Pizza Antica — Restaurant in San Jose

Me and one of my cousins ate here, after a few hours of shopping on Santana Row. The restaurant wasn't very busy when she and I arrived, there were several customers sitting in the tables on the patio, but it wasn't packed.

My cousin had eaten at this restaurant before and recommended it. It was such a beautiful warm day, we chose to sit outside on the patio, most of the tables were either fully covered or half covered by an umbrella, so sun exposure wasn't unbearable.

I didn't venture inside the restaurant, so I wouldn't be able to describe the inside of the restaurant. The outside, where my cousin and I sat was pleasant and comfortable, except for a few roadster cars roaring by, the noise level was calm.

I ordered the chopped salad but ended up modifying it just slightly. I don't care much for tomatoes and depending on what the dressing is, croutons are typically the most fattening item for a salad. So they had to be replaced. Surprisingly, I finished my entire salad. It was really tasty, even with my modifications.

Also, with my meal I ordered the Strawberry Mint Lemonade since strawberry lemonade is one of my fave beverages, how could I not order it. It also turned out really good. Perfectly refreshing for a warm summer's eve.

We also ended up ordering the buratta appetizer, which consists of

..... frog hollow farm peaches, toy box tomatoes, toasted focaccia, saba ....

honestly, I found the focaccia bread to be a bit on the hard side, it was not served sliced, so to split it between two people made it a little difficult to share. The table knives were not sharp enough to cut through the focaccia bread with ease. But, I have to say the appetizer was quite delicious and Pizza Antica uses Frog Hollow Peaches, fresh farm to table peaches, an added plus in my book!

I thought the service was fine, our waiter was attentive, polite, friendly and knowledgeable. He was able to offer up suggestions and explain what a questionable ingredient was to us.

Except for a small interruption from another patron, I found the food and atmosphere to be quite enjoyable. I would definitely return to Pizza Antica, maybe next time I'll try...

I came here april 22nd for my daughter’s birthday and I’m STILL thinking about the 20% service fee up front plus the 2% "mandate". 22% right off the bat- I have also heard this applied to take out also. Take that with a grain of salt because I didn’t confirm that.

Came for early dinner. Hostess was sweet she warned us they have 20% service fee. Totally fine as I would normally tip that much or more. We sat outside and met our waitress- told her our order and said we are sharing everything. -5 people and 2 water cups. Had to ask for more cups. -Salad got served. No extra plates. No pepper offered (I see plenty of pepper mills on the service cart that is also outside. So I got up and got my own plates and pepper. pizzas and pasta were served. No asking if we wanted cheese or peppers or if we needed anything else for that matter. Flagged someone else to get us cheese please (also was on the serve cart outside but I really didn’t want to be rude and grab things myself) -ordered beers. Had to ask for my beers because it never came out. -had to ask for more water 2 tables behind me got up to go inside to ask for their checks. I also had to get up and flag someone else down to ask for our check.

I can’t even tell you how annoyed I was I just paid the check and left without dessert or just hanging out. I can’t even say how the food was because it was mediocre at best. If you’re going to charge 22% then make sure the service for a sit down meal in a really nice area is WORTH the 22%. Possibly it’s because the workers know they’ll already get a required portion so they no longer need to try a little harder? I’m not sure. The amount of pizzas I could have made at home for $170. I’m still very disappointed, it has not been a running joke in my family that I can’t shake off. DTF inside the mall for 7 people was still...

Had dinner here Saturday night. We waited 30 minutes for a table for two. No problem. There was live music in front of the Blue Bottle and Santana Row makes for good people watching on Halloween. We got a text when the table was ready, showed up, were greeted, and were led to the seating area outside. We got a table on the south end of the stretch. It was chilly out and the gas patio heaters were on a little too high. Our waiter visited us at an appropriate frequency.

Ordered the fennel sausage pizza and gnocchi. Both came out in 15-20 minutes. Pizza was the right temp and had soft & fluffy dough texture, melted & solidifying cheese, and the strong portobello taste. It was sliced so that you could just barely pull it apart with the rest of the pizza staying in place. The gnocchi came out like little tubes of sausages. I expected them to be more pebble-like. The arugula, flakes of some unidentified cheese, and the tomato cream sauce made for a flavorful dish.

When we were seated, the hostess warned us about a 20% service charge. It was a line item on the check. Was this supposed to count as a tip? Seemed kind of steep to tip on top of 20%. Line-item total was $47 ($23 pizza, $19 gnocchi, $5 soft drink) and the total pre-tip came out to $63. I ended up tipping ~10% on top of it. I used to work in a restaurant and care about worker welfare in general, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the service fee was not going to the staff.

It was my first time here and Pizza Antica put on a strong showing for service, atmosphere, décor, and food quality. Minus one point for the 20% service fee. Let’s pay our service people the right way. (Also tempted to subtract a half point for the lack of...