I have to admit I don’t like pizza. I love it. And I am prepared to do literally anything to get my hands on a slice. ~ Liz Truss
San Francisco Pizza Places
As I mentioned in the in memoriam section of the Pizza Page, recently Arinell, my go to place for a NY slice in SF has closed. So I’ve been wanting to get back into the city to find a new one. Today I did just that. I did some research on the web and even held up a meeting at work to thoroughly discuss the topic and get some recommendations. I went to three places today, here they are.
This slice house is a continuation of Tony’s Napoletana which is an Italian restaurant in North Beach (read Little Italy East Coasters). Of the places I visited today it was the least busy and took the longest to get my slice out. It was a decsnt slice, it had the right look, the crust was close, the cheese was great, the sauce was close. But it just didn’t really come together as well as a NY slice should. Plus they charged me twenty cents for a to go box I didn’t ask for, kind of annoying. I did see the pepperoni slices and their pepperoni looked really good. All in all a c-level NYC slice, if you’re hungry and want a slice definitely worth grabbing. If you have time and want something a little off the NY slice, going to the restaurant for a Margherita Pizza or something with fresh mozzerella, those pies looked really good and it makes sense, Tony’s has won the pizza world championship 13 times. So I’d say skip the slice and head for the restaurant.
Outta Sight Pizza is a fairly recent addition to the San Francisco pizza scene and it’s getting a lot of hype. Definitely the hip new pizza place in the Hayes Valley area of San Francisco. It shows up very often on the San Francisco top pizza lists. When I got there I had to stand in a decent line, both because it was popular and a bit because of the way they handle reheating the slices. And let’s address that right now, something I see a bit in SF that I rarely see in NY is using a small pizza oven to reheat slices. I’m not a fan, they just don’t come out as well, I think it’s because the small oven looses a bit of temperature when ever the door opens so the oven just doesn’t stay as hot.
The slice at Outta Sight was good, a bit like Tony’s and the fresh basil, oil drizzle and a little fresh grated cheese over the top was a really nice touch, but again a C-level NYC slice. I will say that some of their specialty slices looked really good, and yes, that’s me avoiding calling them gourmet pizza. So if you want something a little more fancy I’d recommend Outta Sight, but get a whole pizza so you get it out of the oven without the small oven reheat. A special note, they have a bathroom and it’s clean, a rare combination for any take out oriented place in the city.
A place I found off of a couple of best in SF lists I decided it was worth a shot. It’s a little place, one table to sit at inside and the cutest little glass bottles of diet coke for sale that I’ve ever seen. It was crowded when I got there but the line moved quickly. I immediately saw that the pepperoni was really right, the slices looked really good in the case. So I ordered two, when they came out I was absolutely thrilled. Everything you look for in a good NY slice was there. Well cooked but the cheese wasn’t overly brown. A great crispy mottled under crust with a crispy on first bite edge crust that gives way to soft and fluffy inside, good bread! The sauce was right on, not sweet, the cheese perfectly and fully melted. The pepperoni, cupped and at the edge of burnt and crunchy and the slice had just the right amount of grease flowing across the surface, a decent amount on the pepperoni slice and just a little on the cheese slice, a sign they use high quality full-fat cheese.
While the appearance was great, the slice was also perfectly heated and laid out nicely on a paper plate with a very smart marketing move, the wax paper shows their name. I was excited and had high expectations and the first bite was absolutely fantastic! A light crunch as I bit into it, the cheese was hot and melty with little stringers as I pulled back from the bite. The sauce was right on, the pepperoni perfect. These were easily the best two slices I’ve ever had outside of NYC and were on par with my favoritie place in Brooklyn that I talked about above. I definitely have a new go to pizza place in San Francisco. Gioia is relatively new, it opened in 2019, I hate that I’m just getting there. Another bonus, it’s not a very long walk from the UN Plaza/Civic Center BART stop.
The Ministry of Happiness 