Pie In The Sky Pizza

From what I understand, the ownership of «Pie in the Sky,» changed about once or twice in the past year and then, it eventually closed down. This makes me really sad as the original owners seemed very nice and had the best pizza in town, hands down. The prices were pretty reasonable and they even provided frozen pizzas for take-​away, which one could bake and enjoy in the convenience of one’s own home.
Their pizza sauce had a tomato base but it was full of wonderful herb-​y smells and flavors. The pizza crust was crisp and fresh, and the cheese. oh, the cheese. I would go in thinking «I’ll just have one slice,» but after finishing that one remarkable slice of pizza, I would always end up ordering one more.
They also had Häagen-​Dazs ice cream and would make you a milkshake with it, if you asked. I never tried it as I would always be focused on eating the delicious pizza.
I miss this place especially when I walk past the street it was on :(

So, so sad this place changed ownership. For me, Pie in the Sky was the only place to get pizza.
Sure, the hours were a little unpredictable, the seats were uncomfortable, and there were only like, three recipes, but these were great, big slices of yummy pizza like no where else! And sometimes they gave a little extra, on the house. It’s just not the same since the new folks took over.
With decent old Bowser’s out as well, I’m getting my pizza from Bobby G’s.

Pie in the Sky offers some of the best slices in Berkeley. I’m surprised that with such a central location it gets overlooked still by pizza-​eaters who opt instead for Arinell’s, Cheeseboard, which I don’t really consider pizza, and even Blondie’s (jesus, people, you’re better than that). The couple that owns and runs Pie in the Sky take your order and quickly turn it around so you’re walkin’ with a mouthful of pizza within three minutes. The cheese is so lovely that even twice-​baked, it stays supple and stringy like pizza should be.
On a cracker-​thin but still soft and chewy crust (again, one of the best crusts around, along with its thin rival Emilia’s and the flaky Zachary’s deep dish that holds a place in my heart) you can get plain, pepperoni, any topping of your choice or choose from one of their special pies. They have a different special every day but I usually don’t bother deviating from their two house specialties: the Sky and Son of Sky. Sky has roasted eggplant, bitter arugula, sweet tomato sauce and mozzarella and is topped with chunks of salty feta and walnuts, which after a little time in the oven anchors all of the sweet-​salty-​tart flavors in such a great way. Its Son is a pesto-​based pizza with tomatoes, olives, artichokes, onion, mozzarella and ricotta, one of my favorite things on pizza. I usually get the Sky and then force my dining companion to get the Son so that we can both enjoy all of the great flavor combinations. It’s a perfect yin-​yang-​pizza thang.
Next time you’re craving pizza, don’t stand in line with all of the lemmings at Cheeseboard. Take a slice to walk in a paper plate, or stay in one of the few tables at Pie In The Sky and try some of their desserts (home-​baked goods and/​or topped with Haagen-​Dazs ice creams) after.

Tasty pizza, especially cheese or pepperoni. It’s great how they put it in the oven for you when you order it, and it gets all cheesy and hot when you eat it.
The service is great, and they are super friendly.
ps. i love their super compostable straws!

I may not be a huge fan of their pizzas but I must say that I really do like their sandwiches!
I always get the goat cheese sandwich — it’s goat cheese, artichoke hearts, and sun dried tomatoes on foccacia. It’s a decent sized sandwich and side salad for $ 7.50. I just REALLY like that foccacia — so soft and spongy!
YUMMY!

They had a couple of great specialty slices when I was there. I’m always grateful when a pizza place 1. sells their specialty by the slice, and 2. sells specialty slices that aren’t loaded with meat.

For years I went to Arinell’s, back when it was truly a hole-​in-​the-​wall. No tables, just a counter window at the door, passing out slices «neo» and sicilian. The guy working there, I’m no sure if he was the owner, said he was a catcher with the Minnesota Twins and a true New Yorker. The story he told was that some guy in Rome taught him how to make pizzas. I still don’t know whether to believe him or not. They had my loyalty for years until a jerk working there, a real idiot, dissed my kid when he was six years old. Haven’t set foot in there ever again. Nuff said.
Last December, while treking to a downtown meeting, I saw a beautiful white light shining at the doorway of Pie In the Sky. I has been Jones’n for years, praying for the right Napoletana styled pizza.
Baby Jesus answered my prayers for an elegant slice of «neo,» by Pie In the Sky, just like Jerry used to make at his store, Lombardi’s, in Soho.
The Pie In the Sky recipe, a genius of a pizza, starts with the crust, crispy on the underside (made with a little whole wheat), with a soft, cheesy, tomato interior. I either go cheese or peperoni. A nice big slice goes for $ 2.75 (cheese). And I don’t know if soda refills are free, but no one ever told my kid to pay up! It’s a pizza joint, so I never had a baked good there.
We stopped by today. I don’t know if they are owners, whatever, they all seem pretty nice there. They shared with me a very important piece of information: Watch out for the Football Parking signs. Even if the is a Cal Football Game at night, don’t park their from 11:00AM. You will get ticketed and towed!

