Pizza Harbor — Restaurant in Seaside

Our food has not been delivered yet, but I hear that it's really good.

What's not good, at all, is the angry girl with short hair that "welcomes" customers into the restaurant. They open at 11 and close at 8. Closed Monday. Today is Tuesday its 11:10 am. On Sunday we popped in at 7:20pm. She told us, with two people in the restaurant and while the crew was cleaning the kitchen, that it would be a 45 minute wait. We could see them cleaning the kitchen but were unsure what 45 minutes meant. We suggested that we could just wait at the outside tables but her response was something to the effect of, "We are exhausted." I replied that we could "Read between the lines". It was obvious that it was the end of their work week, so we said we'd come back Tuesday. I offered a fist bump. She was scowlingly not having any part of that. Ok.

So part of our party of 4 went in and ordered this morning. The ice was not out yet for the beverages. "Ice?" Her response, "We. Just. Opened." Another employee that probably understands her personality or people issues said he'd get it out. Super friendly! That's the appropriate response to a customer from the people at the front of the house.

Sitting outside, angry girl started setting out napkins on the outside tables. A tourist approached her from across the street asking if she would take a photo of her family at the "Greetings from Seaside" sign. "I'm too busy. We. Just. Opened". So I offered to take the photo to a negative response from Angry Girl.

The mother in the family, after hearing about our experience, indicated that they would skip this restaurant based on their experience and my experience.

This could be a prime example of a local that pays their light bill on the revenue brought in by tourists who seems to dispise the very hand that feeds her.

So......

Service was fast and courteous. Pizza was awful and insultingly expensive.

There are two kinds of pizza in this world. There's "pizza", and "not margherita." A good margherita pizza is the purest realization of "less is more." When you get a good slice, it just sings quality ingredients used simply. A nice tomato sauce, a few dollops of fresh mozzarella, and a light dusting of basil chiffonade on a thin crust is as good as it gets. Eating a slice like that is something that everyone should experience at least once in their lives. You can't get it at Pizza Harbor, though. Don't even try.

I got a 13" margherita, and paid an obscene $25 for it. It was sauceless. I wasn't sure if it had an olive oil base, or if the oil slick soaking into the crust simply leeched out of the one pound mat of cheese above it. I'm not kidding. I measured when I got home, and it varied between 3/8" and 1/2" in depth across the entire surface. The cheese wasn't even good. It was salty, oily, and grainy. There were several postage-stamp-sized hunks of basil strategically placed so that you get exactly one taste per slice. The whole thing was topped with yellowish-pink tomato medallions that overhung the slices by 1/4" on either side, and there were only 11 to cover 12 slices of pizza. Oh yeah. I should add that THEY WERE COLD.

Please do a quick google search for "margherita pizza" and compare the results to the sad mess that they served me.

The...

Great pizza place in Seaside. My family and I each got a small personal size pizza and got a cheesy garlic bread (pictured) to share. The garlic bread was fantastic. A small loaf of bread cut in half, smothered in garlic butter and topped with a generous amount of cheese, along with a side of pizza sauce. The sauce was a little sweeter than I would have thought, but complimented the bread quite nicely. The pizzas were fantastic. The crust with nice and crispy from the wood fire oven they've used since 1979! The pizzas had a great taste, and each came with a very generous amount of toppings. Highly recommend the Haystack Special (pictured). On the way out we also noticed that they do delivery after 4 - we only saw that as we were leaving, so didn't see details, but that could be a great option for all the hotels around the area.

We visit Seaside quite often and we almost always stop at Beach Books of the main strip. During the summer, Beach Books had a summer reading challenge bingo board, and if you got a bingo, you got a coupon for a free personal size pizza from Pizza Harbor. Awesome little reward for something we were going to do anyway. It was our first time visiting Pizza Harbor, but it definitely will not...