Berkeley Pizza – North Park

«If You Can’t Fold It, Then It Ain’t A Pizza — It’s Your Mama Mia’s Casserole!»
SITREP
So how YOU doin? Me? I love da pizza. Always been a culinary passion of my life: (1) Gooey Melted Cheeese, and (2) Any Other Dam Ting You Want To Put On Top. Doesn’t get better than dat!
Decided to come to Berkeley’s to try their «purported» pizza out:
DA SETUP
Where I found it gets a BIT too gooey or «messy», is dat da further WEST you go in dis country (and, yes, I’m lookin at YOU, San Diego) da more «confused» da pizza gets.
Back EAST, simple:
(1) Sicilian — flat-​style pizza, predominantly New York in origin.
(2) Chicago-​Style pizza — thick, deep dish, predominantly Detroit in origin… okay okay, I KID, I KID… obviously CHICAGO in origin. *Bada Bang, Bada Bing!*
Most pizza I remember growing up as a kid in D.C. followed da Sicilian template. No deviation. Flat, delicious, foldable Sicilian-​style pizza. In fact, from da hallowed halls of Pizzadom, I share dis holy video-​nugget from whats I speak:
In East Coast speak, «If you can’t fold it, it ain’t a pizza, it’s Mama Mia’s CASSEROLE!» And dis is why I don’t think of Chicago-​style «Pizza» as a pizza. Pizza you eat folded up.
* If you have to use a knife & fork, is it really a pizza? NO.
* And if you fold it, but then pizza cheese & pizza sauce start dripping downs youse hands & wrists cause there’s too much being squeezed out, it is a pizza? NO. Again, it’s Mama Mia’s casserole, just saying.
Which is why in fact my favorite San Diego pizzeria stop is LANDINI’S in Little Italy — they follow the old school Sicilian-​Pizzeria traditions to-​a-​tee. Some will say, «Apples & Oranges», and I understand that too. I just prefer apples. So there you go. But enough of the Sicilian VS. Chicago debate, cause other stuffs been brewing too…
PIZZZA EVOLUTION
My reality is dat not until an adult did I ever see a Chicago-​style pizza until I got to da West Coast, and dat was when I went to law school. But in fact, somewhere back in da 70s & 80s, tings were already slowly changing…
PIZZZA EVOLUTION
You got new pizza chains coming onto da scene: Godfathers (totally phony! I knows da REAL god-​father!), Little Caesars, Dominos, Rico’s, etc. etc. etc. All touting their versions of these two classic styles. And then their bastardized hybrids: ultra-​stuffed pizzas; cheese in da crust; etc. etc. etc.
And then as we became more health-​conscious — especially here in Pizzafornia — enter da California Pizza Kitchen with their basically Salad-​Pizzas (ick…ick…ICK!). And of course now wezee in da fusion-​era when each ethnicity has to do their own pizza. *jeez louise*
ME & BERKELEY PIZZA
Again, I just like da basics. Sicilian will always be my favorite since I’ve been «hardwired» to dat since I can remember. However, Chicago-​style is good too. So…
* Berkeley doesn’t strike me as a full-​on traditional Chicago-​style, but da pie is thick and gooey, and dam tasty with: lots o’ sauce, lots o’ cheese and lots o’ pepperoni.
* And here my buddy John just nabbed two slices too (likes he was nabbing waterfront dames):
Which reminds me:
= John’s combo special of two slices and a beer: $ 11.50.
= My combo special of two slices and a soda: $ 8.50.
Total WIN-​WIN — *Bada Bang, Bada Bing!*
DA LOWDOWN
Remember? «If you can’t fold it, it ain’t a pizza, it’s Mama Mia’s CASSEROLE!» I could BARELY fold it, but still could — however it WAS easier to use a knife & fork. So. Solid, legit delicious pizza slices for a great price!

I’ve heard of this place from my ASL class instructor. He told the class that Berkeley Pizza was this favorite place to eat pizza and no place like it. I didn’t believe him until I tried it. And in deed, it was. Like a delicious pie, it’s pizza is upside down stuffed with cheese and topped with cherry tomatoes. It’s freaking amazing!

