Pizza is the item California Pizza Kitchen is famous for, but the restaurant has so much more to offer.
Looking ahead to Cherry Hill Restaurant Week, kitchen manager Stephanie Varela is hoping to give customers who haven’t visited the eatery a chance to sample a variety of menu options.
“We want to help people see what it is we offer,” she said.
Both the lunch and dinner menus feature pasta and salads as well as pizzas. Many items include the restaurant’s best sellers, such as the barbecue chicken chopped salad. The salad has an explosion of flavor with black beans, jicama, corn, cilantro, basil, tortilla strips, chicken, tomatoes and scallions mixed with a herb ranch sauce.
California Pizza Kitchen also included a garlic cream fettuccine among its pasta dishes. The dish includes a bed of fettuccine topped with chicken, shrimp or sautéed mushrooms. Garlic Parmesan cream sauce is poured over the dish.
“We made all of the garlic cream sauce in-house,” Varela said.
The menu wouldn’t be complete without a sampling of California Pizza Kitchen’s famous, hand-tossed pizzas. The restaurant’s original item, the barbecue chicken pizza, is featured for both lunch and dinner. Customers can choose to include bacon with the chicken.
Also on the menu is a five cheese and fresh tomato pizza. Among the five cheeses are fresh and traditional mozzarella, Monterey jack, smoked Gouda and Pecorino Romano.
The pizza is one of Varela’s favorite dishes.
“I was so excited when they put it on the menu,” she said.
While eating at California Pizza Kitchen, customers have the opportunity to give back. The restaurant frequently runs fundraisers for local nonprofit organizations.
Throughout the summer, customers can ask for a portion of their check to be donated to the New Jersey State Animal Shelter.