Del Lusso Pizza — Restaurant in Carlsbad

Finally, Real Gluten-Free Pizza. Thank You, Del Lusso!

As a celiac, I usually have to interrogate every restaurant just to feel safe. But Walter, the owner of Del Lusso Pizza, was incredibly personable and patient as he explained how they handle their gluten-free food. I told him I wasn’t just looking for a gluten-free option, I wanted real pizza. Not the dense, premade GF puck that leaves me disappointed and still craving the real thing. He assured me that this was the real deal. He wasn’t wrong.

The pizza was excellent. The crust had amazing texture, chew, and flavor. It even had those signature hot pizza oven cook marks; the kind that deepen the flavor and remind you you're eating handcrafted, wood-fired pizza. I’m a sensitive celiac, and if there had been cross-contact, I would have known before we left. But I felt completely fine after eating an entire sausage and mushroom pizza, plus part of a Nutella and berry dessert pizza.

The gluten-free dough is made in a dedicated mixer in a separate space, raised for 36 hours, and hand-formed. While it’s cooked on the same oven surface as regular pizzas, the 1,000-degree oven thoroughly burns off any residue. I admit, I was skeptical at first, but the results speak for themselves.

The sausage and mushroom combo was spot on. The mushrooms were oven roasted right on the pizza, tender, flavorful, and generously portioned. As a mushroom lover, I was thrilled. And the dessert pizza? My whole family helped devour it.

I’ve only had one other gluten-free pizza of this caliber, and that was in Stuttgart, Germany. I wish we could come back regularly, but we’re on vacation and leave tomorrow. Even so, I’m just grateful we found this place before we left.

There is an $8 upcharge for the gluten-free crust. While that might seem steep, it’s worth every penny. Most GF pizzas leave me wanting. This one left me completely satisfied.

Thank you, Walter and Del Lusso Pizza, for treating gluten-free pizza like it deserves to be done right, and for finally satisfying my long-standing...

This establishment, Del Russo Pizza, is highly overrated with its 4.5 Google rating, as it turned out to be an absolute travesty on our first visit there. We ordered the meatball sandwich and the Margherita pizza with great anticipation of a luscious Italian meal created by the Del Russo family from Italy.

Both menu items lacked any unique or exceptional characteristics in the creation of the product, the quality of its ingredients, the preparation, the "eatability" score, nor the very most important thing that we pay our hard-earned money for at any Italian restaurant......and that is detailed nuances of rich and robust FLAVOR! These essential elements were ALL missing!

The meatball sandwich suffered greatly from the stiff texture of the meatball itself, which was devoid of any flavor persona. The half-melted mozzarella cheese had even less flavor than the meat, and ended up being a big glob of nothingness. Too, there was virtually NO SAUCE on this $20 sandwich, which is a sacrilege to those of us who lust for the good old days of real Italian food from real Italian restaurants.

The Margherita pizza was presented to us with a visual that immediately screamed "mediocre," and that was before it was even eaten. The pizza was hard to cut, the crust was completely pedestrian, the cheese was thin, the ingredients were non-descript, and the "San Marzano" sauce, like the meatball sandwich, somehow got lost along the way and was virtually undetectable. No, this was not a "white" pizza! It was supposed to have SAUCE, for cryin' out loud!!

No, we don't think we caught this restaurant on some kind of "off-night."

We would suggest you look elsewhere for other restaurant venues that place a higher value than Del Lusso on their responsibility to deliver legitimate flavor in their menu offerings.

You'll be...

“We got friendship. The kind that lasts a lifetime.” Chris Stapleton

We’ve made two visits to Del Lusso Pizza and during those visits we’ve managed to meet both owners (separately). Walter and Ron met as kids in Montreal, Canada, and likely had no idea how deep their bond would become. Now years later they live on the same street and own this place together.

Since “Del Lusso” means “of luxury” in Italian, they set out to do this right (including moving to Italy for a period to study how to properly craft a molto bueno pizza)!

(By the way, bonus points are available to anyone who can spot the bougie logo hidden within the Del Lusso sign mounted on the brick wall. Only half of our Review Team spotted it.)

If you choose to visit, we’d recommend planning on three courses. The “Lusso Meatballs” featured an amazing marinara sauce, the “Galluci Pizza” tasted incredibly fresh (without making you feeling weighed down afterwards), and the gelato? Please don’t get us started. The selections will vary, but we couldn’t resist sampling all of the current offerings (Banana Caramel, Pistachio, Coconut, and Chocolate).

Indoor and outdoor seating is available, the music is upbeat and contemporary, and takeout (including gelato) is available.

We’re thankful that after all of these years Walter and Ron are still friends and we can’t help but wonder…any chance you could add Henry’s Take to your circle of friends? 🤞

And that’s…Henry’s...