When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore
Chain restaurants. That’s my pet peeve. I do not like them. But while they do have the air of the generic they have one big advantage: once you discover what you like you can expect to get it every time in any part of any city you find it.
Me and CPK go back a long way – all the way to New York. So when my old favourite restaurant opened in Bombay in Bandra Kurla Complex and then even closer at Lower Parel, it gave cause for excitement.
What makes CPK pizza different?
1. Really exotic toppings – these are not the simply veg onion and corn variety of pizza – the menu is peppered with fusion options like a Thai vegetable curry pizza
2. Really outstanding pizza base– the unusual toppings may be a personal choice but the base is just some excellently baked bread – which thankfully has stayed consistent.
CPK has made its name with the frozen pizza but is slowly worming its way into the gourmet pizza dining segment. The Bandra Kurla branch boasts a beautiful outdoor seating – ideal for a leisurely dinner (while the weather is still cool).
In New York, my standard order was the Chipotle Chicken Pizza – a spicy marriage of Italian and Mexican. At the BKC outlet we sampled the Barbecue Chicken Pizza, invented by them in the 80’s they claim. The sauce is authentic BBQ, which so different from the Dominoes variety it may be a little too sweet for some.
This time I had a quick lunch at the newly opened Lower Parel branch. We got ourselves the Greek Pizza (Rs. 385) – a warm base topped with a chilled salad of cucumbers, tomatoes and olives – and an excellent dressing of what they called their homemade Tzatziki sauce which went great with the slightly sweet pizza base.
We also tried a pasta - a vegetarian garlic cream fettuccini (Rs. 365) which was mostly liked all around – although I did find the comforting white sauce to be somewhat lacking in imagination.
Drawn in by the ‘Specialities’ on the menu, we were excited about the pan sautéed fish (Rs. 545) which turned out to be unmanageable and disappointing. The fish itself was a sad specimen – thin and rubbery. The spaghetti in creamy lemon caper sauce it came with was though was just excellent with just the right touch of sour.
The mocktails and drinks are great – we loved the flavored Italian sodas in raspberry and peach (not the green apple so much).
Now onto the desserts: I had the most outstanding white chocolate strawberry cheesecake (Rs. 380) at BKC – it was on my list of best cheesecakes in the city. But when we ordered it at Lower Parel it turned out with the wrong consistency and just a mouthful of hard to swallow mush. The tiramisu (Rs. 375) on the other hand was surprisingly outstanding – really moist and oozing deliciousness (yes, we are still talking about a dessert).
The service went from extremely attentive to annoyingly inattentive as the tables filled up – perhaps a case of under-staffing? Unfortunately CPK suffers from a lack of consistency – and in a chain restaurant this is a serious wag of the finger.
The damage: About Rs. 700 a head
Food: 3.5
Service: 3
Ambiance: 3
Ambiance: 3