A popular sit-down pizza chain is atoning for its macaroni-based mistake.
On July 17, TikTok user Riley (@fumptruck) posted a video on her account that went viral and inspired a meal deal that benefits us all. In the video, she takes viewers through a the series of unfortunate events that happened when she ordered macaroni and cheese from California Pizza Kitchen (CPK).
“I’m having the worst week of my life,” Riley says in her video. “I’m injured, my boyfriend and I broke up, so I ordered mac and cheese from California Pizza Kitchen and they just sent me cheese. Just cheese, no mac.”
Riley considers the absurdity of her situation and giggles as she shows viewers a takeout container full of noodle-free cheesy sauce.
“There’s no noodles,” she says showing off the inside of her to-go bag. “Look, the bag is empty, there’s just some bread and they sent me cheese.”
Riley says she called the restaurant and two separate people told her she ordered incorrectly — she can see on her receipt that she did order a side of “Mac N Cheese.”
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“That’s not what mac and cheese is,” she concludes.
Riley’s video got a lot of attention, garnering more than 3.4 million views and attracting over 4,500 comments flooding her video like hot and gooey pasta sauce.
“You wanted Mac AND cheese? In this economy?” wrote one commenter. Another joked that it was “more like wack and cheese,” while someone else said, “He got the macaroni in the divorce.”
“This would break me I fear,” added one more.
Another commenter joked that “someone else got an order of macaroni and nothing” — this one comment received more than 27,000 likes.
Many folks tagged the national pizza restaurant in the comments section — and it didn’t go unnoticed. Someone wrote, “@California Pizza Kitchen UM HELLO???? Get this girl FREE MAC N CHEESE!!!”
On July 19, CPK itself uploaded a video to its official TikTok, in response. The video has a whopping 9.6 million views, and took a lighthearted approach to admitting fault.
“Hello everyone, chef Paul here,” Paul Pszybylski, CPK’s vice president of culinary innovation, said in the video. “I heard there’s been a little bit of confusion on how to properly make our mac and cheese, so I thought I’d send this video out nationwide to make sure everybody knew the proper steps.”
Pszybylski then goes through the recipe, with an expression on his face that looks like the neutral face emoji (😐).
“Step one: cook the cheese. Step two: cook the mac,” he says, plopping a basket of pasta into boiling water as the words “don’t forget” pop onto the screen. “Step three, add the mac to the cheese. So good and so easy.”
Pszybylski concludes the video by sharing that the chain prides itself on the quality of its food and taking care of their guests, so in that vein, the restaurant is making amends to both Riley and the rest of their customers.
“Since, recently, we gave one of our guests only half a mac and cheese, we’re gonna give all of our guests half off mac and cheese starting today through the rest of the month,” he said.
The worldwide chain with 200 restaurants confirmed the deal to TODAY.com.
“At CPK, we take our food very seriously, but that doesn’t mean we don’t get a bit cheesy from time to time,” a CPK representative tells TODAY.com via email. “In this case, we clearly dropped the ball (or as it turns out, the MAC) and unfortunately disappointed our guest. We are working hard to ensure this doesn’t happen again and we’ve reached out to our guest with an offer to truly make this right.”
CPK says its half-off macaroni deal is available to all of its guests for take out or delivery orders only until the end of July. Customers can use the promo code cheeseANDmac at checkout.
Additionally, the eatery made it up to Riley in a big way, who posted an update that she received a package chock full of dry noodles (but no cheese, this time).
The chain gave her both a year of free mac and cheese and a year of free pizza. She read the included note, which ended with CPK saying, “again, so sorry this happened, and we hope this makes it right.”
“I am in actual shock right now,” Riley says in her update. “This has been so much fun.”
For Riley, what CPK did to make it up to her is both overwhelming and totally welcome.
“It’s brought me a lot of laughter in a time when I really needed to laugh,” Riley, who asked to use a pseudonym to protect her identity, tells TODAY.com over the phone. She added that after recently ending a four-year relationship, being injured and sick, she was in a sad place until the internet performed a little magic on her mood.
“I really felt like all was lost for a couple of nights until this happened, and I just kind of remembered that like, there’s still joy in life,” Riley says. “I’m still going to be able to laugh and it sounds cheesy — if you’ll forgive the pun — but it really did brighten my day and my spirits.”
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:
