California Pizza Kitchen

Basic Information:

Pizza: California Pizza Kitchen

Number of Locations: nearly 200 worldwide
Location Reviewed: Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC), Concourse A
Website: https://www.cpk.com/
Date of Review Visit: April 2025
What I Ordered: Mushroom Pepperoni Sausage pizza, hold the mushrooms; Dr. Pepper to drink
Price: $25.98 (includes drink and tax but not tip)
Photo:

Summary Review: 2.5 stars (out of 5)

 

Detailed Review:

Crust: The crust at California Pizza Kitchen is thin but not too thin.  It has a dry almost pita-like taste.  The texture is on the hard side, and the large number of blackened areas are apparent in the photo above.  This is not my favorite kind of crust, but it is passable for what it is. Score: 5/10

Sauce: This pizza doesn't have a lot of sauce, but what sauce it does have has a pleasant tomatoey taste. Score: 7/10

Cheese: The cheese is 100% mozzarella.  This pizza doesn't have a lot of cheese, but the cheese it does have has an inoffensive flavor and doesn't produce much grease.  Score: 6/10

Toppings: The menu calls the sausage spicy, but I found it to be not particularly spicy and with unremarkable flavor.  The pepperoni comes in large thin slices and has nice flavor with just enough spiciness.  Maybe I should have ordered only the pepperoni.  Score: 6/10

Overall Taste: Despite the scores above, this pizza offers an interesting mix of pleasant flavors, but it just needs more of multiple things.  Score: 7/10

Pizza Appearance: This pizza's appearance is on the bare side with many ugly blackened areas in the crust.

Dining Atmosphere: This location has a nice dining area in a quiet corner of the airport.  SLC is a palace of an airport, one of my favorite airports anywhere.

Customer Service: My pizza took longer than expected to arrive, but the server was friendly and attentive.  Fortunately I had a long layover between flights.

Monetary Value: The price is an airport price, i.e. crazy high, but the quality is passable.  Thus, the value is decent but no better.

The Final Judgment:

Possibly best known for their frozen pizzas, which are available in grocery stores everywhere, California Pizza Kitchen makes a flavorful pizza that lacks in appearance and substance.  I didn't regret coming here on my layover en route to Hawaii, but you can find better pizza options outside of airports almost anywhere.  Score: 68/100