5 NorCal Spots for National Pizza Day
HAPPY NATIONAL PIZZA DAY 🍕🍕🍕🍕 I love pizza so much, and I'm pretty sure you could say the same! In honor of this amazing holiday, I attempted to find the best pizza spots to share with you in the Bay Area. But, because I am lazy, I didn't get to it until about a week ago, so I couldn't go to all the pizza spots recommended to me 😂 Sorry, I'm the worst!
With that said, I DID try to get together a list of places who had good pizzas that I remembered, and that I did get to try in the last week. So there's a good mix of past and present here, and, if there's a lot of eggs, don't forget the name of this blog after all! Now get to scrolling and enter pizza heaven.
1. Il Casaro Pizzeria and Mozzarella Bar
A recent recommendation, Il Casaro really impressed me with their pizza (and their lasagna). The pizza dough is chewy, blistered, and not too thick. The broccoli rabe and sausage pizza we got was flavorful and not greasy at all, just how I like it! It did get soggy in the middle a little fast, but that didn't do anything to hurt it flavor-wise.
Their pizza is delicious, but I'd also highly recommend trying the butternut squash lasagna—so good!
2. Gather Berkeley
If you're looking for a brunch spot near downtown Berkeley, try Gather! I apparently visited this place in 2015 and had a pretty lackluster experience (thanks for the memories, Yelp), but it was way better this time around. Along with a tasty breakfast sandwich, we got the brunch pizza. Check out that beauty!
This delicious pizza pie comes with egg, bacon, and caramelized onions, but we added some arugula for some extra greens. The crust was nice and chewy, there was good flavor from the caramelized onions, and the arugula was a great addition because I think it would have been a little salty without it.
3. Local Kitchen
Another brunch, another pizza! I'm sure you're seeing a theme here 😂 I can't help that I love pizza no matter the time of day! Local Kitchen only has 2 pizzas for brunch: the Bismark and the Funghi. As you can see, both are beautiful pizzas!
I personally love mushrooms so I think the Funghi was more my preference, and I love runny, poached eggs. The Bismark came with prosciutto and fried eggs—delicious but not in my opinion as unique or tasty as the Funghi! For dinner, Local Kitchen has way more pizza options, and they also have a calzone option that I want to try next time.
4. A Mano
A Mano just opened up I think last year? I've been meaning to go there for forever, and finally had the chance when I was in Hayes Valley for something else. The service was kind of bad, but the food was pretty good! We split the Funghi pizza (did I mention I love mushrooms 😂) and it was delicious! The pizza comes with "funghi, escarole, caramelized onions, rosemary, and scamorza."
I have no idea what that last one means but I'm assuming it's talking about the cheese because this pizza had some kind of smokey cheese that really complemented the mushrooms and onions. Or maybe the smokiness was from the pizza getting cooked in the oven, who really knows. The pizza crust was interesting on this one because it was bordering on flatbread level, but still had a nice chewiness despite being so thin.
5. Pink Onion Pizza
I went to Pink Onion so long ago, but I remember the pizza was pretty delicious! Back then, they had a butternut squash pizza that looks like it was taken off the menu (pictured below).
If memory serves me correctly, the dough was soft and chewy, and the pizzas we got were pretty flavorful. Since it's a pizzeria, they also have SO MANY options to choose from. I definitely have to go back here!
Honorary Mentions
These spots get an honorary mention! They mostly didn't make it to the list because I didn't have a good photo of a pizza from them, but they are definitely places I'd go back to!
- Little Star
- Montesacro Pinseria-Enoteca
- Fiorella
- Zero Zero
- Arizmendi
- Cheeseboard
