California Pizza Kitchen at Pentagon

I have come a full hour before closing on many Saturday nights. They always say they are extra short staffed that night and need to close earlier than usual despite hours indicated online. This time, the manager told us the kitchen closed in 20 minutes, only to additionally walk near us to stare at her watch impatiently without making eye contact when we took 10 minutes to order. Waitress alsowas rude from the get-go, beginning with, "what do you want?" before anything else, not even a greeting or smile or water. We obviously ordered within the timeframe the manager had indicated. One pizza was bare two inches from the crust edge so was almost like afghan flatbread with only the center being sauced and cheesed; for their pizza size being so small, this was atrocious. Nobody asked how the food was of course. The gluten free person, who has an allergy, obviously ordered GF crust, having to reiterate "not cauliflower but the actual GF certified crust." Previous times, this has been prepared in a separate area and brought out by a manager. This time, I didn't see where it was originally prepared but saw that it was brought right past the main pizza area where it sat, exposed, while the other pizza was topped. The diner got sick. Both pizzas could not have been cut more sloppily. Everything was done with zero care, kindness, quality, or consideration. From the manager to the waitress to the food to the umpteenth early close, there is finally no reason to go back here. We tried. This location, at least at 10 (and multiple other times even at 9:30) on Saturday nights just absolutely sucks. Don't go.

The pizza was ok but not good. The main issue was with some gluten free pizzas. A friend of mine made it very clear that she needed gluten free and that it can not touch anything with gluten but not only did it take longer to come out -so much so that they offered us dessert before it even came out- but they put a brownie, or rather dropped a brownie on to the plate and the brownie subsequently touched the pizza, making it inedible for my friend. There was also a group in our party but not at our table, that ordered a gluten free pizza and received it with pepperoni, this group could not eat pepperoni due to religious reasons and when they informed the server he was incredibly rude to them. Other tables also reported terrible service as well. It was an all around a bad experience where too much food went to waste.