San Diego’s Best Pizza: Landini’s Pizza 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. Of course, there are many Italian places and plenty of places to find a great slice of pizza. Probably our favorite pizza in Little Italy is the small NY style slices found at Landini’s Pizzeria. In our quest for San Diego’s best pizza, this is definitely a contender in the thin-crust category. This is our Landini’s Pizza Review.
WEBSITE: http://www.landinispizzeria.com/
UPDATE DECEMBER 2020: We have visited the Landini’s stand in Liberty Station’s Liberty Public Market.
Two things I should note upfront. First, Little Italy has several places in our top pizza category. Most of these are more upscale, but for a very different type of slice pizza we suggest NaPizza which is across the street. NaPizza serves a thicker crust gourmet pizza from Rome. Landini’s is firmly a New York style thin crust place. It depends on the mood, but in Little Italy I always go to Landini’s because we have a NaPizza near our house.
The most popular place in Little Italy is probably Filippi’s Pizza Grotto, a mini-chain with several restaurants throughout San Diego. To me, Filippi’s falls into what I call good old American pizza parlor style in our overall pizza taxonomy. It is family friendly fare, but not my first choice for pizza, especially in Little Italy. Landini’s is right next door to Filippi’s, but unfortunately does not have its own parking. Parking in this area is a challenge and that is really the only downside to Landini’s. The interior of the restaurant is small but they have a large open back patio that is pet-friendly.
The pizza is typical of a high quality New York style slice shop. Two slices and a soda is $8. A slice, a salad, and a soda is $9.00. Two slices and a beer is $11.50. They have over 20 specialty pizzas and usually there are at least a dozen to choose from. This includes some crazy ones like the Maialona with hot dogs, salami and sausage. They also have lots of vegetable choices and even a vegan option.
Like many New York style places, Landini’s only has one size, 18 inches. A cheese pizza starts at $17.50 with additional toppings at $2 each. Specialty pies run in the $21 to $24 range. I believe they also offer a square Sicilian style pizza but I have never tried it.
The second thing to note about Landini’s is they are much more than just pizza. Landini’s offers a range of pasta, salads and amazing sandwiches. My wife and daughter will go far out of their way for a Landini’s panini. At $7.50, these sandwiches are a great deal. There pastas are also good, although personally I always get pizza. Filippi’s may be the crazy popular option in the neighborhood but, in my mind, Landini’s is better. We eat at Filippis quite often in our neighborhood and it is good. But Landini’s is GREAT!
The Cole family is on a quest to review our top pizza places in the greater San Diego area. This involves revisiting our longtime favorites to make sure they are still up to par. I can definitely say that Landini’s is on the shortlist for favorite New York style pizza.
UPDATE FEBRUARY 2019
Landini’s made our San Diego’s Best NY-Style Pizza list (aka thin crust)
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