Arizmendi Bakery - 9th Ave, SF, CA - Pizza Dough

I was severely disappointed in this dough it was way to moist to turn out decent. It might of done OK with a long baking sheet-pan or deep-dish style, but even that’s unlikely. As it was the bottom barely browned by the time the cheese and toppings were done and the outer and upper side side of the crust were barely starting to dry. It didn’t get much better from there. In fact the second pie I tried to make stuck, or better year adhered to the peel despite a liberal dusting of flour and semolina. I ended up having to pull it off with a board scraper and roll it up in to some sort of calzone looking monstrosity.

I’d always heard decent thing about the pizza at Arizmendi’s pizza, thought it’s not really my style, so I guess I had expectations that weren’t lived up to. I’ll probably try it again just to see if I can turn out better results, probably more closely trying to mimic their style. If I do it will probably be mostly out of curiosity. At any rate, there are much better options out there.

★★ (site) (map) (yelp)

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Trader Joe's Dough, SF, CA - Slices

Trader Joe's Dough, SF, CA - Par Baked Crust

The trick to Tader Joe’s Dough is to par-bake it and when I say trick i mean the only way to get a half-decently cooked pizza with it. The dough is way too moist to get a decent high-heat cooked pie with any other way. You may have some luck cooking the pizza at a lower temperature for a longer amount of time, but you’ll probably have to steer clear of pizza stones.

Even with par baking or lower temperatures what you’re left with is pretty doughy and not particularly tasty. It is cheap and they usually have 3 varieties: regular, whole wheat, and herb. The stuff just isn’t worth the effort especially now that Whole Food’s has lowered their prices down to match. Trader Joe’s does have a decent ingredients including shredded mozzarella, jar sauces (probably my 2nd favorite,) and high-end pepperoni/salami. But the doughs just doesn’t do it for me. The one thing I’ve been pretty successful making with it are bread sticks. I just roll out a long snake, fold it in half, twist it around itself a few times, and throw it on the pizza stones while the oven is hot, but not quite up to temp. The cook pretty quickly and give you and your dining companions something to snake on while you wait. It’s edible and the whole wheat version is at least a little out of the ordinary, but I seldom bother preferring to get dough somewhere else or just make it myself. ymmv.

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1. Lucca Ravioli Co. Dough

Pizzetta 211, SF, CA - Pizza

Great (pizza) date place in a quite little strip in The Richmond. It shouldn’t be too hard to find parking in the neighborhood, but it’s a small place and they don’t take reservations so you might have to wait a bit for a table. There’s a weekly menu with a set of regular pizzas. The general style is Neapolitan, but it’s not going to satisfy the purist. Pizetta 211 was one of a handful of Bay Area pizza stops mentioned in American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza with a similar review as my own. A very warm/cozy little neighborhood restaurant with good, but not great pizza.

The crust is this, crispy, browned but not charred. The dough itself doesn’t have much flavor, but there’s a bit there. As for toppings it varies (a lot) based on the pie you order. We ordered a margherita and another (weekly) that I don’t remember the specific name of (it involved pesto rather than red-sauce, pancetta, heirloom tomatoes, and parmesan cheese.) The margherita was pretty flat, I didn’t really care for the drizzled pesto and the flavors just didn’t pack enough in to the simple pizza to make it memorable enough for me to order it again. The other pie was much more interested and tasty. The thinly sliced tomatoes were fresh and fruity, the parmesan was nicely salty, the pesto when cooked tasted great – everything just worked well together. I have no real complaints about 211, it’s on on my list of best places or somewhere I have to take a friend who’s in to pizza when they visit, but I like it a lot and will happily accompany my girlfriend there any time I can convince her to go.

★★★★ (site) (map) (yelp)

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Pizza Politana, SF, CA - Pepperoni Pizza

In this place’s defense I was there pretty early and the oven probably hadn’t come all the way up to temp. At least I hope that was the case as otherwise they turn out sub-par pizza given the head-start of wood fired oven.

I’m not a huge fan of Neapolitan pizza, in fact there’s only two such places that I’ve ever bothered to go to more than once; once in Seattle and the other you’ll find a review of on this site in the near future. Things started out pretty good, a nice chewy moist cheese and very interesting/distinct pepperoni, but that was all this pizza had going for it. The crust was only somewhat browned on the bottom and generally dough-y. The edge was charred to the point of burnt in several spots. It wasn’t like the pizza was horrible or anything, but it was a pretty big disappointment given the (oven) potential. I won’t be back unless I just happen to be in the area and starving for pizza, really I’ll probably just go with something else at the Thursday Farmer’s Market, perhaps Tacolicious.

★★ (site) (map) (yelp)

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Tony's Coal-Fired Pizza and Slice House, SF, CA - New York & Sicilian Slices

This place pretty well nails NY Style pizza, the Sicilian not so much. It’s a shame it’s in an out of the way location (for me anyway) or else I’d go here often. Regardless I now have two (pizza related) reasons to head to North Beach.

The place is pretty new so I’ll mostly forgive the overly complex and slowish process, but they should simplify. You place your order as the cashier punches it in to a computer, at some later point a slip gets printed out and later still the guy taking stuff out of the display and putting it in the oven makes his way up to actually get the stuff and stick it back in the oven to reheat. The place wasn’t particulate busy when i stopped in, probably half full, but it still took ~10m from the time I ordered to when I walked away with the pizza.

