An almost wonderful dinner at California Pizza Kitchen

After being away for a few months, I was eager to meet up with two of my most reliable eating partners (meaning I can always rely on them to eat as much as I do), Angel and Kennie. Kennie chose the place, so it was to be California Pizza Kitchen in Greenhills this time. Angel and I arrived earlier than she did, and we took the liberty of ordering our food even if she wasn't there yet, as we both couldn't wait to eat. Thankfully, she arrived in time to taste everything we had.

I ordered the Bang Bang Shrimp to start with. It was described as "lightly fried shrimp tossed in spicy sweet chili sauce with scallions and toasted sesame seeds". At first, Angel, who doesn't like spicy food, was hesitant to try it. After she took a bite though, she declared it to be very good, despite the slight scorch. It was only mildly hot, in my opinion, but Angel is really sensitive to chili. I liked the shrimp a lot, although there was not much of it. Then again, the dish was filed under "small plates" in the menu, so it was exactly what it was described to be.

Bang Bang Shrimp

For my main course, I ordered Portobello Mushroom Ravioli. I was very happy with it. I like both portobello and ravioli, so it's always a treat to have them in one dish. Both Kennie and Angel thought it delicious as well.

Portobello Mushroom Ravioli

Now for the "almost-wonderful" part. For dessert, Kennie and I were excited to try their molten chocolate cake, since this is the dessert we always have when we eat at Chili's. We wanted to see if CPK's version was as good as that one.

Sadly, it was not. It looked appetizing enough, as you can see from this photo. However, once we dug in, we could hardly find any cake. It seemed to be a mini-ocean of chocolate sauce. We were so disappointed with this dessert. I never thought I'd find a molten chocolate cake I didn't like, but it apparently does exist, in CPK. I don't know if this is how they usually prepare this, or if this was a momentary lapse. In any case, I'm never ordering it again in this restaurant.

Molten Chocolate Cake

It's a good thing I was very happy with the shrimp and the ravioli. Otherwise the poorly made cake would've put me off ever eating in California Pizza Kitchen ever again.


California Pizza Kitchen
Ortigas Ave., Greenhills
San Juan, Metro Manila
Philippines
Tel. no. (63)(2)725.7377

Comments

Anonymous said…
Gidge, I make a pretty darn good one from scratch (molten that is). Let me know you want it. :-) Paul S.
Alex A. said…
You know I do Paul!!! Hope to taste it someday :-)