San Francisco: Pizzeria Delfina

I've had a lot of great Neapolitan pizzas lately, especially at New York's Eataly, so I was pretty excited to try one of the most popular spots for pizzas in SF, Pizzeria Deflina!  There are two Delfinas in SF, one located in Mission and one in Pacific Heights.  They do differ in terms of the menu, and Defina Mission is definitely the more well-known one, but we just wanted pizzas so the smaller Pacific Heights location worked for us.

Since we had a pretty big group, we went super early to claim a table and good thing we did, because the restaurant is not very big, with only around 20+ seats and a few tables outside.


Pizzeria Deflina
2406 California St
Between Fillmore St & Steiner St
Pacific Heights
San Francisco, CA 94115
pizzeriadelfina.com

Pizzeria Delfina.

Menu on July 1st, 2012.  They change the menu depending on what is in season.

Nice open kitchen.  The restaurant itself is very comfortable too, with lots of day light coming in.

Every table, there is a small plate with some oregano, dried red pepper, and Parmigiano Reggiano.

Iced tea with a small carafe.

One of the more adventurous items on the menu, Chilled Tripe "Tripperia Style," which is chilled tripe served with salt & chili oil.

Some people will be turned off by this, but it is a really really refreshing dish. Squirt some lemon over the tripe, drizzle a bit of the oil, and add a dash of the salt, and it's a cool flavorful party going on in your mouth!

Mozzarella in Carrozza.  Super tasty but super oily. They put a fun spin on a classic Italian dish.  Mozzarella is stuffed inside bread from the famous Acme Bakery, then deep fried in this light tempura batter.

Carrozza means carriage in Italian, so usually Mozzarella is placed between bread, sorta like a sandwich.  Here, they fry it!  Of course when cheese is friend, it is melted and turns into this orgasmic gooey mess.

Margherita, with tomato, fior di latte mozzarella & basil.  What can I say, I love margherita.  Delfina has definitely got margherita right! Great tomato sauce with a great crust and fresh mozzarella is definitely the way to go!

I want more basil :P

Broccoli Raab, with broccoli raab, caciocavallo, mozzarella, olives & hot peppers. This is definitely a pie that's more for the grown ups. Brccoli Raab has that distinctive bitter flavor, which I do like a lot.

The sharp caciocavallo goes really well with the bitter broccoli raab!

Prosciutto Pie, with Prosciutto di Parma, caciocavallo, mozzarella, panna & arugula. I was afraid of the prosciutto being skimped like many places, but no worries about that here!

Arugula & delicious Prosciutto di Parma is loosely topped onto the pie once it is baked.

Salsiccia with housemade fennel sausage, tomato, bell peppers, onions & mozzarella. Seems very boring, but the housemade sausage is definitely the star.

Fennel is not too overpowering.  I can probably just eat the sausage by the spoonful!

My best meal this time in San Francisco was definitely at Pizzeria Delfina.  Not only was the food good, the service there was excellent as well.  Now, I just need to try find a comparable Neapolitan pizza place in LA!