San Diego’s Best Pizza: Mr. Moto Pizza House Review
Mr. Moto Pizza House is a growing business with 4 locations in San Diego. The specialty is New York-style thin crust pizza. With rave reviews, Fun Diego Family had to check this place out in our search for the best pizza in San Diego. This is our Mr. Moto Pizza House review.
WEBSITE: https://mrmotopizza.com/
Mr. Moto is a fictional cartoon character with a big mustache. The Pacific Beach location has a cartoon explaining his story. Basically, Mr. Moto moved from Italy to New York and opened a pizza place. He found the weather in New York was too cold so he moved to San Diego.
According to this article, Mr. Moto is a fictional creation of Gibran Fernandez, a San Diego native. Fernandez worked at Pizza on Pearl and eventually bought a stake in the business. In late 2018, he rebranded Pizza on Pearl to the fourth Mr. Moto Pizza House.
All the Mr. Moto Pizza House locations we have been to are very clean with an inviting decor. The places look fun and inviting, unlike many NY-style places which tend toward the dingy side. Mr. Moto definitely hired an excellent designer!
We wrote a review of Pizza on Pearl and it was one of our favorite places. Mr. Moto claims that they did not change the recipe, but on our recent visit, it did not seem quite as good. The price was also raised. At Pizza on Pearl, 2 slices and a drink are $7.50. At Mr. Moto Pizza House, 2 slices and a drink are $9. Check out the update of our Pizza on Pearl review to see our visit after it rebranded to Mr. Moto.
The main issue with Mr. Moto Pizza House is the crust. In the center of the pizza, the crust is very thin and easily folds. That is the sign of a great New York style pizza. However, the edges of the crust are thick and doughy.
With the rave reviews, I must admit I was a little disappointed in Mr. Moto. However, I must admit we have not tried a whole pizza. A fresh whole pizza will almost always be better than pizza by the slice. The 18-inch pizzas at Mr. Moto Pizza House are a great deal, starting at $17 with toppings for a $1.50.
Mr. Moto Pizza House definitely caters to the California crowd with all kinds of fancy toppings and pizzas. They have pizzas with a raspberry chipotle sauce, sour cream, truffle oil and 6 different kinds of cheese. Once I tried a slice where the crust was stuffed with ricotta, ala Pizza Hut.
In addition to pizza, Mr. Moto Pizza House has some pasta dishes, salads, meatballs, and wings. They also feature calzones, stromboli and garlic knots.
Overall, Mr. Moto Pizza House is a solid option. It only fails to make the top tier because I am not a fan of the fluffy crust. However, many others love this based on the reviews.
We visited 3 out of the 4 Mr. Moto Pizza House locations, in Pacific Beach, Pt. Loma and La Jolla (a fifth is coming soon in Ocean Beach). The fourth location is in North Park, right around some of our favorite pizza places in San Diego. We probably will not make it to this location, because there are too many other places nearby that are calling our name.
Fun Diego Family is on a quest to find San Diego’s best pizza in four different categories. Mr. Moto Pizza House is a contender in the NY-style/thin crust category which is my personal favorite.
UPDATE FEBRUARY 2019
Mr. Moto made our San Diego’s Best NY-Style Pizza list (aka thin crust)
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