Neapolitan Pizza Challenge :: Pizzetta 211

have you all forgotten about the great quest to find the best neapolitan pizza in san francisco? i know i did...guilty!  my 2 cousins from new york (queens and BK to be exact) decided to visit last week.  so naturally, i took that opportunity to resurrect the neapolitan pizza challenge from the dead, and head to pizzetta 211.  the pizza was ahhhhh-maaaazzzzzing.  yes it was!  fresh, light, non greasy....everything a neapolitan pizza should be.  plus, it was right around the corner from the salon that does digital perms.  this little fact is important because, one of my cousins was getting a digital perm (and i wanted to document it step-by-step...more on that in another post) and the other cousin had to grab lunch before she caught her flight back to the east coast.  the close proximity of the salon and pizzetta 211 allowed me to run back and forth between the 2 so that i could take my photos.  i know, i know...it's tough work to be a blogger ;-)

anyways, back to the the pizza challenge.  ready?  here we go.

store front

the charming area designated for the utensils, napkins, glasses, etc.
i particularly love the flowers.  it was a nice touch.

the perfectly seasoned and dressed salad.
who knew greens, salt, pepper, olive oil,
and balsamic vinegar could taste so good? 

the pepperoni was like no other.

this one lacked a little flavor
for me.  it could've used a little more zing.
maybe a squeeze of lemon, a drizzle of olive oil,
salt and pepper on the arugula would've done the trick.

the tomatoes on this vegetarian pizza just exploded with flavor.

and now on to dessert.

a bowl of fresh strawberries on the counter.

sweet biscuits for their strawberry shortcake.

strawberry shortcake to-go.  perfectly put together in a
box for my cousin to enjoy on the plane ride back home.
check out that freshly whipped sweet cream!!!!

once again, as a caveat, i chose the restaurants based on yelp. each contestant had to have >500 reviews and at least 4 stars.

Pizetta 211 according to me (no john this time)

on a scale of 1-5, 5 being exceptional

crust: 4

sauce: 4

cheese: 4 

freshness of toppings: 5 (menu is seasonal)

SF experience: 4 (richmond district)

total score: 21

p.s.

next up: delfina, tony's, tommaso, pizetta 211, gialina, and berretta, zero zero, pizza hacker.

Neapolitan Pizza Challenge. Gialina.

what is it with carbs that make it so darn filling?? i am stuffed. this challenge is going to be the death of me.

ok, back to gialina pizzeria. first off, we ordered it to go (NBA finals people!). our picks were the margherita + pepperoni, yukon gold potatoes with bacon, red onions, thyme & gorgonzola, and the chocolate hazelnut dessert pizza. J and i both liked it. in our opinion it was better than zero zero. the pizzas were light, even the one with the potatoes. the crust was thin and tasty, but not soggy, which i prefer. my only qualm was that while the crust was not burned on the margherita pizza, the cheese was over done. it almost dissipated into the crust. as for the dessert pizza, one cannot go wrong with dough, nutella, and sweet cream. now that was heavy, but oh so deliciously decadent! i think it's time for pictures.

see what i mean about the cheese?

you can barely see the potatoes, but they're there!!
this one did not have sauce, but i
couldn't resist potatoes and bacon...could you?

nuff said. period.

once again, as a caveat, i chose the restaurants based on yelp. each contestant had to have >500 reviews and at least 4 stars.

Gialina Score according to J and I

on a scale of 1-5, 5 being exceptional

crust: 3 (could be too thin for some folks)

sauce: 3 (just a hint of spice. nice saltiness and herbaceousness)

cheese: 1 (disappeared into the crust!) 

freshness of toppings: 4 (menu is seasonal)

SF experience: 3 (glen park/diamond heights area. great SF neighborhood feel.)

total score: 14

p.s.

next up: delfina, tony's, tommaso, pizetta 211, gialina, and berretta, zero zero, pizza hacker.


p.p.s
i meant to add pizza hacker to the other post.

Neapolitan Pizza Challenge: Zero Zero

i, unexpectedly, got a day off the other day. J (hubs) was off too so we decided to take advantage of it and go out on an afternoon date. movie and dinner it was. we watched think like a man. coming from a gal that is a huge fan of black cinema, particularly Tyler Perry movies (why did i get married, why did i get married too, diary of a mad black woman,  daddy's little girls, etc) this movie didn't do it for me. i was expecting it to be piss-in-my-pants funny, but it fell short. at least i was able to see gabrielle union and meagan good =)

let me get back to the main point of this post. after the movie i was talking about this blog and how excited i was about finally getting the courage to start it. after my ramblings, we both agreed that we were hungry and the idea to start a food challenge dawned on me. i'm not claiming to be original, or being close to anything cool like that, but i thought it would be (a) fun to write about and (b) give J and I an excuse to go out to eat. so with that new exciting purpose we headed back to SF and decided on zero zero. luckily, we got really close parking AND there wasn't a wait. so we sauntered right in and got a table. we ordered their arancini appetizer and their field greens salad. J is a meat man so we decided on the castro pizza.

as a caveat, i chose the restautants based on yelp. each contestant had to have >500 reviews and at least 4 stars.

Zero Zero Score according to J and I

on a scale of 1-5, 5 being exceptional

crust: 1 (it was soggy people!)

sauce: 2 (needs more flavor)

cheese: 3

freshness of toppings: 4 (menu is organic and seasonal)

SF experience: 3 (close to freeway, in SOMA, fresh ingredients, nice atmosphere)

total score: 13

p.s.

next up: delfina, tony's, tommaso, pizetta 211, gialina, and berretta.