I love their $ 8.00 deal — two slices of pizza with a soda. The pizza was so delicious and filling. I was surpised to find out the pizza was not dripping with oil (as most pizzas do). Best deep dish pizza I ever had!

Berkeley Pizza how I really wanted to like you based off the how much the local raved about your Pizza.
I came here one night and ordered the $ 11.50 2 slices and a beer combo. I ordered the spinach and mushroom with pesto Pizza with a something Coastal IPA (I don’t remember the exact name of beer.)
I get my beer first it was really good. While waiting on my Pizza I ordered another beer. I took a bite for my pizza to arrive. Once I received my Pizza’s I looked at one how sad the size of the slices were. (side eye)
I dig in and realize my pizzas are soggy is hell! WTF! I just ended up picking the toppings off and left the doughy crust. One of my friends asked how was the pizza and I all I could do is tell the truth it’s not all that and is bland as hell! I would have been better off eating a cheap ass little Caesars or something that how bad the pizza was. After I finished me beer. My friends and I were ready to go eat some real food elsewhere.
I don’t know how drunk you have to be to like the food but I was pretty freaking drunk and the the food didn’t taste good at all. Definitely not worth the $ 12 asking.
I’ve been to many Pizza places andSan Diego and this place didn’t make the list for me. I am giving 2.5 for the service and beer which was great. Would I eat here again absolutely not. Would I come for the beer yes as they offer a wide selection of beers!

I love pizza… It’s a great and simple meal and I love that you can grab a few slices and boom. Happy and satisfied.
I came here and ordered a few slices with friends and I was really sad because the slices were really small! Almost pie slice size… I do appreciate the pizza being deep dish but the individual slices were so small I barely felt like I ate anything.
Sadness.

I like Berkeley Pizza because they stack the cheese but I feel like there is barely any meat hiding in between, I cannot taste the difference between a pepperoni or a sausage because it is simply covered in tomato sauce and cheese. The crust is great though — crispy, and almost seemingly fried. This is great when you’re drunk and starving which makes sense being that it is located right next to the bars. Straight up marketing strategy here.

After visiting to the Coin-​Op Game Room, I decided to head down to this pizza place called, «Berkeley Pizza» just two businesses close at 30^th Street. Berkeley Pizza brings the customers to taste their incredible pizzas at anytime especially their finest selections of beers and wine. The atmosphere is kinda divey here as I welcomed. The concept is much similar to Woodstock’s Pizza’s décor, yet much smaller inside (i.e. Dive Bar in Sacramento.)
The service is doing a great job here without any mistakes. No cons at all.
Now onto the food. That night, on 5÷12÷2016, I ordered a slice of sausage pizza. Once it arrived, a fresh baked slice of sausage pizza looked fantastic to see although it’s too hard to look for the sausage pieces right at the top of the red sauce aka marinara sauce. As I ate it, it tasted quite good, yet it’s closely bland to me despite the full amount of marinara sauce. The good things so far, the crust is much eatable to crunch which I can feel the homemade dough flavors of that pizza. Still, a great, tasty slice of pizza!
Parking at the North Park of Berkeley Pizza can be challenging to park. You can park at the nearest surface street parking if it’s available. Otherwise, you can also ride a bike, walk, or use public transportation easier without the hassles.
In the end, Berkeley Pizza is a great, local pizza dive bar that I really enjoyed the most after my first visit. Probably I’ll be back for more if it improves, and definitely a worthy experience. My rating: 3 ½ stars.

Pizza here is alright. but it’s just easily accessible and what’s convenient especially due to its perfect location around a variety of bars. With that said, when I’m getting the drunchies, this spot is the spot to go to for them extra carbs to soak up all the alchy. I don’t even know how many times Berkeley Pizza has lured me in due to solely me waiting in the line for the Office and needing something to munch on.
However, the pizza is not like «WOW I’m gonna dream about it for the next 2 weeks» memorable and my visit here is just simply a means of me trying to get full/​need a quick snack kind of thing. Recently came here to get the Sausage pizza + pineapples and it was just overly saucy and the crust portion was okay. This place does have a ton of beer on draft though for a little pizza spot, which is pretty awesome. Although the pizza is pretty cheap, beer is a bit pricey though around $ 7-​$ 8 and you could easily get better selection for the same pricing at Toronado nearby.

