San Diego’s Best Pizza: Filippi’s Pizza Grotto Review
The Little Italy neighborhood of San Diego has long historic roots to the San Diego tuna fishing industry. In the past 20 years, this neighborhood has exploded as a hip urban area filled with trendy restaurants. However, one place that has been around for years is Filippi’s Pizza Grotto, one of the most popular pizza places in San Diego. This is our Filippi’s Pizza Grotto Review.
Main Location
Fun Diego Family’s Favorite Location
WEBSITE: https://realcheesepizza.com/
Filippi’s Pizza Grotto is actually a mini-chain with 11 locations in San Diego County, 2 in Riverside, 1 in West Covina and even one way up in Napa. The original opened as a market in Little Italy in 1947. Since 1950 Filippi’s has also been a restaurant. The name comes from the original owner Vincent DePhilippis, from Naples, Italy.
We have been to seven Filippi’s Pizza Grotto, including the most popular one in Little Italy. The menus vary slightly. Our favorite location is in Scripps Ranch. At this location, they serve a pepper steak sandwich and even have prime rib and BBQ ribs. Most of the locations focus on pizza and pasta dishes.
Filippi’s Pizza Grotto is an old-school Italian style restaurant focused on Southern Italian red sauce dishes. This is what I refer to as red checker tablecloth food. In many locations you can see wine carafes hanging from the ceiling.
The pizza at Filippi’s Pizza Grotto goes into my fourth category of pizza, Good Old American Pizza Parlor style. This is a style that many people enjoy, but is not a favorite of pizza purists. I actually like some of the other dishes at Filippi’s better than the pizza.
The pizza is a fairly thick crust and is heavy on the cheese. The large size ranges based on location. At Poway, a 16 and 1/2 inch large cheese is $19.50, with extra toppings only $1. The Kearny Mesa website shows a large 17-inch for $16.50 with $1 toppings. The large at Pacific Beach and Scripps Ranch are also $16.50, but the size is not listed. Toppings at both those locations are $2.25. The extremely popular Little Italy location only has one 13-inch size. This is priced at $13.50 with toppings at $2.25.
Tourists pack Filippi’s Pizza Grotto in Little Italy. There is also an Italian market attached to this location. Filippi’s has been featured on several shows including Food Paradise, in the Pizza My Heart episode.
Personally, I am not a huge fan of the pizza at Filippi’s Pizza Grotto. The pizza right next door at Landini’s is a wonderful NY-style pizza. Right down the street Isola Pizza Bar, Monello, Ambrogio15 and Davanti Enoteca serve a more Neapolitan style pizza. The pizza at these places is simply better than Filippi’s in my opinion.
We eat at our local Filippi’s in Scripps Ranch several times a year. It is a crowd-pleasing favorite, especially the red sauce pasta dishes. I also love the pepper steak sandwich available at some locations. We always get the large family salad with the wonderful house dressing. However, if I am in Little Italy and want pizza there are far better choices.
Filippi’s Pizza Grotto remains me of some of the places in St. Louis’ Italian neighborhood, the Hill. Most notably I think of Rigazzi’s. It is a fun, low-cost place that will leave you full. However, you need to keep your culinary expectations in check. Also note there are many Filippi’s Pizza locations throughout San Diego. Don’t feel you need to wait in line in Little Italy. WE recommended the Pacific Beach location in our guide to family friendly places to eat by neighborhood.
I created the Good Old American Pizza Parlor category especially for places like Filippi’s. These pizzas cannot compete with the top NY-thin crust or wood crust places. However, they are crowd pleasers and many people love Good Old American Pizza Parlor style. This is the category that pizza snobs will look down on, but many people enjoy.
Filippi’s made our list of top 10 pizza parlors in San Diego.
To see our overview of top pizza in San Diego go here.
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