San Diego’s Best Pizza: Pizzeria Bruno Napoletano
San Diego today is filled with fancy pizza places that have imported wood ovens from Italy. One of the first was Pizzeria Bruno Napoletano in the North Park/University Heights area. After trying multiple new places, we revisited Pizzeria Bruno and found it is still one of the best.
WEBSITE: http://pizzeriabrunosd.com/
Fun Diego Family is on a quest to find the best pizza places in San Diego. To that end, we have classified pizza into four broad categories. Among those categories the hardest to review is what we call Fancy Italian/California pizza.
Wolfgang Puck’s Spago and the restaurant chain California Pizza Kitchen pioneered a new style of pizza in the 1980s. The pioneer of this style was the late Ed LaDou. The focus was on gourmet pizza with exotic toppings. LaDou helped pioneer the BBQ Chicken pizza that is now featured even in many of the NY-style slice joints.
In recent years, there has been a movement towards a completely different style in the upscale pizza category. This is pizza made in the traditional ways found in Italy. In San Diego, Pizzeria Bruno Napoletano was one of the first to open well before this became a trend.
We have been coming to Pizzeria Bruno Napoletano for almost a decade. In doing our review we waited until trying the other Neapolitan style pizza places before coming back. Personally I was finding it hard to distinguish one wood-fired pizza from the next. However, I can now firmly say Pizzeria Bruno clearly stands out from most of the competition.
Neapolitan pizza has strict rules about the ingredients that can be used. However much of the success of this style of pizza depends on who is making the pizza. My favorite guide to pizza styles, the book American Pie, discusses the importance of the pizza maker or pizzaiolo.
Peter Lutz founded Pizzeria Bruno and he can still be found making pizzas every day. It makes a huge difference. Lutz had an oven handmade in Naples and imported. However, many places are now doing that. The difference is that Lutz is still hands on in making each pizza.
The downside is that Pizzeria Bruno has limited hours and can get crowded. It is closed on Monday and Tuesday and only open in the evening the rest of the weekdays. On weekends it opens at noon.
Pizzeria Bruno is a small, intimate restaurant. The menu is limited to pizza, salads and an Italian meat and cheese plate. It is likely this simplicity that allows them to excel at pizza.
In terms of price and selection, Pizzeria Bruno Napoletano looks like many of the competitors that have popped up in recent years. A Margherita pizza is $12 with most specialty pizzas in the $15 to $16 range. Pizzas are designed to serve one hungry person or two people with a salad or appetizer. Toppings include Italian meats but are pretty standard.
At Pizzeria Bruno it is all about the little details. This pizza actually stands out from the many Neapolitan places that have sprung up throughout San Diego. A decade ago we loved the novelty of Pizzeria Bruno. Today we can appreciate the quality.
My personal favorite is the Polpette with meatballs, pepperoni and red onion.
Fun Diego Family is on a quest to find the best pizza places in San Diego. Pizzeria Bruno Napoletano is in the fancy pizza category. This category is currently over-played in San Diego, especially on the Neapolitan pizza side. We are happy to report that after a decade, Pizzeria Bruno Napoletano still stands out among the many imitators.
Fun Diego Family is on a quest to find the best pizza in San Diego. Caffe Calabria is in the fancy California/Italian pizza category of our pizza taxonomy. To see our full guide to pizza styles go here.
Be sure and check out our regularly updated guide to San Diego’s best pizza.
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