San Diego’s Best Pizza: Regents Pizzeria Review
In Fun Diego Family’s quest for the best pizza in San Diego Regent’s Pizzeria presented a dilemma. Regent’s has both NY-style and Chicago deep-dish. These are separate categories, so the question is which category should we place Regents? This is our Regents Pizzeria Review.
WEBSITE: https://www.regentspizza.com/
When looking at the best pizza places in San Diego we have four different categories. This is because it is really unfair to compare very different styles of pizza. Regents Pizzeria looks to satisfy everyone with both a thin-crust and a Chicago stuffed pizza.
The issue with Regents Pizzeria is that while we visit this place quite a bit, it is nowhere near the top in terms of the quality of its NY-style or Chicago-style. If you are a true connoisseur of these pizza styles, there are many better places in San Diego.
Our compromise was to put Regents Pizzeria in our fourth category, family-friendly pizza places or what we call Good Old American Pizza Parlor style. This category is for places that have a solid pizza, but are more noted for their atmosphere. In many cases, these are great places to catch a game and drink a beer.
We have been going to Regents Pizzeria since it was located in a much smaller space across the parking lot. We were big fans of both their NY and Chicago pizza. Sadly, the owner passed away from cancer in 2011. Since that time, Regents has gotten bigger, but not necessarily better.
The new location is much bigger, but still in the same crowded parking lot in the UTC area of La Jolla. This is a hip and trendy neighborhood and the new Regents reflects that reality.
Regents Pizzeria serves whole pizza or pizza by the slice. At any given time, they will have several choices of stuffed or thin crust slices. One issue we have is that the actual pricing for a given slice is rather elusive. However, I can say prices are much higher at Regents than other pizza places.
Each slice has a different price, but the average for 2 slices and a soda is around $11-13. This is significantly more than the top NY-style shops that charge $7 to $8. An 18-inch NY-style cheese pizza starts at $21, with toppings starting at $3 each. A 14-inch Chicago cheese pizza starts at $29 with toppings at $3 to $4 each.
On a recent visit, I saved the receipt to figure out the price I was charged. A slice of NY-style cheese was $4.25, NY-style with hot soppressata was $4.75. A Chicago meat lovers was $5.25. You save $0.50 off the total price by ordering a drink at $2.50. So the price of 2 slices and a soda starts at $10.50.
Overall, we all agree that the NY-style pizza is much better than the Chicago-style pizza. Regents NY pizza is not as good as the top spots in San Diego, but it holds its own. After trying the Chicago-style multiple times, there are many better options. Even the BJ’s chain across the street has a better Chicago pizza in our opinion. The stuffed crust style they serve is just too much bread overload in my opinion. Note unlike deep dish, the stuffed crust has a layer of dough on top and bottom. In the case of Regents, it can be overwhelming.
That being said, we like Regents a great deal. The ambiance is fun, and it is a great party style pizza place. The beer selections are solid and they run good specials. Paying $24 for a pepperoni pizza that will feed 3-4 people is not a terrible deal. If you do a get a deep dish, it should feed about 6 people for $30 to $40.
Regents is about much more than just pizza, which is another reason we frequent this place. The menu has pasta, burgers, and sandwiches. They are also noted for their chicken wings, which can come in levels so hot you must sign a waiver.
Make sure and signup for their loyalty club. They offer interesting weekly specials on pizza and beer. They also are known to add other food options, once they had a Nashville Hot Chicken sandwich on special.
Regents Pizzeria is part of a growing trend where you order your food and drinks at the counter, get a number and take a seat. One issue is that orders come out as they are ready, so your party may not get their food at the same time. We have also found that the wait to get a beer can be quite long. Regents could really use a better system for ordering.
As mentioned, Regents Pizzeria has an awesome beer selection. At any given time they are likely to have 30 beers on tap. As mentioned, there are weekly specials offering pizza and beer pairings.
Overall, we like to stick more with the basics at Regents Pizzeria. NY-style pizza is a safe bet. Chicago stuffed pizza is a rare indulgence and if I am going to go that route, it will (usually) not be at Regents.
Regents Pizzeria is up there with our favorite family-friendly pizza parlors like Oggi’s, Pizza Port and Filippi’s. The pizza may not be the best, but it does the trick, and everyone enjoys themselves.
Regent’s made our list of top 10 pizza parlors in San Diego.
Fun Diego Family is on a quest to find San Diego’s best pizza in four different categories. Regents Pizzeria is a contender in the family-friendly pizza parlor category.
To see our full list of top pizza places go here.
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