I know I’m definitely not alone in being surprised about paying $ 3.50/ slice. The pizza is good but it’s not anything special. In fact, I took it to go, and it turned out soggy when I ate it 10 minutes later. And I thought it was a tad bit greasy. However, on the plus side, the pizza is filled with toppings– I had the special on Tuesday and it had red bell peppers, mushrooms, and sausage. Compared to Cheeseboard, the minus is that there is no extra half slice, but the plus is that it’s not only vegetarian! I’ll come around if I’m craving pizza, but at $ 3.50/ slice, I’m just not sure it’s worth it.

Maybe I went on a off day BUT I hated Pie in the Sky.
This review starts with the assumed owner of the establishment. He tried to pull off a ‘soup nazi’ vibe with his pretentious apathy towards his customers. Needless to say, he didn’t pull it off. Minus 1 star.
The pizza slices are premade and therefore lukewarm. I do believe they throw it back in the oven to heat it up a bit but you don’t get that freshness like you do in other top-​tier pizzerias. Other then that, people seem to enjoy only having 3 selections (one being cheese i think) but I don’t. I like unique variety. Menos dos estrellas!!!
Back to the customer service. My friend and I ordered a whole pizza and realized we wouldn’t finish so we got it in a togo box. As we are eating out of the togo box in teh establishment, the «owner» (not sure if he actually was) comes up and interrupts us, giving us a 5 min lecture on how the togo boxes are $.50 and if we are just going to eat at the place, to not say togo when we eat there. I don’t like being berated as a customer… lets take off another star.
I should also point out that I went to this place a year ago. But as I was Unilocaling, I realized I was being too generous with my 4 – 5 star reviews. Therefore, I actively sought out the worst possible establishment I could think of to restore the normative balance in my Unilocal review utopia. That says something when out of all the places I’ve ever been to in my life, I deliberately chose Pie in the Sky to exemplify a bad establishment worthy of a terrible review. Minus the last star for resurfacing suppressed memories.

Decent crust, the cheese was good, but I don’t think the toppings meshed — the Kalamata olives drowned the pesto, and the artichokes were a little dry.
Glad they had tons of copies of the New Yorker for my reading pleasure.

Flat crust done right. Tastes like NY pizza!
They were really good and accommodating. Know this: if you’re in a rush (like yours truly) and you want them to rush an order for you ahead of time you have to give them your credit card #. You can’t just tell them to make something and promise to show. As a smart business they refuse to prepare pizza without knowing someone is going to pay for it. So, if you’re in a rush, make sure to go there ahead of time. They’re fast (all they do is heat up the pizza in the oven like most pizza joints do).
And even though it looks ghetto on the outside, it’s normal on the inside, so go inside and sit down before your BART train takes off.

I worked just a block away from Pie in the Sky for two years, so I went there a whole lot. You can’t beat $ 3 slices, organic local salads, wonderful owners, and very delicious daily specials!
My favorite has always been son of sky — pesto, feta cheese, sundried tomatoes, and calamata olives. Delicious!!! The sky pie is great too, but it has walnuts — not for everybody… They also have wonderful desserts: brownies to die for. I definitely recommend this to everybody!!! Love them!

Even though I consider myself a Californian, I’ve lived in Upstate NY (okay, yes, not NYC) and Boston and for whatever reason, the pizza experience there is just different.
There’s just something about being able to buy a cheap slice or two of pie and to stand and eat it with the rest of the customers.
Coming from work to Ligaya’s first East Bay event at the Shattuck Down Low Lounge, I had pre-​Yelped this place to try since I work where Unilocal is banned :(
Look out for the special of the day. Woot to green practices (and I’m not talking about sucking $$ from your wallet!

We went here after our FREE cup of Ben & Jerry’s up the road. It’s a good, pretty quick pizza joint. A guy and lady work there and they are friendly.
Each slice is pretty big — you can even have them cut it in half so you can share with your friend.
We got:
Tuesday Slice of the Day: «The Scrum» — $ 3.50. Sausage, mushroom, red pepper, garlic. It was thin crust, hot and tasty. Recommended.
Slice of «Son of Sky» $ 3.50 — ricotta, mozzarella, garlic, roasted tomatoes, pesto, artichokes, red onions, black olives. I guess they had to make this because we wanted a while for it. It was greasy and salty, thin crust. Just ok.
They have homemade desserts like French Apple tart $ 3.25, chocolate caramel tarts $ 3.25, chocolate volcano cookie $ 1.85 ea. They also have Haagen-​Dazs ice cream.
They are selling a paperback book «Sylvia’s Farm» by Sylvia Jorrin for $ 14.95.
There’s about 10 seats inside — cramped, and 2 outdoor tables.
Credit cards taken. Close to Downtown Berkeley Bart.
Hrs: M-​F 11a-​9p
Recommended!

