The Foodies of G5

A FOODIE’S DELIGHT
(BLOGPOST 2)

If you are done with the DVD’S lying in your shelf and are wondering how to spend that lovely Saturday evening, then CPK is the place to head. Considering I was a new breed in this city, my friends invited me to tag along with them to CPK, which happens to be their regular hangout joint. The place has a beautiful ambiance, serves delicious pizza and is truly a delight to spend your weekends.

CPK, better known as the California Pizza Kitchen, in reference to its name, is not just restricted to pizzas but serves a variety of appetizers, salads and some delicious desserts. CPK’s menu is extensive such that it caters to groups of people with varied tastes. A special mention to all the beautiful girls in town caught up with the size zero craze, this place is worth a visit. The place not only serves mouth-watering pizzas, but also takes care of the nutritional value present in the food to eat. Each item has a special mention about the calorie content. Because of this, people won’t have to worry about increasing waistline. A quick glance at the menu and it didn’t take long before I placed my order. It was a delightful sight to watch the waiters, move up and down, through the small areas, between tables and serve lip-smacking food. Wanting to try delicacies that we had never tried before, we ordered the new Four Cheese Ravioli as an appetizer; the scrumptious cheeseburger pizza as main course and to top it off, the sticky toffee cake was an utterly pleasant experience. Ravioli had the right blend of herbs, along with cheese, which includes Asiago, cooked in Alfredo sauce. The ravioli was cooked just right with nothing falling short to its flavor. Have you heard of a cheeseburger pizza? Though, personally I didn’t like it, it was a different experience, to have eaten a pizza topped with the same ingredients as in a burger. To add to the fun, I loved the fact that they constantly refilled our glasses with ice tea, even though they weren’t completely empty! However, don’t expect too much from the pastas served here, as the pasta happened to be way too ordinary and tasteless.

India is said to have one of the best cuisines in the world. And complimenting a different cuisine after having stayed in India for my entire life is quite a compliment by itself. India, a place where food is characterized by a sophisticated blend of diverse spices, herbs and various vegetables, the simplicity of the pizzas delivered by California Pizza Kitchen was even so quite a treat, suiting the Indian taste buds well at the same time. What really attracts one to this place is its ambience, which is completely relaxed and comfortable, doesn’t matter at which time of day. The place gives you options of seating indoor and outdoor as well. My personal choice is the outdoors, where one can enjoy the beautiful weather, breeze blowing and watch many people walking here and there to shop for things. So, if you’ve ever been to this mouth watering place recognized as the California Pizza Kitchen restaurant, any Indian at first instance for sure would remember those yellow cabs running in India, considering the place is in shades of Yellow and Black, including its logo. Leaving humor aside there’s an abundance of yellow and a casual, simple atmosphere, which forms the heart of the design about this eating-place. With a diner-like interior and plenty of booths, tables and chairs, the décor is simple and always clean and efficient, just the way you always expect it to be.

Another key aspect one looks at judging a restaurant is, service. Needless to say, I was really impressed by the friendly service provided by the waiters. Though the service was a little slow but when delivered to eat would be better served than what one would expect it to be served as. What really was amazing about this restaurant was that it even offers a “Menu Adventure guarantee” which says that they will replace your meal with a new one if you’re unsatisfied. It’s a great, risk-free incentive to try something different. I really enjoyed visiting this restaurant and ever since this place has become our hangout spot. I could say this as the very next day we had a second trip to this wonderful place.

If being a vegetarian is a concern, then please keep it aside, for it has various options of toppings for vegetarians. In fact they even custom prepared a special pizza for me. A look at CPK’s menu made my mind sing the song ‘I gotta feeling that tonight’s gonna be a good night’. The breath-skipping aroma around this place attracted people; this place did provide one with sumptuous meal. But as a matter of fact it did cost one a lot for each of them. I would say this place is good spot for one to commemorate their good times. However it’s not the place to be for those looking out for cheap meals as each of these delicious pizzas which get ones’ taste buds asking for more cost around 12 to 13 dollars. In India the best of the pizzas cost around 300 to 400 Indian Rupees which comes to around 6-8 USD. But asking around and going to other pizza parlors, I found that it is a reasonable rate for USA.

Because I am a teenager, pizzas are like, my staple food. Like any other mother who would be against it, my mum was no different. Being an Indian, pizzas for me meant Dominoes and Pizza Hut – India’s most favorite pizza joints. However dining at CPK was an interesting as well as a completely different experience for me. From the minute I stepped in and until we walked out the doors, the aroma just kept adding to my taste buds. As I said before I have a thing for pizzas so I could not actually resist going only to this place. I really wanted to know the truth about the food chain in America and as to how it delivers and brings its customers closer to it. Going over the known chains were Dominoes, Rudy’s NY Pizza and CPK. Going over the realities of all these marketers of pizzas, made me realize that CPK indeed had left the rest two behind in its race. Dominoes is a one of a kind which prepares good and delicious pizzas but its short coming is that they only focus upon delivery, having very less sitting arrangement, which drops them down the large market for it. Other one being Rudy’s, which too is a well known pizza spot but it too has a very minimum variety in its vegetarian segment, dropping down its opportunity to driving vegetarian people to its market which minimizes their scale on the vegetarian scale. Watching over the last one and having researched over it for much, it really overwhelms one with its excellent service, delivery and specially the variety it provides one with.

Another interesting and unexpected thing on my second visit to CPK was that there was a birthday party going on. I later found out that they hold special parties for children under 10 providing free meal to the child and additional low fee of 10$ per guest. The joy on the birthday boy’s face and the happiness beaming off the rest of the kids made the place look more inviting than ever. It was an absolute amazement for the children as, in went the pizza with the topping from one side and out it came from the other, ready to be munched on.

To sum it up all I will say is that my experiences may land up being very rare but they have been for sure one of its kinds and not just once but every time that I have been there. “A lot can happen over a cup of coffee” ,a tag line of Cafe Coffee Day in India, but for my friends and me a lot of memories have taken place upon hot, steamy ,all spiced up and to add to it delicious mouth watering CPK pizzas. CPK Pizzas – Worth a visit. Whom are you waiting for? Go, Check it out!!!