The NY slice was worth the wait though. Good tasting, bread-y crust with a crispy well browned bottom. No char, just browned. The cheese is definitely full-fat mozzarella and slightly oily with the taste and texture you’d want/expect. The pepperoni was decent; however the sauce was a contender. You could pick out the (fresh) tomato taste and it was applied in the appropriate proportion to everything else. It had the appropriate flop without being completely limp. This place is probably your best bet for NY style slices in SF.

On the other hand the Sicilian was forgettable, you’d be much better off walking a block or so to Golden Boy. The dough that was great in the NY slice was too much here. A bit tough and chewy. The bottom was over cooked past the good brown and on its way to burnt. It was too lightly sauced and cheesed (given the amount of crust.) The only redeeming quality was the meatball topping. It had a true, herb-y, honest-to-goodness, meatball taste that got me through the otherwise ho-hum piece of pizza.

This place is worth checking out.

★★★★ (map) (yelp)

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1. Golden Boy Pizza
2. Escape From New York – Mission

Milano Pizza, SF, CA - Pepperoni & Sausage Slice

A very solid pizza. One I’m looking forward to trying again. It’s been a while since I’ve tried a new place that really stood out and Milano did. It is not the best pizza I’ve ever had and I won’t be forsaking all others in its honor, but it has the potential to be my neighborhood go-to pizza place and that’s says a lot. I’d seen it before many times and made a mental note to check it out a time or two, but something about the outside appearance delayed me. I wish that wasn’t the case as I’ve lived a few blocks from a great pizza place for nearly a year and didn’t know it. I guess I was so turned off by my experience with Pasquale’s Pizza, which I will soon get around to trying again for picture taking and reviewing purposes, that I wrote off the other two places in my area. Not any more.

The pizza was very cheesy, almost, but not quite to a fault. The cheese was stretchy and tasty with a nice bite. The crust had a good taste and was well crisped, almost crunchy, though not charred. The pepperoni was decent, but the star of the show was the savory/herb-y Italian sausage. The sasuage was really good, enough that my next pie might be sausage only. Rounding things out the sauce was present, but didn’t stand out. I like this place and will be going back/ordering again soon.

★★★★ (map) (yelp)

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Big Slice, SF, CA - Pepperoni Slice

Super thick and doughy slice. The bottom crust was super crisp and oily so my only guess is they oil the pan they cook them on/in heavily. The cheese was greasy as was the pepperoni. A watery/herby sauce that was barely passable. This was not good pizza and I won’t be going anywhere near this place anytime soon.

★ (map) (yelp)

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North Beach Pizza, Stanyan, SF, CA - Pepperoni Slices

I didn’t really know what to expect with this place, but now I do and I won’t bother going back. The only good thing about it was the pepperoni, I’d even say it was great, but that’s where the positives begin and end. The cheese was piled on and chewy (probably been sitting for a while) and the sauce was mediocre and at the very least overwhelmed by the blanket of cheese. The crust was the low point of an otherwise ground-floor pizza. It was tasteless, thick, chewy, and undercooked. I’ll pass.

★★ (site) (map) (yelp)

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1. SBC Pizza & Deli

Pizza Di Mano, SF, CA - Pepperoni Slice

This newly opened place seems to have been dealt pretty harsh reviews on Yelp, but I can’t really see why. The pizza is pretty solid and with a few minor improvements (or on a better/busier day) would probably be damned good. It’s no frills, couple tables, counter and a pizza oven. There’s art on the walls, but that’s about it. I found my way in mid-day on a warm Saturday and ordered a slice of pepperoni. What I got was a decently crisped crust (that wasn’t quite to the point of charred) dusted with super-fine cornmeal. The pepperoni was very tasty and the cheese was gooey, stringy, and some of the best I’ve had recently. I think some of the early reviews were complaining about the prices (which seems to have been since lowered,) but otherwise there’s nothing to complain about. The pizza is pretty good, worth a try, and if cooked right could get another star or two.

★★★ (site) (map) (yelp)

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1. Serrano’s Pizza
2. Arinell Pizza
3. Escape From New York – Mission

Escape From New York, Mission, SF, CA - Pepperoni Crust

Escape From New York, Mission, SF, CA - Pepperoni Slice

I’d always stayed away from Escape From New York’s local chain. I’m not really sure why, i guess it just struck me as the kind of place you’d find in a mall food-court, something about the look of it didn’t sit right with me. Sooner or later I would get around to checking it out, but there always seemed to be something known (and thus better, read Serranos) near-by. I finally got around to it last weekend while killing some time before meeting friends to head down to Maker Faire. As for the pizza I was pleasantly surprised. It’s look was near perfect with a nice charred bottom, and gooey cheese without being greasy, average pepperoni, but the dough’s taste didn’t quite live up to its appearance. In fact it was pretty near flavorless and while that isn’t a negative it is the thing holding the pizza back from being great. I’d have no problem going back and in fact now plan to check out the original on Haight Street, but it’s not the sort of place I’d go out of the way to get to.

★★★★ (site) (map) (yelp)

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1. Tony’s Coal-Fired Pizza and Slice House
2. Arinell Pizza
3. Serrano’s Pizza