The pizza is a solid 3 stars but I’m giving them an extra star because:
the moment I walked in the guy at the register greeted me
they are a green business
they had a great selection of magazines — new yorker, food and wine, other foodie mags
they clean the tables the instant someone leaves so the place is clean and there is usually seating available
they say goodbye when you leave
I know the greeting stuff is a bit hokey but there is nothing like going into a restaurant to spend your money and having the people who work there act as if you are ruining their day and interrupting their cell phone call and yes I have put in many years waiting on people, too many perhaps.
On to the pizza — I had «Son» with artichokes, ricotta and other goodness. It was a tad greasy but hot and flavorful. The crust was thin and tasty. It still isn’t Arinell’s (though the toppings are better) or Gioia but fine if you’re in downtown Berkeley.
the caesar salad on the other hand wasn’t as good. the lettuce itself was great — big pile of crisp inner leaves. the dressing was thick and bland — I barely tasted garlic or lemon and I definitely did not taste anchovies. The cheese was in thick grates and didn’t add much. If they worked on the dressing the salad could be great. As it stands I’d skip it or try another kind.
Definitely will be back to try other pizza varieties.

This is the real deal yo’s. This place (sort of) disabused me of my Vietnamese food addiction, My caesar salad with big hearts of lettuce was plentiful, fresh, and sort of addictive. My slice was also quite crisp, well balanced and tasty. Definitely East Coasty. If they had a special that gave you a break on the two things together, we might have a 5.

I’m really mad at myself. Because I live a block from here and it took me four months to come check it out. I tried, actually, once before, but it was late at night and they were closed. Another attempt was equally pointless, it was lunchtime and I was in a big hurry and there was a line, so I went elsewhere.
The «Son of Sky» pizza was excellent. I’m not a vegeterian, but they just nailed it. The flavors, the textures, the appearance, it was just serious gourmet pizza without any attitude. Mouth is watering now, thinking about it. Then again, it IS 11:49am so that’s likely appropriate.
My only complaint; no lunch combo deal. I only had $ 5 cash on me so I ended up with one slice and a soda, and by the end of my workday (6pm) I was pretty famished. A side salad or braeksticks or something in addition to the slice would have taken the edge off. I’m just sayin’…

Pie in the Sky has pizza with a lot of toppings. And sometimes with not a lot of toppings.
The crust is thin and mildly crispy. And the «son of Sky» and «Sky» pizzas don’t have pizza sauce. And maybe it’s because I’m a sucker for pizza sauce. (or if the pizza does not have sauce, it better be that much better without it) But overall the pizza there is not that fantastic. The topping combinations could be better matched. And for what it costs, I would save my cash and head to an alternative Berkeley pizza place.
If Pie in the Sky can be compared to the way shallow, horny boys view girls, I would say it is an average-​looking girl.
Is she at least funny?
The thing is, she’s not even funny.
So why would you hang out with her?
One reason would be convenience. I would come here if I needed a quick pick on the go. But most likely never for reasons other than that.
love ezra

I had the funkiest pizza on the planet today. And by funky I don’t mean what you kids call «cool». I mean funky like feet after the gym funky. You dig?
Unnecessarily pungent goat cheese mixed with mystery pork is not a combo I should have dared to attempt. On the specials of the day menu it looked fancy (meat products with Italian names frequently trick me into buying them). I gotta give them credit for their innovative specials menu. But Thursday is yuck.
The pepperoni was tasty though. Personally, I’m a thick crust enthusiast so I am hardly satisfied with wussy thin crust types, but this was a decent thin crust pizza.
Don’t let the dingy exterior fool you. Inside is gourmet pizza and creative menu.
The desserts display almost conned me into buying a ridiculously decadent chocolate-​on-​chocolate-​action cupcake and a sweet potato tart. I bet I won’t be able to resist next time I pass by, now that I know that they’re there. Damn.

It’s hard to review pizza when Cheeseboard is around, but Pie in the Sky is still good… considering there’s Fat Slice and Blondie’s! Well no that’s mean… it’s good by itself!
I’m glad they actually accept credit cards, but w/​a 75 cent surcharge if under $ 5, your slice comes out to about $ 4 and that’s ridiculous (sorry, as a New Yorker used to getting fantastic slices for like $ 2.50, $ 4 is inflated!). Nonetheless, I like the toppings, the attitude, the wheat in the crust, the lack of a lot of dough, the organicness (i think, or at least it feels like it haha), and the cheese is sooooo good :))
they also have home made pastries and milkshakes and yummy looking cookies!