Pizzicato Gourmet Pizza

This place was amazing!!! Good portion sizes, and everything was super fresh. The restaurant has a really good vibe, some local photographs and lots of daily specials.
Customer service — off the charts…
They let us know some of the kid friendly options they had on the menu and checked on us more than a few times to see if we needed anything. Thank you for a great lunch experience!

Wowzah!
Dare I say — this is the best pizza I’ve ever had!
Thanks Unilocal community for your reviews because we were on our way to SD and were craving pizza and never thought we’d come across one that’s gluten free!
I like how their crust is thin and crispy on the sides — realllly goood.
Their toppings are packed with fresh vegetables slices and herbs.
With gooey cheese to die for!
Forgot which we ordered (started w a B) added mushrooms and cloves of garlic. It had basil, spinach, yellow red bell peppers,
Wow! Just wow!
We also had their artichoke and spinach dip — get those too!
Parking is ample.
Inside and patio dining.
One Tv inside.

Order from Leucadia pizza instead. This place is, by far, most overpriced pizza I’ve ever had.
$ 31 for a large pizza straight from the menu– no special orders or additional toppings???
Web site lists price as $ 24 for a large pizza… nope $ 26. Web site very clearly states free delivery every day after 5pm… nope, wrong again.
When I brought it up to the person taking my order they told me I must be looking at the wrong website.
Save yourself $ 10 for pizza that’s just as good and order from Leucadia.

Meatball panini literally had 4 small meatballs on the whole sandwich. Never seen anything like it. Basically a sauce sandwich. Had to go out again to eat somewhere else.
Also, if you go w someone and you don’t both order pizza your meal arrives 10 – 15 minutes after the pizza does. Basically your dining partner is done when your food arrives.

I feel like there are better pizza options around. Mostly because $ 19 for a 12-​in pizza seems like a bit to much in my personal opinion. Place was nice and casual but the pizza was just pizza nothing too spectacular.

Best thin slice I’ve had in SD County. Crust is crispy and chewy perfection. Flavorful sauce, melty cheese. Yum!

This would have gotten a 4 star rating for quality and value had it not been for this:
«PASTA $ 8.50 each Served with fresh housemade foccacia bread.» on the website, only to be charged $ 10.00 when I got to the store.
The service girl was sweet and friendly, but of course she didn’t dare honor the website price for fear of reprisal from their boss. False advertising, which she apologized for repeatedly. I came for the value and left disappointed. The food was quite decent, but it’s up to the owner to honor the online price, even when the menu in the store has been updated while the website has not.

My favorite pizza in town! We are never disappointed with the quality ingredients, and it’s one of the few pizza places that doesn’t leave me with a stomachache. Kids approve!

Love me some Pizzicato… pizzas and salads are are delish! Definitely a must-​try pizza spot!

Just went to pizzacatto tonight for the first time and ordered though grub hub. The food was fantastic and a LOT of it. But more than that, the salad I ordered had somehow missed the bag given that they were super busy. Several people who worked there went above and beyond to apologize and try to fix it more than I even expected. Great staff, very personable and quality food quality. Happy to have them in the neighborhood.

I ordered the Anchovie Pizza. Instead of a few strips of Anchovies spread out over the pizza, the entire pizza was covered with Anchovies! The crust was just the right thickness, thin and the cheese was perfect. These guys know what they are doing. Absolutely delicious. I will be back.

Everyone is very friendly whenever I come here. It is quick and delicious! I love their arugula pear salad with chicken and their pizza is thin crust and not very heavy. Have been coming here for years!

Excellent pizza. Great service and friendly staff. We enjoy their lunch special. One slice of pizza and salad. We like the Caesar and Greek salads. The pizza by the slice is excellent. We will be going back.

SO I poppped in to grab a couple of slices & was surprised and delighted by how good every component — the dough, the sauce, the meats and veggies — all of it was bomb — so good!
I was a little hangry cause slices shouldnt take 20 min but they were SLAMMED with phone orders & I can understand why after eating their food.
I will be back :)

A good friend introduced me to Pizzicato today and I was shocked that I have lived in Encinitas for 10 years and never had heard of this restaurant or been there. I can’t count the many times my wife and I have gone to Rubios (probably over 100) and I never knew this restaurant was on the back side of that building.
This is definitely a case where lack of signage has really hurt them.
Considering the above this restaurant has survived for 15 years. Think about all the nearby restaurants that have died in this time frame.
The reason is great owners and great food.
I had the opportunity to meet one of the owners today (Kirk) and what a hardworking gentlemen he is.
I will definitely be back and I will bring more friends.
But Kirk & his partner might want to consider a coupon program for the houses within 1 miles radius.

