The Great Pizza Debate

One of the constant struggles in our household is the food staple known as pizza. Everyone has probably had the pizza debate. For years, the Mister and I have argued what good pizza is....everything from the thickness of the crust to what delicious toppings should go on it. The one chain pizza place (who shall remain nameless) that we sorta agree on is pretty good especially since they deliver to our house. The downside? Each time we order, we play this game we lovingly call: "Who gets the poison slice?" That's right....it's a game the whole family can play but the twist is, the real winner is the person who doesn't gets a really bad stomach ache after 30 minutes of eating the pizza. Score so far for the poison slice game? Sueshine is losing.

So the quest for good pizza continued. One random day about 2 years ago Scott took me to Balboa Park to play Robin Hood and shoot a bow. Before we headed over to the range, we wanted to grab a bite and he mentioned that he found this little pizza place in Golden Hill called Pizzeria Luigi. Great....here we go again with the pizza debate but hey, I was willing to try it.

!!!! I think I might have walked into pizza heaven! The brightly lit case at the counter had about 15 different pizzas in it. I think my eyes got as big as one of those pizzas. They had everything ranging from the classic cheese to BBQ chicken to basil/artichoke. The biggest bonus: Pizza by the slice. That's right, I didn't have to have the same carnivore pizza as the hubby AND I didn't have to have just one type of pizza.






Tonight we went out to get some pizza and I knew exactly where I wanted it from.

ME: "Why does pizza have to be so far away?"
SCOTT: "Cause if we lived closer, we would get fat."


Yeah he's probably right. Above was our pizza mashup of the night made up of 5 different pizza flavors. For Scott, 2 classic slices of cheese and 2 slices of The Capone: pepperoni, meaball, and sausage...both pretty self explanatory. I went with 3 different flavors cause well, I can never make a decision. I had slice of Mona Lisa, which has been featured on The Food Network's Diner, Drive-In, and Dives (the recipe is even on The Food Network website). The Mona Lisa is your typical deluxe pizza with cheese, pepperoni, onion, bell pepper, mushrooms, and black olives. Pizza number 2 was a Margherita cheese, sliced tomato, lots of garlic (bring some breath mints), basil, and no sauce. Slices 3 & 4 were the first pizza that I ever had at Pizzaria Luigi's and I have ordered it every time I've gone here...mushroom and ricotta. Okay okay before you say yuck, let me just say that they put some of the best ricotta cheese I have ever had on their pizzas. If you aren't into mushrooms, I also recommend the ricotta and meatball. The ricotta is so creamy that it just melts in your mouth. If you like your pizza crust thick, this is not the place for you. The crust is thin with crunchy edges and I think this might be what makes their pizzas good. The sauce is a little on the sweet side but that doesn't bother me....just giving you a heads up.


So next time you are in the area, especially after a late Saturday night out (Friday-Saturday hours are listed on their website as 10:30am to ???), give this place a try. If you do go in on the weekend, be prepared to wait in line for a little while (Saturday was about a 15-20 minute wait to get our pizza slices). Parking is also difficult at the Golden Hill location so be ready to drive around the block a few times. I'm sure the debate will continue and people will disagree with me that other places are much better but I give this place my approval simply for the variety...especially since I can't ever make up my mind ;)


Pizzeria Luigi
http://www.pizzerialuigi.com/
1137 25th Street
San Diego, CA 92102
(second location in North Park)