Tony’s Pizza Napoletana
I’m an east coast gal who lives with a Chicagoan. Needless to say, we have many differences of opinion on pizza — specifically thin crust pizza. He’s dragged me for thin crust pizza in Chicago (sure, it tastes fine. But if I’m in Chicago I’ll take Nancy’s stuffed pizza. I’ve dragged him to pizza in NY (John’s on Bleeker!). Neither of us were blown away by the other person’s idea of thin crust pizza perfection.
BUT we both love Tony’s. Tony’s pizza has 4 different pizza ovens. FOUR. And four different types of pizza (so you can think of it as four different pizza restaurants). We’ve eaten here a number of times. We’ve had pizza from 3 out of 4 ovens, I think.
The 900 degree wood fired oven. This is the oven that made Tony famous. The story goes he won a competition in Italy for a margherita pizza. The specific combination is special to him and he only makes 73 of these daily. If you don’t get there in time for one of these 73, you’ll have to get the slightly different margherita extra. It’s still good. I don’t even know if I prefer one over the other. On today’s visit, we had one pie from the 900 degree oven. The Scarola con Pancetta pizza.
This pizza has Crushed Red Pepper, Mozzarella, Pancetta, Peppered Goat Cheese, Escarole, Sweet Piquante Peppers. The peppers here are truly the star; they are both sweet and spicy. In my opinion this pizza could be improved by substituting arugula for the escarole (a little more of a peppery bite) but I really enjoy this pizza. I can also heartily recommend the Truffle pizza, but at market price this can get as costly as $80!. The quail egg and speck pizza, also from this wood burning oven, is also delightful. The crust is crispy and chewy and perfectly prepared.
Classic Italian oven We didn’t have any pizzas this time from this domed, gas brick oven. In the past I’ve enjoyed the Cal Italia pie (Asiago, Mozzarella, Imported Italian Gorgonzola, Sweet Fig preserve from Croatia, Prosciutto di Parma, Parmigiano, Balsamic). It may be a little sweet for some, but it’s a fantastic leftover for breakfast pizza.
Classic American We almost always get a pie from this NY Flat Top Gas Brick Oven. If we remember, we ask for the crust extra thin. The pepperoni is a favorite (and a bargain still at $13 - it used to be $10). This time around we got the NY Sausage and Pepper.
This (and the others from the Classic American oven) come with the perfect mix of sauce and cheese. The one pictured here is not extra thin (oops, we forgot). Still tasty.
Italian brick oven is used for the sicilian style pizza. We’ve never had one so I can’t tell you too much about it.
We’ve also had salads (huge!) and a side of meatballs (tasty). One weekend nights we get takeout from here, but the outside seating has made this a great trek with the dogs place.
Overall thumbs: Two thumbs up. Service is friendly and the pizzas are easily the best in San Francisco. Pizzas to go are easily to pick up with 2 people (one to hover with the car in North Beach, one to run in and grab the pies).
Tastiness rating: Very high. Every pizza we’ve had here has been fantastic.
Service: Good. We’ve only sat at the outside tables (when we’ve dined there we’ve had dogs with us) but they’ve always been friendly and attentive. Because we’re on foot they even wrap up our leftovers in foil instead of a box (easier for fitting in a backpack). We’ve only had to wait for a table one time and they called our cell phone when it was ready.
Dog friendliness: Very good. We’ve been here before with our two big (one extra large, one large) dogs. They have several dog bowls and heat lamps so it’s pleasant outside.
