Mountain Mike's Pizza — Restaurant in San Diego

It is really sad to go to a business anticipating something, only to hear the owner talking about ending the reason for the visit.

Since childhood, the ultimate pleasurable experience for me has been pizza. From American types (New York style, Chicago style, Detroit style, Minneapolis style, California style and Ohio style), to pizza I enjoyed in Italy, they are all good in different ways. Pizza and salad buffet was the ultimate celebration/broken heart/meaningful talk with friends and family experience. Unfortunately, Mountain Mike's did not offer a good pizza and salad buffet offering.

Because of, among other things, COVID, the number of buffet-style restaurant offering any type of cuisine has significantly decreased. Mountain Mike's is one of the few available restaurants offering a pizza and salad buffet. With service running from 11 AM-2 PM, I like to arrive for a new buffet about 12:30. Usually, this allows for the first batch of pizza put up to have been consumed and replaced by the second batch. Most pizza buffets will allow a 'request' for a specific set of toppings for this second batch. The salad bar may or may not have been replenished, but I am in it for the pizza, so salad usually includes tomato, onion, broccoli, raisins and italian dressing. It sits on the table, offering a reset of the tongue between different types of topping on slices.

On entering, I observed 1 table with a customer and 2 tables that folks had eaten and departed, waiting to be cleared. Under the heat lamp, half of a pepperoni pizza and 1/4 of a chicken pizza next to 1/4 of a hawaiian pizza were sitting there. The pepperoni 'cups' on the pizza looked to be a little dry around the edges, and the red grease from cheese and sauce sitting together was becoming obvious. The chicken pizza had white and yellow cheese, and chicken in strings, as if it had been pulled severely. The pineapple on the hawaiian pizza was looking a little dry, but the canadian bacon was still flat.

I paid the $16.95 price for buffet and water, and asked if more pizza was in the oven. The owner replied that, at that moment, he was hoping I would eat some of what was there before he put new pizzas in the oven. He then said it was very expensive to run the buffet, and as I could see, there was only 1 other person in the restaurant. I received the plate and took a slice of each type. The thin crust under the pepperoni was a bit dry, and the red grease was becoming very prominent with each bite. The chicken pizza was better crust-wise, but with so little chicken on it, it was more like a cheeze pizza. The Hawaiian was ok. The canadian bacon was flavorful, but the burst of juice from a fresher piece of pineapple was missing.

After effectively reducing the pizza on the buffet by over 1/3, I again asked about fresh pizza. The owner sighed, then asked me if I would like a personal pizza, with any toppings I liked. I told him that the reason for coming to a pizza buffet was to be able to try pizza of numerous topping choices (6 is the minimum I have experienced with other buffets) of pizza. He again sighed, and renewed the offer of a personal pizza. I ordered one with sausage and mushroom, and after about 10 minutes, the 10-inch pizza arrived. It was hot and fresh, the mushrooms available in significant quantity and the sausage playing hide and seek underneath.

While the personal pizza was an offer to placate, I would have preferred an actual buffet. That was the first negative mark. The second, on reflection, was how this business owner was not confident behind his offering. Telling me, his customer, how expensive it was and how he dreaded opening each day showed. The third, and in my opinion, final negative mark? As I was leaving, I saw the 2 tables that were dirty when I came in were now 3, as the other customer had finished and left.

All I can say to the owner is if you do not believe in your product, the product you produce will...

I never heard about this pizza place before. it happens because we were around looking for a place to eat something and as soon we saw it from the parking lot we said lets give a try and we were not wrong! This place has an absolutely amazing 🍕. I am very mew with pizza and the one we ordered 😀was fantastic! It has pineapple tho not sure if you can be fanatic of it but was yummy...i heard some people said grease 🤔for me was perfect 👌obviously take sometime to get to your table but worthy. The only thing it disappoint me after few days was overcharged me. I personally ordered one draft of beer to myself from the table after my boyfriend paid 1 whole pizza and a draft of his beer...at the beginning i didnt want it but when I was eating the yummy pizza i feel i need one, the guy say then you can pay and that's what I did but if the draft of beer cost 15$ then I am wrong. Parking is huge there is not problem at all and everyone...

First, I am not a local but I have a lot of pizza eating experience. Think New Haven CT and more. I went to Mountain Mikes based off the Google ratings and it was near my hotel. The staff was very friendly greeting you and helpful to newbies. The facility could have been a bit cleaner. We had the pepperoni pizza. Showing lots of pepperoni it looks great. The pepperoni is good but it is sliced really really thin. The crust and sauce is what you would expect from a chain pizza. It was baked fresh for my order but just okay and not at all memorable. I would not return. There are other local Mom and Pop places not far away that have a better product in that they make everything from scratch, the dough, the sauce- and they are a...