Straw Hat Pizza

Damn you John Madden for raising rent on yet another Pleasanton business so they’re forced to close. You bought out my favorite old school pizza location and I’ll deal with you later.

Came in for dinner today and found out they’re closing! This was a nice, family-​run business which makes me sad to see their doors close. My sons have had many soccer and basketball parties here… memories that they will cherish for a lifetime.

Went in today with family. We ordered the personal pizza with salad bar and a drink, about $ 10.00 each. The salad bar was under stocked, and the pizza was disappointingly dry with very little toppings. After we ate I went to the restroom. It was very messy and unclean. As we were leaving we looked around the empty pizza parlor and said to ourselves, no ones here but us, and now we know why!

Went to Straw Hat Pizza for the first time today. Only because my gas buddy app told me the Valero station on the corner was the cheapest gas near me.
I read a few reviews — good and bad — but was already craving Za so thought I’d give it a try.
Ordered my favorite — plain cheese. The service at the counter was great; very friendly and professional. My order, which included a side of their garlic twists, would be ready in 10 minutes.
True to his word it was and I was taking it To Go so in my car I went. I wished I ate it there because the ride home was much longer than I would’ve liked with the awesome aroma wafting at me. And the taste didn’t disappoint. Very good ratio of cheese to sauce. The crust was the right amount too, not too doughy and perfectly crisp. Sauce has excellent flavor too.
The garlic twists are — GARLICKY! So hopefully you aren’t on a first date when ordering them. Taste is good, but might be too much garlic for some. I substituted a side of marinara instead of the ranch.
Overall, great pizza place!

Love the management here. Always accommodating. Great place to go for pizza or delivery in Pleasanton.

We ordered a medium pizza for superbowl sunday and it was awful. Dry and plain. I will never waste 25 dollars on this tasteless pizza again. If I could give 0 star I would. Very disappointed.

That’s a first. Guy just put his hand in my beer to scoop «seasoning» out of it, then apologized, and handed it to me. I was honestly too pissed to properly respond, and so told another gent that the beer tasted off and requested a different beer. If I wasn’t waiting on AAA, I would’ve went across the street for a proper beer @The Hopyard Pleasanton, but damn. I work in a restaurant, bartend, I’m a certified beer server through Cicerone, and goddamn, I just don’t know what to say… don’t disrespect my New Belgium by putting your dirty Faulken paws in it. If they wanted the beer to taste like your fingers, they would’ve put man ass on the grain bill.

I didn’t know there were any Straw Hats open. Going in here is like taking a time machine back to the 1980’s. The pizza was o.k., pretty much like it used to be. The salad bar was a little scary, though. There was a lot of debris on the floor near the «kid zone» but that is probably to be expected with kids. This place needs a make-​over to bring it into this century.

great pizza great salad bar, friendly staff.

Stopped in after work for a beer & personal pizza. Great little pizza parlor still. I sensed it’s not too crowded but the food was still great. Hopefully it can get enough support to stay open Its tough to compete with newer facilities but There’s still a need for places like this

The service was good, and the food was okay. But the main reason for my post is the cleanliness of the bathroom (men’s at least). The toilet was just plain filthy. Looked like the stains in the urinal, mold in the Sink and along the tile floor hadn’t been cleaned in months, asides from maybe a daily mop. An eatery with such low standards on hygiene is frightening. Standards are formed based on habits and I can only hope for new acceptable standards to be applied by the management/​staff.

I grew up in Pleasanton and have been going to Straw Hat since 1978. The place hasn’t changed much, only the selection of video games. One thing that hasn’t changed is the quality of the pizza. The dough Straw Hat uses is still a high quality and is delicious. Every time I am in town I bring my kids down for some pizza and games. I usually get a pizza for the drive back to San Jose too. I highly recommend!

I ate there a couple nights ago with my kids. The owner was getting annoyed because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to order. I got a small pizza and the salad bar. When I was eating the salad there was a dead Nat on the lettuce. I showed it to the owner and he just shrugged his shoulders. I was like, could I at least get a new plate. No apology, no offer for a refund on the salad just attitude. I have been there a few times for parties and I have never had friendly service. A bug in my food was the final straw. I personally will never eat there again.

The owner is nice enough so I’ll be kind. The crust just isn’t for me. It’s a very nostalgic place. It reminds me of when I was a little kid. I’ll leave it at that.

I can really only comment on the salad bar and I would say that it is passable. The cleanliness is very good and the salad dressing selection was good, but I thought that there was not a good enough ingredient selection for my tastes.

