Pizza Heaven — Restaurant in Carmel-by-the-Sea

In a word, Pizza Heaven perplexes. As you approach, it metamorphoses before your eyes into a burgers-and-tavern-pizza diner, then a petite Italian Pizzeria, then as you walk in it takes the form of some Midwest "authentic" joint that serves chicken parm drowned in oil. Complete with plastic grapes, a photo slideshow showing scenic images of Italy (and sometimes France?), and the unending corny accordion music, it tries its hardest to convince you that you are not gonna enjoy your meal.

The menu definitely deepens the identity crisis. I'm no authenticity snob; I enjoy both Italian and American pizza. But I don't think I've ever seen burrata pizza advertised alongside Hawaiian slathered in BBQ sauce.

But I really can't describe the food as anything other than thoroughly enjoyable. I ordered the fig and prosciutto as well as the bacon and shrimp to experience the spectrum of offerings.

The meatball appetizer was unremarkable but pleasant. If they're made in house, color me impressed. If they're from the freezer, eh, I'd rather go to Ikea.

The fig and prosciutto pizza however was delicious. It's incredibly delicately seasoned, and contains a myriad of flavors balanced perfectly so none step on each other's toes. The pie has generous slabs of prosciutto layered all over, sheltering a veritable forest of arugula. Pizza Heaven's incredibly thin crust works well as a support for the toppings.

The shrimp and bacon pizza was certainly interesting. The best I can say about it is that it would probably be the best thing ever to eat coming home drunk at 2 AM. It's significantly oiler than the fig & prosciutto, and here the thin crust is more of a hindrance as it does very little to soak anything up. That being said, it's hard to go wrong with bread, melted cheese, and meat, so I cannot deny that I enjoyed it.

The crust deserves further exposition. I don't think I've ever had thinner crust at a restaurant. It's close to what you'd expect a frozen TJ's pizza to look like. But it's very good, not too crispy. It further evades classification as "Italian" or "American" -- Pizza Heaven has, whether intentionally or inadvertently, stumbled into their very own way of making pizza. And they're definitely doing...

I was staying in Carmel with my husband, my mom, and our dogs to celebrate my birthday. My mom's birthday had just passed as well and it was her first time in the area. Two days earlier, we attempted to dine at another restaurant for dinner and were told it was going to be 1 hour wait, even though it was a very slow Monday evening. We ended up eating somewhere else. Two days later, on May 1st, 2024, I told my husband we should try Pizza Heaven since we were still in the mood for pizza. We haven't tried this spot yet, and I noticed that it recently opened and getting good reviews.

We walked to the restaurant from the place we were staying at. We had our dogs with us and they had a little outdoor area with umbrellas. We found out that Pizza Heaven has the same owners as Treehouse Cafe in Carmel. That's was a pleasant surprise since my husband and I ate at Treehouse Cafe the last time we were here with our dogs and loved their food. We received a very warm and friendly welcome and received awesome service throughout our dinner.

They serve beer and wine, but we got sparkling water (Saratoga) and got two large pizzas to share. We went with a classic Margarita Pizza and a Hawaiian Pizza. We weren't sure if we'd be able to finish them both, but the crust isn't too thick. Yum the best part was definitely the sauce which had so much flavor and as mentioned the crust is thin and you can tell they make the pizza dough themselves.

As I'm typing this review, I'm already craving their pizza again. We'd definitely stop by again when we're...

This is by far one of my most favorite pizza shop of all times, now I know why they call it pizza heaven.

Have always love hot honey pizza so when we spotted pepperoni hot honey, no way we will skip that. The pizza came with a thinner than usual crust, somewhat similar to Japanese pizza crust, the right level of chewiness and crisp, pepperoni and gooey savory cheese is best match in heaven when it comes to hot honey, usually I might not be able to finish the crust but becoz they make it in such a way that the crust still have that bits of cheese all the way, we ended up polishing off the whole thing, totally hit the spot.

As to the sides, fantastic and perfectly fried chicken wings, it was crispy on the outside while super juicy without overcooking it.

Calamari comes from the bay, you don’t really see calamari serve in this shape, fun ways on presentation and I enjoyed it very much with the tartar sauce.

Greek salad was a great add on, everyone loved it.

There was a good crowd and the pizzas they ordered look awesome too.

Casey attended to our table and he was attentive, give good recommendation and the whole crew there were just awesome, it is really a wonderful dinner, thank you so much for great food & service, one of the highlight to our experience in...