We’re talking about getting decent pizza in the SF bay area? You’re kidding, right?
I live in the SF-bay area, and have no complaints – I love it here, and have lived here 15+ years – , but it’s not a place to get decent pizza.
I grew up in Chicago, and am still amazed at how mediocre the pizza is around here. Not at Round Table specifically (which isn’t terrible, I’ll eat it and not complain) but really everywhere. I’m sure there’s a couple of decent street-corner Italian joints somewhere on the peninsula or in SF, but in general the Pizza scene, especially near San Jose, is a vast wasteland.
I’ve lived here in CA so long, I’d really forgotten how bad the pizza was until I went back to Chicago to visit some family recently. A conglomeration of grandkids+relatives got together, and someone sent out for pizza. And the product was just ambrosia – perfect crust, perfectly cooked, perfect cheese. Melt-in-your-mouth delicious stuff. Round Table could never match this.
But the kicker is: I raved to several of my relatives who live there about how good this pizza was , and recieved a surprised response – this was only average pizza for the area, there was much better around, they’d just gone with someone convenient! The group as a whole seemed quite puzzled that I thought the pizza was more than above-average – “any streetcorner joint makes pizza this good!” was their attitude.
I don’t hold up Chicago as the only pizza mecca; I understand New York can lay a similar claim, and I’m sure there are other localities of pizza heaven around the country. But I’ve been astonished – for more than a decade – at how unexceptional the pizza is in the SF bay area is. Why is this?
I know. I know. The pizza at Wrigley is ten times better, fercryinoutloud! The DOMINO’S in Chicago is great. It just ain’t right, I tell ya. Any other type of food you want, you can find in profusion in the bay area. It’s enough to make me cry.
I know about that little thing you have for Brad Pitt 
lezlers, I usually do go to Papa Murphy’s. This was more or less my giving delivery pizza one last shot before throwing up my hands in disgust. And yeah, Stuffy’s right…Pizza Hut sucks ass. That fried crust…ew!
Hyperelastic, thanks for the suggestion. I’ll see if they’re still there.
Maureen, personally I’ve given up my soul to Papa Murphy’s. At best I can say it doesn’t suck, delivery is as good as you make it, and it’s reasonably priced.
But really great pizza, it isn’t.
If you’re in Gilroy sometime , a small gem (unremarkable in Chicago, amazing here) is Happy Dog Pizza which seems to specialize in wierd pizzas (“Ay chi wa wa” habenera pizza anyone?) but can actually make a somewhat decent traditional pizza as well.
Or you can move east. If Pizza was further up my list of important issues, I would. The bay area seems hopeless in the pizza zen department.
Hey, don’t forget Johnny Depp!
shit :smack:
Yeah, DAMN those Arthurian Knights who think they’re so cool and armoured and shit.
Wait, what’s all this about pizza?
While I have zero experience in the allegedly divine classes of pizza available in Chicago or New York, I do have a few favorites in the supposedly mediocre sort of pizza in the Bay Area:
Pyzano’s, Castro Valley. The owner, Tony Gemelli (I think that’s his last name), was on Leno showing off his crust tossing skills a few years ago.
Porky’s Pizza, San Leandro. They were really good when I was in high school, were bad for a couple years, but now they’re back to being good again.
Lake Chabot Pizza, San Leandro. Just discovered these guys last week. Not quite as good as the first two, but they deliver to my house.
BJ’s, San Jose area. This was a Southern California chain until recently, when I heard they opened a store in the South Bay. Definitely the best pizza I’ve ever had, plus they have a killer dessert called a Pizookie: a cookie the size of a mini pizza (several kinds available), straight out of the oven, with a scoop of ice cream on top. Of course, I figured out you can make your own at home by baking a bunch of cookie dough in a disposable tart pan.