California Pizza Kitchen's New Dishes Delight!

Look at this: Salted caramel pudding.
That's fresh whipped cream with caramel topping crowning the luscious pudding, all seated on a bed of cocoa crumbs. And you have to spoon your way to the bottom to get to those crunchy crumbs.
Mmmm -- what a delightful journey that is!
But, wait!
We're getting ahead of ourselves. That's "just" the dessert.
We need to start with our first course at California Pizza Kitchen, sampling their tasty new menu items at our nearest CPK at the Cherry Hill (NJ) Mall.
We began with a spicy poblano (pepper) stuffed with chicken, cheese, corn & black bean salsa, wild mushrooms, spinach and eggplant (second from top). This was topped with housemade avocado salsa verde and cilantro. Leave it to CPK to come up with a dish like this -- one that combines California inventiveness with the flavors of the southwest. We weren't sure that we were gonna like this new offering but, guess what? We loved it. It was comforting -- not too spicy and less than 400 calories. Who can argue with that?

Next came the roasted beets and whipped goat cheese salad (third from top). Again, we were pleasantly surprised at this fresh seasonal dish which also featured crisp greens and California pistachios. A whole new way to think about salad.

But let's face it, "pizza" is CPK's middle name and that's what people come for. After all, CPK essentially invented the barbecued chicken pizza and they are constantly concocting new ways to give one of the world's favorite foods some culinary panache.

And that's exactly what they've done with the new brussels and bacon pizza (fourth, fifth from top) featuring brussels sprouts, bacon, goat cheese and other harmonious elements on a crispy thin crust. The menu says these are "not your mama's brussels sprouts" and that couldn't be more true. These delicate sprouts are lovingly roasted and ultimately divine. But they don't overpower the pizza which is hot, fresh and never greasy.

Now, understand -- we're traditionalists. We love red sauce. And we lean toward the original margherita pizza. That's the standard for us. And if that's what you want, CPK has it and it's damned good.

But we urge you to try this new pizza. It's an eye-opener (truly beautiful) and a treat for the palate as well.

And did we mention that assistant general manager John Toppi and his staff at CPK Cherry Hill (including our waitress, Danielle) are all top notch? Well, they are!

They go out of their way to please.

Yes, we've been CPK loyalists since we visited our first CPK decades ago in California. So, CPK is a cherished friend -- but a friend that remains fresh and always seems to keep up with the times. In the restaurant business, that's a tall order indeed. But they do it.

And since California is a state of mind, your welcome dose of the Golden State is as close as close as your nearest California Pizza Kitchen. 

BTW: All the photos show the dishes exactly as they were served to us.

All photos copyright 2013 by Dan Cirucci.