My Friends and I really like the Straw Hat Pizza in Pleasanton. We work right down the street, so it is a convenient place for us to come for lunch. That being said they have REALLY good lunch deals! You can get a personal pizza, trip to the salad bar and a soda for around $ 7!
We always get good service when we come here (we are regulars so the owner recognizes us now). It seems like it would be a good place to bring a group of kids because there is lots of seating and an arcade.
Most importantly the food is fresh and delicious! I posted a few pictures of the salad bar so you can see how clean and fresh everything is, unlike many restaurants where the toppings aren’t refreshed frequently.

Came in late on a Friday evening with an over-​tired toddler trying to get some dinner so we could wrap up a difficult week. We ordered the special which is a two-​topping pizza, two salad bars and two drinks for around $ 25 (it’s under $ 30 after tax).
My wife helped herself to the salad bar while I tried to entertain our daughter in the arcade area. Since I hadn’t put my own salad together I checked in at our table and my wife said the ranch dressing tasted strange, so I let her use my plate to try again, especially because any hint of leaving the game area sent my daughter into a frenzy.
A few bites into her second salad, our pizza appeared: Half extra cheese and olive for the girls, half pineapple and sausage for me. My daughter came unglued, causing a huge scene in the otherwise empty restaurant. Sometimes when this happens, store employees look annoyed or embarrassed but the kind crew at Straw Hat looked concerned, almost upset that they couldn’t think of any way to help.
I finally coaxed my girl into the booth, tear-​stained and sniveling, to try and wolf down a few slices before she noticed the vending machines again. I had just finished cutting up a piece for her and reached for my water when I clumsily reacted to my daughter’s shifting weight and spilled the entire glass all over the table, myself, my child, the floor and the booth.
Standing up to avoid further drenching either of us, my daughter took it as a signal that dinner was over and started immediately in on the mechanical horse in the corner. Suddenly the staff of Straw Hat swooped in, providing to-​go containers, extra napkins, assurance that we needn’t worry about the mess and basically offering anything they could think of to make us feel like valued customers.
Now, it’s possible they just wanted us gone so they could close up but it took us a good fifteen extra minutes to fulfill the earlier promise to the kid that she could ride the horsey before we left (three turns, I might add), clean up myself and her, re-​make two more salads in the to-​go boxes, package up the pizza and our belongings and depart. At no point did we feel rushed or unwelcome. It was a class act on the part of the Straw Hat crew all around.
Unfortunately the food was only so-​so: I actually really like their pizza and my half was typically tasty but my wife complained that it seemed a bit like cardboard to her and the salad never did get quite to her liking (although using the ranch dressing at home seemed to make it edible at least).
Looking back, I’ve never had anything but good to great service here and like I said, I think their pizza is pretty solid. Plus they have a couple of decent beers on tap, a nice sized dining room that I’ve never seen get as cramped and awkward as many of the other pizzerias in the area – especially on weekends – and reasonable prices. It’s a shame that places like Mountain Mike’s which have comparable pizza but more convenient locations in this area seem to get more business especially since the service at Mountain Mike’s is almost universally inferior. But as far as standard chain pizza joints go, I’ll prefer Straw Hat almost every time if only for the service.

The husband and I have this indescribable love for pizza and we are constantly on the hunt for new pizza places. Straw Hat Pizza apparently started in 1959, but since we hadn’t read any reviews about the place nor did anyone write about it, we didn’t know it existed. We decided to give it a try based on the 4 star ratings it has on Unilocal.
We ordered a half n’ half — Pepperoni + Jalapenos & Onions + Bell Peppers. We also ordered the Cheese Twists since the pictures looked really good on Unilocal.After getting excited about this pizza, it was a let down. The pizza seemed salt deprived and got hard the moment it got cold, making it tough to chew into, unless you reheated it, which destroyed the taste. It just seemed like it didn’t have any sauce in it and was just mindlessly loaded with cheese, thereby ruining the taste. Didn’t like it at all.
Their cheese twists also some much to be desired. Dry as hell. Not something that I had expected.
Price-​wise, they are rather reasonable. Prolly why they have 4 stars on Unilocal.
Would we go back? I highly doubt.

I called a garlicy chicken pizza in for lunch, Tues. is their half off day.
I ran by, picked it up-​it was yummy, only 7 dollars and hot!
They offer special ingredients such as zuccini to keep things interesting. They also have an outside window for a quick getaway!

Continuing on my quest to check out new eateries in my area, I stopped off at Straw Hat Pizza.
I ordered a medium bell pepper and sausage pizza (my personal favorite) along with pizza twists. I have to say that the pizza twists were the best I have ever had. So much garlic and cheese! They are huge and only $ 2.95 for 3 of them. Best valaue on bread sticks for sure.
The pizza however was just average. Too much cheese and not enough sauce. The place seems pretty open and has a decent selection (6 – 8) of beers on tap. Definitely a good place for a group.
Not sure if I will be back, but if I am it will be for the twists.