CPK evolves with new dishes

The new year’s notion of new beginnings isn’t restricted to individuals. It’s also a time for corporations to set goals and debut new offerings.

California Pizza Kitchen is starting 2016 with the launch of its “Next Chapter” menu, focusing on delivering more high-quality, fresh and seasonal ingredients to the table to address today’s more sophisticated diner, who may have grown up with the company in its 1.0 stage but who now craves more than pizzas or have dietary restrictions.

The restaurant may have started by doing one thing well, but over the years it has proved agile in adapting and growing with its audience to offer a well-rounded menu of salads, sandwiches and entrees to accompany those initial pizzas and flatbreads.

Some deride the idea of chain restaurants putting out good food, but figuring out what people want and delivering it, minus ego-driven eccentricity, is smart business and the reason there’s always a line at CPK.

Over time we’ve all picked our favorites. I typically order the cedar plank salmon with its salad of white corn, spinach and feta. Male friends have a thing for the Cajun-spiced jambalaya fettuccine.

The Next Chapter transformation means, in addition to CPK favorites, diners from city to city will find a new focus on the regional and seasonal. New items are printed on inserts that can be swapped out as dishes change. For the local launch, CPK fans will find a trio of ahi dishes exclusive to Hawaii.

For starters, there are ahi egg rolls ($12.49). Wild-caught ahi is rolled with avocado and cabbage in nori and a crisp won ton shell, served with options of tamari-ginger dipping sauce or Sriracha sauce. The ginger sauce delivers balance. With the Sriracha sauce, all you taste is the sauce.

Acknowledging health-driven clientele, the Poke Chop Chop Salad ($14.99 half, $19.99 full) is a tower of baby bok choy, arugula, spicy kim chee pears, cucumber and cilantro, tossed with house-made black sesame vinaigrette and topped with marinated ahi. The poke flavor was light, and I thought the fish might be better seared to give more texture to the dish.

The main attraction is slices of wild-caught sesame-seared ahi ($22.99) layered over seared baby bok choy and a stir-fry of roasted farro, shiitake mushrooms and red chili.

One of the healthiest of the new dishes is wild-caught Alaska halibut ($24.99) roasted on a cedar plank before being layered over farro accented with butternut squash, grilled asparagus and baby kale. Unlike the more flavorful salmon, plain halibut needs more than cedar to liven it up, but I appreciated the farro as a more nutritious replacement for rice or pasta.

If one of your New Year resolutions is to eat more healthfully, CPK’s Harvest Kale Salad ($11.99 half, $15.99 full) offers the best of two worlds: baby kale, thin-sliced Bosc pears, roasted butternut squash, spiced pecans, goat cheese and cranberries for the greenies, and add-ons of your choice of salmon ($4.75), grilled shrimp ($4.75) or strips of grilled chicken breast ($4.50) for those determined to eat less animal protein but not quite ready to give it up completely.

Also delivering equal measures of greens and meat is one of my new favorites, a Brussels + Bacon Flatbread ($8.69) topped with Nueske’s applewood-smoked bacon, sweet caramelized onions, Brussels sprouts and creamy goat cheese. The greens make you feel less guilty about the carb factor as well.

Similarly, a Sunny Side Up Bacon + Potato Pizza ($16.59) sounded like a good idea, the pizza dough topped with Nueske’s bacon, caramelized leeks, thin-sliced potato slices, Parmesan and mozzarella cheeses and two sunny-side up eggs, but it’s missing a sauce. The idea was that, when broken, the egg would provide the right texture, but there were too many dry spots and it lacked overall flavor.

You can get stronger potato flavor from a baked potato soup ($4.99 cup, $6.99 bowl), which can be paired with a half sandwich. This rich, thick and decadent soup is like liquid au gratin.

And for those entering the new year with no new diet resolutions, a new fire-grilled rib-eye steak ($27.99) will be a welcome sight, flavored with house-made pinot noir sea salt, topped with creamy blue cheese butter and served with roasted fingerling potatoes and lemon-garlic wild arugula salad.

Also new are handcrafted cocktails such as the California Roots, made with fresh avocado, shaken smooth with Svedka vodka, mint and lime, with a fennel salt rim; and the Blueberry Ginger Smash, with muddled blueberries, lime and cranberry, Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey and Domaine de Canton Ginger.

Coming from the land of the trendy diet, CPK is also proactive about catering to those with restricted dietary requirements; these diners can find low-calorie, vegetarian and gluten-free options. The restaurant can also provide allergen information to those with food sensitivities.

It looks like they’re starting the year on the right track.

Nadine Kam’s reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Advertiser. Reach her at nkam@staradvertiser. com. More photos at honolulupulse.com/takeabite.