Selma's Chicago Pizzeria & Tap Room — Restaurant in Rancho Santa Margarita

Ordered a medium thick crust "Margherita Pizza" to go (Paid $24.03!!!! It's a 12" PIZZA for crying-out-loud!!!)...classic pizza right? Person taking my order corrected me and said, "A Santa Margarita pizza"...I said, "Is what you call your Margherita Pizza?"..."Yes, with the cheese and tomato only we call it a SANTA Margarita pizza"...O, ok. So long story even longer...I ended up with cheese on a pizza dough crust with big chunks of tomato on top and ABSOLUTELY NO PIZZA SAUCE ON IT...NONE...NOT ONE DROP! (And believe me I searched! Nope! None under here...Nothing over there!). Now...do a Google for a recipe or just photos of "Margherita Pizzas"...THEY ALL HAVE PIZZA SAUCE ON THEM....every...single...one! Got it home and what a disappointment!...Very dry! Very flat tasting! Called and spoke to Carmen...So apparently, they take the liberty of twisting a classic pizza recipe into something (less) else...using only pizza dough, olive oil, cheese and basil. I don't order pizza very often...and I'd really been craving a good MARGHERITA pizza (me picturing outdoor oven baked pizza in Sonoma's Wine Country at some posh villa) for weeks! I had gone in a couple weeks ago when I saw Selma's was still "OPEN" per their sign! Went in and one of the girls working says, "Can't make you a pizza...we already broke down the kitchen...". *sigh...."OK...but why does your sign say "open" if you can't even make a pizza!?" Response...None....and I walked away with only disappointment. So, when I went in tonight to order that, "Margherita Pizza," or so I thought, I asked what time they close; the person working the front said, " Well it depends...tonight we close at 8:30PM...yeah 8:30pm tonight...but it depends on how many customers we have"...WAT? Your customers can't count on specific operating hours? Can't count on how a pizza is made either? I have to remember that Selma's makes their pizza "differently"...OH BOY...not! That's crazy! So, long story short...your just don't know what your going to get at Selma's or if they'll be open and if they're open if they can make you a pizza or melted cheese on pizza crust...REALLY?? I think I need to take a trip up...

Well, our lunch plans definitely did not turn out how we hoped. My husband and I have been wanting to try Selma's for a while now and finally decided to get some take out today. I called at 11:30am on 5/14/25 and no one answered. I called again a few minutes later and then was put on hold, no one ever came back to the phone. At this point we decided to just drive over there and place our order in person. Well, I walk in and someone else is waiting for their take out order. I was not greeted at all. The server walked to the back to retrieve the person's order and was gone for several, several minutes (never did see him return). At this point, we are looking around a mostly empty restaurant. There was a 2-person table outside and a 2-person table inside. I really wanted to try their sandwiches, pizza and wings. We had our whole order planned out. Unfortunately, it just was not meant to be for us. We ended up walking out as the server was still in the back getting the take out order for the person before us. We weren't greeted, not asked to take a seat or be right with us, nothing. We saw several workers in the back area but no one offered to help us. Our lunch break is only so long and at the point 10 minutes already had passed between the time I placed the first call to the time we tried to place an order in person (11:40am). I guess we won't ever be trying Selma's. It was so impossible to just order some dang food! It really shouldn't be this difficult. First impressions are really everything. Maybe in our next life someone will take our order and we can eat Selma's! Talk about...

Selma's pizza from a basic pizza connoisseur. Well, I have to admit the hype I had heard from Chicago residents is that this pizza is the "BOMB." I was skeptical at first. I walked into the restaurant after waiting a good 20 minutes in the car and waited another 15. I was the first person to arrive after already ordering, and the last to leave. I ordered a mere cheese pizza. I am a man of simple tastes and I was disappointed with the pizza itself. Now I must say, this is the first time I have tried such pizza. Seeing as how I got the basic ingredients I am not completely bummed it didn't meet my expectations but, $11 for a deep dish DiGornio tasting pizza, this is a joke. Selma's, from a lover of pizza, I can sum up your pizza into five layers. 1st layer - cheese, 2nd layer - sauce, 3rd to 5th layer, DOUGH. Now, for a second opinion I had shared a slice with my father, and what he said brought me many laugh's. And I quote. "It is like eating a piece of bread". Now people, I leave you with this. I recommend going to the restaurant and sitting down. Because as someone that has never been to this establishment, I only was looking for a simple cheese pizza. Now for you, this might be different, there could be more toppings, different styles, etc. But overall, the basic ingredients, which those toppings lie upon, is nothing more then...