Yip on Victor's Pizzeria
Victor's Pizzeria * 1411 Polk St @ Pine * San Francisco, CA 94109 * (415)885-1660
Cuisine: Italian
Neighborhood: Nob Hill
A lot of hype proceeded my visit to this small scale, authentic Italian haven. My friend claims the pizza gives him "Homer Simpson drool." Now this I had to experience...
The Scene
You would hardly know there was seating to eat in if you didn't look close, since from the street and even when you first walk in it seems like a by-the-slice and take-away business. Once you get to the back dining room, they have a cute and nostalgic decor. It reminded me of a pizza place I used to go to with my family when I was little. They had exposed rafters with fake plastic grapes hanging all over the ceiling, draped in Christmas lights. While this is a little tacky, I kind of like it. It's sort of like (but not quite) the toys hanging from the ceiling in NYC's 21 club. There are also some oil paintings of Chianti bottles on the walls in old wooden frames and other old photographs of Italian seaside. Also, above the exposed rafters, they had two additional paintings on the wall, sort of hidden. I think they were painting of San Francisco, but I don't know what that was about. Kind of weird.
There was definately a solid authentic Italian feel. I half expected some Mafiosos to be traipsing through to the back room, but I guess they stay in North Beach...
The Menu
They are one of the few, the proud, the wonderful that actually offer you made-to-order slices. By this I mean, they have pre-made cheese slices that they will zap in the oven with almost any topping you ever wanted. I like this flexibility in a slices business, since my fav is cheese with tomatoes and mushrooms, and you can bet this combination is never available in the window counter of slices at any pizza joint. So they are already in the win column with me.
They also have an extensive menu of pizzas, calzones, salads and get this - homemade pasta with homemade sauce. I never expect any place to have homemade pasta anymore. I didn't actually try it since I was visiting this historic establishment for lunch (no late afternoon food coma for me, I say!), but when I looked around quite a few lunch patrons were enjoying the pasta. Can't forget to say the menu also had meatball subs, lasagna, and carrot cake (another fav!) for dessert.
One thing they were missing was some kind of lunch special like an eat-in salad/slice/soda special like Pizza Orgasmica has. But I don't want to forget to mention that they do have half orders of pasta, which would be perfect for lunch.
The Food
I don't know about "Homer Simpson drool" but it was pretty darn good. Pizza was yippity yummy. Sauce and cheese were perfectly portioned. Toppings were fresh. But salad had WAY too much dressing ... drowning couldn't describe. To their credit, I forgot to ask for it on the side or lightly applied, but still. We also received bread which was hot and fresh out of the oven. More homemade, more delish.
The Service
You have to track them down which is kind of disappointing since it was lunch time but not that busy. Clearly you are not going to a place like this for service, but we had to wait quite a bit to order and quite a bit more to collect our check after our meal was clearly completed.
The Bathroom
Well, kind of like Nick's Tacos and Mama's, I hope you don't have to use it. You have to walk through the kitchen and the dish washing area to use what is really the employee bathroom. It's not clean and well, that's all I have to say about that.
*************
In a spoonful, this place is super close to the Polk Street bars and would be a great grab-a-midnight-slice (made to your own specifications). It seems like it would be worth a trip to try to pasta, and if you're anywhere in the neighborhood, it would make a good "I don't want to cook tonight, but want a home cooked meal" take out option. Avoid the bathroom, and don't expect your server to have traditional Italian charm.
Yip gives it 3 spoons.
Cuisine: Italian
Neighborhood: Nob Hill
A lot of hype proceeded my visit to this small scale, authentic Italian haven. My friend claims the pizza gives him "Homer Simpson drool." Now this I had to experience...
The Scene
You would hardly know there was seating to eat in if you didn't look close, since from the street and even when you first walk in it seems like a by-the-slice and take-away business. Once you get to the back dining room, they have a cute and nostalgic decor. It reminded me of a pizza place I used to go to with my family when I was little. They had exposed rafters with fake plastic grapes hanging all over the ceiling, draped in Christmas lights. While this is a little tacky, I kind of like it. It's sort of like (but not quite) the toys hanging from the ceiling in NYC's 21 club. There are also some oil paintings of Chianti bottles on the walls in old wooden frames and other old photographs of Italian seaside. Also, above the exposed rafters, they had two additional paintings on the wall, sort of hidden. I think they were painting of San Francisco, but I don't know what that was about. Kind of weird.
There was definately a solid authentic Italian feel. I half expected some Mafiosos to be traipsing through to the back room, but I guess they stay in North Beach...
The Menu
They are one of the few, the proud, the wonderful that actually offer you made-to-order slices. By this I mean, they have pre-made cheese slices that they will zap in the oven with almost any topping you ever wanted. I like this flexibility in a slices business, since my fav is cheese with tomatoes and mushrooms, and you can bet this combination is never available in the window counter of slices at any pizza joint. So they are already in the win column with me.
They also have an extensive menu of pizzas, calzones, salads and get this - homemade pasta with homemade sauce. I never expect any place to have homemade pasta anymore. I didn't actually try it since I was visiting this historic establishment for lunch (no late afternoon food coma for me, I say!), but when I looked around quite a few lunch patrons were enjoying the pasta. Can't forget to say the menu also had meatball subs, lasagna, and carrot cake (another fav!) for dessert.
One thing they were missing was some kind of lunch special like an eat-in salad/slice/soda special like Pizza Orgasmica has. But I don't want to forget to mention that they do have half orders of pasta, which would be perfect for lunch.
The Food
I don't know about "Homer Simpson drool" but it was pretty darn good. Pizza was yippity yummy. Sauce and cheese were perfectly portioned. Toppings were fresh. But salad had WAY too much dressing ... drowning couldn't describe. To their credit, I forgot to ask for it on the side or lightly applied, but still. We also received bread which was hot and fresh out of the oven. More homemade, more delish.
The Service
You have to track them down which is kind of disappointing since it was lunch time but not that busy. Clearly you are not going to a place like this for service, but we had to wait quite a bit to order and quite a bit more to collect our check after our meal was clearly completed.
The Bathroom
Well, kind of like Nick's Tacos and Mama's, I hope you don't have to use it. You have to walk through the kitchen and the dish washing area to use what is really the employee bathroom. It's not clean and well, that's all I have to say about that.
*************
In a spoonful, this place is super close to the Polk Street bars and would be a great grab-a-midnight-slice (made to your own specifications). It seems like it would be worth a trip to try to pasta, and if you're anywhere in the neighborhood, it would make a good "I don't want to cook tonight, but want a home cooked meal" take out option. Avoid the bathroom, and don't expect your server to have traditional Italian charm.
Yip gives it 3 spoons.
posted by SoCalATA at 4:41 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home