In the mood for some pizza at lunch time, I tried out Pizzicato a few days ago. They are a little hidden on the verge of a strip center but not too hard to find. Parking was easy and once I made my way inside, I found the restaurant space inviting. The employee working the counter was friendly and walked me through the lunch special options.
I opted for two slices of pizza: the daily special, pizza verde and barbecue chicken. Both were excellent. The barbecue chicken was one of the best I have tasted. They kept the barbecue sauce to a minimum which let the rest of the flavors come through nicely. The special was a nice mix of meat and vegetables. It’s highlight was the fresh basil they used on it which wasn’t overpowering but very nice.
Pizzicato could the best pizza I have tasted so far in Encinitas. I’ll be back.

Order in or take out with this place, although they charge you $ 3, I think, for delivery it’s so much better than eating in the restaurant. Very friendly staff but extremely loud inside. The food is great, I always get the pizza. The pasta dishes are all good from what I’ve ordered, medium size plates no left overs really.

I’m down with this place! Their wee little mixer, the wee slicer. But from those cute aperati come big big slices and salads. Bravo!
How they defy laws of the Earth, I don’t know but I’m in!

Meh.
Overpriced and overhyped.
We ordered the Thai Chicken pizza and the dough was incredibly mushy and soggy. The dough would basically crumble as you went to eat the slice; not only that, the ingredients weren’t that good either.
The price for a large «specialty» pizza is around $ 28. Not worth it, the pizza isn’t that special.
/​Eh.

I’m so bummed about this place. I love their Gluten Free slices. For the last several months I was stopping in several times a month to grab a couple slices of Gluten Free Pizza or a salad and a slice to go. I even took a few folks to dine in once, but last night was bad.
My first disappointment was that they stopped accepting the Passport card. For those that don’t know, these cards are not that easy to obtain, but I got one last year and loved it. I used it at Pizzicato to get 20% off which made the pricing almost normal. Without the 20% off, this place is way over priced.
Two slice of gluten free pizza comes to over $ 10 and they use a register that shows tip amount at the counter to encourage tipping.
I’m all for tipping for good service after my meal. TIP = To Insure Prompt Service. But I’m standing at a counter, ordering my food, if I’m taking it to go why annoy me asking for a tip. I would not normally leave a gratuity since there is no server and I’m not being waited on. But when I get a 20% discount from the passport, I’ll often leave a tip even though I’m taking my food home and I’m not being waited on. But I’m not leaving a tip on $ 10 for 2 slices of pizza, that’s just crazy talk.
Last night 6 of us went and ordered:
— 2 large salads
— 1 medium salad
— 2 Slices Cheese pizza
— 4 slices Gluten Free pizza
When went to pay they told me they no longer accept the passport card and the total bill was almost $ 70, that was before they showed the gratuity screen. Granted, we haven’t sat down, we haven’t gotten anything but had our order taken, we had to get our own water glasses and fill them ourselves, there is no «Waiter» to TIP. I figured since we were going to sit down and they were bringing the food, I would add 10%. It was almost $ 80 for pizza and salads without any beverages.
After we sat down, we were told they are out of Thai chicken (for the pizza). What? So, No Passport discount, no Thai Chicken, asking for a tip before any service? Minus several stars.
The salads were huge but my spinach salad was almost $ 14 for about $ 3 worth of spinach, 4 cherry tomatoes cut in half, a few slices of red onion and a sprinkle of feta. While it was enough for 3 people, I would never get this again at that price (it was a $ 9 — $ 10 salad at best). Soup Plantation is just down the street. I can get all I can eat salad for $ 10 plus soup, dessert, and pizza.
The small salads are about $ 6 and had the same amount of other stuff but less leaves (seriously). The Greek salad did not have Greek Dressing (more like a red wine based dressing, nothing special) and over $ 15 for a bunch of romaine with about ½ chicken breast cut up on it. My sons Cesar salad was swimming in dressing and was $ 9 for a medium (about 1 head of Romaine with some Parmesan and croutons).
My Gluten free Squisita pizza slice was great, but $ 5 for a slice is way too much without the passport discount. While I enjoy the food, I was the only one. My sons cheese slices were burnt, there was no Thai chicken for the pizza for my dad, the salads were huge but way over priced, and the bill was over $ 75 without any drinks. If we ordered any beverages we would have easily hit $ 100.
I don’t know about you, but for $ 75 — $ 100 for 4 adults and 2 kids, I think there should be good food (without running out of things), waiters, and a decent atmosphere involved.
All they had to do was make a customer happy. If you don’t accept passport anymore, post a sign so we know before we order. There are coupons in almost every local magazine for this place, why not offer to give me a coupon if you don’t take passport anymore instead of having an upset customer? Customer Service is so important in the food industry, this was an epic fail.
If I have a coupon and want Gluten free pizza to go, I might be back, but they really blew it last night. I will never take my entire family there again.