Good, but not memorable.
They have a good happy hour deal every day where if you get a beer, you get a slice of pizza for a dollar. I can’t remember the beer I chose (it wasn’t worth remembering), but I had a couple slices of deep dish pepperoni pizza.
The beer selection was large enough, it just happened that none of the options spoke to me and what I was craving. Definitely wouldn’t go back if I was simply looking for a drink.
The pizza was the saving grace, but not to such an extent that I’d go back solely for that. It was good, but not great. Maybe I’ve just been spoiled with good deep dish pizza, but it just didn’t do it for me.
It may not seem like a good review, but the place truly isn’t bad. The pizza was above average and I’m just picky about what my beer selection. However, I’m sure that many others will find something they like and enjoy this venue more than I did.

Umm. This place is rough. Super dead. The guy who helped us was really nice (We did tip him?) and patient as we looked at the menu and asked questions.
The employee mentioned that you can change the 2 slices + a drink to a 1 slice + a drink for less money so I opted for that. Sodas come in an oh so cold can. My favorite way to drink a Sprite .
It was a Tuesday afternoon and our pizza came out pretty fast. I took one bite and I knew why: it had been sitting around for maybe 100 hours. Okay, that’s not possible. But I couldn’t even begin to guess how old it was. Oldest pizza I’ve ever had. Granted, I’m not one of those people who eats cold pizza the next day etc. You could tell it had been ‘warmed up’ in the oven as the bottom was crunchy and a little burned.
In a very unusual fashion, I took 2 more bites of my slice of pepperoni then tossed it. I don’t cook, so pretty much everyone in the world has better food than I can make. It’s SO rare that I don’t finish most of my meal if for no reason other than desperation and hunger.
What else can I say? The music is rad. Classic rock. There’s a great view of all the hipsters walking by? I think this place is very well intentioned but just missed the mark somehow. One wonders how they stay open.

At the suggestion of another girl in our birthday party at the nearby Coin-​Op, my boyfriend and I decided to head next door to pick up pizza instead of snacking on the bar food. We ordered a slice of cheese and a slice of pesto and took a seat on the outside patio. Maybe my expectations were raised by the high marks that our friend had given it but I found the pizza to be just okay. Maybe it would have been better fresh but I have a feeling that the by-​the-​slice pizza is just warmed up. At least it’s a cheap meal but I’ve definitely had better deep dish pizza at other spots.

Any place that has happy hour everyday is A-​OK in my book. It was something along the lines of buy a beer get a slice for a dollar, I don’t exactly remember because as soon as he told me I began imagining a conga line of pizzas dancing around my head. I’m not really sure why. I guess pizza just does that to me. I DIGRESS. This stuff is amazing. A nice deep, crispy crust loaded with legit, chunky tomato sauce on top of all that pepperoni goodness. MmMmmm… oh and yea, the beers are a nice addition too :) but pizza.

The good: the tap list
The bad: the pizza. It’s just not a good stuffed pizza.
The ugly: this place is almost always dead.
It’s not terrible, but there are much better deep dish/​stuffed options in SD, sorry to say. They do have a nice beer/​slice combo deal.
Staff is friendly, but the pizza lacks. The crust is too thin for being deep dish.

I’ve ordered from Berkeley long before there was an actual store front. I used to have him meet me in the parking lot of City College on my way home from work back in the day. I was glad to see an opening in North Park that way I didn’t have to deal with the downtown parking cost.
The first thing I noticed was their craft beer on tap. They have a good selection but they do tend to tap out early on certain beers. My husband and I ordered their special, 2 slices and a beer. I must tell you that I am not a fan of tomato at all. In fact, I hate it and will remove every once of it from my plate onto a separate plate. The tomato on a Berkeley pizza is different. Their is a great combination between the acidity and sweetness of the tomato topping. Their cheese is alway stringy and melted just right and the crust is always so flaky.
My husband and I sat at the bar and spoke to Danny for a few minutes. He and my husband shared a common bond, they are Raider fans… meh. They chatted about the Raiders while I drowned out the convo while enjoying my beer. We were here on a Friday night and it wasn’t busy at all but there is plenty of seating at the bar and tables towards the front as well. It’s a good place for pizza and beer.
Personal Goal: ⁸⁄₁₀₀

