Pizza Pal — Restaurant in San Diego

Update:

I’ve given them a second chance, and their pizza has drastically improved since their last major update. The crust has gotten much better, and I really enjoy their Mexican pizza. I still miss their old cheap “bad pizza” that was pretty good, but I like the new pizza now too. Order processing could use some improvements, but c’est la vie. I ordered a Mexican pizza light on the jalapeños, and got a pizza with half the pizza having none and half the pizza having double the amount after spending 2-3 minutes on the phone talking to two different people to make sure the order was understood. That was a language barrier issue. Upgrading my overall review to…idk 3-4 stars when factoring in taste, price, and overall experience.

Original review:

Used to be awesome! $5 pizzas that were good. Stopped in today for a large cheese. They said that will be $10.76. I said no I just want one pizza... I walked out. About 30 minutes later I decided to try these “better quality ingredients” the poor kid at the counter kept trying to convince people of. I liked the old pizza better. Crust feels soggy and the sauce has a weird flavor... and now it’s buy 1 for the price of 2. What a deal :-( Please go back to the old pizza!!!

I get that it’s hard to make money on a $5 pizza, but honestly I’d be okay paying a little more if you just brought back the old pizza. It was tasty, and the new one... not so much. I used to order at least twice a week. If you’re absolutely committed to this new recipe, then please do something to figure out the crust problems. It...

I guess in this day and age of fake stuff all over the internet, one's "spidey sense" should kick in on places like this to tell you that it's probably not that great. But I was hungry and believed what I wanted to believe - that despite all appearances, this place was a diamond in the rough, a place born of some guy's dream spent hours in his home kitchen honing his pizza recipe to perfection only to unveil his incredible artisanal pizza to the world starting out in this little corner of Pacific Beach and as all the five star reviews would indicate that the world appreciated this man's amazing pizza...

But it's, of course, not that at all... It's movie theater pizza. 7/11 pizza. baseball stadium pizza. You get the idea. I guess there is a company out there that sells pizza kits to places like this. Because Pizza Pal's pizza taste like every other institutional pizza out there - which is to say, not good. Mind you, it's not bad - ok not terrible. But who are these people giving this place five stars!?!? Have they never had pizza before? I have to think that the vast majority of the five star reviews are friends and family of the owner or just down right fake. Sure there are probably a few "easy graders" in there who were just happy that the pizza that they got here was shaped like pizza. But trust me folks, it ain't...

I recently moved to PB from the east coast where I was a pizza chef. I've tried several places around San Diego and most are alright, but I decided to try Pizza Pal tonight. I had a long, stressful day and I took my dog for a walk a couple blocks up from my new place and there's this little pizza shop. With low money and low hopes for the food, I got a basic pepperoni.

It was perfect.

It was like straight out of Brooklyn. The crust was so fresh and garlicky. Cheese caramelized to perfect bubbles. Sauce could use some more salt perhaps but otherwise, I was blown away. Perfect way to end an otherwise not-great day

Oh, and there was baklava on the counter for sale, but I can't have walnuts and I forgot to ask if there were any so I skipped it this time.

Edit: went again and still perfect pizza. Baklava has pistachios, so I can't wait to try it. The guy at the counter was really...