Pizzalina — Restaurant in Walnut Creek

Square pizza was good. You need to like thick crusts. I like all types. They also have round pizza which are probably more like what people are used to. I like black olives but they don't have those. They have trendy toppings and it seems everyone feels like they need seafood on everything they eat nowadays. I didn't see salami ir Canadian bacon on the menu but prosciutto instead. Lots of upscale toppings that I don't know much about. Pricier than many other pizza places even with today's elevated prices everywhere. It's loud due to beer and lack of sound-deadening properties. Service was slow. Not particularly enthusiastic or friendly. The metal chairs which are very ubiquitous now are too small for normal-sized and shaped people (not good for larger folks) and you need to scoot forward to sit comfortably or else you may feel wedged in. Good for a quick coffee restaurant but not for a 1.5-hour supper party. Not chairs for relaxing. And these chairs screech when pushed in or out from the table. Wooden tables are sharp on the edges and corners, not so fun to lean or fall against. I'm not a fan of the modern, white, flat, square, and stark, relatively artwork-deficient wall decor along with gray-ish unimproved (all floor coverings removed) repurposed warehouse-style concrete floors. The exposed-filament light bulbs in the center are a bit harsh on my sensitive eyes and thus I do better sitting in the quieter dining room area. This minimalistic 2020-era color and warmth-lacking architectural approach is rampant everywhere. Not very cozy. But it's a big trend that's due to run out very soon, and I welcome that. I know this needs to be a trendy restaurant cuz that's the thing, with the look of the place to be the style of the day, but not my style at all. I may get pizzas to go but probably wouldn't want to...

Having heard the buzz about this new pizza place, I was excited to check it out. I waited for the grand opening hype to subside, and hopefully allow them to find their footing before giving it a try. My friend and I decided to go for a late lunch on a rainy Saturday afternoon after 3pm. I am of the belief that there’s only two kinds of pizza. Great pizza and pretentious pizza. Unfortunately, this place seems to fall more into the latter category. We ordered a medium Fungi pizza, we split a Caesarlina salad and my friend had a small seafood pasta and I got a Coke. Having eaten nothing else that day, he got food poisoning from the seafood pasta, which I didn’t touch. (I don’t eat seafood). No alcohol. These few menu items came to $80 (with tax and tip), and I tipped conservatively, because like another reviewer mentioned here, we too were rushed to finish despite the fact that it was between lunch and dinner, there were plenty of empty tables available, and they weren’t busy. It’s a pizza place for heavens sake, it’s where people go to hang out for a bit! We were prematurely brought our check and a pizza to-go box (which we did not request), which ended up being wasteful since we finished our food on-site. What DID stand out to me was the excessive number of staff milling about (to the point that it was distracting and annoying) hence the need for their excessively inflated prices. It’s clear that what one is really paying for here is wasteful staffing overhead, not particularly great food. Nothing stood out as exceptionally good or better than elsewhere, it was mediocre at best. There are frankly far better pizza places in the Walnut Creek/Pleasant Hill area with far more reasonable prices who operate leaner and provide better service and...

We planned to try Pizzalina after hiking to the Mt. Diablo summit. Coming in with big appetites and a craving for pizza, Pizzalina did not disappoint!

We decided to try an original pie and a "squared" pizza, to try out both styles.

We got the original pie, with grana padano and pecorino romano cheese, aged mozzarella, garlic oil, fresh basil and Sicilian oregano; and the forest "squared" pie with roasted mushrooms, sauteed spinach, garlic cream, and shaved red onion.

The original pie came out first and looked absolutely beautiful, topped with basil and pecorino romano cheese. The tomato sauce had a wonderful, vibrant and fresh flavor and the undercarriage was cooked super well so that the pizza had zero sag and was incredibly crunchy and crispy.

The forest squared pie was also quite nice! I have had Detroit style and other square pie styles, but nothing quite like the Sicilian-inspired square pizza served here, which almost seemed to be cooked on a focaccia bread. Although this pizza looked bigger and larger than the round style pie, it was incredibly light and crispy, and the veggie toppings on the pizza really shined.

Both of these pizzas were phenomenal and paired with each other nicely. Unfortunately, I live in San Francisco, so I'm not sure the next time I'll be back but would definitely come here again the next time I am in...