The pizza is good! Simple as a good pizza
It tastes good it tastes fresh it’s got a good flavor to it!
The selection of beers is great 25 different beers to choose from.
Some people are just too pick and they can go somewhere else and complain about elsewhere!
The beer is good and so is the pizza, location is good right on the heart of north park SD
The bartender Josh is such a friendly, chill, helpful guy! I like him a lot! Great dude :)
The place is nice, you got some space at the bar, inside or outside to kick it
Bathroom is clean and well equipped unlike some other spots nearby.
Let Josh know how you like your pizza and he’ll hook you up! :)
I’ll def be back here bcuz I do enjoy this spot a lot.

The pizza was a little too salty for my taste. The cheese was burnt on the side.
They have beer which I guess makes up for the okay pizza.
The location is chill. Bathroom is relatively clean. Service was okay. I probably won’t go back here.

A friend and I met up here for oizza and beers. Neither one of us had been here previously.
This is a low key place. With indoor seating and an open air front view of the street and great people watching.
They offer up a selection of over 30 craft brews on tap. Vintage beers cans from all over the place line the walls.
The pizza is amazing. A deep dish thin crust style. Tasty! The gsrlic pesto is my fave so far.
The happy hour pricing is a killer deal. For $ 6 you get a beer and slice of pizza. They offer a soda option… not entirely sure what the pricing was for that since i grabbed the beer choice.
If you happened to stop by here around Christmas. You may have seen their Charlie Brown Christmas tree… it has only a string of lights.
This was not a happy tree. So my friends and I gathered to come here another time. This time ready and armed with ornaments. While we ordered pizzas and beer. We casually put Operation Ornament into effect and decorated the tree. Never entirely sure that the staff saw us. We left with full bellies of pizza. Many good laughs and our first #OperationOrnament
We loved the pizza enough to get a whole pie to take home.

I’ve been wanting to try a deep dish pizza for a while and this place has the good stuff.
Small place with a bar and some tables, the guy at the bar was friendly and explained the menu to us. 2 slices and a soda or water for 8 bucks or 2 slices and a beer for 11. I opted for the soda since I was driving. By the way they have hard cider too if you are allergic to the gluten in the beer and can’t have beer.
Anyway, the pizza is hands down delicious. I ended up ordering a whole pie just so I could share it with my coworkers. They ate it cold but I put it in the toaster oven and it was just as delicious as it was fresh. The crust is thin and flakey and surprisingly sturdy to hold up against the toppings and tomato sauce. Adding the basil and garlic to my sausage pizza made it more amazing. Wishing they had more variety to choose from, my pizza would be epic.

why didn’t i even come here before??? my friend and i got hungry while at coin-​op and we wanted something quick. Walked into berkley’s pizza — reminded me of Lefty’s pizza.
Food arrives — i was a little disappointed because the pizza was smaller than it looked on their photo haha. But the second i took a bite of my small sliced pizza… OMG it was delicious!!! killed it in four bites! i wanted more but the line got long.
Friendly staff and delicious pizza. yummy!!!

Berkeley Pizza
SD North Park
4pm Thursday 27^th August 2015
Four Stars
There is not too much Chicago Style Pizza in San Diego and I am glad this place opened up in North Park. They have an amazing Happy Hour Deal where you buy a beer and get a slice for $ 1. All Beers are $ 5 and the slices range from $ 2.5-$ 4.5. First, I had a Monk Fish Sour Ale, which is refreshing brown beer with a tart finish with ABV of 5.5%. I paired this with Slice of Pepperoni. Second, I had a 8.5% ABV Saison from Boulevard Farmhouse which was refreshing with notes of citrusy hops and grapefruit notes. I paired this with a slice of Italian Sausage. The pie crust was flaky and buttery. The cheese and meat were good. The copious amount of the sweet and savory sauce made this delicious. The slices were a bit small but overall filling.

As I always hang out at the coffee shop across the street, i got to see this location open and be one of their first clients the week they opened for business. Service is great, Henry’s very friendly and helpful. Slices are delicious, although a little small according to American standards, and the beer selection is awesome and ever changing. Def recommend this place if you wanna grab a quick slice.