Our Journey to find the best pizza...

I read an article in Sunset Magazine about the 10 best pizza places in the Bay Area. Due to the fact that my husband has a secret love affair with pizza, I decided to propose a weekly date night to research these proposed best pizza places. After only one pizza place, we are pretty much certain that our true calling is being food critics. Man what a great gig, huh?

First up, Tony's Pizza Napoletana 1570 Stockton Street, San Francisco.
Last Friday night, Mike and I made the trip into SF to go to Tony's Pizza Napoletana in the heart of North Beach. We arrived at 6pm- pretty early for Friday night dining which was great because there was already a 30 minute wait inside- but luckily the outside sidewalk tables were available so we braved the beautiful SF weather- myself directly under a marvelous heat lamp:) The ambiance was unbeatable across the street from Washington Square with the view of St. Peter and Paul Church with lots of people watching. I looked at Mike and said, "This is as close to Italy we are going to get for a long time." We enjoyed our beverages as we watched a bride and groom photo session across the street.
We decided to follow Sunset's recommendation and order the Margherita pizza and the deep-fried meatball calzone. First came the margherita pizza (the chef only makes 73 a night) which was amazing- soft thin crust, perfect amount of sauce, amazingly delicous melt-in-your-mouth mozzarella cheese with fresh basil. Mike and I ate the whole thing. Then came the ridiculous deep fried meatball calzone- wow! First of all, anything fried tastes great, right? This was no exception. The crust was perfectly cooked and the meatball inside was filled with ricotta and mozzarella cheese with a tasty marinara sauce. Superb.

We were coaxed into ordereing the Tiramisu for desert. The Tiramisu was unbelievable-- hands down best ever. The pastry chef Michael Riviello Graziella personally delivered it to our table and came back to check to see if it was okay. Definately a nice personal touch to their hospitality and it was so delicious. yum. You can see the photo of the tirimisu-- there isn't any left in the pic because by the time we remembered to take a pic, it was already gone :)

Oveall Mike and I were impressed. We give it 4 stars. Minus one star for the service-- definately autentic Italian. The server forgot a drink and dilly dallied with our check. The food and ambiance were amazing.

We are going to another pizza place this weekend so we'll keep you updated.