The Privateer Coal Fire Pizza — Restaurant in Oceanside

We had the best intentions to cook dinner last Sunday, but we were kind of exhausted and decided to go out and try a new resto. Ended up at The Privateer, which we'd been planning to visit for a while.

FOOD: Yummy thin crust coal fired pizza, good but not overwhelming selection of craft and mass market beers and wine, and great desserts (see note). On the day we went, we had the chicken wings, Fennel Sausage Pie, cheesecake, creme brulee, and zeppole.

They accommodated our request to do half sweet onion and half Buffalo style. I liked the Thai inspired flavor profile of the sweet onion wings, but I think the name doesn't quite give an accurate indication of the flavor you're going to get, and the sauce was ever so slightly on the salty side. But that aside, they used good quality chicken (which is rare in chicken wings), and on the whole, the wings were good. Our kids loved their Ranch dressing, too.

Really enjoyed the Fennel Sausage Pie. They said they make everything in house, and I assume this applies to the Fennel Sausage, which was really delicious. My only thing about the pizza is that the toppings are a little too loose. You can fold the slices because they're thin enough, but it still gets a tad too messy for my tastes. (And I'm not prissy or anything.

If they could find a way to make everything stick together a little better, it would be nice. But the loose components aren't going to keep me from going back. :)

The cheesecake and creme brulee, also apparently made in house, were excellent. Really great execution, perfect texture, not too sweet.

My biggest disappointment of the evening was ordering zeppole and getting something closer to flattened cannoli than doughnuts or fritters. I think they should either serve zeppole, or call that dessert something else. (Or maybe there's some other version of zeppole with which I'm not familiar, but it was one of those thinking you're drinking water and finding out it's flat 7-up moments for me. :/)

AMBIENCE: Minimal decor, chill and comfortable vibe, and kudos to them for keeping the music and other ambient noise at a conversation friendly level. So rare these days in any restaurant, much less a pizza joint.

SERVICE: Super friendly, super accommodating, and you could tell the proprietors really care about your dining experience.

We'll...

Went here last night ordered soup, pizza and a burger with my mom. We got the pizza first, then had to ask about the soup, and then waited more than 10 min for my burger. our waitress focused on larger tables and at one point we timed it and it took her 10 min to help us while watching her tend to bigger tables. We tried the food, the pizza tasted old, the burger was not seasoned at all. The only food that tasted even slightly decent was the soup. When we were ready to go we couldn't get her to notice us, when we finally got her attention we were already done and wanted to leave. We got her attention and asked to speak to the manager to which she responded that she was one. So we had to complain about our waitress to our waitress. She was sassy and instead of acting professional and getting someone else she basically made the excuse of them being super busy. That may be but she still hadn't even asked us how it was and we were watching her take care of the table of 6 next to us. We then had to ask to speak to the owner who basically gave the exact same excuse and as we were talking to him he started walking away. The only person who took actual care of us was a busser. If he had been our server I am positive this would be a much better review. Do not go here unless you want food obviously made for drunk people and poor service. I will never come back. Very...

I love this place, tied with Allmine for my favorite pizza in Oceanside. If you want a more casual vibe, go Privateer. More upscale/date night, go Allmine. The Brixton pie is so delicious, sometimes I daydream about it. Service always prompt and friendly. They also have a chocolate tart dessert that is very good. It used to be topped with a blackberry sauce but they switched to cranberry unfortunately, which I think was a mistake, but it's still very good. My only issue is I once placed delivery for several pizzas and the chocolate tart and only received a single pizza - it appears someone else with my first name placed a similar order and the driver grabbed the wrong bag since they were both only labelled 'Lisa'. Mostly not Privateer's fault, although they may want to put a procedure in place to avoid having carryout or delivery orders mixed up for customers of the same name. The delivery service refunded me the cost of the food items but not the delivery fee or the tip (which was 25% on the original, quite large, bill). Like I said, mostly an error on the delivery side but the carryout and delivery area in the restaurant can get a bit hectic. Overall still love this place and while I won't order delivery any more I'm always...