halibut and my wife the Roasted Garlic Chicken with seasonal vegetables. I will say both of these dishes were solid, but not spectacular. My fish was seasoned simply, which I believe was in an effort to highlight the freshness and high-quality of the piece of fish. However, I found with it being a white fish it certainly could have used more flavor. The butternut squash faro with baby kale underneath was delicious and we both felt it was the star of the dish. Her chicken was a bit garlicky for my taste, but she loves garlic and enjoyed the dish. It seems she ordered better than I.

We were both full but we went ahead and ordered dessert anyway, and boy, were we glad we did. The dessert took the meal from meh, to OH MY! We ordered the Butter Cake- think sugar cookie meets pound cake. Warm and topped with a scoop of vanilla Haagen Dazs ice cream, this dessert was FANTASTIC! Seriously, we both said we would happily visit again for that alone.

In my opinion, CPK is still more family night than date night. The pizza is good, but if you're there and not feeling carbs, the other menu options aren't bad. No matter what though, make sure that you ORDER THAT BUTTER CAKE!!!

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