Olive Oil Pantry Restaurant — Restaurant in Lathrop

Hello San Joaquin County, Lathrop, and River Islands Residents!

Craving truly exceptional, authentic East Coast-style pizza? You have a couple of options: embark on at least a two-day trip to New Haven, Connecticut, for the legendary Frank Pepe's or Sally's, or to New York City, with all the associated time, effort, and cost.

Or, you can take a short drive to the Olive Oil Pantry, conveniently located off I-5, just across from Dell'Osso Farms.

As East Coast transplants, we've deeply missed the authentic thin-crust pizzas that define the true pizza experience. Thankfully, that's no longer the case!

Caroline expertly crafts and serves outstanding pizzas using only the best ingredients, patiently proofing the dough for three days and assembling each pizza with precision. No detail has been overlooked, including importing ovens from Italy to achieve that ideal crunchy yet chewy crust.

Beyond the pizza, the Olive Oil Pantry features a full bar with a great selection of beers and IPAs, as well as the hard-to-find Foxon sodas. Additionally, I have yet to find a salad in the area that compares to the delicious one we enjoyed there.

You might be wondering about the service. Prepare for a delightful experience! Caroline, Zach, and their well-trained team provide excellent care, offering attentive yet unobtrusive service, just as it should be.

If you appreciate pizza in its purest form, this is your paradise. Don't expect pizzas overloaded with toppings and transformed into some unrecognizable, floppy open sandwiches. Instead, look forward to a perfect pie, making that trip to the East Coast (or beyond)...

This is an amazing place to have the best Mediterranean and Pizza in the Central Valley. They have very nice oils and vinegars from Italy. The fact that they turned this into a restaurant made it even better. The products are kosher, the cheese is amazing and made fresh. The wheel of the best Parmesan imported is so tangy and perfect! Hummus...lemony and flavorful and creamy! The owner is the chef! Preparing fresh pizza dough or hummus??? YES they do!!! The presentation of the meals that you will be served here is magazine Worthy. The taste is Sublime. I say this with confidence because I was able to watch other customers talk with the owner and Express their gratitude from having such a wonderful experience. In fact the couple that was at the bar helped me decide what oil to get and that they lived out of town and still come 30 minutes to enjoy this wonderful place.

Next door which is connected is a beautiful banquet room to book parties or receptions. The decor is very lovely with a chandelier and stringed lights.

I will definitely be going back to enjoy more food, spirits, different olive oils and vinegars while inviting different friends to enjoy The Simple Pleasures from the olive oil Pantry Restaurant.

Remember to pick up dinner or stop by on your way home from the Bay Area since this off the 99 before you get into Manteca.

Or if you live in Manteca or Lathrop this is definitely a place to add to your...

The Best Margherita Pizza rivaling Tony's Pizza in North Beach

There are good pizzas, there are great pizzas, and then there’s this pizza—the kind that instantly rewrites your definition of what a Margherita Pizza should be!

This Margherita pizza has unmistakable quality. The crust was pure perfection—golden and blistered in all the right places, airy yet chewy, with just the right balance between crunch and tenderness.

The house-made tomato sauce? Bright, vibrant, and deeply flavorful without trying too hard. But the real revelation was the stracciatella cheese. Creamy, decadent, and impossibly light, it melted into the sauce and dough like silk, made even more indulgent with a drizzle of olive oil that brought everything together. The oil was grassy, slightly peppery, and clearly high-quality—something that doesn’t just coat the pizza, but enhances every element of it.

Fresh basil leaves released their aroma. It wasn’t overdone. No gimmicks. Just precision, restraint, and world-class ingredients working in harmony.

It was the kind of pizza that makes you stop talking and makes you wonder if you’ll ever be able to go back to regular Margherita...